Miracles Every Day

As we lit the eighth candle last night, I talked with Littletree about the miracle of Channukah - about 2000 years ago, the temple was destroyed and the people needed specially prepared sacred oil to keep the sacred lamp burning. But in the ruins of the temple, all that remained was one little jar of oil; barely enough to last for one day, and it would take eight days to make more.
By a miracle, that small jar of oil lasted for eight days - long enough to make more, and to keep the flame burning.

For me, this is a true story; one that I've experienced in my real life. So many times I've been in the communal kitchens at Rainbow Gatherings, where communal vegetarian meals are prepared for sometimes up to 5,000 people twice daily.

The whole shebang is run by volunteers, without any structured leaders, workers or organisation. Everything from the collecting of donations, the writing of shopping lists, the shopping, the storage, the kitchen hygiene and the food preparation is done by self-appointed volunteers.

And sometimes we get into the kitchen to prepare food for hundreds or thousands of people, only to find that there's no oil left to cook with.
So I get an empty oil bottle, and I go around the whole festival to people's individual camp sites, and ask: can anyone donate a little oil from their personal food stash.

Even just a splash of oil, every little bit helps. Some people don't have oil, some people can just spare a little, some people give up half a bottle... but I always return to the kitchen with enough oil (or salt, or potatoes, or whatever) to make the meal for everyone to share.

It's a true miracle. When people work together and share as a community, everything is possible.

Chag Sameach.

Giant Perspective

I was just putting Littletree to bed and giving her a snuggle, and she said "Mama, can we talk about Stereotypes?"

"Okay", I said.

"Well, I think it's really mean that so many people make stereotypes. Like they say that Giants are mean and nasty. But Giants are people just like everyone else, except that they're really big. Like, really, really big. But they're nice, and kind. It's so insulting to stereotype them! I just don't understand why people keep making mean stereotypes about all different kinds of people."

When I thought about it, I realised that to a child, everyone is a giant. It's all about perspective.

One Billion Seconds

My birthday just passed last month – one billion seconds since I was born.

According to some calculations, I passed one billions seconds on Sunday, 23 January 2011 at 6:49:40 PM (local time, which is the same as the time I was born in). Depending on how the billion seconds is calculated, and depending on daylight savings and whatnot. Also, some seconds are longer than others.

Like the second when Littletree was born – that’s a second I will  remember and cherish always.

The second when Littletree was about 2, and running down a street in Tel Aviv towards a bomb that was about to be detonated was a second that stretched out for a really long time.

The second when we crashed our car that was probably about 20 seconds, but it all happened in a second of my perception.

Time is rubber, sometimes the seconds race by, sometimes they drag on, but every one of them is precious, every moment is worth living for and worth cherishing.

We change the future with every choice we make, and we make choices every second, so make them count.

Me at around 16,000 seconds old (2 days).

Day Out of Time

Today is the “Day out of Time” for adherents to the Cult of Dreamspell (AKA the Mayan Calendar). Being that I tend to move in alternative hippie circles, there seems to be a lot of folk around me who follow this cult. I don’t have a problem with it, but the sheer numbers of people around, especially in Rainbow Gatherings, who are partying today, in preparation for the “end of the world” in 18 months’ time, is somewhat irritating.

Let’s be honest: The Dreamspell has noting directly to do with Mayan people – it was made up by a guy called José Argüelles in the mid-80s. Real Mayan people have their own calendar – several of them in fact, which is very different from the Dreamspell. When I was in Guatemala and Mexico, there were a whole lot of real Mayan people who were decidedly angry about the advent of this Cult, which uses their name and bastardises their symbols, and even use their name for the calendar, Tzolkin.

I admit, as cults go, the Dreamspell is a nice one. It’s all about peace and getting in synch with nature, and the calendar certainly has pretty pictures.

I just wish people would follow the cult with a little more information, rather than blindly believing in nonsense, and I wish people would stop evangelising about it.

The vast majority of people I know who are followers don’t even realise it is a cult. Most of them have no idea that the Dreamspell was made up by Argüelles in 1986; I keep hearing people insist that the calendar is an ancient time-keeping system developed by Mayan people 5000 years ago. Though if you go to the thirteen moon website page on the origins of the Dreamspell, it says “Awaiting galactic transmission… Page coming soon…”

The calendar itself isn’t even mathematically correct. It runs on the idea of a 28-day lunar month, though there is no such thing as a 28-day lunar month. The length of a moon cycle is 29.53059 days, whereas the orbital period is 27.32166 days. According to the thirteen moon website, they arrive at a “28 day month” by averaging these two numbers, even though doing so makes no sense regarding moon cycles, and even still, that comes out to 28.426125 days, not 28 days.

