Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem.
One of the pleasures of knowing a poet over many years is to watch a life’s journey play out in verse, perhaps in tandem with our own, or lighting our way helpfully just ahead, or even just behind, allowing us a good look back at our own experience. Over the years, we’ve seen Sharon Olds find her…
“ Life is short. Kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly. ”
THE RAPE OF THE SAMBURU WOMEN
For more than fifty years, England has maintained military training facilities in the Samburu region of its former colony, Kenya.During this period, women in the area have faced an epidemic of rape. Women from the Samburu, Massai, Rendile and Turkana indigenous communities have filed more than 600 official rape claims against British soldiers.
Yet, despite documentation of their claims, a three-year internal investigation by the Royal Military Police (RMP) cleared all soldiers of wrongdoing.Meanwhile, the victims have been shamed and outcast in their communities, many to the point of exile.
In the mid-1990s, Beatrice Chili responded to this situation by establishing the village of Senchen, a self-sufficient community run entirely by women. There, women build homes, weave textiles, gather and grow food, and raise children. This short film visits the brave women of Senchen, who speak candidly about their suffering and talk passionately about their demands for justice.
Watch the film to hear their stories and to find out how you can offer your support.
(Source: , via igotthislove)
“ God plucks the world out of our hearts, loosening the chain of attachment. And He hurls the world into our hearts, where we and He together carry it in infinitely tender love. ”
(Source: drewtriesagain)
One in Five
[8/26/11]I’m learning a lot about HIV/AIDS during my time here in Zambia, one of the most alarming facts I learned is that one in five people here in Lusaka have HIV/AIDS.
There will never be a better variety show that the Muppets. Here’s Buddy Rich vs. Animal in an epic drum battle. I need to get these on DVD…
“ The mystery does not get clearer by repeating the question.
Nor is it bought with going to amazing places.
Until you’ve kept your eyes and your wanting still for fifty years.
You don’t begin to cross over from confusion. ”
The madness of love is a blessed fate; and if we understood this we would seek no other: it brings into unity what was divided, and this is the truth: bitterness it makes sweet, it makes a stranger a neighbor, and what was lowly it raises on high. -Hadewijch of Antwerp, 13th century poet and mystic
