Release – The Journey of Saltwater Healing

Saltwater Healing – A Myth Memoir and Poems
By Angelique V. Nixon

Poinciana Paper Press 2013

Launched at Doongalik Studios Art Gallery

3 February 2013 || Nassau, The Bahamas

My first solo book collection of art and poetry is here - Saltwater Healing - published by Poinciana Paper Press! I am thrilled and blessed to share my work in this way – through a beautiful letterpress cover, hand bound, limited edition book – with a small independent Caribbean press. The collection includes a digital full color reproduction of my literary artwork and myth memoir “Saltwater Healing” (18 wooden panels originally featured as an installation in Transforming Spaces 2012 FIBRE at The Hub in Nassau) and 11 of my poems.

The books are $30 each and available through Poinciana Paper Press and at Doongalik Studios in Nassau. Copies will also be available soon at other local bookstores and art galleries. I also have copies. Feel free to email me at angeliquevnixon@gmail.com for more information. You can also contact the press directly - please visit PoincianaPaper Press or email Sonia Farmer at sonia@poincianapaperpress.com. I am also hoping to organize a New York launch sometime this spring. I will share more info once it falls into place!

We had a really successful launch on Sunday and sold quite a few books! I want to express my deep gratitude for such a successful and powerful event on Sunday – giving thanks to everyone who came to support, those who bought books, and those who were there in spirit. And I want to thank each and every person who made the launch possible, especially:

·      Sonia Farmer, editor and founder of Poinciana Paper Press, for believing in this project and working tirelessly to make it happen

·      Pamela and Orchid Burnside for hosting the event at Doongalik Studios

·      Marion Bethel, for her most brilliant introduction of me and my work

·      Book Making & Binding Volunteers: Orchid Burnside, John Thompson, Storm Strand, Zoe Tsavoussis, Charmaine Gibson, and Kat Jackson

·      Margot Bethel for documenting the event and for collaborating with Sonia on the cover design and printing

·      Erin Greene, Tina Johnson, Tania Nixon, and Vanessa Eneas for delicious refreshments at the launch and Mendoza Imports for pink champagne!

Also many thanks to The Nassau Guardian, ARC Magazine, Bahamas Arts & Culture Newsletter, Repeating Islands, and The Tribune for featuring the launch and promoting my book, as well as ArtOvation with TaDa on Star 106.5FM for having me on her show to talk about my book!

*~*~*

Here are a few photos of the book making and binding process. For more photos and details into the book making process, check out this link for Sonia Farmer's post on Poinciana Paper Press's blog. And also check out ARC Magazine's lovely re-mix of Sonia's piece. Thanks Holly!

I arrived just in time on Friday afternoon to work on the prep for binding (poking holes) and to install the artwork at Doongalik Studios.

Sonia, Orchid and I - after working all afternoon on Friday before the launch, and me holding the first completed book!!!  In front of the installation of my Saltwater Healing Panels - spread out over two walls.

Remix of my Saltwater Healing Installation

Remix of my Saltwater Healing Installation

And on Saturday, we did the final part - the sewing and binding of the books!

Excited that I got to bind my books!

The final stretch!

The space! Ready for the big day!

with Sonia and Marion at the launch, before the reading

The official launch day was beautiful, and I felt incredibly lifted by all the positive energy beaming from the crowd of 50 or so people who came together for this celebration – supporting not only my work but also Poinciana Paper Press! I had the great opportunity to reimagine the display of my pieces while I worked with Pam Burnside to install the panels in the gallery space on Friday before the launch. The remix turned out to be a great new way of experiencing the Saltwater Healing panels and I got lots of positive feedback!