If you take a 28.426125 day cycle (or 28.3 according to the thirteen moon website) and call it a 28-day cycle, what you get is .4 of a day left over every “month”. No biggie, right? But over the course of a 13-month year, you’ll be five days out of whack from the actual moon. Which means roughly every five years, you lose a whole moon cycle (talking about cycles of the actual moon and not “moon cycles” according to the Dreamspell).

Of course, then you have 13 months of 28 days, which adds up to 364 days, so the Day out of Time comes in – it is a celebration day that doesn’t belong to any month. Nice; I can get behind that. But there’s still a problem: There aren’t 365 days in a year.

It takes 365.242199 days for the Earth to make a circuit around the Sun. That’s why we have Leap Years in the Gregorian calendar. The Dreamspell has no leap years, which means every time the Gregorian calendar marks the 29th of February, the Dreamspell calendar just sits on its hands and whistles innocently.

Truly! They just pretend that day isn’t happening – some adherents take the “Kin” or day of the 28th of February and make it last for 48 hours, some divide the 29th of February into two parts – before noon being a part of the day before, and after noon being part of the 1st of March.

There is also the “Planet Holon”, a geographically-incorrect projection of the 20 “solar seals” on the Earth. No one seems to mind that the Earth is a sphere, and therefore this cute diagram is laughable.

Here’s what the Dreamspell folk have to say about the Planet Holon:

The base holon unit is the 'perfect fifth:' a tetrahedron (four-sided pyramid) and its invisible center point, the g-force core. G-force is the 'mysterious' fifth force; its core is always in the now. The holon-tetrahedron forms the underlying structure of the 13-tone wavespell. The 13-tone wavespell is the living cosmology of the fourth-dimension.

So how does this cult suck people in? Well, it does have very pretty pictures – each day has a “galactic signature, which has it’s own little pictogram and they have catchy names like “yellow self-existing seed” or “white crystal mirror”.

The Dreamspell propaganda is written in a kind of dreamy, hypnotic language, with phrases like “The 13 Moon 28-day synchronometer is a harmonic timespace matrix”:

“The Planetary Service Wavespell utilizes the 13-unit architecture of the adventure wavespell to create its annual program. The adventure wavespell has two gates, two towers and three sets of chambers. The adventure wavespell can be used to plot action over any cycle of time operating by the wavespell: 13 days, 13 moons, 13 years, etc.”

“The Law of Time states that: Energy factored by time equals art. In this equation, (E) refers to all phenomena in their processes of unfoldment; (T) is the present moment functioning according to the ratio constant 13:20. Everything shaped by time is art"

There is a lot of emphasis on the “Time equals Art” mantra, even though this doesn’t really mean anything. Apparently, the Gregorian calendar runs on a 12:60 timing frequency, which is “ruled by the clock and mind”, whereas the Dreamspell runs on a 13:20 frequency, in which “people are ruled by their heart, nature and art and guided by dreams and synchronicity”.

No one seems to mind that the 12:60 thing refers to 12 months in a year and 60 minutes in an hour, whereas 13:20 refers to 13 months of 20 days in a 260-day Tzolkin. These two units of reference aren’t even corresponding and as far as I can tell, followers of the Dreamspell still use the standard clock with 24 hours of 60 minutes of 60 seconds. Yes, the Gregorian calendar system is artificial and arbitrary, but so is this one.

Honestly, I don’t mind if people want to follow this cult. It is very pretty, but when they want to re-arrange dates for Rainbow Gatherings based on the appropriate Dreamspell Tzolkin kin, I get very irritated. International rainbow gatherings have traditionally been held according to the phase of the moon – something that can be plainly seen by anyone, regardless of their cult or religious tendencies, no matter which calendrical system they use. I do wish people actually knew what beliefs it is they are espousing before they go on evangelising.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, Littletree’s kin is Self-Raising White Flower.

Parenting – More Patience than the Buddha

A new Natural Parenting article of mine was published this week on Essence of Life, it’s about the art of being patient as a parent, and finding the spiritual journey within parenting.

You can read it HERE

On a Shoestring

Having grown somewhat, Littletree was in need of new running shoes. Really, I blame myself. I *knew* I shouldn’t have been feeding her all that nourishing food. Ah well, live and learn.

Thus we found ourselves in the store of a purveyor of children’s shoes, perusing the aisles.

Until now, I’ve always gotten her shoes with velcro fastenings (well, to be really honest, I’ve mostly avoided getting her shoes, preferring to wait for other doting family members to take on that happy task). Besides, she hardly ever wears them anyway!

I remember when she was younger, I briefly considered buying her shoes with laces, but quickly realised that would mean spending the next few months chasing her around, bent-double to tie them up for her until she either worked out how to do it herself or grew out of them. And the idea of teaching a small child to tie laces while you’re running late to get somewhere (which I perpetually am) sounds like a special brand of nightmare.

