The Magic of Spring

I went into the forest today. The sun was shining from a clear blue sky, and there was a scent of spring in the air. As I was walking I heard the sound of wild geese approaching, so I stopped and looked into the sky. And there they were, thousands upon thousands of wild geese. They just kept coming. Over my head every new group flew a circle before continuing on their way. Every now and then I saw the sun glisten of their bodies. The beauty and power of the drama was intense and tears streamed down my cheeks. I felt infinite hope and peace and a whole new trust for my future.

In the collective cries of the many thousands of wild geese, I could hear the one voice of infinity. Calm and strong, the words barely decipherable. I think I will know them this night in my dreams.

Immortality vs pain

People always speak of pain and death, but never of immortality

Why?

Is pain and death easier to believe/accept in society than immortality?

Who said you were going to own your body forever...and who said you were not forever?

Everything is not pain, there is much pleasure. But apparently pain is more attractive to peoples beliefsystems.

I believe in butterflies, eternity and Tinkerbell. Never-never-land is there forever and laughter never goes out of style.
Love is a human right and pain just something to remind us of all that we tend to forget in our valiant struggle for glory. Tears are there to wash out our souls and leave them sparkling and, if we are very careful, the rainbow will take us to "the other side" - wherever that is.

Eternity

Sometimes I can feel the memories of my past. I can actually smell, taste and feel them inside. And I wonder what happened to some of all the dreams?
Sitting in an attic, emancipated and literary, the floor littered with books by Kafka, Dostojevski, Anaïs Nin, Hemingway...All of us young and dressed in black, drinking wine and smoking exotic cigarettes in the cold, huddled around a heater...The evening spent at the intellectual hang-out of the time, the night given over to heated discussions and love-making. A sort of romancing of a time already past. Youthful excuberance solving the political problems of the day....vibrant...and naïve.

Basically the feeling of constant beginnings and never any endings. Everything NOW, NOW, NOW!!! Beauty, passion, dreams, belief. And most of all; the possibilities past any boundaries. I am still that girl. No longer so naïve, the beginnings have turned to the middle part...the part before the end. But there is no difference in my excuberance; my tears burn as hot as then, my passions as strong. And my belief in possibilities past any boundaries have remained as strong and stronger through all the disapointments and triumphs of life. My body might age, but my soul has hardly drawn its first breaths.

Poverty

Poverty has a lot of different levels depending on what country you live in and your own standard of living. Everybody always feel they need more. In these shaky economic times I hear a lot of recession-panic in peoples talk. But when I look around me, I see enormous wealth. Flashy cars, huge houses, overflowing shopping-carts, people carrying pretty shopping-bags with expensive labels on them. These are apparently the people who are hit the worst by recession - I can't see it. For other people; the ones who shop in the cheap places, do their hair at home, live in small houses, drive little used cars, they are not touched by the recession except for two things: rent and employment. As long as that is stable, nothing really changes, you need money to feel recession.
I went to a conference where it was said; (quote) "We will have to lower our standard of living and accept that our grown children might need to move back home" (end of quote)
The lowered standard of living is way higher than any normal standard.
For my friend the cleaning lady, nothing changed. She is "cheap" labour, so people keep her on. To her it is necessary that her 2 adult children live at home, that is how they manage to pay their bills.

Okay, I am pushing buttons here. Personally I don't really have an opinion about what people choose to do. My opinions consider larger questions, such as the philosophy of things.

Poverty/affluence vs. respect.
Interesting topic. The biggest fear of most people is poverty, loosing it all. Poverty is difficult, poverty is shameful.
The richer a person seems/looks, the more respect he gets....no denying that. The poorer a person seems/looks, the less he is respected. This never fails to astonish me; Since being poor is so difficult that everybody fears it, there should be great respect for the people who handle it, even if they have no choice.
Cleverness has nothing to do with education, nor does survival. Being able to feed a large family on almost no money is to be respected. To work a shit-job that wears you down mentally and physically day after day is to be respected. To dance and sing when you are hungry and sick is to be respected. To walk on sore feet for miles because it is necessary is to be respected.

