there would have been
cake
and candles.
the house would have filled up
the rooms would have come alive
with chatter.
there would have been
stories and jokes
and laughter.
you would have made a wish
and blown out the candles.
i would have seen
that light in your eyes
as you looked on
smiling.
even now
i smile
too.
###
Stand for Freedom
upturned faces
washed by the sun
wind tossed
the tender buds
reach up
strong, intent
each one tearfully beautiful
in its becoming
every moment
suffused in the journey
finally one day unfolding
into extravagant bloom
the petals swiftly spent
drifting to earth
###
Stand for Freedom
The tall man walked into her dream clearly unaware he was in her personal space.
He looked around for a moment then headed toward an outlet in the wall where a cord was plugged in. She watched him stroll right up and simply pull the plug.
She rushed in and told him no, no that has to be plugged in there. She took it from him and plugged it back in.
He apologized and proceeded to go about moving other things around.
Soon, another person arrived loaded down with various items. The tall man helped to unload it all into the space, smiling and chatting pleasantly all the while. The other person came and went several times, each time bringing a load which the tall man carefully dispositioned in the space. It was a seemingly miscellaneous collection of items, most of which seemed to be old or used.
The tall man went about his activities in her space as she looked on. She finally struck up a conversation with the tall man, who turned out to be very easygoing and congenial.
She couldn’t help but wonder who he was. He seemed quite intelligent but never really gave a clue about his profession or background. Still, he seemed to know everything about all the items being delivered into the space, and showed no interest in everything that she already kept there.
She asked the tall man to tell her about some of the things being delivered, which he was only too happy to do, in great detail.
They wandered off chatting. Distracted by the tall man’s steady banter, she didn’t notice as he casually pulled the plug again and turned off the lights as they walked out the door. She never for a moment thought where it was she was going, or that she might be leaving her space behind.
Still talking, with a smile on his face, he gently closed the door behind them. She never even noticed the soft click of the lock as they headed down the path. The tall man clearly knew the way.
###
Stand for Freedom
Yesterday, the US Food and Drug Administration granted approval of one of the C-19 pharmaceuticals for persons 16 years and up. For those who are paying attention, this does not exactly provide warm fuzzies.
Perhaps most concerning is the abandonment of protocols and transparency. Right out of the gate, the approval was based on only six months of data, about a year and a half before clinical studies could even be complete.
Conducting studies assumes we care about the data, but this approval provided no visible data, no review of the data, nor a rigorous discussion of said data. The FDA abandoned its own protocol to hold a formal advisory committee meeting on the topic, conveniently avoiding scrutiny and discussion. (In fact, that committee only met twice this year, on Feb. 26 to consider the J & J EUA, and on June 10 to discuss pediatric use.)
Bear in mind, that discussion would have centered on the drugmaker’s own clinical study.
According to the FDA, “More than half of the clinical trial participants were followed for safety outcomes for at least four months after the second dose. Overall, approximately 12,000 recipients have been followed for at least six months.” This, when the original cohort in the study was 44,000. Some of those trial participants gone missing include the control group, in an obvious corruption of ‘science’, since placebo participants eventually took the drug under study.
This aggressive push to approval is hard to fathom especially in light of the truly disconcerting numbers in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System database. The lack of explanation or insight or basic follow-up on the historically high numbers, including the shocking number of deaths, cannot simply be ignored. One cannot wave the numbers away implying it’s all just a coincidence without any forthcoming, honest follow-up. Unless, I suppose, you’re the FDA and media relying on a complacent public.
Speaking of public, yesterday’s approval also brushed off the long-standing protocol of a public hearing. Such lack of transparency and dissing of the public and democratic values is consistent with what Harvard experts deduced about corporate capture of federal regulatory bodies.
All that aside, why the big rush anyway? Despite assertions to the contrary, this hasty, cloaked approval will do nothing to coerce the vaccine-hesitant. In fact, the secrecy, haste, and refusal to openly broach developing data provokes further concern in that group and others. The landscape of suppression, censorship, and propaganda does not encourage trust either.
The big rush does, however, pave the way for further and broader mandates. Strangely, this full court press comes in the context of increasing data that instead suggest caution and a closer look.
Health aside, this blasé corruption of process bears implications about our governance which should concern any citizen. Blindly finding comfort in this approval is misplaced trust. We should expect and demand better.
