Holistic Health--Body, Mind, Spirit

By AnnaMarie

Picnic

May
juice from early morning fruits
tip pale and powerful toward your lips
may
dallying fingers sweetly brush
along your ears, across your throat
may
blue-eyed grass yield slightly
as you sink on double folded cloth
may
your blurted kisses float
in the scented lily’s sigh,
in the laughter of the thrush
while
beyond the fence, lightly
lazy taurus lifts an eye.
such silly human froth.

AnnaMarie White

© AnnaMarie White, 2003

THE ANIMALS' VOICE
By Terri Diener, Animal Communicator

Our companion animals want to know what is happening to them and to the humans they love. When we don't tell them, they come to their own conclusions, which can leave them upset and anxious.

Take Isabelle, a 10-year-old Collie. She and her human companion, Caroline, moved in with Caroline's parents for several months while Caroline located an apartment that allowed large dogs. Isabelle loved "grandma" and "grandpa", who walked her and played with her during the day. They frequently went on weekend trips visiting friends.

Caroline called one day, reporting that Issy just wasn't right. She barely ate, and was lethargic. Caroline wanted to know if she needed to go to the vet, or if something was bothering her...[click for more]

Life, Death, and Animals

It was a dead swan. Its body lay contorted on the beach like an abandoned lover. I looked at the bird for a long time. There was no blood on its feathers, no sight of a gunshot. Most likely, a late migrant from the north slapped silly by a ravenous Great Salt Lake. The swan may have drowned.

I knelt beside the bird, took off my deerskin gloves, and began smoothing feathers. Its body was still limp--the swan had not been dead long. I lifted both wings out from under its belly and spread them on the sand. Untangling the long neck which was wrapped around itself was more difficult, but finally I was able to straighten it, resting the swan's chin flat against the shore.

The small dark eyes had sunk behind the yellow lores. It was a whistling swan. I looked for two black stones, found them, and placed them over the eyes like coins. They held. And, using my own saliva as my mother and grandmother had done to wash my face, I washed the swan’s black bill and feet until they shone like patent leather.

I have no idea of the amount of time that passed in the preparation of the swan. What I remember most is lying next to its body and imaging the great white bird in flight.

I imagined the great heart that propelled the bird forward day after day, night after night. Imagined the deep breaths taken as it lifted from the arctic tundra, the camaraderie within the flock. I imagined the stars seen and recognized on clear autumn nights as they navigated south. Imagined their silhouettes passing in front of the full face of the harvest moon. And I imagined the shimmering Great Salt Lake calling the swans down like a mother, the suddenness of the storm, the anguish of its separation.

And I tried to listen to the stillness of its body.

At dusk, I left the swan like a crucifix on the sand. I did not look back.

--From Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams © 1991.

505 Mercer Street--Auntie Mame
By Mimi Ruth

Mary Ann Rusin was my Auntie Mame - extroverted, brilliant, sometimes eccentric and exasperating, but always encouraging to me and loving towards my mother-her best friend. Mary Ann earned her bachelor's degree around the age of 54 while she maintained her busy responsibilities as an executive secretary for a major food company. I will always remember her exuberance and love of learning.

As an adult, I learned one of her secrets: she had left school at the age of 14 to help provide for her large family of 11 siblings (nine who survived infancy) after my grandfather was injured on the job. She flourished in her work and probably would have been a ranking executive had she belonged to a later generation. Mary Ann regretted having to retire when she was 65 and continued working as an independent entrepreneur.

I thought of Mary Ann more as a party girl, than my Aunt. She wanted to cultivate the image of perpetual youth. She loved to play and sing Broadway show tunes, travel, and play tennis. She actively played that sport until she was injured in a car accident which hurt her leg and knee severely when she was in her 50's. Legend has it that she traveled around the world about three times, financing her trips with limited savings from her salary and short-term loans from her credit union. She exhibited her generosity by occasionally inviting her nephews and nieces to join her in travel and paying their way...[click for more]

Terrorism in Maryland Middle High School

While we pour millions into Homeland Security and the war on terrorism, terrorism on our own turf against vulnerable children goes unchecked. Today's trouble in River City is daily terrorism in a Prince George's County Maryland Middle School that has been ignored and mishandled by the principal, faculty, parents, and other "authorities." The facts are based on eye-witness accounts from the young victims...[click for more]

~Taken from an email forward

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