Many people I knew in the crowd, some of my dearest loved ones and family, others with common interests and circles, and some I met for the first time. Sitting in this gorgeous, sun-filled room at Doongalik, I felt so honored as we started the event and Sonia Farmer welcomed us and brought up Marion Bethel, who introduced me. I am still in awe of Marion’s brilliant reflection and introduction! I had to hold back the tears as I listened intently to her powerful description of my work. I am overjoyed that she was able to be a part of this special day. (Thank you Marion!) After Marion’s stirring introduction, I gave a reading of a few select pieces from the book – started with the myth memoir and wrapped up with a few poems. I chose pieces that I thought would reflect the book as a whole but not give to much away – wanting to encourage folks to buy the book! I also made some choices based on audience, but at the same time, wanting to stay true to my work, which is all about breaking silences. I took some risks and shared poems that are hard for me - all the messiness we suppress too often - domestic violence, disease, and poverty. I wanted to read these poems because of these silences.

Marion introducing me! 

Ready for the reading!

The crowd!

However, I feel in retrospect that I was too silent about certain things – like stating clearly why I identify as Black - as a mixed race woman - and why my late maternal grandmother Mabel Sistella Charles is so central to my story and the collection (hence why the book is dedicated to her). I believe all these things are very clear in the book (and Marion affirmed these points in her introduction as well), but I didn’t make it very clear during my reading. Perhaps I did this because I have voiced this in public at home in various settings from radio shows and lectures to readings and newspaper articles. Or perhaps I wanted to leave it up to the reader/audience. 

Close up of Saltwater Healing 

Close up of Saltwater Healing

I didn’t read certain pieces where these issues come up in my poetry and myth memoir. Mostly because I didn’t want to upset my paternal grandmother – Viola Nixon – who came to my event and who was also a big part of my life growing up. Since the "Gramma" in my book is not her, I kept censoring myself and said less than I had planned. Instead of facing up to and explaining my choices, I was silent once again – even as my creative work literally and figuratively calls for us to be “silent no more.” I could have explained more, and after the event, I started to feel like I missed this important opportunity to speak up and out. But then I realized I'm comfortable in my skin and how I identify - so much so that I no longer feel the need to explain this, even to people who don’t know me or my story. I am so rooted in my self, my identity, and my connection to ancestors and spirit that I no longer have to say it quite so much. It is who I am. Nevertheless, I’ve been agonizing over my reading and what I didn’t say or what I left out. I am reminded that there are spaces and places I still must tell and in this case re-tell again and again. I feel that I’m working through other silences, another part of my story. Perhaps my next project... 

Here I am with my paternal grandmother - Viola Nixon

To do that, I have to admit a few things and release them – like discomfort with my paternal family, and that I don't want to talk about my paternal family and those particular dynamics that also gave rise to me. I have touched upon them in my work here and there, but for the most part I avoid it. These dynamics are as equally complex as my maternal side, and in some ways even more so - with Chinese mixed race whiteness, denial of Blackness, outside children, and troubling stories of domestic violence and sexual trauma – stories I haven’t fully started writing about yet. I have made the deliberate and strategic choice to focus on my maternal line in much of my work because of Spirit and Ancestors who speak to me and through me. My maternal side forged in me a sense of survival (through genetic memory and spirit calling) that has made me the person I am today. But my paternal side made me too – and at some point, I believe I will be ready to share this truth. For now though, it feels too hard. But I am closer to telling that story. 

And so I will say here what I wanted to say on Sunday - which is acknowledge both my maternal and paternal grandmothers as a vital part of my life, but that this particular project is about the one who is in the spirit world - the one who has been my creative muse for many years - Mabel Sistella Charles. And so it's her story because her story creates me - this drives my poetic voice. And it's her story because there are so few spaces to tell her story (as a Black Bahamian woman, single mother, domestic worker, raised in Inagua and through struggle) that I feel it's my responsibility to speak it loud. Her passing when I was so young (at 18) has affected more than I can ever explain (and then loosing my mother just a year after that at 19). These moments have marked me forever. And somehow in spirit we remain close and in communication. I know that I have to tell my gramma's story and explain this - even when it's the most painful and uncomfortable. More lessons - grateful.

