The Colors of Love

August 6th, 2010 
Woke up in the night from this dream - RED, BLUE, YELLOW AND GREEN swirling, furling/unfurling, mixing, separating, mingling, expanding gelatinous forms of light  --- yet contained in a "cell," This cell (my auric field) surrounded my body and the colors were emanating from my being -- from my thoughts, spirit, emotions -- the mood was actively peaceful: joyful, there was an intent to the creation, and the intent, the purpose, I realized could be called "LOVE."  When I awakened, it came to me that I my dream was a representation in energy of the lessons depicted by Nelson Mandela, brought on by the film I'd watched in the evening.


THE COLOR OF FREEDOM originally titled, GOODBYE BAFANA is a powerful film based on the true story of a racist South African prison guard who was assigned to watch Nelson Mandela who was profoundly changed by their relationship.

I have always held the story of Nelson Mandela and the political transformation of South Africa to be the greatest miracle and evidence for positive change of my lifetime. 
Trailer for The Color of Freedom / Goodbye Bafana


I have just ordered the book, GOODBYE BAFANA by James Gregory Goodbye Bafana
as I am compelled to read his story in his own words.

Someday, I hope to read the story of the women of color in South Africa who prayed daily for the end of apartheid, for human rights, for a country that provided education, healthcare and opportunity for ALL the people.  I heard about these women from Reverend Michael Beckwith who took a group of Americans to South Africa.  Reverend Beckwith was the first Black minister to address Whites in Capetown, South Africa.  I am sorry that I can't remember what year this occurred in. He was speaking about the power of prayer, and mentioned that many people spoke about "Prayer Woman,"  who was considered to be the Queen of Prayer, and one of the many, many women of South Africa whose prayers were answered by the end to Apartheid,  Nelson Mandela's release from prison and his election.

Today is the 65th anniversary of the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which brings me back to the blog I wrote on Sunday, August 1st,  which features  Kaz Suyeishi, a woman who has dedicated her life to bringing peace.  My life has been greatly enhanced from being in her presence and researching her story.

Checked my facebook page and was drawn to a post about a man who is walking to Brazil from Los Angeles -- read what it's about in his own words here:  http://iamwalking.org/wordpress/about-the-project/

My dreams keep showing me that there's hope for humanity, hope for all inhabitants of our beloved planet, hope for the planet Herself, hope for the cosmos -- what do I mean by "hope"? That the essence of LOVE: compassion and wisdom, whether you call it "God" or goodness or nothing at all -- that the inspiration and practice of expanding LOVE and offering it every step, in every situation, from the inside out -- that energy that I'm feeling, that brings Hope.

Hope for Peace - All of Us Together, All of Us at the Same Time

 I am dedicating this blog entry to a dear friend, who was born in Japan in 1949 to a Japanese mother. Her father was an American soldier. My friend was taken to an orphanage almost immediately after she was born.  She was adopted at age three, brought to America, and raised in Florida, in a place far away from any touchstone of her birth culture.  She is a person of great heart with a mother's ferocity towards actions that bring destruction to humanity and the planet and with a deep tenderness she shares by fostering green habits and caring for animals and being an incredible friend to those who know her. 

August 1, 2010
This afternoon I was very fortunate and blessed to be present at the  65th Commemorative Service of Hiroshima-Nagasaki A-Bomb Victims and Prayer for World Peace at the Koyasan Buddhist Temple in downtown Los Angeles. A beautiful elderly Japanese woman welcomed me warmly and motioned towards empty seating.  The building is an auditorium, with three elaborate temples set up in the back of the stage.  Two Buddhist priests in dark robes faced each other and chanted the from the Sutras.

Mrs. Kaz Suyeishi, the woman who had welcomed me, stood at the front and invited us to come forward.  One by one we took a lit votive candle and placed it on the shrine, took a pinch of powdered incense, offered it into an urn, then bowed as we gave our silent prayers.  As some elderly Japanese people approached the front, Mrs. Kaz Suyeishi gently touched their arms or gave them a hug.  She patted the shoulder of every boy who stood at the shrine and I imagined her inoculating them against war.  When an African-American girl of about three years old came up with her father, Kaz Susyeishi smiled, lifted her up shoulder height and held her out above the altar.  She swung the girl with a graceful movement, bowing her body.  I had been crying since entering the door, but along with others, at the sight of the young girl held high in the name of peace and forgiveness I laughed with joy.

It was so powerful to be in the forgiving presence of those who had been in Hiroshima at that time, or who had family and friends who had been killed or who were also "Hibakusha" which means "explosion-affected people." I came home and googled Mrs. Kaz Susyeishi and discovered that she was 18 years old when the bomb dropped.  She was born in Pasadena, but was raised in Japan. On August 6, 1945, Kaz and a friend were chatting in the front garden of the family home in Hiroshima when  the silver plane appeared. "It looked like an angel," she said.  "It looked like heaven and it looked like peace."

