Been a lot going through my mind this weekend - or not, depending on how you look at it. Demon has been in BC attending a funeral and I've been alone with my thoughts - well as alone as it gets with a 5 yr old, two dogs and a room mate - especially since I woke to pouring rain this morning which killed our original plans for today. Of course, the sun was shining brightly by 4pm but that was too late for any of our plans. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.
Anyway, firstly I was reading a lot of web pages last night and discovered that there is a name for places such as where I live - 'a cluster of houses/apartments clustered around some sort of shared open space'. Apparently I live in a "pocket neighbourhood". Nice - can ya tell I kinda like that name? lol And I found two new books to add to my MAJOR wish list - Pocket Neighbourhood, and The Great Neighbourhood Book. I think they make my top ten wants, might have to add them as a separate post.
Secondly, found this from @EarthActivists on Twitter - As #EarthGuardian you can help document your city... where are the dangerous places for children?... your mayor should intervene.
The sentiment is certainly one the provides food for thought and only adds to the ongoing thoughts stirring in my brain about talking to neighbours about our neighbourhood, about what they like, don't like and would want to see changed, removed, improved or included.
Also found this, or at least we re-reminded of it.
"The commons is everything that we inherit or create together and must pass on, undiminished, to future generations." the Commons
Thirdly, was reading about the decline in organized religion - and that therefore Canada is becoming a nation of atheists. "Canadians are increasingly identifying as religiously non-affiliated, suggesting that organized religion may be on the decline."
Guess I'm missing something - including the original question as it was phrased - because I don't see that just because increasing numbers of people are no longer affiliated to (I presume) mainstream organized religions, necessarily means that they are all atheists. Or am I missing something? Usually an question of religion considers the mainstream faiths, and the obligatory "other" category. Or I guess in this case "none". Yet I'd have to check "none "if given the choice between mainstream religions and none and yet I most certainly don't consider myself an atheist. Colour me a little confused by the logic applied and the extrapolation that a decline in adherence to mainstream religion equals Canada becoming a nation of atheists. Just seems to me that it's a little too much of a stretch of the data :/
I don't doubt that mainstream and even organized religions may very well be on the decline, we all know minority religions, non mainstream religions and personal spirituality - not sure you can call it "religion" per se when it's a person's personal path - are on the increase. Even here, "census data suggests that organized religion is heading for extinction in nine western democracies." But is that just mainstream religion, organized religion, or religious beliefs of any kind? Damn I hate sweeping statements that bother my warped sense of logic!
Oh and of course now Adobe wants to update my flash player, I swear it did that once already this weekend lol
Now where was I? Thirdly, was just checking some of the blogs on Circle of Moms faith based poll and the centre of their own controversy as to whether or not Pagan blogs count as 'faith' blogs - duh!
According to Dictionary.com
faith
–noun
1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability.
2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
3. belief in god or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.
And before you ask, Dictionary.com defines god thus
God
–noun
1. the one Supreme Being, the creator and ruler of the universe.
2. the Supreme Being considered with reference to a particular attribute: the God of Islam.
3. ( lowercase ) one of several deities, especially a male deity, presiding over some portion of worldly affairs.
Notably, in the definition of Faith it is "god" lowercase. Anyway, semantics aside, Faith Blog does not mean Christian Blog people, no matter what you might think of those of us other faiths, be they Judaism, Islam, paganism, Hinduism, worship of the great flying spaghetti monster or whatever. Too late on a saturday night to go off on THAT particular tangent.
Ok I got sidetracked - while reading a pagan blog I ran into this
"he stopped my hand and said "Mom, I want to learn to spell my favourite word... Namaste!"
For those who are unfamiliar, 'Namaste' translates to mean that there is a light in you, there is a light in me and we bow in honour of one another's light.
I asked my child why 'Namaste' is his favourite word and he replied "because if everyone has a special light inside, then we are all shiny together." Yes friends, a humble reminder from a preschooler!"
Out of the mouths of babes.....