I am releasing all the stuff I didn't say - letting it go and saying it here - knowing that there will be more time, more readings and events. And so it is - Saltwater Healing is born! It is my story of healing and difficult childhood memories told through the Bahamian land/seascape. It is a collection of poetry and art that speaks troubled herstories and affirms the imagination as our place for healing and recreation/affirmation of self. It took me years to get here to tell this story – and for that I am so thankful for all who bear witness and can hear me – even when its hard.

I give thanks to all my friends, loved ones, and mentors who have been witness to my poetry and writing – especially Marion Bethel and Asha Rahming (my sheroes), my chosen family (sisters Vanessa Eneas, Bianca Zaiem, and Jheaneale Bahadosingh), my Florida family (Eduardo, Susi, Carlos, Alexia), my cousin Nabila Darville, my stepmother Lynn Darville, and my closest friends and comrades in the struggle, my community! – you know who you are – so grateful and blessed to have each of you in my life! Thank you for always believing in me and supporting me through this journey.

My sisters - Vanessa and Jheaneale

My dearest friends Erin and Tina and my cousin Nabila

Signing books! 

with family - my cousin Nabila,
grandmother Viola, and aunt Kay

with Tania - my aunt, my sister!

My niece Penelope :)

Family - Tania, Jheaneale, Vanessa

Refreshments and Mingle time!

Margot, Stan, Orchid

Jay, Jan, Ali

Tina, Orchid, Pam

with Stan and Alana

Another shot of Mingle Time!

with Orchid and Kareem

with Asha!

Sonia and I take a moment to smile and exhale!

with Pam Burnside

with Gio and Stephen

with Margot!

Such a beautiful day and celebration! Spirit Filled Blessings and Love!

More musings, soon come, on conscious vibration!

Angelique

To get a copy of my book, email me at angeliquevnixon@gmail.com,
or visit Poinciana Paper Press and 
email Sonia Farmer at sonia@poincianapress.com.

Abundance and Blessings!

We are deep into the new year already... but since this is my first post of 2013 - happy new year greetings! Wishing everyone abundance, blessings, and so much love!!! 

I brought in the new year at home and since getting back state side, I continue mapping out what I want to do and bring to fruition this year. So many seeds I've planted last year are coming to life and bearing fruit this year - especially my writing! And so I am thrilled to give all the details for my first solo book (a collection of my poetry and reproduction of my literary art work, myth memoir - Saltwater Healing) that is being published with Poinciana Paper Press - and the launch is this week Sunday! I am going home for the launch and also for the book binding this weekend. 

My book - "Saltwater Healing" will be a hand-bound, letterpress printed cover, limited-edition of 100 copies, and printed in full color. Thanks to the hard work of Sonia Farmer, editor and founder of the small independent press - Poinciana Paper Press, the book will be beautiful and a piece of art! Also, many thanks to both Sonia and Margot Bethel for collaborating and designing the cover. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to share my creative work and my story in this way. And I give thanks to this space of conscious vibration where I have shared so much of my work and my self over the years. 

In my tradition of archiving accomplishments and progress in my writing life, here are the highlights and details for the release of "Saltwater Healing":

Here is the official announcement from Poinciana Paper Press:

FEBRUARY 2013 "Saltwater Healing" by Angelique V. Nixon

Doongalik Studios

February 3, 3-5 p.m

Nassau, The Bahamas 

Poinciana Paper Press is pleased to announce the launch of "Saltwater Healing" by Bahamian poet, scholar and community worker Angelique V. Nixon. This myth memoir and poetry collection use the Bahamian landscape to explore difficult personal stories as a way to heal. 

My vision for this work grew out of the ways I engage with home as a Black mixed-race queer Bahamian woman living abroad. It grew out of troubled women's stories (herstories) too often left out of our "history" books. It grew out of messiness—the stuff we don't often speak about--poverty, domestic violence, drug abuse, disease, mental health, sexual trauma, sexuality, race and color, class and privilege, and environmental crisis. It grew out of my desire to speak and share hard stories through a visual medium, using a story-telling poetic form and collage of materials and found objects. And it grew out of my visits home over the years to reconnect with homespace, and this not only involved spending time with my loved ones, but also going to the sea, laying in sand, breathing in salty air, and soaking in the ocean’s healing embrace. It grew out of all the stories my grandmother told me as a young child - many which centered on the healing powers of our land and seascape. It grew out of me depending on my visits for rejuvenation, but also experiencing the difficult memories of my childhood. 

