From now on this LJ is Friends Only (well most of it). Comment to be added.

When discussing my non-medicated birth (natural birth) I usually start out saying, "Some people think I am crazy" (cause I know people think I am crazy for not wanting to be drugged up or numbed out and I want to save myself from having to hear it once again)...BUT....Honestly, even though it was painful, it was one of the most beautiful profound experiences of my life. And if I had taken the pain meds, like I did with my first, it wouldn't have been that way because I would have been asleep while it was happening or numb to it.

Being fully aware of what I was experiencing and submitting myself to the process, the pain, the joy, the exquisite nownesss of it allowed me to be reborn though the fire. I felt life hanging half way outside of my body. A being, that came straight from the darkness of the void, was pushed towards the light by the force of my body. I was completly involved in the sacred circle.

Life doesn't offer us experiences that allow us to wonder at the beauty, or touch the other side that often. Or perhaps it does and we are too afraid to embrace them because of the pain or fear we might experience while in the necessary submissive state. Perhaps there are infinite experiences available to us that would allow us to connect with the oversoul, to be one with it, but we are too afraid to step into the flames because they encompass all emotions. Because they will take everything we have until we are egoless, base, open. Perhaps we are too afriad of what we will see in ourselves in those primal states.

I say give them to me, in droves. I want nothing more than be be melted down and reformed into whatever pleases spirit most. I am yours, use me as you wish.

Lemme get a witness! ;)

~The Birth Junkie

It's been 20,000 years since my last post. :D I am currently on my mom's computer at her new house. We, meaning the kids and I, came over for dinner (that I didn't have to cook) and then my dad took all the kids to the mall.

I must say I miss living at home (funny that I still consider my parents house my home even though I don't live here anymore). "WHAT??", you say. I know its crazy cause I was dying to get out but quite honestly I miss living with my parents. I was all, OH after I move out I am going to do all this stuff that I couldn't do before like have parties, more people over, sleepovers etc.. But none of that materialized. What really happened was that I go from dawn till nightfall holding my small world together by my wits and hard work alone. I guess I am just your run of the mill neighborhood super woman. Convincing the uninspired teenager that reading is fun in the day and folding laundry by night. I love my life but I wish I still had a mom (I mean I do have one but you know what I mean). Like someone to take care of me since I am so busy always taking care of everyone.

I wonder do all mom's feel like this?

Typically when I come over my mom is like. Would you like a Thai tea or a chocolate martini? Plus I miss talking to her whenever.

I'm not saying I am moving back in by any means. I guess I am just saying I miss my mommy and I wanna be a kid again who can just dance the nights away and eat icecream I didn't have to pay for whenever I want.

I have been researching the heathcare issue, since it keeps biting me in the ass. I always feel better once I understand a problem, or at least part of it, because then I feel like I can make better decisions on my part.

I found this article in The NewYorker. Yes, its long. But it is very well researched, is easily readable, and it has a solution at the end. My favorite kind of article to read. :) You should read it!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=1

This Speech was give in CO. I thought it was everything a commencement speech should be.

"When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was "direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful." Boy, no pressure there.

But let's begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation - but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement.

Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don't poison the water, soil, or air, and don't let the earth get overcrowded, and don't touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food - but all that is changing.

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn't bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn't afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here's the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don't be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, "So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world." There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen.

Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity's willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. "One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice," is Mary Oliver's description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown - Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood - and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, and non-governmental organizations, of companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.

The living world is not "out there" somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can't print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe - exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a "little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven."

So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a 20 deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn't stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn't ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn't make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it."

She shuffles along the sidewalk
obliviously
as the rain falls
in patters around her;
She barely notices the
desert crescote rising
to permeate the air.
Sinking down onto the
bus stop bench
she catches a glimpse
of a young mother and father
huddled over their child's stroller -
coats open
they try to shield him from the rain.

She glances one,
two,
three,
four,
times into the
distance
impatient
waiting for bus to come.
Each glance catches a glimmer
of a yellow umbrella
wet with rain
held by the woman standing beside her.

The slick bus pulls up
sighing as
the doors open.
Grabbing her bag
she files into double doors


sits

and stares out the windows
as the bus pulls off -
She does a double take
of the young couple
who now shield
their baby
with a yellow umbrella.