Ok there's more but let's end that on a happy note :)
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Ancestors
Inspired by Tanila's comments about ancestors and ancestor photos I had to go find this. Samhain is coming, time to remember those who came before.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not just our personal past we should remember for it's part in making us who and where we are now. We should also remember the people and the generations who have gone before us, our parents and grandparents and the many generations beyond them, lost now to the haze of history. They each had their part to play in how we came to be who and where we are now.
Most people don't think too much about their ancestors, and most people don't need to. It does seem though that there really is at least one born into every generation who does care, who is driven to find and document them and to rediscover them before they are lost to obscurity forever. Driven to put names, places, faces and dates together, to piece together some parts of their stories, be they happy, sad, tragic or heroic, for each of them did have their own story.
Perhaps it's the modern day equivalent of being the storyteller, the one who preserved for the next generation the tales of myth and legend, the stories of hardship and celebration, and shared them with everyone else during long winter nights huddled together around the fire. Maybe those who are driven to uncover family history are simply the modern day incarnation of an ancient tradition.
There will always be skeletons hidden away that some would prefer be forgotten, there will be heroes and homemakers, adventurers, rascals, scoundrels and simple hardworking men who did nothing more remarkable in their lives than toil day in and day out to keep their families housed and fed. They are all a part of our past and deserve to be remembered.
"Putting together a family tree is like weaving an intricate multi-dimensional tapestry without knowing anything about the final design, because that final design doesn't exist."
Peter Baltensperger - Roaming in Ancestral Cycles.
Some people will always be little more than names and dates, the rest of their story already forgotten. Others will carry more colour, the sadness of children lost in infancy, the joys of children surviving to adulthood and producing offspring of their own. Still others come to life in faded photographs, or put a name to previously anonymous face, or turn out to be the grain of truth behind an old family anecdote.
Better that someone collect and record the fragments so that it remains available for the next generation than for their stories, great or small, to be lost, for once they are lost they might be gone forever.
Some families lived generations in the same place, working the same land, facing the same struggles to raise their families. They deserve to be remembered too, or do we want to forget the Audoires, French descended farmers raising generations on rough farmland on a tiny windswept island? Like Jane, who raised thirteen children there before her eldest son, Peter Henry, inherited the farmland and sold it off, using the proceeds to buy her the 'first real house' she had ever lived in.
Do we want to forget the Patton boys of Grayson county, Virginia, who left behind wives and children to fight for the Confederacy, in defence of their homeland and for what they believed was right? Leftwich and Creed Patton, close as brothers could be, grew up together, enlisted to fight together, forever torn apart when Leftwich was killed at the Battle of Middle Creek. Creed fought on, leading his company through the rest of the war before he finally returned home.
Or should we forget the women they left behind to hold home and family together not knowing when or if they would see their menfolk again? Or the Patton sisters, Cynthia and Martha, who devoted years to helping raise Leftwich's children after he was killed in the War Between the States, four small children who never had a chance to know their father.
The same goes for the Guernseymen who volunteered to fight a war they could not drafted into because they believed it was right. Many marched away to the Great War and a lot of them never returned home, and many of those who did return were never the same again. Should we forget the women and families they left behind? Or the babies who died, as so many did in times past, before they ever had a chance at life?
Perhaps we should forget the women like the two Nancy Patton's, of different lines and generations, who each defied society, convention and church to raise the children they bore outside wedlock, and whose children each married and raised large families of their own. Or the Guernseman who stood before God and congregation on his wedding day and declared that the child his new wife held in her arms was his? Was it? who knows, it doesn't matter, his declaration is forever recorded immediately below his marriage in the church register and it would have taken a brave man to call it other than truth.
Perhaps we could ignore the quarrymen, like Thomas Smith Brown, who did nothing more than work long back breaking days quarrying granite in Guernsey, a world away from their native Devon and Cornwall. Or maybe immigrants like the Aeicheles who came from Russia, Poland and Germany, halfway around the world in search of a better life in Canada and America?
Maybe the Whalleys and Kays from Lancashire, who were 'only' miners and weavers, the very backbone of life in the north of England. Maybe the interestingly mis-transcribed "card loom worker" who was listed as the much more mysterious and exotic sounding "card Room Worker" when one census was released. Or perhaps the Scottish tenant farmer, William Murray, a man of obvious means, who late in life married the innkeeper's daughter and raised a large family.
