Angels and Women

I'm still trying to figure out how to link these many blogs. Read here about "The Annunciation" -- a glorious painting by Jay DeFeo. Woman and Angel, Spirit and Body, Mind and Artist.

Mental Health Questions

I've been posting articles I find useful and respectful about mental illness on Facebook in the wake of events at Sandy Hook Elem. This editorial, by one of the favorites, Andrew Sullivan, remarks on his own childhood with a mentally ill parent. Suddenly I am thinking of these recent Newtown CT events in a different light. As the wonderous Dar Williams sings: "Sometimes I think, my father, too, was a refugee. And though they tried to keep their pain from me, they did not know what it was for." What, indeed, is pain for? Perhaps for lighting the way to truth with all the questions that will help us get there.

We may not all have been refugees from the same kind of homefront battles, but most children suffer the greater or smaller pains of growing up with human (rather than perfect) beings for parents. I grew up with wonderful human parents, who grew up with wonderful human parents. My husband and I are doing the best we can to be human parents, wonderful more and less.

I liked President Obama's questions in his speech last night. Is this really the best we can do for our children?  I also like his assurance as he reminds us that we can't go wrong when we're showing acts of kindness. I don't think I'm ready to say this is the best we can do to be healthy and kind in our society. I'm already thinking about what I will change to make my contribution. Questioning the status quo will be the first step.

Momfulness

I heard a great lecture this past week on 'momfulness' -- the art of meditating in the right now moment as a mother. A great idea. One I am familiar with -- I could have written her book, or, perhaps, I did write poems like her book. I'm tired and it's hard to post tonight. But I'm greatful for Denise Roy. Buy her book here. Read about it here. Her books are MOMFULNESS: Mothering with Mindfulness, Compassion, and Grace and My Monastery Is a Minivan: 35 Stories from a Real Life. Even though I don't drive a minivan, I know the feeling of safety and prayer inside a car. I'm not much for peace of mind, but I am hopeful.

We Had to Tell Doctors to Read To Understand Us

While it doesn't make sense to me that 'highly educated' MDs needed to be told to read good literature, I guess I'm glad that they are. Look for an MD in a book club near you. Or, be brave and give a doctor a book!

"The humanities can remind them that they're dealing with very complicated, whole individuals with their own needs and opinions," said Elizabeth Sinclair, coordinator of the Maine Humanities Council's literature and medicine program.

Scalpel, stethoscope, Tolstoy: Doctors embrace literature as tool to connect with patients - latimes.com

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Your Mind is What You Do

The most interesting and beautiful and powerful radio show I've heard in a long time: discussions between science and philosophy about the nature of the mind.

KQED Radio: Beyond the Brain

Crying Like a Caveman

Why we cry is an emotional topic - The Boston Globe

The Most Beautiful Song About Being Depressed Ever

Go ahead, push you luck, find out how much love the world can hold,
Once upon a time I had control, and reigned my soul in tight.
Well the whole truth, it's like the story of a wave unfurled,
But I held the evil of the world,
So I stopped the tide,
froze it up from inside,
And it felt like a winter machine that you go through and then,
You catch your breath and winter starts again,
And everyone else is spring bound.

And when I chose to live, there was no joy,
it's just a line I crossed,
It wasn't worth the pain my death would cost,
So I was not lost or found.
And if I was to sleep, I knew my family had more truth to tell.
And so I traveled down a whispering well,
To know myself through them.

Growing up, my mom had a room full of books, and hid away in there,
Her father raging down a spiral stair,
Till he found someone, most days his son,
And sometimes I think my father, too, was a refugee,
I know they tried to keep their pain form me,
They could not see what it was for.
But now I'm sleeping fine,
Sometimes the truth is like a second chance,
I am the daughter of a great romance,
And they are the children of the war.

Well the sun rose with so many colors,
it nearly broke my heart,
It worked me over like a work of art,
And I was a part off all that.
So go ahead, push your luck, say what it is you gotta say to me,
We will push on into that mystery,
And it'll push right back, and there are worse things than that,
Cause for every price, and every penance that I
could think of,
It's better to have fallen in love,
Than never to have fallen at all,
Cause when you live in a world,
well it gets into who you thought you'd be,
And now I laugh at how the world changed me,
I think life chose me
after all.

Dar Williams, songstress extraordinaire. From her The Green World cd, 2000. I couldn't listen to this song then, without weeping, and many days I couldn't listen to it at all. My husband was furious, but it wasn't about not loving the music. I think it's a measure of how much 'better' I am that I can listen to this song so happily, even eagerly now.

I'm not sure about the line breaks, but that's kind of the way it is in a Dar song.