Caught on Video: Elephant Sunder Beaten
Warning video is very upsetting!! You don’t have to watch it but please sign the petition for Sunder to be taken out of his current torture chamber where he is being so cruelly treated and moved to safety!
An Insecure Security
Gemutlichkeit* of
a rainy October morning
dry chilly warmth
in our little barn
*
downstairs
you perusing the paper
upstairs
me pumping poetry
*
rain tip-toeing
on the metal roof
a tymphanic symphony
outside the window
a masterpiece of color
yellow walnut leaves
and red sugar maple
the steady drip-drop of water
*
what bliss is this
precious moments of Now
a heavenly haven
from a frightening, tipsy-turvy world
*
I wish to always be
in your aura of calm
and the beauteous bounty of Nature
but
for sure
death will come
*
please take us together
and
find us in each other’s arms
*
blessed bliss
pure peace
and
true security
the everlasting Now
only exist
in the presence of God.
*German word meaning “coziness”.
Homefulness
Sheltered from the rain
our house in view
how lucky we
to have a home
a shelter
blues harmonica
sheets of rain
storm
blurring October
but focusing on gratitude
for a home to go to
when the rain lets up
a shelter
our nest
an illusion of security
I’ll welcome
in my world of delusions.
Whirling October
Fleet-footed October
with
leaves floating down
swirling
in
whirlwinds
while days dance away
as the last leaf-colored
butterflies
flutter by
before you know
turtles
will bury deep
for a long winter’s sleep
My Mind is Broken
It is 3 A.M. and it is another night I cannot sleep. I have taken two sleeping pills to no avail. When I am manic sleep does not come easily. I write. I eat. I check email. I pace the rooms back and forth, in and out of bed. Luckily my husband does not wake during my perambulations. The mania is not of the inflated ego variety, though I have had that at an earlier time in my life. Years ago I remember going by Harlem on a bus route home one night when I was flagrantly psychotic and proclaiming, “These are my people!” Why I said this I couldn’t tell you now– sparked most likely from some manic feeling of camaraderie. But, of course, it was beyond grandiosity and just plain crazy (yes, that is a psychiatric term). Perhaps the roots arose out of the closeness I had with my Sicilian grandfather who was not exactly white and who had much spirit– what an African-American might call “soul.” And from my father, a jazz trombonist, who spent his youth sleeping in bathtubs in Harlem when he would come to the city from white suburbia for jam sessions. He, too, like my grandfather, had “soul” hidden under white skin.
In any case, thanks to the anti-psychotic family of medicines I am not grandiose tonight. I did forget to take my meds the other night and, like Karma, that affects everything about my life. I am just raring for the day to start, for the morning to come. I see a drunk sitting outside on a stoop smoking. I want to see, not the people of the night, but the purposeful people of the morning, going to school, going to work, walking their dogs. Two hours and forty-five minutes to go. And then time to wake up, have coffee, pray, make plans for the work of the day. How can fifteen minutes seem like an hour? How can the cool night breeze masquerade as a morning zephyr? I will make one last attempt to go to bed and sleep. First, I will post a video of Jusuf’s, formerly known as Cat Stevens, of a beautiful hymn he sang, “Morning Has Broken.” I am also posting a photo I took of a marsh in the morning light. Enjoy! And Good morning!
This was written a year ago in a mild manic episode. Right now I am fighting depression triggered by Lyme disease and antibiotics. I have zero creativity so resort to rewrites. Hope to be back writing soon and commenting on fellow bloggers’ posts. Please excuse the silence but that is how it is being Bipolar. (Click http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/ellen-stockdale-wolfe.html for information on, and to purchase, my Bipolar/Asperger’s memoir.)
September Transitions
Lazy, hazy, daze
of
fleeting flashes of summer
Creeping dashes of Fall
among the splashes of departing green.
Instinct vs. Love
(Click on photo for video)
“Instinct”
they say condescendingly
but it is not.
“Anthroprophism”
they argue
but it is not.
Science now knows
animals show altruism,
animals show love,
elephants, dogs, dolphins…
“Love” they say reverently for man
but it is and is not
Science now knows
hormones course through our bodies,
Oxytocin they say,
I say how clinical,
a dissection of love
for man
and
animals.
Animal’s “Eternal Treblinka”
Whales are highly intelligent sentient creatures and they do care about humans. Humans who have saved whales caught in fishing nets have remarked on the displays of gratitude whales have shown in response to being saved. Watch the following 2 minute video to see that innocent caring in action of whales for humans.
Meantime man hunts whales in one of the most cruelest of all animal hunts. Watch this 2 minute video to see how much we care about whales who, bear in mind, have larger minds than ours and obviously larger hearts. The reality of the kill is much more gruesome and hideous than this video portrays. But this is bad enough.
Famous author, Issac Bashevis Singer wrote about the cruelty of man against animal. In an epigraph to a character he had written about who had a relationship with a mouse, this is what Singer wrote: “In his thoughts, Herman spoke a eulogy for the mouse who had shared a portion of her life with him and who, because of him, had left this earth. “What do they know–all these scholars, all these philosophers, all the leaders of the world–about such as you? They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka.
–Isaac Bashevis Singer, “The Letter Writer”
And listen to the words of the great Dalai Lama on animal cruelty…
“Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures.
–The Dalai Lama
Love Surpasses All
A former New York Times columnist and bestselling New York Times author, Andrew Solomon, gives a very moving account of how parental love surpasses all manner of diversity in their children. The first few minutes are scary as he quotes an article from Time Magazine from the 60s. Don’t let that throw you off the beautiful message of acceptance of handicaps and the contribution of those children who are different from a man who is himself a minority and different.
Dropping Dead
Jack Kornfield reads a poem on the finiteness of life while talking about meditation practice (3:26 min.)
“Living with Fear”
For whatever reason these days are days of high anxiety for me, nervousness to the point of tears. Meditations are “noisy” with all thoughts and negative ones in particular. To deal with this I share with you a helpful 9:06 minute webcast on fear and love with Jack Kornfield and Catherine Ingram.
“Music Magic”
Today
a lightness of being
want to share
the scintillating spark
Cat Stevens
and his cohorts
see
the Light
music often mania makes
is this mania
or
is it the catepillar
coming out of the chrysalis of depression
being Bipolar bears
cacophonic confusion
even after 6 decades
who cares
Cat Stevens
a gift to me
from my brother
post mortem
his legacy to me
because he loved him
and because I missed him
I listened
too late to share the love
now
my gift to you
just listen and let
soul to soul transmission
effect
its music magic
culminating
in a crescendo
of
soul
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore at the Pub
Moonside has been filled with too much doom and gloom with the death of my beloved aunt. In her honor I am adding a comedy video. She loved to laugh and these guys are masters of comedy. Enjoy.
Ducks in the Morning, Ducks in the Evening…
Thought Moonside could use a little levity on this Vernal Equinox Eve with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in their Art Gallery comedy Skit that features ducks. Ducks have now returned to the
the few ponds and lakes that have defrosted, gathering in large groups. I caught one lone duck apart from the rest– perhaps an Asperger’s duck (I think I can say that being Aspie myself with an Aspie husband). Enjoy the clip on ducks from the skit in the video below.
MOONSIDE 
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