Could we forget Cornish born Susan Jane who literally married the boy next door, then followed him to Canada with their children, suffering the loss of one child before she even reached Manitoba? Or Cecil, who was invalided out of the Great War, and had to wear his silver discharge badge so as to avoid being accused of cowardice? One war wasn't enough for him, for he also endured four long years of his island home being occupied by invading German forces, separated from the wife and child he had evacuated to safety in Rochester, and facing the same near starvation as everyone else who remained behind on the island, a starvation only alleviated by the ships of the Red Cross.
They all have a part in the story of our past, they are our roots, they are part of the foundation on which we can build our future, without any one of them we wouldn't be here. And for that, they deserve to be remembered.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not just our personal past we should remember for it's part in making us who and where we are now. We should also remember the people and the generations who have gone before us, our parents and grandparents and the many generations beyond them, lost now to the haze of history. They each had their part to play in how we came to be who and where we are now.
Most people don't think too much about their ancestors, and most people don't need to. It does seem though that there really is at least one born into every generation who does care, who is driven to find and document them and to rediscover them before they are lost to obscurity forever. Driven to put names, places, faces and dates together, to piece together some parts of their stories, be they happy, sad, tragic or heroic, for each of them did have their own story.
Perhaps it's the modern day equivalent of being the storyteller, the one who preserved for the next generation the tales of myth and legend, the stories of hardship and celebration, and shared them with everyone else during long winter nights huddled together around the fire. Maybe those who are driven to uncover family history are simply the modern day incarnation of an ancient tradition.
There will always be skeletons hidden away that some would prefer be forgotten, there will be heroes and homemakers, adventurers, rascals, scoundrels and simple hardworking men who did nothing more remarkable in their lives than toil day in and day out to keep their families housed and fed. They are all a part of our past and deserve to be remembered.
"Putting together a family tree is like weaving an intricate multi-dimensional tapestry without knowing anything about the final design, because that final design doesn't exist."
Peter Baltensperger - Roaming in Ancestral Cycles.
Some people will always be little more than names and dates, the rest of their story already forgotten. Others will carry more colour, the sadness of children lost in infancy, the joys of children surviving to adulthood and producing offspring of their own. Still others come to life in faded photographs, or put a name to previously anonymous face, or turn out to be the grain of truth behind an old family anecdote.
Better that someone collect and record the fragments so that it remains available for the next generation than for their stories, great or small, to be lost, for once they are lost they might be gone forever.
Some families lived generations in the same place, working the same land, facing the same struggles to raise their families. They deserve to be remembered too, or do we want to forget the Audoires, French descended farmers raising generations on rough farmland on a tiny windswept island? Like Jane, who raised thirteen children there before her eldest son, Peter Henry, inherited the farmland and sold it off, using the proceeds to buy her the 'first real house' she had ever lived in.
Do we want to forget the Patton boys of Grayson county, Virginia, who left behind wives and children to fight for the Confederacy, in defence of their homeland and for what they believed was right? Leftwich and Creed Patton, close as brothers could be, grew up together, enlisted to fight together, forever torn apart when Leftwich was killed at the Battle of Middle Creek. Creed fought on, leading his company through the rest of the war before he finally returned home.
Or should we forget the women they left behind to hold home and family together not knowing when or if they would see their menfolk again? Or the Patton sisters, Cynthia and Martha, who devoted years to helping raise Leftwich's children after he was killed in the War Between the States, four small children who never had a chance to know their father.
The same goes for the Guernseymen who volunteered to fight a war they could not drafted into because they believed it was right. Many marched away to the Great War and a lot of them never returned home, and many of those who did return were never the same again. Should we forget the women and families they left behind? Or the babies who died, as so many did in times past, before they ever had a chance at life?