###
Stand for Freedom
When the words don’t want to come, I soon discover that my other creative endeavors are stymied, too.
When I feel a block in my writing, I think to myself, “I need to stitch,” or, “I need to paint.” I gather my materials, feeling assured that the project will kickstart my writing again, only to find myself staring at my supplies. I find I’m stuck in that area, too.
The muse does not discriminate. If I am feeling resistance to writing, it’s creative resistance across the board. And this is a problem. Creativity is a need, not a want, in my world.
Fortunately, I have learned a few things from such moments. I don’t know how others do it, but they work for me.
Discipline. The thing about writing, for me, is you just do it. You just show up and start. It might be a rough start, but you generally get into gear at some point.
Running/walking outside. Probably the biggest single source of activated inspiration in my life. Meditation in motion, in nature, rain or shine. Goes hand in hand with discipline.
Nature. Just getting out in it always nurtures: breathing the air, feeling the sunshine or wind, noticing all the colors, scents, and sensations.
Permission #1. Importantly, I must give myself permission to be creative, affirming that it is a legitimate and desirable activity for which I am perfectly qualified. I wrote a little about this topic here as well.
Permission #2. Every now and then, I also realize I need to step away for a moment because something is percolating. In those times, it is best to let go and allow the space. Good time to go for a run, huh?
Pretty simple stuff, but it works for me. Maybe you have some tricks of your own?
###
Stand for Freedom
crickets chirping.
a bird’s clear note.
a star-filled sky
slowly giving way
to the sun
spilling pink into the horizon
reaching toward
ever more blue.
trees standing in silhouette
until the light infuses
every growing thing
and the air
whispers everything awake.
these, at least, are truth.
###
Stand for Freedom
We belong in this world.
We are the elk standing silent in the mountains
we are the wolf treading the darkness
the polar bear crossing the tundra
the geese winging the skies
the person walking the trail
the whale plying the oceans
the honeybee tasting the nectar.
We, we are the ones that belong here.
We belong in this world
and the world belongs to us,
not to governments or institutions or corporations,
it belongs to us.
And when those constructs
fail to serve, and worse, destroy,
we need to remember
who we are.
This world is ours.
###
Stand for freedom
i am but a leaf on the tree
a petal on the flower
i am only one feather on the wing
what can i do
i feel the buffeting winds
trace the sun’s inevitable path
abide in the falling rain
it is not enough to simply bear witness
as this strange scythe now makes its brutal swings
i do not wither and fall
but flutter with song
bloom with fierce color
soar in defiance on the winds of spirit
i grow whole and full
abundant in my many dimensions
knowing i am essential
for i am the weathered oak, the burgeoning lupine,
i am the heron poised and ready at the river’s edge
i stand beyond the blindly grasping sweep
laughing
i am truth
###
Stand for Freedom
As if we don’t have enough to be concerned about already, now Apple decides it’s the perfect time to step up surveillance on everyone’s phones.
In the past, Apple made kind of a thing about championing privacy, but they lately announced their plan to start scouring the photos on your iPhone, just checking, you know, to make sure that none of them appear to be matches for child sexual abuse images in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database.
While it sounds well-meaning enough on the surface, this, like other things afoot at the moment, is dangerous stuff.
Once they start policing your photos for child abuse imagery, what else might they like to police? Once you have accepted this level of access and intrusion, to what else will you be asked to submit?
And please don’t bother telling me you have nothing to hide. That is, at best, astonishingly naive.
There is a reason for encryption: we are entitled to live our lives without scrutiny. What’s unfolding here, however, is yet another step in corporate and government intrusion, monitoring, and, ultimately, control in your personal life: a dystopic loss of freedoms.
Personal privacy and sovereignty are rapidly being demolished. There has been a veritable constellation of increasingly bold violations of our personal lives and ability to make decisions. To what end? The implications should terrify everyone. It’s past time to put the brakes on.
###
Stand for freedom
How is it that this blank page
is the only refuge
the only safe space for retreat
beckoning with promise of shelter
a place to finally breathe
and find nourishment
to discover the nurturing mother
and know hope
resting even, perhaps, in delight
while the demons scurry about
in their unending, frantic parade
###
Stand for Freedom
earth sky air 