-Angelique V. Nixon

And for a sneak peek at Saltwater Healing and the process, check out photos on Poinciana Paper Press here!

*~*~*

Here is the press release about "Saltwater Healing" written by Sonia Farmer - and featuring my responses to several of her questions inquiring about my process. This was published on Saturday in The Nassau Guardian, and I wanted to share it here as well. 

*~*~*~*

Poinciana Paper Press launches “Saltwater Healing”

Published in The Nassau Guardian, Arts and Culture Section, 26 January 2013

Sonia Farmer, Poinciana Paper Press 

How do we tell the stories that are too painful to recall? In what language can we bring these hidden realities, often loaded with shame, to light and let the retelling hold witness to and ultimately heal our stories?

In “Saltwater Healing,” the latest book being launched next month by local independent fine press, Poinciana Paper Press, Bahamian poet Angelique V. Nixon finds the path to healing and empowerment lies in both language and image.

In eighteen snapshots, she collages photographs, drawings, and actual pieces from the Bahamian landscape—silk cotton tree cotton, woman’s tongue pods, sand and shells, dried leaves and seeds—and uses them alongside handwritten poetry to explore and understand difficult stories through the lens of the natural world.

Along with a selection of her own poems, the book finds beauty and strength in even the darkest of places—like letting the ocean’s tide wash your sorrow out to sea, “Saltwater Healing” moves the reader through to a refreshing and more inspired place.

“Through my collection, I hope readers feel inspired to tell their own stories in whatever ways that make sense to them. And I hope to encourage readers to share and speak their truth,” she says. “I am working in the tradition of Black women writers who insist upon our need to create our own stories out of what we know and what we don't know -- because so much of our histories/herstories are unknown.”

Inspired by Audre Lorde’s Zami, Angelique calls the work a “myth memoir” for its seamless combination of stories, experiences, memories, dreams and mystical elements in the narrative of poetry in the artwork, ultimately working to defy literary boundaries and create new ways of telling stories.

“I think it’s important for artists to cross and play with boundaries,” she says. “Poetry and writing generally help us to create images in our minds, and so I wanted to push myself as a word artist further into the visual realm.”

“Language is as fluid as other mediums of art, yet it is so often fixed in space,” she adds. “I love word art, mixed media, collage, recycled art, and photography. And so I found myself using a variety of objects to compliment and complicate my words and the stories I wanted to share.”

“Saltwater Healing” happened organically though a workshop and came to completion as she created an installation for last year’s Transforming Spaces art tour under the theme of “Fibre”. The powerful piece resisted any definitive literary genre, making it a perfect fit for the local independent press, Poinciana Paper Press.

“It's really important for my book to be published by this press because I believe in small independent publishing, and I want to support local businesses as much as I can in our economy,” says Nixon. “Also for me, its an honor to be published, recognized, and supported by a local Bahamian press because my work is about home - and no matter how long I have lived away - The Bahamas is always my home.”

Specializing making Caribbean stories into limited-edition and hand-made works of art, Poinciana Paper Press recognizes that the book form is an active part of the reading experience. Founded in 2007 by Sonia Farmer, the press was a nomad entity for several years while she completed her training in book-binding, printmaking, papermaking and letterpress printing abroad in New York City and London, the U.K. In 2012, Poinciana Paper Press finally gained a home in Nassau and is presently growing into a center for book arts, letterpress and papermaking—the first of its kind in the Caribbean.

Angelique V. Nixon is a writer, scholar, teacher, community worker, and poet born and raised in The Bahamas. She earned her Ph.D. in English specializing in Caribbean literature and culture at the University of Florida in 2008. Currently, she is a professor in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.