Perhaps we should forget the women like the two Nancy Patton's, of different lines and generations, who each defied society, convention and church to raise the children they bore outside wedlock, and whose children each married and raised large families of their own. Or the Guernseman who stood before God and congregation on his wedding day and declared that the child his new wife held in her arms was his? Was it? who knows, it doesn't matter, his declaration is forever recorded immediately below his marriage in the church register and it would have taken a brave man to call it other than truth.
Perhaps we could ignore the quarrymen, like Thomas Smith Brown, who did nothing more than work long back breaking days quarrying granite in Guernsey, a world away from their native Devon and Cornwall. Or maybe immigrants like the Aeicheles who came from Russia, Poland and Germany, halfway around the world in search of a better life in Canada and America?
Maybe the Whalleys and Kays from Lancashire, who were 'only' miners and weavers, the very backbone of life in the north of England. Maybe the interestingly mis-transcribed "card loom worker" who was listed as the much more mysterious and exotic sounding "card Room Worker" when one census was released. Or perhaps the Scottish tenant farmer, William Murray, a man of obvious means, who late in life married the innkeeper's daughter and raised a large family.
Could we forget Cornish born Susan Jane who literally married the boy next door, then followed him to Canada with their children, suffering the loss of one child before she even reached Manitoba? Or Cecil, who was invalided out of the Great War, and had to wear his silver discharge badge so as to avoid being accused of cowardice? One war wasn't enough for him, for he also endured four long years of his island home being occupied by invading German forces, separated from the wife and child he had evacuated to safety in Rochester, and facing the same near starvation as everyone else who remained behind on the island, a starvation only alleviated by the ships of the Red Cross.
They all have a part in the story of our past, they are our roots, they are part of the foundation on which we can build our future, without any one of them we wouldn't be here. And for that, they deserve to be remembered.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Alicia
So I was thinking about what Alicia said - "It truly bothers me, an underlying theme in our community, that women (even in positions of leadership) are to be silent to 'keep the peace' to allow others to infringe upon our rights and the rights of others, to allow the cycle of abuse to run rampant. Every time I speak out, it garners some very strange reactions."
And she does get some interesting reactions for not being the 'good, quiet obedient girl' that too many people, not all men, would prefer her to be. Yet she should be speaking up, she shouldn't be silent just because some people are uncomfortable with the things she has to say about rape, domestic violence, women's rights, aboriginal rights and many other subjects. They are things that need saying, they address issues, behaviour and facts that need to be brought into the light and dealt with. We need more people who are willing to do that, even in the face of opposition and denial.
We need more people like her who are willing to stand tall, speak their mind and call it like it is, especially on the many taboo subjects in our society. People are going to find it uncomfortable because they would rather these things be swept under the carpet and left there. Well you know what? Sweeping things under the carpet doesn't make them go away. We need to stand up and make people face facts and deal with them.
Alicia also made another point, that as a priestess silence is not an option. She is expected and required to stand up and say what needs to be said. As she put it "The Gods have no respect for cowardice..." Especially some of them. I understand where she's coming from with that one, and no it's not an easy road to walk, even the Gods agree on that. It is, however, a necessary one, and a road that Alicia walks with strength, intelligence, dignity and fire. She is an outstanding person, priestess, pagan and activist. In my opinion the world could use a few more women like her.
And she does get some interesting reactions for not being the 'good, quiet obedient girl' that too many people, not all men, would prefer her to be. Yet she should be speaking up, she shouldn't be silent just because some people are uncomfortable with the things she has to say about rape, domestic violence, women's rights, aboriginal rights and many other subjects. They are things that need saying, they address issues, behaviour and facts that need to be brought into the light and dealt with. We need more people who are willing to do that, even in the face of opposition and denial.
We need more people like her who are willing to stand tall, speak their mind and call it like it is, especially on the many taboo subjects in our society. People are going to find it uncomfortable because they would rather these things be swept under the carpet and left there. Well you know what? Sweeping things under the carpet doesn't make them go away. We need to stand up and make people face facts and deal with them.
Alicia also made another point, that as a priestess silence is not an option. She is expected and required to stand up and say what needs to be said. As she put it "The Gods have no respect for cowardice..." Especially some of them. I understand where she's coming from with that one, and no it's not an easy road to walk, even the Gods agree on that. It is, however, a necessary one, and a road that Alicia walks with strength, intelligence, dignity and fire. She is an outstanding person, priestess, pagan and activist. In my opinion the world could use a few more women like her.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Two years later....
