liveonearth: (Default)
I read this morning about a doctor who went mad and shot people in a hospital. As a doctor myself, I know that docs have terrible stresses trying to deal with a corrupt medical-industrial system that impairs our ability to help people regain their health. Then I went to look at the NY times article, here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/nyregion/bronx-hospital-shooting.html. He's richly melanated, that is to say, he has lived a life of fear because of his skin color. I infer from his violence that he may have been guilty of the accusation--sexual misconduct. He was a man, and he was angry enough to shoot others and hopeless enough to set himself on fire and shoot himself. He did not see any way out. He knew he would not receive compassion.

What people forget when they demonize any group of humans is that they are human. Dark skinned people. Doctors. Men. Gun owners. Murderers. Whatever group. All humans share the same basic needs. When those needs are not met, we have the same basic emotions. Driven hard enough, any of us could become dangerous. Hitler had reasons. The Arabs that flew airplanes into buildings had reasons. No one is pure evil, we are simply human and if tortured we can lash out, or become cunning.

My hope that that everyone who reads this will take a deep breath or three and think about the kind of pain that drives a person to such horrors. My hope is that compassion will rise in spite of the poisonous atmosphere of shame and blame that dominates our political world. We all deserve an opportunity to be free from fear, long enough to find our centers and our hearts and reach out into the world from that place. It will take a lot of us finding compassion to heal these wounds.
liveonearth: (dont_be_heavy)
The worst criticism
seeks to have the last word
and leave the rest of us in silence;
the best opens up an exchange
that need never end.

--Critic Rebecca Solnit, quoted in Brainpickings.org
liveonearth: (moon)
Becca Zacchari on Treatment Outcomes of Alternative Therapies
OHSU Psychiatry grand rounds 10.18.16
Her interest: Trauma and substance abuse
Conventional and alternative treatment is merging-->integrative health
My notes... )
liveonearth: (moon)
Without battle no victory, without deprivation no enjoyment, without cleansing no healing."
--Johann Shroth 1789-1856, rival of Priessnitz
liveonearth: (microbes)
In the field, some practitioners will pack an open wound with black soil to help it heal. You can get black peat that is used for this purpose and others. It is not pasteurized or sterilized in any way; it is full of living organisms. After the battle of Shiloh in the US civil war, soldiers whose wounds glowed in the dark had better survival. The organism (Photorhabdus luminescens) that was growing in their wounds came from the guts of nematodes living in the soil. Presumably this organism outcompeted the pathogenic ones. This kind of antibiotic mechanism cannot be ignored when antibiotic drugs are increasing ineffective.

More about the biology, and the source, behind cut. )
liveonearth: (Hands w/ Lotus)
Be grateful
for every scar life inflicts upon you.
Where we're unhurt is where we are false.
Where we are wounded and healed
is where our real self gets to show itself.


--Sara Gran, Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, p 172
liveonearth: (Where the wild things are)
Somewhere, there are people to whom we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throats. Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us, Eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate us whenever we come into our own power. Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter. A circle of healing. A circle of friends. Someplace where we can be free.
- Starhawk, Dreaming the Dove
liveonearth: (Default)
What's up with that? I mean, as I look around, I am on this path toward naturopathy. Everybody I know or meet is going toward nursing or doctoring or acupuncturing, or working as a massage therapist, or treating addicts, or teaching yoga or meditation or nutrition, or opening up a practice, or getting a new certification, or writing a book about all the important stuff they've learned in life. We're all doing it. Some are ahead of others, but we're all going the same direction, like lemmings. Everybody's got a web page. Everybody's self-promoting, wanting to be the guru, wanting to be paid for what we know. We all are hip and cool. What next?

I wonder when the day will come that there's no money for what we know and can communicate, and the matter becomes what can we DO. Besides teach. Who was it that said those who can't do, teach? And why is it that my life is full of gurus or every stripe?? Or is it that my life is full of entrepreneurs, those who have the smarts to separate a sucker from his money for no more than an idea or an experience? And what in life is worth more than an idea or experience? And are they actually making a living with all this purveying of insight? Am I in a bubble? I must be in a tiny little cultural bubble.

I know I'm going around in circles. Seems to be status quo.

The question is, how does a guru dress? And how sincere does the smile really have to be? Because after a while, all those phoney blissed out guru smiles really get tired. It's hard to maintain the appearance of enlightenment. A lot of work, and the veneer is full of gaps.

Awakenings

Sep. 3rd, 2008 09:17 am
liveonearth: (Default)
The elementary school a block from my house has awakened. This morning there are people everywhere, repair men and mothers and kids. Groups of adults standing behind the school and talking in the sun. There's not a free parking spot on the block.
more )
liveonearth: (Default)
Looks like another book for my wish list.....all below swiped from [livejournal.com profile] sno_angel1488
useful and reassuring notes on how to live )
liveonearth: (Default)
Gillian Stansbury is the instructor for two of my classes, and I can see that I will take more electives from this lady. She is an illustrator, herbalist, a philosopher, artist, musician--she has many talents. She is teaching the ND1 class on Naturopathic Philosophy and History, and I am also taking Northwest Herbs I from her. In the philosophy class the other day she taught us two songs. I want to get the words down here. )
liveonearth: (Default)
Shakti just bit me. I finally got a good feel of her left hind foot, and though she is walking on it, she did not like my checking it out. There is the scabby lump over the puncture wound, but there is also a lump in the bottom of her foot. I couldn't tell if it was a broken bone or just swollen tissue. It was pretty hard. She stopped me from feeling it with a warning bite--didn't break the skin, but she could have. She got her message across.
Another day in life with a kitten )

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