Scanning the faces
on the bus she
searches for the young woman
who first held the yellow umbrella.
The woman sits just
across the isle -
her hands empty.


She smiles-
Awakening.

You can make lemonade, lemon pie, shrimp scampi, lemon pepper chicken, lemon sorbet, etc...

You see that tree with the white painted trunk in the back of my yard?



Well, that was four years ago. That lemon tree has now dwarfed the orange tree and is big enough to put a picnic table under. That means I have lemons, lots and lots of them.

I will gladly give you all you want for free. So, come pick fresh lemons straight off the tree!

I am selling my swing for like 40 bucks. Its a five speed, with music. Here is a link.

http://www.target.com/Graco-Lovin-Hug-Swing-Safari/dp/B0015W2SNY?node=1041926



I am also selling my co-sleeper for 30 bucks. Its great if you want your baby to be in your bed but your worried about rolling over on them.

http://www.target.com/Baby-Delight-Supreme-Snuggle-Incline/dp/B000BM8FXG/sr=1-7/qid=1229188279/ref=sr_1_7/191-5006740-5222838?ie=UTF8&index=target&rh=k%3Asnuggle%20nest&page=1

Both prices are half of what you would pay in the store.

Sunlight shines. She wakes. Eyes open. Baby wiggles. She giggles. She sighs. She rises. She dresses. Cleans messes. Paints face. Grabs water. Eats Banana. Finds keys. Door opens. Door shuts. She runs, runs, runs. She drives away.

I have been reading about the civil rights movement and Camelot with my students and it has me questioning what makes a great leader. I think of those that I consider to be great men, men like Martin Luther King and Gandi. They had this certian something- this ablity to inspire, a belief in change, a willingness to make it happen. The didn't falter. They were humble. They were servants willing to what is right and good and just.

Obama embodies these same characteristics, these same qualities. He has the ability to bring people together, to inspire hope and to inspire people to get up and create change. Watching him give his speech last night I was filled with hope, something I haven't felt in a long long time when it comes to the government of the US or even in the people of the US themselves. I have felt like an outsider for so long in this country. I have spent hours wondering how and why Bush got into power. I watched as a war was waged on lies and wondered WTF? I watched as our rights were taken away and wondered WTF? I watched as the rich got richer and the poor got poorer and wondered is this America? And I was called un-American and unpatriotic for saying the people in power were making bad decisions, decisions we shouldn't support. And it hurt me because I care so much for people and I want to make a difference in the world. I kept thinking and wondering how is it that I am so different than everyone else? How is it that I see things so differently? How is it that people see me as someone against them when all I want to do is help?

I have been waiting for a long time hoping that someone would come along and inspire people again - to inspire me again. I don't think it happens very often that a person can reach out to other humans and make them optimistic. More than anything I think it is this very quality that makes a great leader. It is a person who is able to rally people together under a cause that benefits everyone.

Watching him last night was amazing because he was so serious and solemn. He reminded me of this photo of Martin Luther King deep in thought. You could sense how much the reality of the situation is upon him. How much he realizes there is to do and yet he is willing to do it. I think that in itself is amazing. What a huge task to undertake and to undertake it with such grace and eloquence.

I can't say that I knew all along that he was going to be the one, but after seeing all those people last night chanting "Yes we can." I have to say that even I believe that maybe government can be different. That maybe America can be different. I have been working for it but now I feel like maybe it will really happen cause the government will be behind me. A government that works for the people. God that would be amazing.


Thank you Obama for giving me my hope back.

Death of the American Empire
America is self-destructing & bringing the rest of the world down with it
By Tanya Cariina Hsu
Global Research, October 23, 2008
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. (Thomas Jefferson, US President; 1743 - 1826)
America is dying. It is self-destructing and bringing the rest of the world down with it.
Often referred to as a sub-prime mortgage collapse, this obfuscates the real reason. By associating tangible useless failed mortgages, at least something 'real' can be blamed for the carnage. The problem is, this is myth. The magnitude of this fiscal collapse happened because it was all based on hot air.
The banking industry renamed insurance betting guarantees as 'credit default swaps' and risky gambling wagers were called 'derivatives'. Financial managers and banking executives were selling the ultimate con to the entire world, akin to the snake-oil salesmen from the 18th century but this time in suits and ties. And by October 2009 it was a quadrillion-dollar (that's $1,000 trillion) industry that few could understand.
Propped up by false hope, America is now falling like a house of cards.