Kaz Susyeishi suffered from radiation poisoning.  She says that "You cannot see the scars here," pointing to her face, "but I am scarred here," tapping her chest.  "I don't want anyone to go through what I went through.  I don't ever want it to happen again."  She has dedicated the rest of her life to bringing a message of peace.  She closed the ceremony with a speech delivered in Japanese sprinkled with a few phrases in English like, "Never, Never Again." She did a great imitation of machismo, raising her fists and saying "Fighting, fighting!" Then, she asked us all to hold the hands of those next to us and to say, "I love you!"  "This is the way that we can bring Peace to the world," she said, and we laughed through our tears and gratefully squeezed each other's hands.  Believe me, if Mrs. Kaz Susyeishi says so, it must be so.  I know it, I felt it, and my heart is still vibrating.  Read her story here:

Echoes of Hiroshima - Los Angeles Times

Another speaker, Darrell Miho, a photographer, has started Project Hibakusha: Hope for Peace.  He says, "As a third generation Japanese American, whose parents were incarcerated during World War II and whose paternal lineage goes back to Hiroshima, I feel it is my duty to help the hibakusha spread their message - their message of peace."  His short term goal is to photograph and document the stories of 66 hibakusha and open the exhibit in Hiroshima and/or Los Angeles on August 6, 2011, exactly 66 years after the first bomb was dropped.  Please visit his website: Project Hibakusha: Hope for Peace

Cranes who visit my friend this entry is dedicated to!

Read about the story of Sadako Sadaki a Japanese girl who was two years old when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and who developed leukemia.  Her story led to the practice of folding of paper cranes as a symbol of peace and friendship.  The Gift of Cranes by Bruce Nichols 

MAKE AN ORIGAMI CRANE by following this youtube video

How to Make an Origami Paper Crane

August 2, 2010
"All of us together, all of us at the same time."  That's the message from the planetary alignment of Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter and Mars, according to Len Wallick of Planet Waves. Two for T by Len Wallick

All of us together, all of us at the same time -- if we can all walk together towards peace with reverence for our Earth and compassion for each other, surely all will be well and PEACE WILL PREVAIL, as Mrs. Kaz Susyeishi declared with passion.

OTHER LINKS OF INTEREST:
The Los Angeles Nuclear Disarmament Coaltion laandc.org sponsored a silent walk to City Hall.
 I was particularly moved by Walt McCarron's talk.  He represented the Southern Califonia Federation of Scientists, whose motto is "Science in the public interest." Southern California Federation of Scientists

The Waters of the World

Ganges River, Haridwar, India October 2009

Ceremony - July 29, 2010
I was invited up to Mt. Baldy to look at a potential site to hold events. The trip gave me the opportunity to hold a ceremony to offer gratitude for Nature Herself, for water, and to pray for the healing and balance of the waters of the world.

The spiral from the dream I created from stones, set on top of a rocky slab that angled over the water.  Among the ritual items was a tiny cup of water from the Ganges River and from the City of Los Angeles. 

We settled ourselves on rocks at the edge of the stream. My friend gently plucked the strings of my tamboura, adding its meditative drone to the sound of rushing water.  As I called to the Ancestors, the Directions, the Elements, the Planets and to She Who Wears Nature, a wind came up and the trees began to dance and send out their songs.
 
This is a meditation of the heart we returned to during the ritual, and one to use everyday, to help transform the neglect of Life on the planet into respect, love and gratitude for Life.
Breathing into my heart,  I am receiving the nurturing of Nature.  
Breathing out from my heart,  I am offering nurturing to Nature.

I am called into Silence often, it's a struggle to use words -- in fact, in English, it seems we need many new words and phrases for the transformation we are going through.  "Nature" is expressed as being outside of ourselves, is at the core of matter of claiming our communion with Life - with Nature Herself, Nature Ourselves.  On the this subject of water,  Medical Astrologer, Eileen Nauman, has written an incredible blog about what is happening.  Hades 0 Degrees Cancer, What Does it Mean?

To the Mountain - Day 100 of the Gulf Oil Disaster

July 28, 2010
I am going up a mountain today to look at a potential location for retreats.  There's no way I'm going to hike up a mountain and not do a ritual, so as part of my preparation, I opened one of my journals from this year and discovered:  

On April 17th I had a dream asking me to perform a ritual -- the shape of a spiral was shown to me and I was told to ride the spiral in ritual time and dream from the inside out --
"Allow Spirit to inform you: Nature  shell-shape ocean time fossils ocean sound"  

You are invited to join me in offering gratitude for the every-thing and no-thing that the Mother-Of-All, the Mother of Nature provides -- the planet, the stars, the oceans, the mountains, the plains, the jungles... for the precious foundations that make our life here possible: WATER, AIR, SOIL, SUNLIGHT, MOONLIGHT, GREEN GROWING THINGS,  and the beings of the earth and sky, whether they crawl, walk or fly.


