just came home from a meeting/gathering of like minds to discuss ideas for a short film about peace, inspired by a speech one of the women present had written.
firstly, thank you Barbara for writing those words and sharing them with us. our discussions brought many things to the surface ... here in NZ there is heated debate occurring about a soon to be passed amendment to legislation that will make it illegal for parents to smack or hit their children and defend it as being "reasonable force". i fully support that change and the suggestion behind it that we all have a think about why it is "ok" to smack our children for punishment or "prevention of greater harm" ... when it is NOT ok for us to hit anyone else to punish them or save them from harm.
and why is it ok for us to only hit the youngest, most vulnerable children and then resort to other strategies once they are big enough to hit us back.
that was a tiny part of our conversation .... but we also brought up issues about war - how it relies on dehumanising the other side - and on stereotypes of evil. it is not natural for us to try and kill or destroy total strangers without creating an image in our minds of evil and "wrongness" on behalf of those who are "other" to us. When human minds are trained that way, they are apparently able to forget the humanity of their opponent ... that the opponent was once a small child, loved by their parents ... a child learning about the world, making mistakes, discovering new and exciting things ... learning how to be independent and venture into the world - to be blown to bits by someone who sees them only as an enemy, not as a fellow human making his or her way in the same world.
we also talked about the peace that lies within us - or the potential for it ... and how essential it is that peace begins with each of us as individuals. i commented that many women in particular, who are highly sensitive to our world, suffer from over-empathising and that can bring us into a place of mental and emotional dis-ease ... which all too often is suppressed and controlled by medication. i suggest it is actually more normal to have dis-ease in the world we live in right now, than not to have dis-ease.
more on this later. peace out.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
focus!
on doing some more posting that is!! hopefully today i will spend some more time processing photos and video from the trip to Melbourne. It is quickly coming up to four weeks since we were there - unbelievable!
life has been trickling along with moments of drama sprinkled throughout over the last few weeks. We are transitioning into Autumn here i guess, with the return of non-daylight saving making darkness fall earlier - about 7pm at the moment. We had a hot gorgeous day last weekend, 30 deg celsius, and i spent the afternoon at the beach with my hubby ... we paddled in the water, made sculptures in the sand, got sunburnt (!) and had a lovely cafe lunch ... went home and napped for a bit then went to see Wild Hogs at the movies and laughed from start to finish - i highly recommend, specially if you have a present or former Harley owning partner!
i am pleased to be out of Mercury retrograde again ... things seem to be proceeding smoothly on different fronts ... new business coming into work, weirdly, three approaches in recent times that our outside our normal focus on technology companies. A reminder that it is time to broaden our scope to more general PR as had been originally intended.
i have not been productive at all on the art front or playing with my paints and canvases rather, but i did have an idea yesterday for a series of goddess works on canvas .... maybe small ones, not sure yet.
oh and i visited my friend Nicky with her beautiful new baby Bronte ... perhaps a pic of this delicious newborn when i get my photos sorted.
life has been trickling along with moments of drama sprinkled throughout over the last few weeks. We are transitioning into Autumn here i guess, with the return of non-daylight saving making darkness fall earlier - about 7pm at the moment. We had a hot gorgeous day last weekend, 30 deg celsius, and i spent the afternoon at the beach with my hubby ... we paddled in the water, made sculptures in the sand, got sunburnt (!) and had a lovely cafe lunch ... went home and napped for a bit then went to see Wild Hogs at the movies and laughed from start to finish - i highly recommend, specially if you have a present or former Harley owning partner!
i am pleased to be out of Mercury retrograde again ... things seem to be proceeding smoothly on different fronts ... new business coming into work, weirdly, three approaches in recent times that our outside our normal focus on technology companies. A reminder that it is time to broaden our scope to more general PR as had been originally intended.
i have not been productive at all on the art front or playing with my paints and canvases rather, but i did have an idea yesterday for a series of goddess works on canvas .... maybe small ones, not sure yet.
oh and i visited my friend Nicky with her beautiful new baby Bronte ... perhaps a pic of this delicious newborn when i get my photos sorted.
Friday, March 9, 2007
some video ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJDZQ_jjzWo
(the gentleman appearing at the end was installing the portaloo/bathroom ... the two heroines of the piece are praxis and purple goddesses, hostesses of the event)
(the gentleman appearing at the end was installing the portaloo/bathroom ... the two heroines of the piece are praxis and purple goddesses, hostesses of the event)
bad bad bad!
blogger me that is!!!
it has been nearly a month since my last confession! lol ..... weeeelll i have been a little preoccupied with something called Wenchfest, that was held over last weekend in a place called Dromana, south of Melbourne.
this incredible event was a gathering of wonderful women from around australia, nz, US and Canada ... preceded by a visit to my house of the Canadian one ... then a flight to sydney, 12 hour train trip with 6 wenches south to Melbourne ... and three days of hijinks and ritual and other stuff.
it was awesome, once again ... we did it for the first time about a year ago. i have photos, so i will put up a few here (there is also video taken with my nifty new camera, so i might give you a very funny You Tube link if you are very good).
