Innovation

Have been made aware of a couple of innovative ideas that have applications in disaster relief and international development.
The first one is the Peepoo Bag that converts human waste into fertilizer! Something like this could have significant impact in developing areas around the world.
The other one comes from the TED website, big fan of TED! It is a water filtration bottle, lifesaver bottle, that seems so simple but could potentially save many lives. Also could have application in the outdoors, another passion of mine.

finding home

riding home through scarlet skies

legs ache.
heart beats.
air sucked.
peddles pumped.

grey clouds haunt me from behind
crimson clouds hypnotize my mind in front
and planet earth is new to me this night.

i feel flight as i soar down mountains
i feel ache as I burn up hills.

my fight and flight become one
as thunder rolls up my back
and lighting falls like rain.

adrenaline swims through me as body reaches for home

one drop
five drops
the heavens open and I am drenched

water touches my skin and drips through my gasping lips

my skin is freezing
my core is burning

air sucked
air found
I am alive.

eckhart tolle from A New Earth

'if two ducks get into a fight, which never lasts long, they will separate and float of in opposite directions. Then they each duck will flap its wings vigorously a few times, thus releasing the surplus energy that built up during the fight. After they flap there wings, they float on peacefully, as if nothing had ever happened.

If the ducks had a human mind, it would keep the fight alive by thinking, by story-making. This would probably be the ducks story: “I don't believe what he just did. He came to within five inches of me. He thinks he owns this pond. He has no consideration for my private space. I'll never trust him again. Next time he'll try something else just to annoy me. I'm sure he's plotting something already. But I'm not going to stand for this. I'll teach him a lesson he won't forget.” And on and on the mind spins its tales, still thinking and talking about it days, months or years later. As far as the body is concerned, the fight is still continuing, and the energy it generates in response to all those thoughts is emotions, which in turn generates more thinking. This becomes the emotional thinking of the ego. You can see how problematic the duck's life would become if it had a human mind. But this is how most humans live all the time. No situation or event is ever really finished. The mind and mind-made 'me and my story' keep it going."

ransom

blood cell
a separate and self contained entity
the delivery animal
the pack horse

they race around our body
nourish, serve, sustain.
pillars of life we did not respect
and assumed their prize relinquished

we simply thought they would always continue
if a thought at all
immortal slaves to our
busy lives

deliver surrender continue
never ceasing to rest
pushed on pushed forward
pushed through our life veins

but what if one should halt
his precious cargo spilled
trapped somewhere on the way

a little faint
no muscle strength
and then her speech was gone..



beast of burden I now know you for
you hold my life at ransom
and my breath is held in fear and wonder
until you reach your end.

daughter

day by day they become her
atom and molecule transform
orange into eyes
meat into muscle
each one making it journey from the soil to her soul.

we share breakfast from the yogurt pot
some for mummy some for baby
and now yogurt sleeps in both our tummies
waiting to become human.

her skin stretches into space
she breathes the air that has flown around the world
and drinks the water that has been ocean, rain and river

she eats the chicken that ate
the lettuce that ate the sunlight

and every one of her atoms pulsating
with immaculate energy and power
barely contained within Physic's laws,
gently hum to the silent rhythm of life - tuned into the Divine frequency
that only in silence we hear.

i think i have come to the end of words.

for the last few years i have wrestled with them, redefined them, cross referenced them and argued them.

me brain, ever searching, was in disequilibrium and i fought to find balance. to reconcile the inconsistencies, make sense of the disparities, to find a new framework in which to rest.

it has been quite a journey, perhaps even a Road Less Travelled. i have been scared, lonely, held, persistent and confused. words and sentences have flown around my head seeking categories -fiction ? non-fiction? important insignificant? logical? biblical? Christlike? fundamental? the hunger for Truth ever present, ever pulling me forward.

but i seem to have come to the end of the road of words. i am more committed than ever to spiritual growth and having touched the taste of Love it is my only hunger. i just feel like God doesn't really care how i classify my sentences. He doesn't really care how i label Him.

to describe the indescribable?
to name the unnameable?
to label the divine?

what was i thinking??

charlie

the shed is dead.

just smashed down a shed with a sledge hammer. fabulous. if i have any reason to be angry at you, don't worry. you're off the hook. i have just taken every last drop of negative energy out on that shed.

'i can hear her...'

went to the "Global Leadership Convention" run by World Vision for primary school students yesterday with 4 kids from school. they were quickly thrust into a simulation of the life of a child labourer in a match stick factory in India. they were told they owed they employer 170 rupees and they had to pay back their debt by making perfect little match boxes with exactly 20 matches in each. they were told the rules in loud unfriendly terms, "you must pay back you're debt. if you need a break to go to the toilet, more debt will be added. if you need food, more debt will be added. if you make a mistake, more debt will be added. if you injure yourself, more debt will be added. no talking. no mistakes. Get to work. NOW."

then the factory 'bosses' walked around acting mean and yelling at the kids for the next two hours. one kid who's match box was rejected for being a bit wonkie ended up crying on the stairs.

it was brilliant. i had tears in my eyes myself at one point. after the simulation they showed the australian students videos of real kids in india who are child labourers. it made australian school work look pretty damn fun. World Vision then promoted the 40 Hour Famine as a solution to this problem (which gave the primary school kids i was with some well needed emotional resolution).

I genuinely hope the four kids we took went to sleep feeling they can solve the world's injustice by fasting from furniture for 40 hours and selling off some pre-primary portraits. i, of course am not so lucky, and spent the evening wondering how the heck i was ever going to sleep again with images of Ragu's big brown indian eyes flashing through my head which rested snugly on my new eqyptian cotton pillow case while he was digging up coal with his skinny bear fingers.

i turned to my new book that mum got me from the library, 'Fighting the Banana Wars and other Fairtrade Battles'. found this quote by indian activist, Arundhati Roy.

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day i can hear her breathing."

made me feel better.

hung out with one of my best buddies in the whole world yesterday. it was so nourishing.

to love and to be loved
to know and to be known
to sparkle and to be seen
to glow and to be hugged...

that was yesterday
i love you jenna x