.♡ I feel the world and want to help heal the world. When I listen, I learn. ♡.
If you enjoyed my writing, you may enjoy Sara Michele O'Sullivan's (former pen name) first book, "Elanthian Love Songs—A Bard's Tale," available on Amazon.
I hope you're having a beautiful day. ♡
I spent the past two weeks at my mom’s house helping her after surgery. I began experiencing symptoms of my own that probably were exacerbated by all the extra activity. By the end of two weeks, the pain was pretty bad and couldn’t be ignored. I found a great new PCP, got a bunch of tests done Thursday and Friday. I’m finally getting things addressed after literally years of being unable to get out and about. So grateful for my recent and miraculous transformation, and so thankful to for medical science! I’ll need some time away to heal and recover, so I won’t be posting for a while. I hope to catch up on my reading though, so you may see me visiting your blogs. If you have any good vibes to spare, please send them my way, and my mom’s and, always, our to our Benjamin. Thanks so much. ♥.
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡ Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
This little guy was on my mom’s front lawn. I came home from the store, got out of the car and he sat and allowed me to approach and take this photo. =)
♡. under1000skies ☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers, writers, artists & advocates serving and connecting homeless creatives
“Dear God,” she prayed, “let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry…have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere – be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.” Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
I love this quote because it celebrates being alive and present in every moment. My beautiful friend and soul-sister Liz Stevens (Liz Stevens Illustrations) painted this lovely scene of a young woman doing just that. Perhaps preparing for a dance, or starting a new class. Alive and joyful to be so.
A Story from the Street
As promised, I’ll share stories about what it’s like to live on the street where life expectancy was reported to be about 30 years less than average. Millions of Americans are one paycheck away from the street according to this January 2018 report.
Jerome Murdough, 56, a homeless Marine veteran, was arrested for trespass in New York because he was found sleeping in a public housing stairwell on a cold night. The New York Times reported that one week later, Jerome died of hyperthermia in a jail cell heated to over 100 degrees.
Mr. Murdough’s death provoked outrage among the city’s elected officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, and focused media attention on the conditions at Rikers Island, where inmates frequently endure severe abuse and neglect.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Gandhi
How Can I Help?
Asking today for healing, light and love to be sent to any homeless Marine vets you may know. If you know none, perhaps you could send your intentions to any homeless person who might need healing (which is pretty much every single one, in one way or another).
Thank you so much. ♥
Healing Intentions
These stories of the street are not brought to you the way news is. They are brought to bring your awareness to a person who has experienced hardship in homelessness and to ask you to open your heart and send good thoughts or prayers or whatever you believe in.
There is a beautiful Hawaiian tradition called ho’o’pono pono which was used over a course of time to heal every inmate in a mental hospital for the criminally insane. Joe Vitale, after a skeptical journey into what he thought was an urban legend, wrote extensively about this powerful tool. It’s really easy to use and takes very little time compared to more traditional healing meditations.
Since about mid-2010 I’ve been doing healing meditations for anyone needing it at Noon EST for an hour a day when I can. I’ve been inconsistent but it still is, and always will be, my favorite thing to do at mid-day break. So, if you aren’t busy, please join me for a few minutes. I’ll see you on the “innernet” as my beautiful friend and mentor Nipun Mehta calls meditation. =)
I hope you have a beautiful weekend.
♡. under1000skies ☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative☼
We are photographers, writers, artists & advocates serving and connecting homeless creatives
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡ Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
“The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back.”
― C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces
♡. under1000skies ☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative☼
We are photographers, writers, artists & advocates serving and connecting homeless creatives.
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡ Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
I have never used our site to promote any politician’s agenda, but this issue impacts every single one of us, most especially those who are homeless and/or in poverty. If you have a moment, please read this article about how poverty makes criminals of people who have not yet been convicted for a crime, and what Senator Bernie Sander’s wants to do about it.
In a country in which we pride ourselves on the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” we should not be keeping hundreds of thousands of people locked up before they have actually been convicted of a crime.
And yet in 2016, more than 65 percent of the over 700,000 people in county or city jails on any given day in the United States were “unconvicted” — meaning that more than 400,000 people were in jail who had not been convicted of a crime, often because they lack the money to pay bail. In other words, we have criminalized poverty.
That is not acceptable. Pretrial detention should be not based on how much money a person has, what kind of mood the judge is in on a given day, or even what judge the case happens to come before.
______ ♡. under1000skies ☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative☼
We are photographers, writers, artists & advocates serving and connecting homeless creatives.
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡ ¤ Happy 100th Birthday Nelson Mandela! ¤
“Just ask the French football team that just won the World Cup… Not all of those folks looked like Gauls to me. But they're French! They're French,” Obama says on looking past race to embrace our common humanity https://t.co/pomR3DkGkMpic.twitter.com/7BCzHvScmg
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