I decided that I would support my child to grow up till adulthood without knowing how to tie laces, when it would become her problem, and not mine. Thus, she’s always had velcro shoes.

Only in this particular store, the most aesthetically-pleasing (to Littletree) and least-plasticky (to me) running shoes had laces. They were also conveniently half price. I was entirely reluctant, despite massive savings; images of going mad and strangling myself with a shoelace flitted through my mind.

I subtly (or not so much) tried to steer her interest towards a similar pair with velcro, but she preferred the others. Eventually, I got her convinced, but a little voice in my mind reminded me that we were buying *Littletree* shoes to be her very own, and really, she should get the ones she wanted. I put both pairs on the floor in front of her, and said “you get the ones you really want.”

I found myself a few minutes later, dazed, at the checkout handing over my credit card, and walking away with a small pair of lace-up running shoes.

We got home, and Littletree promptly put the new shoes on, I gave her a 2-minute demonstration on how to tie laces. Which she repeated just fine. Again and again.

Walking home the next day, she said to me,

“Mama, I think my spirit told me to get the shoes with laces now, because my spirit knew I was ready to learn how to tie them. That’s how I learned to do it so easily. If we got shoes with laces before I was ready, it would have been really hard to learn”

What can I say? Who can argue with that; spirits know best!

In other news, this:

was the look on Littletree’s face when I told her a few people had donated her money towards her new computer. She’s been so excited, and wants to send out a huge THANK YOU!

And, her foot is now fine, thanks to everyone who send their well-wishes. :)

The Great Firewall of China is Coming to Australia!

You might notice my blog was blacked out when it first loads – I’m participating in the Great Australian Internet Blackout, which is protesting against the Australian government’s plan to introduce a mandatory internet filter.

This basically means that Australia will join countries such as China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, which impose centralised Internet censorship. The internet filter will force internet service providers to block access to a website blacklist or “Restricted Content” (RC), created by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). However this list is confidential and not available to the public.

And might I point out that *this* website – my blog, is blocked in China.

While Communications minister Stephen Conroy thinks the filter will "the risk of Australians being inadvertently exposed to RC-rated material when they are online", the lists have been widely criticised for being too broad in scope.

What’s more, trials of the filter were largely considered to be ineffective. Yet, the government is still spending millions of dollars on this plot to rob Australians of their right to freedom of information.

Ostensibly, Conroy insists that the net-filter is for blocking out child pornography, and sites that would endanger our children, but the reality is that the RC list also includes sites that contain “politically sensitive” information, like pro-euthanasia sites.

Does this remind anyone else of the Aussie government’s plan to rob Australian women of the right to choose where they give birth?

Will this mean in the near future pro-homebirth sites will also be blocked? after all, the proposed maternity care laws state that anyone inciting a woman to homebirth would be illegal. What about websites about freebirthing, or unschooling, or natural healing. What about freedom of speech. What about freedom of THOUGHT!?

you can read more about the internet censorship here:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/internet-filter-protesters-set-to-fade-websites-to-black-on-australia-day/story-e6frfro0-1225821477370

http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/12/21/the-swift-takedown-of-stephenconroy-com-au/

http://www.prisonplanet.com/australia-to-enforce-mandatory-chinese-style-internet-censorship.html

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24568137-2862,00.html

Pass-over Passover

Passover is coming on Saturday night, and everyone is busy preparing. The main point of the holiday is to remember how Moses busted the Jews out of Egypt. (They tried to kill us, we won; let's eat!)

The main way we remember, is by not eating leavened bread, because when the Jews escaped from the Pharaoh, they didn't have time to let their bread rise. Not only did they wander lost in the desert for ages, they didn't even have good Pita!

So, here we are, thousands of years after making this miraculous escape, and we keep eating Matzoh, so as to remember it. Let's be perfectly honest; matzoh is horrible stuff. it's like the driest, most flavourless, revolting, dry, tasteless, dehydrated, dry cracker you've ever eaten. Did I mention it's also dry and has no taste?

Okay, I get it, there's a religious significance, and during the Seder (the long feast we eat on the opening night of Passover, where we read this long story about how the Jews escaped Egypt), we're supposed to eat several pieces. But does it have to be the only bread-product we eat all week?

Haven't the Jewish people suffered enough?!

Anyway, I digress; the thing I wanted to talk about, is the extent Jews have to go to, in order to make sure they don't eat anything leavened.