“Saltwater Healing” is hand bound with a letterpress-printed cover in a limited edition of one hundred copies, which will be available for purchase at the launch on February 3^rd, 3 p.m. at Doongalik Studios on Village Road. Angelique will read from her collection and guests will be able to see the original panels of “Saltwater Healing” on display in the gallery space.

For more about Poinciana Paper Press, visit www.poincianapaperpress.blogspot.com. 

Invite for the launch in Nassau, The Bahamas! 

I hope to also have a launch in New York sometime this Spring - so for all my NY peeps, look out for details soon! And also for my friends/family outside of Nassau, let me know if you want your very own copy of "Saltwater Healing" - and I can make arrangements with you! 

Email me at angeliquevnixon@gmail.com for more info!

with peace, light & conscious wibes dem,
Angelique 

Love Moon Healing

In honor of the full moon in Cancer - December Love Moon - and the powerful emotional vibrations surrounding this intense end of 2012, I wanted to share musings and inspirations from one of my favorite astrology blog sites:

The astrological sign of Cancer is a water element, a cardinal mode of energy. When Cancer is being expressed at its potential, it is powerful, dynamic and highly tenacious sign. Things will get done. And any obstacles on the path, water tends to flow over, around it and in the end move past it. This is how the sign of Cancer has the potential to handle difficulty. Though this sign is a touch sensitive and thus under a full moon, every emotion may feel even more intense. 

What could be the key themes or issues surfacing now? They will be around family, roots or belonging, rejection, abandonment, emotional security, financial or professional security as well as death, dying, letting go of the past and moving past old comfort zones. 

The exquisite potential of the Full Moon in Cancer is re-establishing emotional purity and strength. Allowing one to be confident and free to express feelings and flow with life. Learn to honor your feelings and attune to the Sacred Feminine. Be receptive to healing and also remain open to allowing things to wash away and prepare your inner container for new beginnings by being in the present moment. Let the raw emotion of rejection, abandonment and emotional betrayal heal. Allow love to caress you and nourish you on every level. 

- Depali Desai, Celestial Space Astrology Blog

Full Moon * 27 Dec 2012 * Yoga Retreat, Paradise Island, The Bahamas 

And so I am in deep reflection about what healing and transformation mean for me in the present moment and into the new year. It's been so good to be home and re-connect with my people and homespace in the Bahamas. It helps me feel rooted yet it also fills me with anxiety and hard memories. But these too keep me spirited. I am really feeling this full moon deeply and all the planetary shifts that are culminating into the new year. So many of my projects, my creations, are coming to fruition in 2013 - because of the work and intensity of this year - my water dragon year - in which I invested so much of my time and energy planting, sowing the seeds of long time visions... and they are emerging! One of those projects is all about healing and transformation - and I am thrilled that it will be published soon soon! More to come on that - (Saltwater Healing, Poinciana Paper Press, Forthcoming 2013) there will be a book launch an' ting in the new year :)  So this time for me has really been about letting go and listening to the universe and focusing on radical self care. I am as we all are - a work in progress - continuing to grow, heal, and change.

I focus during this full moon on healing - my own healing but also praying for healing for all of us and our planet - continuing to envision and believe in this time of change - the time is now for us to embrace the Sacred Feminine and love ourselves and this earth.

So in wrapping up my end of year musings on conscious vibration, I wanted share the music that has kept me going these past few months - as I've been deep in the throws of writing, teaching, deadlines, and the day to day. This past fall, I spent much of my time alone (outside of teaching and meetings and a few weekends in New York) and it was really a time of affirming my rituals of self care - especially after my dynamic and beautiful summer of travels and spending much time at home. The fall was really about me and alone time - and work - and creative recovery - nurturing my artistic self. And music was a big part of this work for me - and so I share my top three songs of 2012:

Grace Jones, This is...

