1.06.2012
11.14.2011
Jerusalem Flash Mob for Diabetes
Today is World Diabetes Day, and I'll forever be grateful to Dr. Banting who "discovered" insulin. Gotta love those Canadians! I ran across this flash mob scene that took place in a mall in Jerusalem, Israel yesterday in order to raise awareness of diabetes. It rocks!
Have you seen anything today that honors World Diabetes Day or November's Diabetes Awareness Month?
Have you seen anything today that honors World Diabetes Day or November's Diabetes Awareness Month?
11.11.2011
Diabetes is 24/7/365: Patient 13
I was diagnosed with Juvenile or Type 1 diabetes as a little girl. 22 years later, I'm still here, though every day is a challenge in ways non-type 1 diabetics may not fully understand. Watch this video in honor of Diabetes Awareness Month, and be inspired by a little girl who will captures your heart as she simultaneously breaks it a little, too.
For more information on the film, and how to help, check out their official site: http://www.voxpopfilms.tv/patient13/#
24 Hours with Ana and Sam from Vox Pop Films on Vimeo.
For more information on the film, and how to help, check out their official site: http://www.voxpopfilms.tv/patient13/#
Won't You Go Blue for World Diabetes Day on November 14th?
I know it's been a while, but I had to chime in on Blue Friday here to encourage you to do something bold this month in honor of November being Diabetes Awareness Month. World Diabetes Day is Monday, November 14th. Please wear blue and support those you love and care for with diabetes. There are an estimated 366,000,000 people worldwide with diabetes. Type 1 alone catches another 40 American children each day. These kids grow into adults with diabetes (we sometimes forget this). There is no cure, and there is nothing that could've been done to prevent Type 1 diabetes, which is the auto-immune form of the disease. The statistics for Type 2 diabetes are even more staggering.
But here's the thing: we suffer in silence. Diabetes is largely an invisible disease, but one that claims more lives than breast cancer, or any other cancer for that matter. But diabetes isn't flashy. It isn't noticeable. And most of us with diabetes just want to fit in and live as normal a life as possible with the disease, though diabetes is forever a part of us, and takes up residence in the back (and fore) of our minds most moments of our days.
What might you be able to do for November's Diabetes Awareness Month? Strengthen those courage muscles by making diabetes visible this month. Together, we can change the world's perception and awareness of diabetes, one blue person, one blue building, one blue monument at a time! Please join me!
7.22.2011
And We Shall Not Get Excited
And we shall not get excited. Because a translator
May not get excited. Calmly, we shall pass on
Words from man to son, from one tongue
To others' lips, un-
Knowingly, like a father who passes on
The features of his dead father's face
To his son, and he himself is like neither of them. Merely a mediator.
We shall remember the things we held in our hands
That slipped out.
What I have in my possession and what I do not have in my possession.
We must not get excited.
Calls and their callers drowned. Or, my beloved
Gave me a few words before she left,
To bring up for her.
And no more shall we tell what we were told
To other tellers. Silence as admission. We must not
Get excited.
--Yehuda Amichai*
*Translated from Hebrew to English by Barbara and Benjamin Harshav
May not get excited. Calmly, we shall pass on
Words from man to son, from one tongue
To others' lips, un-
Knowingly, like a father who passes on
The features of his dead father's face
To his son, and he himself is like neither of them. Merely a mediator.
We shall remember the things we held in our hands
That slipped out.
What I have in my possession and what I do not have in my possession.
We must not get excited.
Calls and their callers drowned. Or, my beloved
Gave me a few words before she left,
To bring up for her.
And no more shall we tell what we were told
To other tellers. Silence as admission. We must not
Get excited.
--Yehuda Amichai*
*Translated from Hebrew to English by Barbara and Benjamin Harshav
5.09.2011
For What Binds Us
There are names for what binds us:
strong forces, weak forces.
Look around, you can see them:
the skin that forms in a half-empty cup,
nails rusting into the places they join,
joints dovetailed on their own weight.