( Read more )

But I really don't know how people can "hate Obama". I mean I see how people could disagree with his perspective to fix the country but "hate"? I don't understand. He is obviously a very caring and idealistic person. I mean its hard to really know a person through the press but from everything I have read he seems to be very much about helping people and has been involved in grassroots movements his whole life.

I think, perhaps, people hate him because he is part black? I dunno. That's the only thing I can think of that I could see people "hating" him for.

Either that or people just throw the word hate around when they don't really mean it.

So, the other day I watched some movie online and while I did not agree with everything it said it introduced a very interesting idea. Basically it said that "money is the root of all evil". And by that I mean that all societies whether they are capitalist, socialist, communist, or the like are run off of monetary economies and THAT is what is wrong with them. They talked about creating a society where instead of fighting over the few resources we have thus selling them and making money or even splitting them up equally we focus on creating technology that will use these resources to their fullest extent freeing us from the need to fight over them or split them up (cause at that point they aren't scarce anymore). These resources will basically support us and we will be free to do...well things that are more positive than just earn the big money. Like learn, evolve as a human beings, explore the universe, things like that. And the incentive is that the better we do, the smarter we are, the harder we work at what we love to do, the better everyone's life will be, including our own. Its not about making and selling, its about creating and giving.

The movie also said that laws are just things put into place when man cannot find solutions to actual problems. What if we created cars that pull over when people swerve, or will not crash into each other. And if technology could help us do these things, then government would possibly vanish as we know it now. Especially because many of the crimes that are committed on the behalf of or because of peoples dysfunction due to lack of money will no longer be a problem.

Before I thought about this, I kept thinking we needed to go backward to a more tribal existence. Because there was less stratification in that system. There wasn't the rich and the poor and the government and controlled. I thought we should throw off the technology that got us here. Throw of agriculture and throw off everything from the industrial revolution. But now I am thinking maybe it was all just steps leading us to a place where we can efficiently and carefully use technology to help all people and the planet. To use it so carefully and efficiently that money isn't necessary. Basically we could evolve out of that profit society. .

Society as a profit society will never evolve out of what it currently is because profit is its goal and since that is its goal the priorities are all messed up. Hence the current energy situation we are in and the current economic state. Anyways, it just made a lot of common sense. And it got me thinking what would a world like this look like? What would it be like to let go of money and focus on things greater and more important. What would it be like to work together to create technology, not to make money, but to emancipate us from money. To break the chain of the 9-5 so you could really do what it is you are meant to do, so you could have the greatest impact on society possible. So, your passions are followed. Working like we do now is really about surviving. Get enough to live, and if your really lucky you can get a little more than you need to live. I feel like we humans created the current economic system out of our basic need to survive. But what if life was about more than surviving? What if we were able to move past that? Then the focus would shift from you and your family to include the community as well...the world even?

It was of course an utopian idea, and of course like all ideas they are perfect in imagination only, but I think that it could possibly be a lot better for us than what our current course has put us on. I think its the first idea that I read that made sense even if it was hard for me to imagine.

I mean I know that right now the technology exists that will allow me to build a house that will be completely off the grid and is self sustaining. And I keep thinking...why aren't we building millions of these houses??? Why?

http://www.earthship.net/

And I know my husband can run his car off of WVO...but the conversion kit needs to be tweaked just a bit so the engine will last as long as it should. But no one is really putting the tech into these kits to make it so they don't shorten the life of the car.

Sometimes I really feel like there are so many answers right under our noses but no one really talks about them and no one really puts them to use because its not profitable. But what about the greater profit that doesn't have to do with money. What about having better lives? Or even, keeping our lives. I think the current path is one of self destruction. And sometimes I think that perhaps we humans are a mistake and are made to self destruct but then again I think that perhaps we have been given this gift of the mind for a reason. Perhaps we are supposed to break into a higher state of evolution through the use of technology used not for profit, which will keep us basically on the same plane as we are now, but for a higher purpose.