Emeli Sande, Wonder

Jose James - Black Magic

And finally here are some pics of art pieces I created while listening to these songs:

Happy New Year!!! more musings soon come on conscious vibration...

peace & radiant light,

Angelique

Activate + Manifest = Transformation

*** 21 December 2012 ***

Happy Winter Solstice!  I'm meditating on new beginnings, awakenings, and change on this powerful day! Here's a little something I'm reflecting on as we all embark on a new year during this time of change:

"From ancient times, the Solstice was considered to be a power point or portal of Spiritual energies flowing in onto the planet. In astrology, the Solstice is a marker or turning point in the astrological calendar. This year, December 21st, 2012 we are standing on the edge of something big in Collective Consciousness. Whether you notice it or not it is happening all across the world. Life is changing and it is helpful to move along with it, which makes this Solstice point unique in nature.  Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we celebrate the “Winter Solstice” a time of celebrating and time of introspection. 

The solstice of 2012 is bringing things to a completion in one way. Old way of life is ending and dissolving before everyone’s eyes. Walking through this symbolic doorway within Consciousness is important and beneficial. If you do so, consciously and with the appropriate alignment you can ignite the New Year 2013 with different approach."

- Dipali Desai, Celestial Space Astrology Blog

I'm at home in the Bahamas for the holidays - grateful for this time with my friends and family - feeling blessed to bring in the new year here. It has been a vibrant, dynamic, and powerful year - filled with healing, self-care, and change. We are all in the midst of shifting consciousness and transformation. I have been feeling it all year with so much gratitude to be alive and to be doing what I love to do - writing, teaching, meaningful community work, and creating art and poetry. 

I'm still flying high from a beautiful experience earlier this month. I had the great opportunity to share my work as a scholar, poet, and community worker during a keynote address at Oberlin College for the Students of Caribbean Ancestry annual 2012 banquet. I was asked to speak about Caribbean independence and what it means for queer Caribbean people inside and outside the region. The title of my talk was "Sexual Freedom and Citizenship in the Post Independence Anglophone Caribbean Or A Queer Postcolonial Subject Reflecting Transnational Space(s)" - and I shared much of my work with the Caribbean IRN and highlights of our collection Theorizing Homophobias, and I also talked about my scholarly work and research in Caribbean Sexuality Studies. I ended the presentation with a poetry reading. It was a beautiful experience - and it really made me feel affirmed and appreciated! The students there were so brilliant! And I felt so blessed and grateful being able to be my full self - writer, scholar, teacher, activist, and poet. This experience made my year! 

SOCA Banquet, Oberlin College, 8 December 2012

***

Activate + Manifest = Transformation

Meditating on conscious vibration - time to activate and manifest our intentions and stay rooted in radical self care - as we prepare and open ourselves for the coming changes and shifts with the end of this dynamic year.

wishing everyone peace & love for the holidays,
Angelique

Turbulence

"Disgust at the obscenity, compounded with guilt: it is within our power to bring the suffering to an end and allow the Samidin to enjoy the lives of peace and dignity that they deserve." 

- Noam Chomsky on his visit to the Gaza Strip, October 25-30, 2012.

“The Palestinian people want to be free of the occupation”

- Award-winning Israeli journalist Gideon Levy

I wrote a prayer for Palestine on the third day of the recent horrific and unspeakable attacks. Reflecting on the long years of occupation and war, I was compelled by spirit to speak out and use my words and knowledge to share and search for deeper understanding. 

To the people of Palestine

Unrecognized, Occupied and Terrorized

the civilians, the children, the workers, the parents, 

the journalists, the artists, the peacemakers, the healers, 

the freedom fighters,

I sit here in the privilege of never having lived in the fear of bombs and rockets

splintering humanity and community.

I sit here with a pain from my chest

to my heart and stomach

worried with helplessness

of what can I do…

except expand my own awareness

and those of my friends, family, students, online community.

I sit in the stark reality of being an activist far from these front lines 

of the heaviest, most intense battles of our time, extending beyond this time

so far back... but these histories and conflicts still rage beneath and through us.