You have to clean out all your cupboards, and throw away anything that contains Hametz; wheat, rye, barley, oats or spelt (and just for good measure, also corn and rice), and anything that might be fermented. So after you've thrown away all your food, you have to clean the whole kitchen really well, just to make sure no crumbs remain, and then boil all your dishes in a deep vat for a long time, to make sure no traces remain.

If you can imagine the enormity of this job, consider that supermarkets and food manufacturers also must comply; they have to throw away all their stocks of food, and clean their machinery, under the observation of a rabbi.

Of course, no one is really doing this. Most secular Jews are doing a somewhat half-assed job, by putting all their hametz food into one cupboard, high up, and pretending it's not there.

The big food manufacturers, and all the supermarkets, have a deal with this one Arab family. They leave all the food in it's place, but shut the doors on it till after Passover, and they sell it to this Arab family. Who knows how much for. Then at the end of the week, they buy it all back again. So for the week, nothing has changed, the food is all still in it's place, life goes on, but legally the food is owned by the Arabs, and therefore, it's all Kosher.

Lately this has gone one step further, with websites like this one offering to buy people's hametz from them, and then sell it back after a week. Of course, all the food stays in your pantry at home, and I don't think anyone checks if you have a little nibble while no one's looking.

It is just another way in which the Jews go to extraordinary lengths to circumvent Jewish law and still remain Kosher.

A Song Written by Purple

Purple wrote this amazing song when we were at the rainbow;

When I take her to the park to play
I want to hold her hand
And not let her run away
Or fill her mouth with sand

She drives her little scooter
Nearly smashes into the wall
She goes up the highest slide
I almost scream – she’s going to fall

And I love her…

So I let her run free
Be who she wants to be
She can learn from her own mistakes
Live in every breath she takes
She’ll have time for her own tears
She has no use for my old fears

When I see a wild flower
Do I chop its head; put it in a vase;
Watch it whither for three days
And never let it grow?
How can I do it to my child?
Why should I block her flow?

I show her rocks and birds and trees
I help her catch and throw a ball
I’d teach her everything there is
But all she wants is a Barbie doll

I want to tell her it is bad
A danger to her self esteem
I want to show her how I’m sad
That she takes part in such a dream

And I love her…

So I let her buy three
Be who she wants to be
She can learn from her own mistakes
Live in every breath she takes
She’s a person whose opinions count
She has to know I have no doubt

When I see a wild flower
Do I chop its head; put it in a vase;
Watch it whither for three days
And never let it grow?
How can I do it to my child?
Why should I block her flow?

She’s taking out her water paints
Her drawings can be neat and fine
But then she pours them on my shoes
Clearly she has crossed the line

Anger flashes through my eyes
‘I’ll show you what, you little brat!
There’s consequence to what you’ve done
I’ll teach you that you can’t do that!’

And I love her…

So I hug her to me
She’s sorry. I can see.
She can learn from her own mistakes
Live in every breath she takes
My shoes – they are already lost
But she knows I love her at any cost

When I see a wild flower
Do I chop its head; put it in a vase;
Watch it whither for three days
And never let it grow?
How can I do it to my child?
Why should I block her flow?

I really love this song, it totally expresses our parenting philosophy, how we are raising Littletree with unconditional respect...

Thoughts on Parenting Philosophy

While pretending to work - I'm supposed to be writing NEWS, I stumbled across this quote.

"Next to the right to life itself, the most fundamental of all human rights
is the right to control our own minds and thoughts." ~ John Holt

I think it speaks for itself, but it's worth dwelling on for a moment, and on what that really means. What that really means for us as a culture, and especially what that really means for our children.

It somehow fit in with the discussion that started my day. In a thread on MDC, discussing a child who is spending a lot of time on the computer, I said this:

It just occured to me; children come up with something that really grabs them, it develops into a passion; often its dinosaurs, or spiders, or nintendo. So then the kid spends "ALL his time" deeply engrossed in X.

When its something the parents approve of, like dinosaurs or mathematics ([Purple] for example was a math freak-kid), they are encouraged, books and materials are bought, lots of smiling and nodding goes on, parents recount with pride their LO's achievements. BUT something "bad" like computers, and the folks are right away worrying about too much screen time, that they want to be on the computer "all" day.

IMNSHO, this just sets the kid up for feeling that his interests aren't worthy; that he's only "good" and "lovable" when he shows interest in the "right" things; that the stuff he's really interested in is 'bad'.

I talked about it with Purple, and of course we got onto Barbies... there's so much hullabaloo about how Barbies are bad, and they set girls up to have negative body images and low self-esteem. But I'm realising more and more, that its not Barbie that gives us the low self-esteem, its being led to feel that our interests/ thoughts/ feelings are worthless. It's not Barbie that leads to negative body images, because any child raised in a TRULY supportive, and open environment, loved unconditionally for who they are, just wont feel that way.
:)