I tell my kids all the time 'we created all of this, so really, if we think about it, we could create anything we want". But still, there are those who say, no this is it. Why is that? Why is it that people are content with this system? Why is it that when another way is brought up even if its hard to imagine people always say it won't work before its even really been thought about.

Its so strange to me. Sometimes I think the only think that holds us back is our inability to believe that things could be different.

I guess, "you can say I am a dreamer but I am not the only one..."

So, I never watch TV anymore. Seriously, I am not even just saying that. I mean it. I will watch things like the debates or films. Things that spark thought or laughter. But the mind numbing shit I did growing up, hell no. I remember just sitting for hours with my parents staring at show after show after show. I remember falling asleep in my bed listening to the TV through the wall. I remember having it invade my dreams. I don't do any of that anymore and never will again. It's been a few years since I really watched TV.

So last night I was hanging out with friends and they turned on the TV. We watched Paris Hilton's reality TV show where she is picking who will be her BF and I think I got sick, literally. I was feeling a little sick before I started watching it but omg the horror of it. The ridiculousness, the utter stupidity. The lack of any true meaning or truth. The lack of intellect. The materialism of it. My stomach started to really hurt. I felt like I was going to puke. It was the ultimate ego trip. A girl who shouldn't be famous, who is only famous because of her looks and her grandfathers money, being surrounded by girls who could care less about being her best friend, who really just want to be famous as well. And they are willing to fight each other for the "prize" of being Paris Hiltons best friend. (Somehow this killed me, a best friend is such a beautiful and sacred thing!) And she is getting paid to do this and thousands of people are watching her! Ah! I told my friend that I was feeling sick so we turned it off and I laid down for a while. Slept for a few min and woke up feeling a bit better.

TV scares the crap out of me. It scares me that people subject themselves to this "reality". It scared me that I was brought up on this "reality". It scares me that our world supports this non-sense. It scares me that time and money is wasted on this utter crap. That people would actually go on this show. That she would be given a show. That people would watch the show. That people want to be her or be with her. It's terrifying.

But what scares me the most is I know there are people out there that work and come home and watch TV. And they don't read. And they don't think. And this is the outside world to them, random sound bytes, images, spun in every direction expect truth, beauty, and art. And I am left with this feeling that yah, no wonder the world is the way it is. We have the ability to create such beauty, but instead we create this crap. And instead of beauty people devour crap. And they don't question it and they don't turn it off. They just stare into it. Its so fucked up. Its like the chicken and the egg question. Is it the cause or a symptom of the problems in our society.

But no matter what the answer to that question is the solution is simple, turn it off. I am so glad I stopped watching it. I think it was the only way to gain this perspective. It was only when I was away from it for so long that I could see it for what it really is, ugly, greed exemplified, base.

PS. And don't even get me started on the commercials I saw. OMG.

If you manage to avoid the "It Just Isn't Cool" booby trap and successfully embark on your breastfeeding journey, beware of the "Secret Society of Breastfeeding" booby trap. Now I can't blame any woman for joining the Secret Society in this current breastfeeding un-friendly world of ours and I can certainly understand the attraction of joining. Its even kind of hard not to join unless you've been blessed (or cursed) with a thick skin and the mind of a breast evangelist.

So how do you become a member of this Secret Society? Well it's a process.

Step one: isolation. Immediately after having a baby, a woman finds herself at home, alone after having a baby.

If she chose a great husband, she at least has some help with the day-to-day chores and activities of life, but a husband is not usually the greatest help with the mechanics of breastfeeding. He can encourage her and tell her she's doing a good job, but he probably is not exactly equipped to identify a latch problem or to give her suggestions on how to relieve engorgement. In most breastfeeding societies, after a woman has a baby, she finds herself surrounded with other women who have the expertise that experience has granted them. She has her mother, her sisters, her friends who teach her how to breastfeed, how to mother. They will also take care of her household and her so that she can focus on her baby, bonding and learning the art of mothering, an art which breastfeeding is an inextricable part. In this country and in many western societies women are isolated and left to fend for themselves.