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
a week can be forever
so today is valentine's day - yep in NZ it already is. and it's a week since my last confession ... lol.
a week of lots of work stuff in my head, some personal stuff, plus a visit to the destination for our women's summit in October this year and confirmation with the team that this is definitely where we want to be. Beautiful alpine resort with thermal pools ... Hanmer Springs.
i am looking forward to welcoming women from around the world to join with us there - it is going to be awesome.
tomorrow i will tell you about my valentine's day. wherever you are, wishing you much love (for every day of the year).
a week of lots of work stuff in my head, some personal stuff, plus a visit to the destination for our women's summit in October this year and confirmation with the team that this is definitely where we want to be. Beautiful alpine resort with thermal pools ... Hanmer Springs.
i am looking forward to welcoming women from around the world to join with us there - it is going to be awesome.
tomorrow i will tell you about my valentine's day. wherever you are, wishing you much love (for every day of the year).
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
one heart
i am feeling my heart tonight. my man is going through a healing experience and i feel like i am travelling the path with him.listening to the incandescent voice and lyrics of Brooke Fraser, from her new CD albertine ... her music is so fully from the heart, it makes me cry.
http://www.brookefraser.com/
definitely listen to "deciphering me" - i adore this song.
with love
Sunday, February 4, 2007
so i got tagged!
by ms stacy ... to write down 6 of my idiosyncrasies!
hmmmm food for thought.
1. I am pretty much a grammar/spelling freak. I pick up stuff all the time and it drives me a little batty when people spell badly, or bad spelling and/or grammar makes it into print, particularly in reputable newspapers or magazines. (In my job, this is a good thing, since I write articles and media releases for a living, and have to proof my own work).
2. For health related reasons, we don't own a microwave - which my children's friends (and their parents) seem to think is quite strange, and for most of their lives, we didn't consume milk or dairy products. Currently we have milk in the fridge, but i can't guarantee it is fresh, since i don't buy it every week (pretty much it only gets used in hot chocolate or occasionally in baking). My children grew up having fruit juice on their cereal instead of milk and they still prefer it that way.
3. I have only just allowed my sons to own cellphones - they are 16.5 and 14 going on 15. They have been hassling me for cellphones for probably about two years and virtually every child in their classes had one except them. My resistance was again partly for health reasons, but also because I think it is completely unnecessary to be constantly texting friends who you could walk over and talk to, or call on the phone. My older son now drives me (slightly) nutty by having a multi media "conversation" with his friends with up to five MSN messenger windows open and text messaging at the same time. That is one of his primary methods of socialising ... and all with the same people he spends all day with at school!
4. Not sure if this counts, but one of my close friends channels a Native American Indian called Black Elk - and i think it is very cool! :)
5. I hang out online with friends from around the world, and have made two trips overseas to meet some of them and stay in their houses - some think this is risky behaviour, but i love the connections i have made through the internet and see the travel as a natural extension of that! (and plan to do much more of it!!)
6. I am outrageously behind on my business tax returns and have been sacked by three accountants, so i currently don't have one! My powers of avoidance work overtime when it comes to this area of my life, even though i fully know that i need to get it sorted!
There!!!
That will do from me!
hmmmm food for thought.
1. I am pretty much a grammar/spelling freak. I pick up stuff all the time and it drives me a little batty when people spell badly, or bad spelling and/or grammar makes it into print, particularly in reputable newspapers or magazines. (In my job, this is a good thing, since I write articles and media releases for a living, and have to proof my own work).
2. For health related reasons, we don't own a microwave - which my children's friends (and their parents) seem to think is quite strange, and for most of their lives, we didn't consume milk or dairy products. Currently we have milk in the fridge, but i can't guarantee it is fresh, since i don't buy it every week (pretty much it only gets used in hot chocolate or occasionally in baking). My children grew up having fruit juice on their cereal instead of milk and they still prefer it that way.
3. I have only just allowed my sons to own cellphones - they are 16.5 and 14 going on 15. They have been hassling me for cellphones for probably about two years and virtually every child in their classes had one except them. My resistance was again partly for health reasons, but also because I think it is completely unnecessary to be constantly texting friends who you could walk over and talk to, or call on the phone. My older son now drives me (slightly) nutty by having a multi media "conversation" with his friends with up to five MSN messenger windows open and text messaging at the same time. That is one of his primary methods of socialising ... and all with the same people he spends all day with at school!
4. Not sure if this counts, but one of my close friends channels a Native American Indian called Black Elk - and i think it is very cool! :)
5. I hang out online with friends from around the world, and have made two trips overseas to meet some of them and stay in their houses - some think this is risky behaviour, but i love the connections i have made through the internet and see the travel as a natural extension of that! (and plan to do much more of it!!)
6. I am outrageously behind on my business tax returns and have been sacked by three accountants, so i currently don't have one! My powers of avoidance work overtime when it comes to this area of my life, even though i fully know that i need to get it sorted!
There!!!
That will do from me!
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