The way things stay so solidly
wherever they've been set down—
and gravity, scientists say, is weak.
And see how the flesh grows back
across a wound, with a great vehemence,
more strong
than the simple, untested surface before.
There's a name for it on horses,
when it comes back darker and raised: proud flesh,
as all flesh,
is proud of its wounds, wears them
as honors given out after battle,
small triumphs pinned to the chest—
And when two people have loved each other
see how it is like a
scar between their bodies,
stronger, darker, and proud;
how the black cord makes of them a single fabric
that nothing can tear or mend.
--Jane Hirshfield, from Of Gravity & Angels.
strong forces, weak forces.
Look around, you can see them:
the skin that forms in a half-empty cup,
nails rusting into the places they join,
joints dovetailed on their own weight.
The way things stay so solidly
wherever they've been set down—
and gravity, scientists say, is weak.
And see how the flesh grows back
across a wound, with a great vehemence,
more strong
than the simple, untested surface before.
There's a name for it on horses,
when it comes back darker and raised: proud flesh,
as all flesh,
is proud of its wounds, wears them
as honors given out after battle,
small triumphs pinned to the chest—
And when two people have loved each other
see how it is like a
scar between their bodies,
stronger, darker, and proud;
how the black cord makes of them a single fabric
that nothing can tear or mend.
--Jane Hirshfield, from Of Gravity & Angels.
3.25.2011
Zeus.
MOV08265 a video by amylia.grace.photos on Flickr.
You will be forever missed, my good buddy. Figgy misses his best friend, too. You were such a funny, sweet cat. I felt honored to take care of you and have you greet me at the door each day. You are so loved and missed.
2.24.2011
Last Night As I Was Sleeping
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.
Last night, as I slept,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that it was God I had
here inside my heart.
-Antonio Machado (trans. Robert Bly)
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.
Last night, as I slept,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that it was God I had
here inside my heart.
-Antonio Machado (trans. Robert Bly)
1.23.2011
1.18.2011
If I am in that good place...
"There are all sorts of ways people try to stay connected, try not to live in hate. Religion may be one of them, but for me the central thing is the writing…I feel more friendly when I am writing, nicer to people, much more generous, also wiser. I am full of a kind of tenderness toward people and all that they have to hide, all they have to construct. Not pity, not sympathy, just tenderness. Knowing that the job of being a human is so hard, and it is the only job there is left--though we keep on pretending otherwise. [...] If I am in that good place, I feel more human and they seem more human. I get better because I'm doing it."
--Toni Morrison
1.07.2011
The New 2011 Edition of tinfoildresses Poetry Journal Published Today!
- Edited by Heather Ann Schmidt & Amylia Grace
- Includes never before seen poetry by tinfoildresses featured poets Shaindel Beers & Jeannine Hall Gailey
- Available online and in paperback here ($7)
1.02.2011
12.31.2010
What's Easy. What's Not.
It's not easy to be kind.
It's easy to hope.
It's not easy to know.
It's not easy to know.
It's easy to be a damsel.
It's not easy to be a heroine.
It's not easy to be a heroine.
It's easy to complain.
It's not easy to make requests.
It's not easy to make requests.
It's easy to have the perfect retort.
It's not easy to listen.
It's not easy to listen.
It's easy to be busy.
It's not easy to be productive.
It's not easy to be productive.
It's easy to criticize.
It's not easy to create.
It's not easy to create.
It's easy to say you don't feel like it.
It's not easy to do it anyway.
It's not easy to do it anyway.
It's easy to obsess.
It's not easy to meditate.
It's not easy to meditate.
It's easy to sing your heart out when the audience loves you.
It's not easy to sing your heart out when no one is paying attention.
It's not easy to sing your heart out when no one is paying attention.
It's easy to wait for rescue.
It's not easy to rescue yourself.
It's not easy to rescue yourself.
It's easy to resent people who take up your time.
It's not easy to say no in the first place.
It's not easy to say no in the first place.
