Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Autumn is finally here!


I am so happy that Autumn has finally arrived in my town and county. The cool weather hit us just about two days ago....out of the blue...just like that! Wham! Hot temperatures just the other day, then the cool winds came ( in the right direction to blow out all of the smoke out of the air from the fires) and the day temperatures dropped down 30 degrees! The night temperatures dropped down 20 degrees. We had a frost warning last night! Another frost warning tonite also. The rains came, the beautiful clouds and "FINALLY" leaves started blowing off the trees. The fall colors are not quite here yet, but I can smell "Autumn" in the air! Got out my winter clothes and coats to wash and am packing up my summer clothes. Not enough room in my one bedroom small apartment to have winter and summer clothes available at the same time. As I fold and pack my summer clothes up, it gives me a sense of "closure" and joy, as I look forward to a new time and a changing season in my life.

I truely consider this a miracle, for this has been an incredibly hot summer and it just seemed to last forever and go on and on...with no rain, hot sun every single day...hot nights. I'm very sensitive to the sun and have to be very careful with my health problem. So not only is my spirit and soul happy that Autumn is here, but so is my body!

Autumn is my favorite time of year....the colors are just so beautiful and the leaves fall from the trees passing on and into a new realm of "rebirth", which slowly starts through the winter and then "Springs eternal" with new leaves and new blooms in the Spring. Spring is my second favorite time of the year, of course...:o)...or maybe I like Autumn and Spring equally, not quite sure....either way...neither could survive without the other, when you think about it...

HAPPY AUTUMN EVERYONE!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

The Five Biggest Lies in the Health Care Debate

The Five Biggest Lies in the Health Care Debate

click on this link above....then when you get to the link, scroll down below the photo a wee bit...to read the facts...not the lies, gossips, made up statements that are false, and the false accusations that many are stating as so called "facts".

This is getting so ridiculous, but I at this point am wondering where are the responsible news journalists, reporters on the main networks and CNN? Why are they not checking the "facts" then correcting the false statements on the air that keep being made by people?...Why aren't the main news networks and CNN making the "corrections" and stating the "Facts"???Why aren't they? I'll tell you why. Ratings!! The all mighty dollar! Yep!

These "popular hosts"on other "opinions only" shows... that are trying to get people all stirred up and angry. Because they know people are mad and they want to make them more mad and you know what? It's working! It makes for higher ratings...they get all rapped up in it and seem to be enjoying it. How very sad...well their ratings are going up so hey why not keep letting it rip? Lost your dignity make up lies be on TV be irresponsible tell people lies and have them believe you...I have a question for these "Certain" hosts that don't do news or check facts, but just give their "heated opinions" the so called "talking heads" I include in here too....how do you sleep at night knowing how you are only encouraging people to get more angry and more stirred up by your lies?..and what if people start getting hurt because of what you said? What if it all turns into a revolution of out of control violence? How will you live with yourself?

What has happened to us? Why do we let people who are not even journalist, let alone reporters, give us their warped and wrong opinions and then it's made up as fact? Why are they making so much money from their lies also??? And people believe it (because they are so angry anyway and need to believe it) and then run with it and it just becomes a big mess of petty gossip and here say and people go wild with it out of control!!...almost like the way Hollywood is. Shall we call it "Polliwood"? Meaning> "Politics like Hollywood gossip"... What the heck is happening to us? We need a new news channel called CTFN "Checking the Facts News"...and we need it on every single night to "correct" the misstatements, the false lies, the false accusations.and the threats!...this sure would come in handy about now..no opinions...no charismatic men or women, "losing it" on the air, waving their fists at one another and crying and making out of control faces all the time, or pounding their desk. And every time they ask a person (the guest on the show) a question, interrupting that same person once they proceed to answer the question (I call this a Sean Hannity "Soap Box" maneuver)with any guest that isn't a conservative.....because really they don't want the guest to answer the question they just want to slam anything the guest "starts" to say!