So one of the perils of not blogging for over two years is that you get out of practice, both at writing and at making time to write. Another is, if you're anything like me, you forget your password for logging into you blogger account - especially is technically your computer is smarter than you are and is supposed to remember it for you so you never had to remember it in the first place!
Mind you, it's not as if not posting a blog of any kind means I haven't written anything - sheesh I have a drawer full of notebooks full of everything from essays and opinion pieces to notes, family trees and those dark moments of angst filled emotion we all suffer from time to time to prove it.
Now if I could just wave a magic a wand and get all the ones I want to copy from there to magically appear in typed format on my computer I'd be laughing.
Technically i can write straight on computer, or should that be type straight on computer? But firstly i rarely have enough computer time that I can use for that when I'm not at risk of being interrupted mid sentence every sentence or of disturbing other people who are trying to watch TV or something and would be bothered by the continual typing. So it hasn't happened yet, and, I'm old fashioned, give me open and some paper and the urge to get thoughts onto paper and I can suddenly discover that I just filled a dozen pages without even realizing it!
don't worry I'm not going to bother you with the terrible angst of those occasional dark times, the ones we all go through every now and then. Those I write down because for me it's therapeutic, a way to clear all the junk from the hard drive of my brain if you will, because for me, once it bothers me enough to get it out and down on paper, the very act of doing that is generally enough for me to be able to let go of whatever was bothering me at the time, deal with it, and move on feeling far more peaceful and balanced once again. Then the written pages generally get shredded and trashed having fulfilled their purpose.
And I like being peaceful and balanced.
We do, however, all go through those dark times, mentally and emotionally. It's a part of the roller coaster that is life. Often they are actually a necessary part of it even if at times they drive us to despair and leave us dubious about our sanity. sometimes we later have the time and perspective to look back on the darkness we realize that it was necessary, a turning point or a growth point and that we are actually better, stronger and more balanced for having been through that darkness. Still sucks when you are in the middle of the dark times however.
Sometimes each of us has to hit the bottom in the darkness before we can begin to see the light and climb our way back up again to another new height. Life is rarely even, easy or fair, it just is what it is, and we try to deal with it as best we can, some days we do better some days we don't - we are each only human after all. what matters is not the things that happen to us in life but how we react to and deal with them and how much we keep on going, keep trying, keep doing, and don't give up, even when it's dark. Sometimes we need a helping hand to find the light and begin the climb out of the darkness and that's what friends and true family are for.
Which is kind of where I was going, I just took the long way around, because this is not going to be about those occasional dark times - well, mostly not anyway! As I said, my notebooks contain thoughts on a number of topics, tags really are going to be a wonderful invention although my choice of tag might not always seem obvious to you - the connections in my brain are sometimes a little obscure to some people. They will however hopefully keep roughly related topics connected to each other.
What started me once again thinking about blogging and led to the earlier comments about the dark times was a conversation last night. Anyway.
In the intervening couple of years many things have changed and many haven't. Demonspawn is now just turned four, Demon is still going strong after his heart attack two years ago, and winter here in Calgary is finally coming to an end. Other than that life here pretty much carries as usual in that day to day way life has of doing so.
Some things have changed and one of those is that thanks to facebook I have reconnected with several people that I hadn't spoken to in years. One of them in particular, my other sister. Let me start by explaining that I am an only child but I also believe that 'True family is not only one of blood but one of joy and respect in each others lives.' And in that respect I consider myself blessed to have two that I can call sister - Nuttie, the BC dwelling, sister in law I inherited when I got into a relationship with her brother, Demon, five years ago today.
And Crazy girl, the UK dwelling step sister I lost touch with for more than ten years and rediscovered thanks to the wonders that are facebook (when facebook is not being an ass that is) Technically we aren't related but we share a step father - who said families were easy to understand or explain? lol She is, however, my sister - my crazy witchy fairy queen sister.