I am asking for COMPASSION, COURAGE and WISDOM to make the necessary CHANGES for the HEALING  and PRESERVATION  of the WEB OF LIFE, for HARMONY and BALANCE.


To take the blessings of the Ancestors and live life to bring blessings to the Children and the Children's Childrens for all the people on the planet.

Gratitude - Inventors Give Funds to Nature's Inspirations 

Biomimicry - Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine M. Benyus 

Gulf DREAMING - All In The Same Boat

July 13, 2010
I woke up in the night with this dream - a wooden boat with a family is bobbing on top of the water.  The mother and the father are in the back, the children in the front -- the prow of the boat is heading to the right of the frame.  The woman, closer to my view as she is on the right side of the boat, has a long stick in her hand. I sense the man also has a stick, but it's visible.  Small waves are rising and falling around them.  I say "family" because it's a woman, a man and two children - which when I awoke I realized meant "family." 

I watch them going up and down, they are not really traveling, just maintaining the same position. Then my abdomen opens like a elongated doorway and  the ocean is streaming through me. The water carrying the boat with the family is now part of this ocean and is moving through the doorway.  How can my body be a portal to the ocean?  It cannot, unless it too is part of this ocean.

GULF DREAMING - ALL BLUE

Dream last night in BLUE, ALL BLUE of water moving in elliptical patterns, fracturing with great splashes, like giant moibus strips, into twisting, stretching bands, forming an egg shape over and over again. Sacred Geometry in motion.

A glorious dance, extraordinarily PLAYFUL, full of JOY.  ELATION - the feeling that comes with watching dolphins at play.  I heard a voice from outside say, "How can you be doing this?" My disembodied voice answered, "I am Her daughter." Hearing myself say those words,  I realized I am not outside, looking at the process, nor am I in the water in my body, rather, I am the water.   I am in the water, the water is in me. I am of the water.

After waking, in reflection, the  process going on in the dream was one of cleansing.   The word "sluicing" later came into my mind.  Perhaps an engineer would relate to the dream with some thoughts of a design for sluices to be used in purifying parts of the Gulf.

The dream spoke directly to my heart, giving me an emotional antidote for the continuous feeling of dread in relation to the Gulf Disaster.  Another vote for remembering that we are Nature, She is not separate from us.  Seeing Nature as our Mother is a path to acting with wisdom and appreciation for life itself.


Definition of the word sluice Definition of Sluice and Sluicing

 Healing Water Song by Brenda MacIntyre

Help for Toxic Effects from The Gulf Disaster - Part I

It's now day 76 of the Gulf Oil Spill Disaster, and it's also the 4th of July.  My mind and heart have been in the Gulf since this started.  As an empath, even from two thousand miles away, my body signals told me from the very beginning of the "spill" that this incident is no small accident, and brings destruction of epic proportions.

My education about the chemical pollution in the gulf began with a posting by a friend on Facebook.

Read the article my friend posted here: Gulf of Mexico Presents Unprecedented Toxicity Problems

A more detailed article: Gassed in the Gulf (Part I) New Gulf War Syndrome

Short article about workers and symptoms: 162 Cases of Ilness in Louisiana Due to Oil Spill

Video of interest made by Robert M. Young and Edward James Olmos interviewing locals, made because "people should know, and people should come here, and help."
THE SHORT BP DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE

THE MAIN CONTAMINANT IS BENZENE
Benzene is a very commonly used solvent and is also present in many common items including gasoline, inks, oils, paints, plastics, and rubber. In addition it is used in the manufacture of detergents, explosives, pharmaceuticals, and dyes.
Benzene has long been known to irritate the skin and eyes. In addition, it has been shown to be mutagenic to bacterial cell culture and has shown embryotoxic activity and carcinogenicity in some tests. Evidence also exists that benzene may be a contributing factor in chromosomal aberrations and leukemia in humans. Repeated skin contact with benzene will cause drying, inflammation, blistering and dermatitis.
Acute inhalation of high levels of benzene has been reported to cause dizziness, weakness, euphoria, headache, nausea, blurred vision, respiratory diseases, tremors, irregular heartbeat, liver and kidney damage, paralysis and unconsciousness. In animal tests inhalation of benzene led to cataract formation and diseases of the blood and lymphatic systems. Chronic exposure to even relatively low levels causes headaches, loss of appetite, drowsiness, nervousness, psychological disturbances and diseases of the blood system, including anemia and bone marrow diseases.  Information from Houseplants and Detoxification - NASA article reference

Whenever a disaster occurs that reaches out to me, the most difficult aspect is feeling helpless -- how can I serve those who are the most directly impacted?  The articles about Benzene Toxicity triggered the realization that I can make a contribution by sharing my knowledge as a healer and practitioner of Chinese Medicine to help people cope.