I will tell you that I very rarely watch Fox news and other such TV stations that "Spout off" opinions and false statements and trash people all the time...but I am aware of the shows from watching them in the past....and I do check in from time to time to see what they are doing "now", so that I will know whats going on. I do know that Glenn Beck used to be on the CNN headline news channel and have his own show there and I must say I never saw him being rude, angry or really mean. He was always "Civil"....now look at him? Wow they got him really worked up good and a good controversial TV show that "works", so why not Fox channel? Enjoy the "Show" everyone because that's just what it is...a "show" just like his new book. Money money money.. One thing I do like about MSNBC hosts on their shows though..is they are "polite" and they are "Civil" and they are mature adults.. A few of them do go through "fact checking" on a daily regular basis.....Rachel Maddow and even Keith O...Keith O loses it some times..but he and Rachel Maddow do show press "fact" clips and written statements and video clips of people to "correct" those same people's false statements or "false accusations", including from the liberal left also. They do their homework and do the "bookwork"...liberal or not, they do not just state things of their own all the time from their mouths, they "show" and "correct" statements and check the facts..that's a lot of homework to do don't you think?. And they also let the "other person" (the guest) "speak" without screaming back at or interrupting them all the time...they let them "finish"...most of the time..at least..

I am so tired of all the anger, immaturity, it's so childish and so mean. But it does seem to work doesn't it? And this is what scares me so...naive people who refuse to think for themselves who refuse to "Check out the facts" and just believe whatever they hear as long as it's on "their side" no matter what! Their stubbornness outnumbers us all in their popularity in this country! And the money they make while doing this??? It astounds me!
It's rather a lazy way of living by not learning things for yourself and educating yourself by "looking it up" or whatever...just turn the TV on and listen to your "yes person" and there you go!...no other "facts" or "truths" do they want to read or 'Hear"....no mental or physical energy on their part to use their own brain that was given to them as a precious gift to "learn"...

What are we doing and whom are we fooling? Ourselves or them? Where is our dignity our integrity? Our manners? Our respect for one another? Gone gone with the wind??? sigh.. Okay so I am giving an opinion on here aren't I? Am I a hypocrite?...could be? But I am using my brain and I "Do" look up and check for the "real facts" I don't just believe whatever people tell me. But.......I'm not waving my fists or screaming, or yelling or threatening anyone, or making up false stories and lies to try to make people so fearful...I just want us to "calm down" and have rash peaceful discussions, instead of pointing false accusations and calling one another terrible names and disgracing ourselves...and using Ted Kennedy's death to trample all over him about the health care bill...after his death? My God how terrible how mean...no respect for someone who has just passed on and a whole family has lost him, still in mourning..

I can't go on I am still in disbelief...at this countries attitude towards one another...just because we all have different thoughts and opinions doesn't mean we have to be so cruel and so heartless and so mean and so racist!! Yes I said it...I do feel that some people in this country seem to be terrified of having a black man in the white house as president...they are afraid everything will "change"...well I sure hope everything does "change" and for the better...we've got some huge lessons to learn here everyone!......big huge spiritual lessons...we better get our "sh**" together or else! That song "Teach your children well" comes to my mind..and I wonder "are we"? No, I don't think some parents are teaching their children "well" "By example" at all. Do you? They seem to be only teaching them there is only "one way" and to be angry and mean towards anyone else that thinks or is different. Poor kids learn to be prejudice by the time they grow up...but only if they chose too..once grown up they will either take responsibility for themselves and their actions or they won't!

Okay, I suppose I have been on a soapbox in this post but I'm done now...thank you for your patience of reading this...and "hearing" me...

Blessings,

Rhiannon








Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Passing of Mary Travers....


I am sad about Mary Travers passing. I have quite a few of her own "seperate" albums, none of the Peter, Paul and Mary albums. I learned a lot from Mary's choices of songs and also the ones she wrote. I've always loved her special deep voice.