And I count myself lucky to have two who i would call sister.
"True sisters measure time not by clock or calendar but by the beat of the heart."
And btw in case you forgot or are new here - my typing sucks. I can spell, but even after all these years I cannot type accurately - fast yes - accurate no!!
Mind you, it's not as if not posting a blog of any kind means I haven't written anything - sheesh I have a drawer full of notebooks full of everything from essays and opinion pieces to notes, family trees and those dark moments of angst filled emotion we all suffer from time to time to prove it.
Now if I could just wave a magic a wand and get all the ones I want to copy from there to magically appear in typed format on my computer I'd be laughing.
Technically i can write straight on computer, or should that be type straight on computer? But firstly i rarely have enough computer time that I can use for that when I'm not at risk of being interrupted mid sentence every sentence or of disturbing other people who are trying to watch TV or something and would be bothered by the continual typing. So it hasn't happened yet, and, I'm old fashioned, give me open and some paper and the urge to get thoughts onto paper and I can suddenly discover that I just filled a dozen pages without even realizing it!
don't worry I'm not going to bother you with the terrible angst of those occasional dark times, the ones we all go through every now and then. Those I write down because for me it's therapeutic, a way to clear all the junk from the hard drive of my brain if you will, because for me, once it bothers me enough to get it out and down on paper, the very act of doing that is generally enough for me to be able to let go of whatever was bothering me at the time, deal with it, and move on feeling far more peaceful and balanced once again. Then the written pages generally get shredded and trashed having fulfilled their purpose.
And I like being peaceful and balanced.
We do, however, all go through those dark times, mentally and emotionally. It's a part of the roller coaster that is life. Often they are actually a necessary part of it even if at times they drive us to despair and leave us dubious about our sanity. sometimes we later have the time and perspective to look back on the darkness we realize that it was necessary, a turning point or a growth point and that we are actually better, stronger and more balanced for having been through that darkness. Still sucks when you are in the middle of the dark times however.
Sometimes each of us has to hit the bottom in the darkness before we can begin to see the light and climb our way back up again to another new height. Life is rarely even, easy or fair, it just is what it is, and we try to deal with it as best we can, some days we do better some days we don't - we are each only human after all. what matters is not the things that happen to us in life but how we react to and deal with them and how much we keep on going, keep trying, keep doing, and don't give up, even when it's dark. Sometimes we need a helping hand to find the light and begin the climb out of the darkness and that's what friends and true family are for.
Which is kind of where I was going, I just took the long way around, because this is not going to be about those occasional dark times - well, mostly not anyway! As I said, my notebooks contain thoughts on a number of topics, tags really are going to be a wonderful invention although my choice of tag might not always seem obvious to you - the connections in my brain are sometimes a little obscure to some people. They will however hopefully keep roughly related topics connected to each other.
What started me once again thinking about blogging and led to the earlier comments about the dark times was a conversation last night. Anyway.
In the intervening couple of years many things have changed and many haven't. Demonspawn is now just turned four, Demon is still going strong after his heart attack two years ago, and winter here in Calgary is finally coming to an end. Other than that life here pretty much carries as usual in that day to day way life has of doing so.
Some things have changed and one of those is that thanks to facebook I have reconnected with several people that I hadn't spoken to in years. One of them in particular, my other sister. Let me start by explaining that I am an only child but I also believe that 'True family is not only one of blood but one of joy and respect in each others lives.' And in that respect I consider myself blessed to have two that I can call sister - Nuttie, the BC dwelling, sister in law I inherited when I got into a relationship with her brother, Demon, five years ago today.
And Crazy girl, the UK dwelling step sister I lost touch with for more than ten years and rediscovered thanks to the wonders that are facebook (when facebook is not being an ass that is) Technically we aren't related but we share a step father - who said families were easy to understand or explain? lol She is, however, my sister - my crazy witchy fairy queen sister.
And I count myself lucky to have two who i would call sister.
"True sisters measure time not by clock or calendar but by the beat of the heart."
And btw in case you forgot or are new here - my typing sucks. I can spell, but even after all these years I cannot type accurately - fast yes - accurate no!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)