However, the people I am addressing are not those who are seriously ill now and may require hospitalization.  I am addressing those within range of contaminated air -- whether or not they are experiencing symptoms, as it's best to be pro-active.

The first recommendation I would have for someone suffering from exposure to the toxins being released in the Gulf, in addition to receiving standard allopathic medical care, would be to see a practitioner of Chinese Medicine, but unfortunately in the state of Louisiana, the practice is regulated so that only an MD or osteopath can practice, not a Licensed Acupuncturist.  For information about these regulations, here is the link: Licensure of Acupuncture (Chinese Medicine) in Louisiana

The following information is not meant to be a substitute for seeing a medical doctor.

GREEN MEDICINE

DETOXIFYING THE HOME ENVIRONMENT with HOUSEPLANTS

Household Plants for Detox with Chart
Houseplants which will detox
Good pictures of houseplants Photos of Houseplants
Study with research from ^aBeijing Center for Physical and Chemical Analysis, 27, West Three-Ring North Road, Beijing 100089, China
^bResearch Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, CAS, Beijing 100085, China
^cDepartment of Geoscience, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY 14456, USA

Received 14 March 2006; 

revised 11 August 2006; 

accepted 13 August 2006. 

Available online 1 December 2006.

Which Ornamental Plant Species Effectively Remove Benzene From Air?
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VH3-4MG6TCS-1&_user=10&_coverDate=01%2F31%2F2007&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1389770308&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=35e9c9a02c1f4dea8bb3a38ffe89121c

The go-to resource book is written by Dr. B. C. "Bill" Wolverton who is mentioned in almost every link to websites containing information on detoxification with houseplants.
Here's a link to an article on the NASA Spinoff website which details followup information on Bill Wolverton's work, and mentions his book.  spinoff 2007 Plants Clean Air and Water for Indoor Environments Public Safety
The issue of "Sick Building Syndrome" is discussed and  "The solution Wolverton sought was not to make indoor environments less energy efficient or to move away from the convenience of synthetic materials; rather, the plan was to find a solution that restores personal environments. The answer, according to a NASA report later published by Wolverton in 1989, is that “If man is to move into closed environments, on Earth or in space, he must take along nature’s life support system.” Plants.  


How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants that Purify Your Home or Office


Dr. Wolverton, a retired NASA research scientist, is President of Wolverton Environmental Services, Inc. He has a B.S. degree in chemistry, three years of graduate studies in medical microbiology and biochemistry, one year of graduate studies in marine biology, and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering.


HOUSEPLANT DETOXLIST from Indoor Plants Create Fresh Air
In addition to chemical removal, NASA also provided an overall ranking of the 50 household plants. On a 1-10 scale, the plants were scored on their ability to remove chemical vapors, resist insects, and how easy they are to maintain. Of that list, here are the top ten:
Areca Palm: 8.5 Known as a natural humidifier
Lady Palm: 8.5 Bug resistant and easy to grow
Bamboo Palm:8.4 Second best at air purifying
Rubber Plant: 8.0 Removes formaldehyde and requires minimal light
Dracaena: 7.8 Known as the female dragon it is a leader at removing Formaldehyde
English Ivy:7.8 Best allergy reducer
Dwarf Date Palm: 7.8 A known Trichloroethylene removal.
Ficus Alii: 7.7 Naturally from Hawaii and easy to maintain
Boston Fern: 7.5 Most efficient at removing Formaldehyde and Benzene
Peace Lily: 7.5 Second best at removing Benzene. Needs plenty of water.

Whether kept in small pots throughout the house, our planted in your outdoor garden, all of these plants will improve the quality of the air you breath. Some of the plant’s leaves are toxic to small animals, hence why they are bug resistant. Ensure the safety of your children and pets, know the type of plants you have in your household.

Read more at Suite101: Indoor Plants Create Fresh Air: NASA Study Scores Plants' Ability to Remove Chemicals http://houseplants.suite101.com/article.cfm/indoor_plants_create_fresh_air#ixzz0skZ7TI8J

“If man is to move into closed environments, on Earth or in space, he must take along nature’s life support system.” by Bill Wolverton

We are a part of Nature, we are not separate from Her.  It seems so ridiculous to have to write that sentence!  We are part of the infinite mystery and wisdom of Nature and when we contaminate Her, still our solutions to restoring balance and healing are contained in Her.