It's easy to make excuses.
It's not easy to take responsibility.
It's not easy to take responsibility.
It's easy to worry.
It's not easy to make a plan.
It's not easy to make a plan.
It's easy to come up with reasons why someone pissed you off.
It's not easy to ask yourself how you participated.
It's not easy to ask yourself how you participated.
It's easy to dabble.
It's not easy to commit.
It's not easy to commit.
It's easy to rail on the idiot driver behind you.
It's not easy to just move out of his way.
It's not easy to just move out of his way.
It's easy to read books about writing.
It's not easy to sit down and write.
It's not easy to sit down and write.
It's easy to say no to bad things because you want good things.
It's not easy to say no to good things because you want great things.
It's not easy to say no to good things because you want great things.
It's easy to fire off an angry email or blog comment.
It's not easy to pause and breathe and clarify your feelings.
It's not easy to pause and breathe and clarify your feelings.
It's easy to react to an angry email or blog comment by firing one back.
It's not easy to pause and breathe and clarify your meaning.
It's not easy to pause and breathe and clarify your meaning.
It's easy to start your idea.
It's not easy to finish it.
It's not easy to finish it.
It's easy to buy something cheap because it's cheap.
It's not easy to buy something expensive because you love it.
It's not easy to buy something expensive because you love it.
It's easy to say you don't know what you want.
It's not easy to admit what you do want.
It's not easy to admit what you do want.
It's easy to let a kid watch TV.
It's not easy to find ways to play with a kid.
It's not easy to find ways to play with a kid.
It's easy to do urgent things.
It's not easy to do important things.
It's not easy to do important things.
It's easy to say it's too hard.
It's worth it to do what's not easy.
It's worth it to do what's not easy.
--Christine Kane
Christine Kane is the Mentor to Women Who are Changing the World. She helps women uplevel their lives, their businesses and their success. Her weekly LiveCreative eZine goes out to over 12,000 subscribers. If you are ready to take your life and your world to the next level, you can sign up for a F.R.E.E. subscription at http://christinekane.com.
12.06.2010
The Calatrava in Wintertime
 |
| I love the Milwaukee Art Museum, both outside and in. |
MAM at night
Originally uploaded by amylia.grace.photos
12.03.2010
12.02.2010
Where I Wish I Shopped Instead of Big Chain Grocery Stores
 |
| Broadway Shoppe--Bourton on the Water (England) |
I wish we had more options for small, quaint, homegrown shoppes around these parts...as it is I do pay more for the experience of a smaller community grocery and local products.
12.01.2010
It's December and I'm Remembering the Coziness of England in Wintertime...
P.S. A selection of photos of mine from my trip to the cozy, picturesque Cotswolds a few years ago here.
11.29.2010
11.28.2010
[VIDEO] W.S. Merwin On The Writing Process & a Career in Poetry
On the heels of winning the 2009 Pulitzer prize for poetry, W.S. Merwin joins Bill Moyers for a wide-ranging conversation about language, his writing process, the natural world, and the insights gleaned from a much-lauded career of more than 50 years....courtesy of Bill Moyers and "The Journal" on PBS.
"Rain Light"
All day the stars watch from long ago
my mother said I am going now
when you are alone you will be all right
whether or not you know you will know
look at the old house in the dawn rain
all the flowers are forms of water
the sun reminds them through a white cloud
touches the patchwork spread on the hill
the washed colors of the afterlife
that lived there long before you were born
see how they wake without a question
even though the whole world is burning
-- W.S. Merwin
Watch the full episode. See more Bill Moyers.
"Rain Light"
All day the stars watch from long ago
my mother said I am going now
when you are alone you will be all right
whether or not you know you will know
look at the old house in the dawn rain
all the flowers are forms of water
the sun reminds them through a white cloud
touches the patchwork spread on the hill
the washed colors of the afterlife
that lived there long before you were born
see how they wake without a question
even though the whole world is burning
-- W.S. Merwin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)