Step two: more isolation. When mom is ready to go out, she will look around her and see other women with their babies. She will look around, but none will be nursing their children though many may be giving bottles. She wonders, where are all the nursing mothers? If she is at church on a Sunday morning, she will likely discover that the nursing mothers are huddled together in a specially designated cry room, equipped with comfy rocking chairs, visions of dancing ponies and soundproof walls. She learns that this is where you nurse your baby, safe from the lustful eyes of men who may want to sneak a look at your nipple during the sermon. The rest of the congregation is safe as well. Safe from the sounds of your happy, slurping, gulping, cooing babe and safe from the sight of a tiny portion of your flesh.

Step three: shame. A mother is at a beach on a beautiful sunny summer afternoon. Her older children are laughing and splashing in the waves. Her baby starts to gurgle and suck on his fists. He is hungry and ready to nurse so mom responds to her baby's need and brings her baby to her breast. He contentedly suckles while her daughters continues to enjoy the summer fun. As she nurses her body is filled with pleasant emotions thanks to the natural pleasure hormones that are released as she nurses. Then she is blindsided. A handsome young lifeguard comes up to her and addresses her, "Mam, we've had a couple of complaints, it seems that some people are uncomfortable with you nursing here on the beach. Perhaps you can move to the locker room where you would have more privacy." "Oh, alright", the young mother stammers as she hastily grabs her purse and beckons for her daughters to gather up their sand toys and come along to the locker room. The mother and her three children enter a changing room stall, pull the curtain and mom finishes nursing. She makes a mental note to bring a bottle of expressed milk with her next time they come to the beach. The young lifeguard returns to his post, happy that he could tactfully resolve the situation.

Step four: confirmation. A man and his family are invited to his boss's house for dinner. As they are greeted warmly at the door by his boss and her husband, they fawn over how cute and adorable little two month old Emily is. The boss's children come flying through the back door to enthusiastically greet their visitors. As the woman walks with her husband's boss, the boss asks if she is nursing. "Yes, I am", replies the mother. "Oh, isn't it wonderful? I nursed both of mine until I returned to work. I had to wean because I just didn't have the time or a place to pump. If you need to nurse while you are here, you can go in the den. There's a nice chair and some pillows in there and you'll have all of the privacy you need." "Thank you," the mother meekly replies, hoping her baby will sleep through dinner. During dessert, her baby wakes up hungry. The mother dutifully excuses herself to the den. The boss's young daughter asks, "Mommy, where is she going?" "Oh, she has to feed her baby, honey." "I'm going to feed my baby, mommy!" The young girl runs to her room and returns to the dining room with her doll and a bottle and lovingly places the bottle to her doll's plastic lips. "See, mommy, I'm feeding my baby!" "That's nice, dear." The nursing mother sits alone in the den while everyone finishes the scrumptious peach cobbler.

Step five: certified member of the Secret Society of Breastfeeding Mothers. Breastfeeding is becoming more acceptable in this country in certain circles, as evidenced by the growing number of breastfeeding mothers. The practice comes with a certain etiquette and decorum. The mother learns the decorum by observing the behavior of mothers around her. Most women will follow suit, not because they are dim wits, but because in a culture we generally tend to go with the flow. Many women will not even question society's proclamations of acceptable behavior. A woman learns the customs of the breastfeeding culture by observing and perhaps by experiencing a moment of rebuke when she breaks a rule. She understands and complies with the unwritten rules. She hangs her plaque on the wall, "Certified Member of the Secret Society of Breastfeeding Mothers".

All right, are you depressed yet? Let me start lightening up this little tale. What would an all-out, in the open, breast-fest look like? Would all hell break loose if women were free to unabashedly feed their babies? Would our society start to loose its moral values? (I do so hope you detect the irony dripping from that question.) What would the effects of breastfeeding in the open be? Simple. Women would be more successful at breastfeeding, more confident in their abilities and more babies would be breastfed. Women would learn to breastfeed by seeing other mothers do it. They would see that the silly rules in the silly books are just plain silly. Women would see that babies don't all need to be nursed for 10 minutes on each side, every three hours. They would see that demand-fed babies are not manipulative, but cooperative with the natural responsive mechanisms of their mothers' bodies. They would see that some babies nurse for 45 minutes. They would see that some babies nurse for 5 minutes. They would see that some babies cluster feed in the evenings. They would see that sometimes babies only take one side at a time. They would see that it doesn't really matter which side you start on. They would see how a baby cues his hunger and how his mother anticipates his needs. They would see that you can hold a nursing baby in your left arm and use your right arm for something else. They would see that a baby can actually grow into childhood without ever knowing what a plastic bottle or artificial nipple is (much to the dismay of Gerber). They would see that breastfeeding isn't something difficult and extraordinary, but that it is just part of day-to-day life. They would see something special in the ordinary, something special the books can't explain. They would see the special bond between a nursing mother and baby in the midst of the humdrum of ordinary daily life. They would witness the intangible relationship that can't be communicated on the pages of breastfeeding how-to manuals that focus on engorgement, mechanical breastpumps and every imaginable nipple problem known to womankind.

