view from my room

I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward. I pray to them because I believe in their existence, the way their songs begin and end each day... the invocations and benedictions of Earth. I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen. ~ Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

10th Anniversary Edition book cover

I lie in bed nursing my battered psyche and renegade body, feeling like such a failure for succumbing to COVID-19 so unexpectedly. This is a first for me - after years of careful dodging and concerned management I am just another casualty of this abominable pandemic.

I was supposed to be spending my time writing an article about our local island birds - for submission before I fly off to Bali for a sound healing workshop. Instead, I loll around in a daze - my fevered brain pounding savagely, eyes hot and bleary, unable to focus.

broken promises

If you’ve already broken your New Year’s resolution, don’t despair. You don’t need a holiday to change your life. 

It’s the first week of the new year. Let’s be in the moment. How many of us resolved to be more present in 2023? How many of us have broken that resolution? 

Depending on which gloomy study you read, somewhere between everyone and everyone will have broken their New Year’s resolutions by February 14. How can we make this year different? 

The Problem with Jon Stewart - "The Fumes of an Empire"

Speaking of making a difference. . . .give a listen to Jon Stewart on The Problem as he brings to light the lies and cover ups in the politics and governance on issues that impact us all. 

abuse & trauma

Born and raised in a banana republic like the Philippines exposes one to intergenerational trauma from multiple layers of unresolved and often unacknowledged abuse. 

Imbedded in our DNA for countless generations of ancestors and perpetuators of a colonized land peopled by all manner of beings - local, pioneer, settler, trader, opportunist, colonial, and colonizer. 

Philippine history timelines

Asian, European, American - all these aliens fought their wars on our land and fought each other to gain a piece of our paradise. Leaving us with nowhere to run or hide all these years. 

Raping, pillaging, destroying and stealing whatever they could, in any way conceivable - most of it with malicious and violent intent. 

focus vs fix

You will really enjoy this. It is always amazing to get in sync with Source.

I just found a little mouse scurrying around the apartment I recently moved into. Yuck! right?

I immediately informed my landlord and started researching natural ways to get rid of it pronto.

drugstore find

One solution was to use camphor. So I purchased some 100% organic mothballs - tablets actually, from the neighborhood drugstore.