It was through one of Mary's albums that I learned about the poetry of one of my favorites poets, Edna St. Vincent Millay, from the song Mary sang from a poem of Edna's. On the inside cover photos in Mary's album, was a photo of Edna and Mary had written "read her poems she is wonderful"! The poem Mary made a song out of is titled "Conscientious Objector". I was about 17 or 18 then and right after I bought the album and heard Mary's poem song from Edna, I immediately rushed to the local library and "began" down Edna St. Vincents Millay's journey of wonderful poems. She was born in the late 1800's and lived quite an interesting wild and "Free" kind of life for those days. She had bright red hair and freckles. Edna was the first woman to win a pulitzer prize for her poetry in this country. I have 3 books of her poems..one of them is a huge white book of a collection of almost all of her poems. I have a few of her poems in my archive blog also. In this blog I wrote about Edna's life a bit and her poetry. The poem "Conscientious Objector" is about a young white person, who is being threatened during the civil war by soldiers telling them they must tell them where "The black people are hiding" or they shall be killed. Therefore the person says in the poem basically "I will not tell them which direction they went, nor where they went, I shall die". Edna was pretty much anti-war...and so she wrote these things as each war came upon us and about our history of it also...she was honest and direct and forthright...imagine in those days being anti-war?...must have been very hard and very brave of her. She writes of great beauty and love and about nature and being on ones own "in the moment" and she is very varied in her writings..she is just wonderful.

Back to Mary Travers. I love her versions of a lot of songs. Especially "Indian Sunset" by Elton John and Bernie Taupin..not sure if I spelled Bernie's last name right, sorry. She sang that song as if it was her own. It is profound and beautiful..check that song out and listen to her sing it if you can. You won't be sorry. She sang a few Rod McKuen songs, and also a few of John Denvers, before he became famous as a singer and songwriter. Mary also wrote quite a few songs herself. I'm very happy to have these special albums by Mary Travers. They are very precious to me. She was a great talent in her own right also...most don't know that.

Mary I shall miss you...on the other side of the universe now somewhere singing your heart out to Angels in another "realm" surrounding you in light..in the essence of "forever".

Blessings,


P.S. Thank you to Peter in your comment here, for I had the title wrong (I had written "I shall die") from Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem which is actually titled "Conscientious Objector" not "I shall die"...that statement is stated in the poem but not the title. I woke up in the middle of the night last night and thought "Oh my the name of that poem is 'Conscientious Objector" I screwed up"! My books of poems by MS. Millay are packed away and I knew that just didn't sound right..(plus I was tired and my memory isn't what it used to be) I figured when I woke up in the middle of the night and knew I had made a mistake about the title, that anyone who knows of Edna St. Vincent Millay's body of work, would come in and correct me so thank you Peter!..you got me!...he he..;o)

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Courtship Dance...Robert Mirabal...Live from a 2001 PBS Concert ...Beautiful music and dancing

I cannot believe I finally was able to actually find this live PBS version on youtube!! In 2001 I turned my tv on and there Robert Mirabal was playing his flute and the lovely lady dancing...this was my first experience in witnessing the beautiful music, dancing and storytelling of Robert Mirabal. I've never been the same since. At that time I immediately ordered the PBS VHS live concert of this show,"Robert Mirabal, "Music from a Painted Cave", with "Rare Tribal Mob"..and I also got the CD. I now have many CD's of Robert Mirabal's I've acquired through the years. This song "Courtship Dance" and this live version I never tire of watching or hearing. To me it's just incredibly beautiful, graceful and romantic. He makes his own flutes...all shapes and sizes. Watch all the way through....you don't want to miss it towards the end...believe me! Enjoy, my blog friends...hope you like it as much as I do!

Public Option must be in the Health Care bill...here's why...

Thursday, September 03, 2009

You are loved.........video and song by Josh Groban.

In my times of so many struggles...and in my times of solitude, quiet and also lonliness....I've often felt what this quote below says. I am on a continuous path of growth....of a journey to find who I am. Spirit finds me.

I also thought this song and video by Josh Groban "You are loved" fit the feeling quite well...plus I do love this song and his voice so much...whenever I hear this song on the radio I just stop anything I am doing and quietly listen and then remember that......"I am loved"..... Spirit finds me.

"There is no unassailable solitude. All roads lead to a same point: to the communication of who we are and we must travel across lonely and rugged terrain, through isolation and silence, to reach the "magic zone" where we can dance an awkward dance."

By Pablo Neruda (a thank you to Devika for giving me permission to use this quote from her blog)