Do women really want to break out of this Secret Society? Well, tally one vote in the affirmative from me. Tally one vote in the affirmative from the lady I met at a festival in Iowa last summer, too… I was nursing my 4 month old baby in his sling while listening to live Jazz music and watching my 6 year old run around and play. A lady struck up a conversation with me by asking if I was nursing my baby. She ended up spilling her lactation history to me, explaining how long she nursed her baby for and how much flak she got from her family for doing so. I also got to hear about her various and assorted nipple difficulties she had to overcome in establishing breastfeeding. At this point you may be thinking, "whoa, talk about a little too much information." The thing is, this woman seemed like she never really had anybody close to her to talk about these things with. She saw me unembarrassed, nursing my child. She saw me as a safe person to talk to, to compare notes with. I'm I was glad I was there. And I hope she knows how awesome it was that she overcame the breastfeeding un-friendly society around her. Many women don't overcome the obstacles. Some women may overcome obstacles, but don't enjoy breastfeeding because of all the negativity and perceived rules and drudgery of the task. I believe that in a more open breastfeeding society, more women would nurse their babies and more women would enjoy doing it. Perhaps even the very institution of motherhood would gain more respect as the uniqueness of the relationship between mother and child is seen in full view.

http://www.mommythink.com/web%20pages/tidbits/breastfeeding-society.php


http://www.go-mummy.com

A kernel of possibilities
in saline space
Weightless, warm, beating
Full, fuller, filled
A lightening
A tight, tighter, tightening
Moans muffled
Low
like oxen
Crossing a river deep
Going under
coming up for air
a show of black and curly hair
half out half in
A release of limbs
Hands reaching down
A baby found
A mother bound
Watching
a soul suckle
warm milk

On the day of shock and awe
A woman sits in my mind
In the dark rubble of home
Her children’s faces hidden in the
Black folds of her robes
Their shelter from the dropping bombs
That keep
Falling, falling, fall
No matter how they bawl
And her eyes
Are mine

Skin warms in the simplicity
Of the morning light
Walking to a college class
A star, a ball of burning gas,
Millions of miles away
Stretches into me
I think of the little one
I will soon see
and smile inside
If only I could give her
My eyes

A most quiet day
Where worries are far away
No blaring TV’s
Just me and you
Left to do
Whatever we dream
To sip on baby time
in the late afternoon

Still in PJ’s
Cubby arms curled around
Nappin on the couch
We doze in and out…
Cat stretching
Moving finally
Into another room
Where a
Milk bath steeps
Beckoning us in
The warm opaque water
That sets the prune in

Lovely baby chunk
Wrapped up in wet arms
And a tiny cheek rests
On a beating heart
Butterfly kisses
And a towel for two
Warm wings envelop us
Onto the bed we move.

Clothes forgotten
We lay
And lay
In a blissful brew
It’s 4:44
And there’s nothing
I’d rather do
But be in this time dimension
with you.

Ice cream in a Bag

1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups crushed ice
4 tablespoons salt
2 quart size Zip-loc bags
1 gallon size Zip-loc freezer bag
a hand towel or gloves to keep fingers from freezing as well!

Mix the milk, vanilla and sugar together in one of the quart size bags. Seal tightly, allowing as little air
to remain in the bag as possible. Too much air left inside may force the bag open during shaking. Place
this bag inside the other quart size bag, again leaving as little air inside as possible and sealing well. By
double-bagging, the risk of salt and ice leaking into the ice cream is minimized. Put the two bags inside
the gallon size bag and fill the bag with ice, then sprinkle salt on top. Again let all the air escape and
seal the bag. Wrap the bag in the towel or put your gloves on, and shake and massage the bag, making
sure the ice surrounds the cream mixture. Five to eight minutes is adequate time for the mixture to
freeze into ice cream.