I am not rich, I am not even affluent - considering the society I live in. But I am lucky and I am comfortable. I am not always safe, but I am clever and strong. I can always make it because I am not afraid to work hard. Sometimes, when I ride the train, (from the train you always see the worst adresses/places of living.) I look at the housing of the poor people, those who have nothing, and I am so greatful for what I have. I imagine myself and my 4 children in a 1 or 2 room appartment. I look at the yard where my children would be forced to play, and think that from this, the worst place, I would be evicted if I could not pay my rent, if I lost my job. That this, the worst place, could be considered heaven.
This must be the worst situation of all.
I give thanks for my abundance, even if it is small. I give thanks for the food I eat, the roof over my head, the song in my heart and the health of my children. Every day I stop and realize my gratitude. And every day I watch the "invisible" people with great respect.

MARIA

The last days I have met many different women, all of them fascinated me with their stories. It seems to me that women can bear so much of everything and see it as natural. Today I want to tell you about Maria:
She is an old lady that I massage sometimes; she is 88 years old, she was born the same year that females were given the right to vote in Sweden. Old pictures show a drop-dead-gorgeous woman, the woman I touch and listen to looks like any old woman - there is only a slight hint of her youthful beauty. What is striking are her eyes; they carry all the wisdom, joy and pain of a lifetime. She has had a hard life, this woman. She has known the biggest and truest love, given birth only to lose her child, danced and made love through the night, nursed her ailing husband. When she was young, she broke her hips but would not give up wearing pretty high-heeled shoes - no matter how much pain she sometimes experienced. She is animated when she speaks, her eyes glow, her cheeks turn pink. She is excited about the liberty women have today, and worried about how they sometimes use it.
Womens right is the result of generations' struggle for existence, acceptance and freedom. The freedom women experience today is something women once died for. (Not much different from the war against apartheid.) We must never forget what went before that what we take for granted. All the little old wrinkled ladies around us helped pave the road for us, and they should all be honoured and respected.

Wikipedia says:

Voting rights for women were introduced into international law in 1948 when the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As stated in Article 21 “(1)Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. (3)The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”

Women’s suffrage is also explicitly stated as a right under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, adopted by the United Nations in 1979.

Agelessness

The pressure is on! Tuck your tummy, sagging breasts? - fill 'em up. Crows feet, sagging jowls...? - tighten, stretch, vanish. Plump up, play down. Stay 20 forever and ever and ever...It is easy, available, done and expected. How can you NOT? I suppose my aging, 4-times-mom, saggy and wrinkled self draws more stares of concern than if it was "done-over"...hahaha
BUT, I can grow old, looking eternally (at least partly) young, suffering through pain and debilitation because of bad habits or laziness.

NOT ME! I am growing old with all what it entails, I fight to not succumb to the pipe-dream and concentrate on keeping what I have in fabulous working order. When I am truly old, I shall be the fastest rocking mama on this planet, shaking my wrinkled booty in time with the beat.

Check this out:

Nourishment

We need to take a look at how and what we are eating. So many people who come to me - slightly desperate, are often malnourished. Isn't it amazing how many people are overweight and obese, have problems with; concentration, sleep, hormones, digestion, emotions...the list goes on forever. I have been watching this development for 20 years. It took me some time to realize that much of it is connected to foods and eating-habits. "We are what we eat" doesn't mean that we become pigs for eating pork, it is more about health and balance. Our bodies are extremely well-developed constructions, able to adapt to almost anything. (I believe the only other species that do this are rats and cockroaches...what can I say...)
Anyway, our bodies have certain needs, and they are quite simple; oxygene, water and nourishment...these three govern everything. Now this is all polluted, and we thrive anyways. Our bodies find ways to handle the toxins that come into our systems - to a certain point. When the amount of toxins become to large, the body slowly starts breaking down. And with body is included the brain = emotions, memory, hormones, concentration, learning...the list is vast. So much of the food people eat today is full of chemicals that are bad or outright dangerous. Much foods have no nutritious value at all. Many people don't even know how to cook a simple meal.
Check out this video on additives in foodstuffs and tell me if you are prepared to feed this to yourself and your children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPvIZxJHyeY