Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Dark Times...And Yet
Darkest time of the year...and yet, there is still beauty. There is still joy. There is still something wonderful coming.
And if we have lost this sense of awe and purpose, then we shall have to go out and find it again.
*****
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Friday, October 23, 2009
Hope for the Future
When you look carefully at the darkness you begin to see the most astonishing things.
*****
photo by Joe_M500
Monday, March 02, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Too Many Hopes
The period of rising expectations is dangerous, whether for nations or individuals. People who have been waiting for so much for so long see a narrow window into which great hopes and anxiety must flow.
Not everything can be done the first week. I worked for years in demography and international birth control programs, yet I do not savage the new administration for excluding it from the economic bill. There are priorities, and priorities by definition mean that everyone does not get all the goodies they want right away.
I see this same struggle in microcosm in the blogosphere, and quite frankly, here. We are tearing each other apart trying to be first through the door. We have been starving and food is right there...so close. We want so much, right now, and it is tantalizing that much is possible. IF we can manage the process properly.
*****
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
"Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true"
Hope so. Some days I feel like I'm chasing rainbows.
*******
photo by Lithfin
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
O Holy Night
crossposted at firedoglake 24 december 2007
Wishing you all the most precious gifts, the ones no money can buy:
Joy
Community
Inner peace
Courage
Hope
A word about hope:
The word *yet*
“I can’t do that” becomes “I can’t do that…yet”
“We don’t have the answers” turns into “We don’t have the answers…yet”
Whatever your tradition, you can tap into the message of hope for the future. Believe in something better, and take the first tiny steps in that direction. Astonishing things can happen.
*******
Josh Groban singing at the tree lighting ceremony, Rockfeller Center, 4 December 2002
Friday, November 30, 2007
California Girl
crossposted at firedoglake 29 september 2007
While you all are partying, I'm out here in California at a Sark writing and creativity workshop.
SARK [those are her initials] went on to become an internationally beloved writer on healing and inspiration with books like Make Your Creative Dreams Real and one on naps called Change Your Life Without Getting Out Of Bed. You can see why I wanted to sit at her feet for a while and soak up the goodness.
A friend asked me if I'm really going to a Snark conference :)
Carry on with saving the nation and the world for me, please, and I'll be back soon.
Love and cookies,
egr
*******
While you all are partying, I'm out here in California at a Sark writing and creativity workshop.
When she was 10 years old, SARK announced to her mother, "I’m supposed to be a beacon of hope to the world and write books." Her mother told her to eat her peanut butter sandwich.
SARK [those are her initials] went on to become an internationally beloved writer on healing and inspiration with books like Make Your Creative Dreams Real and one on naps called Change Your Life Without Getting Out Of Bed. You can see why I wanted to sit at her feet for a while and soak up the goodness.
A friend asked me if I'm really going to a Snark conference :)
Carry on with saving the nation and the world for me, please, and I'll be back soon.
Love and cookies,
egr
*******
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Space Between
crossposted at firedoglake 20 october 2007
This video works for me on about five levels and not only because I like to play in the rain. Those of us who follow political events feel caught in some kind of time warp where we see things almost happen in Congress and then can't believe they've messed up again.
Do they hear us? We are in that space between, where we have knowledge of something important and are trying to raise the alarm. We feel a sense of urgency and can't understand why others don't.
Life may always feel a little off balance for those of us who are trying to create change. I wonder what I would be doing with my time if this administration had not totally shoved us into ruin.
But for the moment I'm seeing the glass half full. We---and I don't mean the progressive left, I mean FDL---are most likely responsible for one of those Blue Dog votes flipping this week. Reports of progressive victories are coming from very Red places like Alaska. Dodd and Feingold and Whitehouse are stepping up. And our reputation as one of the best communities in the blogosphere continues to grow.
Let's do what we can here in the space between. And please, take care of each other.
*******
This video works for me on about five levels and not only because I like to play in the rain. Those of us who follow political events feel caught in some kind of time warp where we see things almost happen in Congress and then can't believe they've messed up again.
Do they hear us? We are in that space between, where we have knowledge of something important and are trying to raise the alarm. We feel a sense of urgency and can't understand why others don't.
Life may always feel a little off balance for those of us who are trying to create change. I wonder what I would be doing with my time if this administration had not totally shoved us into ruin.
But for the moment I'm seeing the glass half full. We---and I don't mean the progressive left, I mean FDL---are most likely responsible for one of those Blue Dog votes flipping this week. Reports of progressive victories are coming from very Red places like Alaska. Dodd and Feingold and Whitehouse are stepping up. And our reputation as one of the best communities in the blogosphere continues to grow.
Let's do what we can here in the space between. And please, take care of each other.
*******
Monday, April 23, 2007
Life and death in Russia
You would think I am talking about the death today of former President Yeltsin. That would be wrong.
I am interested in the tens of thousands of newborns who will die this year because of lack of investment in neonatal congenital surgeons and the requisite ICU's.
Once I read someone trying to calm people down by saying If a baby dies in Russia does it matter? Well, actually, yes it does, very much. If this child dies from a congenital defect which is treatable by surgery, it matters very much indeed.
I have worked for the past eleven years to provide millions of dollars of supplies and equipment for the purpose of saving newborns who are born with a heart defect. Very often a simple surgery can save their little lives. It breaks my heart that those who have money do not choose to invest in their own newborns. They are beginning to, perhaps that must be enough.
We have new equipment from the city worth $1,000,000 for the ICU which is a miracle. And it would take another miracle for the city to acknowledge that human beings must take care of these newborns during and after surgery.
Russians are very big on new buildings and new equipment, with perhaps not such great followup with regard to staff and ongoing expenses. New buildings and equipment are very glamorous and if I may add an opportunity for some people to earn a percentage of the contract. Ongoing expenses for ICU nurses and surgeons are not glamorous but are yet essential.
It should be embarrassing to them that people from another country are buying suture thread for the hearts of their newborns. It should be embarrassing that we provide groceries for nurses and doctors who are paid starvation wages. I can hardly believe that professionals are willing to work under these conditions.
My reward, to see a month old girl recover from near death, day by day, and finally be discharged from the ICU. Thank you God! If I have had any small part in this I am grateful and humble.
Another curious story is our patient whose father is a cabinet minister in a country which I may not reveal, where there is civil unrest. He urged us to go ahead with the surgery for his child, so that he could return to his country and help with the political situation. We almost never interrupt the surgical schedule for anything non-medical, but this was quite compelling.
Nearly every time I go over there I am tempted to quit as the obstacles are just ridiculous. Then I look into the eyes of a tiny patient, or the hysterical mother or father, and feel that I do not have the luxury to quit. What if it would be my child? They need me and the help that our organization can provide. I must go on, what choice do I have?
I am interested in the tens of thousands of newborns who will die this year because of lack of investment in neonatal congenital surgeons and the requisite ICU's.
Once I read someone trying to calm people down by saying If a baby dies in Russia does it matter? Well, actually, yes it does, very much. If this child dies from a congenital defect which is treatable by surgery, it matters very much indeed.
I have worked for the past eleven years to provide millions of dollars of supplies and equipment for the purpose of saving newborns who are born with a heart defect. Very often a simple surgery can save their little lives. It breaks my heart that those who have money do not choose to invest in their own newborns. They are beginning to, perhaps that must be enough.
We have new equipment from the city worth $1,000,000 for the ICU which is a miracle. And it would take another miracle for the city to acknowledge that human beings must take care of these newborns during and after surgery.
Russians are very big on new buildings and new equipment, with perhaps not such great followup with regard to staff and ongoing expenses. New buildings and equipment are very glamorous and if I may add an opportunity for some people to earn a percentage of the contract. Ongoing expenses for ICU nurses and surgeons are not glamorous but are yet essential.
It should be embarrassing to them that people from another country are buying suture thread for the hearts of their newborns. It should be embarrassing that we provide groceries for nurses and doctors who are paid starvation wages. I can hardly believe that professionals are willing to work under these conditions.
My reward, to see a month old girl recover from near death, day by day, and finally be discharged from the ICU. Thank you God! If I have had any small part in this I am grateful and humble.
Another curious story is our patient whose father is a cabinet minister in a country which I may not reveal, where there is civil unrest. He urged us to go ahead with the surgery for his child, so that he could return to his country and help with the political situation. We almost never interrupt the surgical schedule for anything non-medical, but this was quite compelling.
Nearly every time I go over there I am tempted to quit as the obstacles are just ridiculous. Then I look into the eyes of a tiny patient, or the hysterical mother or father, and feel that I do not have the luxury to quit. What if it would be my child? They need me and the help that our organization can provide. I must go on, what choice do I have?
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Sunshine in February
It may be winter for everyone else, but with the return of longer sunny days, for me spring is here.
My productivity will surge---sorry, retract that word which is stained with the blood of our brave troops. A girl I hae known since she was seven is going to Iraq this month with the Marines.
Tears and prayers for her. Speaking of life and hope.
I played Spring in the second grade play. Still have the dress. Favorite color green, new life, new hope.
The ice is breaking up and the river is beginning to flow in the CIA/Plame case. "The prosecution rests." I find little buds and shoots of hope appearing in our winter-weary nation. When will we be finished with this harsh political season, and return to running the country properly?
I think it will be 6 more weeks of meteorological winter and maybe several more years of political winter. [Groundhog Day or Candlemas, take your choice.]
But spring will come again.
My productivity will surge---sorry, retract that word which is stained with the blood of our brave troops. A girl I hae known since she was seven is going to Iraq this month with the Marines.
Tears and prayers for her. Speaking of life and hope.
I played Spring in the second grade play. Still have the dress. Favorite color green, new life, new hope.
The ice is breaking up and the river is beginning to flow in the CIA/Plame case. "The prosecution rests." I find little buds and shoots of hope appearing in our winter-weary nation. When will we be finished with this harsh political season, and return to running the country properly?
I think it will be 6 more weeks of meteorological winter and maybe several more years of political winter. [Groundhog Day or Candlemas, take your choice.]
But spring will come again.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Gifts of encouragement
New messages from people out there, whom I have never met. Gifts in the mail and online that are sources of encouragement for me. I DEEPLY NEED THIS. Maybe everyone does. But certainly those of us who are mentally ill/extra sensitive need this especially.
I received a lovely gift, a blank journal with quotes from Anais Nin, from a young woman whose work I decided to support, sight unseen, in the Caribbean. And people here and at firedoglake seem to feel that my being very open about my mental struggles gives them some hope. Not sure how that works but hey go for it!
We are in a transitional generation in our understanding of mental illness.
Diagnoses are missing or wrong. Medicines---please don't get me started on their inadequacies, yet medicine is one of our powerful weapons for fighting this darkness.
There should be no shame in taking medicine for mental illness. Would you feel bad about taking insulin, if you had diabetes? We are struggling with something that has not only a psychological component, but a physiological one. If medicine helps you, please accept this great gift.
Doctors don't get it, or if they do, don't help us enough [insert another really long rant here...I'll do it in the future].
Our families and communities are baffled by our strange behavior. We can stifle all the time or we can freely be ourselves and have others declare us weird.
Quote from someone on a parallel journey, I don't know how much you wish to be public/private so won't give your nom de plume:
"I've purged myself of most of my epic self-destruction, but lost my drive and purpose in the process. I've just recently come to the conclusion that it is all me, the highs and the lows, I'm the same person and I need to integrate rather than hiding from the trail of spectacular failures that make me doubt my value in this world."
Thank you for sharing this very personal and sensitive view. Are you the person looking back at me in the mirror? Because this is how I feel.
We have much to offer the world. If we don't feel too humiliated and overwhelmed to participate.
At a time when normal thinking isn't working very well for us, maybe those of us who always think outside the envelope will have some answers.
I received a lovely gift, a blank journal with quotes from Anais Nin, from a young woman whose work I decided to support, sight unseen, in the Caribbean. And people here and at firedoglake seem to feel that my being very open about my mental struggles gives them some hope. Not sure how that works but hey go for it!
We are in a transitional generation in our understanding of mental illness.
Diagnoses are missing or wrong. Medicines---please don't get me started on their inadequacies, yet medicine is one of our powerful weapons for fighting this darkness.
There should be no shame in taking medicine for mental illness. Would you feel bad about taking insulin, if you had diabetes? We are struggling with something that has not only a psychological component, but a physiological one. If medicine helps you, please accept this great gift.
Doctors don't get it, or if they do, don't help us enough [insert another really long rant here...I'll do it in the future].
Our families and communities are baffled by our strange behavior. We can stifle all the time or we can freely be ourselves and have others declare us weird.
Quote from someone on a parallel journey, I don't know how much you wish to be public/private so won't give your nom de plume:
"I've purged myself of most of my epic self-destruction, but lost my drive and purpose in the process. I've just recently come to the conclusion that it is all me, the highs and the lows, I'm the same person and I need to integrate rather than hiding from the trail of spectacular failures that make me doubt my value in this world."
Thank you for sharing this very personal and sensitive view. Are you the person looking back at me in the mirror? Because this is how I feel.
We have much to offer the world. If we don't feel too humiliated and overwhelmed to participate.
At a time when normal thinking isn't working very well for us, maybe those of us who always think outside the envelope will have some answers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