Sure I have been on the frontlines of other battles – poverty, abuse, lack, despair, healing work in the face of grave suffering – I have worked and lived and survived front lines…  but none like this…  no war… no battles with rockets under terror colonization.

I sit with my pen wanting to craft words, carve an urgent response

calling for peace and praying for change

praying for the children and future of Palestine

praying for a sense of humanity and dignity for a people

being crushed yet and still fighting to live

in the face of our collective blindness and willful ignorance.

I remember June Jordan’s words from the film A Place of Rage –

What are we prepared to do for the people of Palestine?

How her words still resonate 20 years later...

Where is our collective rage?

Prayers and meditations today and everyday for peace and dignity for the people of Palestine. Our humanity depends on how we discuss and respond to this crisis. Some of us may feel unaffected and far away, but we do not live in a vacuum - we affect and are affected - and if one lives in the United States and pays taxes, then we are implicated. And we do have a voice - keep ourselves informed, speak from a place of love, and let us all "think peace and believe in change."

Noam Chomsky said the following about what gives him hope in Gaza after his visit: "people’s resilience. They just don’t give up. Under the worst conditions, horrendous conditions, people still, you know, fight for their rights and don’t just succumb. And, you know, it’s a lesson for people from the West. I mean, you know, we talk about repression, but, you know, undetectable by comparison with what most people in the world face. And if they can struggle on under really harsh and brutal conditions, tells us we ought to be doing a lot more."

Yesterday the United Nations voted overwhelmingly in favor of recognizing the statehood of Palestine. Perhaps this is our collective global first step in doing something.

I continue to trust in the future and that change (the great cosmic shift of our time) is surely coming... and that we can and must create change even with and through the most difficulty of situations and the hardest of addictions. But we are reflections of each other. Bound to histories that don't make sense... and to the present of tumbling into an abyss of climate change, continued wars and occupations, troubled conflicts, control over minds and bodies, mass consumption, excessive greed, extreme poverty, too much extraction, too much violence at greater and greater costs to our bodies and our planet. 

We have little to spare and too much work to do. The time is now to think beyond ourselves and rage more. Change is coming. Resist. Rethink. Rework. Remember. Rememory. Reclaim. Rebuild. Rage Power.

31st October 2012 * reflections at midnight *

Peace and blessings on this last day of October, the day we call halloween or samhain... this is the night that can bring us closer to the spirit world should we so choose... this is the night that reminds us of our connections to the after life, if we want/can see them... This day has been one of my favorite holidays since I was a child growing up in the Bahamas - enjoying the very idea of being able to be anyone and dress up and play...  to escape and become something else. Since my early 20s, it has marked a beginning for me - the day I take stock of self, change, transformation, and spiritual growth.

This year is a tough one... it feels surreal to write on this day just days after the massive superstorm sandy has devastated so many places and people - starting as a strong and strange hurricane last week and moving slowly across the Caribbean - Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, and the Bahamas. And then up the eastern coast of the United States to grow into what scientists have called the "perfect storm" of a jet stream winter low pulled into a hurricane tropical storm low pressure. We are without a doubt experiencing the drastic effects of climate change because of our relentless use/abuse of fossil fuels. These extreme weather patterns are telling us something. It is time to end the silence and take responsibility for our planet. The time is now to demand the end of silence about climate change and the unnatural disasters happening across the planet. There are too many silences and cover ups. There is too much fear. 

I sit and mediate on this eve and focus my energies on what I can do to hold our leaders, our governments, our communities, and ourselves accountable. How can we create change? How can we build better with each other and with the planet? How can we re-make our relationships with the earth? How will we start over? What will we tell our children and future generations when they ask what happened to the earth, to our communities, to us? How can we use the energies of 2012 - planetary shifts in consciousness - and the power of this day, this time of transformation, to enact, envision, and create the changes we see and imagine? What will you do tomorrow and the next day? What will I do? And what can we do together? 

with peace, love & conscious wibes