Tips
Freezer bags work best because they are thicker and less likely to develop small holes, allowing the
bags to leak. You can get away with using regular Zip-loc bags for the smaller quart sizes, because you
are double-bagging. Especially if you plan to do this indoors, we strongly recommend using gallon size
freezer bags.

After investing in high-tech stocks and real estate loans for years, legions of speculators have now discovered commodities like oil and gas, wheat and rice. Their billions are pushing prices up to astronomical levels -- with serious consequences for ordinary people's quality of life and the global economy.

Daniel Jaeggi is sitting at a conference table in an office building on Place du Molard in Geneva, only a few steps away from the lake. It is 1:45 p.m. on Friday of last week, and the price of a barrel of the benchmark Brent Crude oil is at $129.50 (€82).

Jaeggi, a 47-year-old Swiss citizen, is a petroleum trader. He and his partner, Marco Dunand, own a company called Mercuria. It is one of the world's 10 largest trading companies. At its offices in Geneva, approximately 110 employees analyze markets, handle contracts and track tanker routes. Last year Mercuria traded in petroleum products worth a total of almost $30 billion (€19 billion). That included millions of barrels of oil destined for China.

"For decades, oil was too cheap. Until 1999, a barrel went for less than $10 (€6.40)," says Jaeggi. Of course, rising economies like China, India, Russia and Brazil have stimulated demand, driving up the price of oil. But what really changed the market were the big pension and investment funds.

Searching for secure and long-term returns, major investors turned their attention to the commodities indexes, investments that promised substantially higher returns than investing in the stock market. The more the funds invested, the higher the prices went, especially since the market for speculative commodities securities is very small. Even minor shifts in the portfolios of large mutual funds can quickly drive up the price of oil.

At 3:15 p.m., the price of a barrel of Brent Crude is at $131 (€83). During the course of the day, traders at Mercuria in Geneva trade up to 4 million barrels of "real" oil and about 10 times as much in so-called swaps -- in other words, oil which only exists on paper -- to hedge against risk.

"The oil price has gone up by about $10 in the last two days," says Jaeggi, adding that in the past it would have taken the market years to achieve the same price increase. Later on Friday, US crude would hit a record price of over $139, up $11 in the largest-ever single day increase.

Last August, the price of oil was $70 (€45) a barrel, in early March it surpassed the $100 (€64) mark, and then the new record high on June 6. What's next?

Ernst Tanner is asking himself the same question, but he is thinking about cocoa, not oil. Tanner is the CEO of Swiss fine chocolate maker Lindt & Sprüngli. He has had to look on as the price of cocoa beans jumped by 40 percent since early 2007, despite abundant supply. "It hardly has anything to do with supply and demand anymore," says Tanner.

The price increases that have affected oil and cocoa apply to almost all other commodities. A sack of rice now costs almost three times as much as it did in January, wheat, corn and soybeans have already reached record prices this year and gold has been on a wild rollercoaster ride recently.

Hardly anyone really needs gold. But oil is the lubricant of our economy. As it keeps getting more expensive, the engine of the economy begins to stall. And wheat and rice, as staple foods, are truly essential to human life. As they become more and more expensive, poor people must go hungry or, in some cases, even starve.

Hundreds of millions of consumers around the world are now wondering what will happen next. For weeks, high food prices (more...) have led to unrest in many countries. Demonstrators in Indonesia and Thailand, for example, demanded "more money for workers and farmers." In April, the citizens of Haiti drove their prime minister out of office because of food prices, and the people of Burkina Faso brought their entire country to a standstill for days by staging a general strike. In Somalia, where the situation is particularly extreme, soldiers fired into a crowd of tens of thousands of angry Somalis in an effort to get the situation under control. Rice prices in Somalia had doubled within the space of a few weeks.

The cost of corn meal, a key ingredient in tortillas and thus a staple food in Mexico, has also shot up astronomically. In an effort to ease their plight, Mexican President Felipe Calderón has ordered that the country's 26 million poorest citizens be paid a monthly subsidy of roughly €7 ($11), effective immediately.

More here....

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,559550,00.html