Women,
divine feminine
it's far past the time to take charge
put down your guns, world
put down your guns
time for the madness to end
sing lullabies, stroke their hair
do whatever necessary
to keep the madmen home

my mind boggles as to why we continue to back warmongers. I am truly baffled by the politics of the day (not naivete, rather stunned why we would chose self imposed annihilation over peace, time and time again). I believe in part that it is the absence of the divine feminine in our politics and our ways of being that thwart any possibility of a truly peaceful existence with nature.

Over the past three days, during IWD events, I was asked by three different people if I would run as a political candidate for their party. This is laughable since my gutter language and affinity for the strange would alone send me into political exile. Nothing less than smashing the state is going to save us now. And i am ready to smash. Not with violence but with love. Yes, I would be laughed out of politics for my hippie ways, but perhaps there is another kind of leadership emerging. One that doesn't need oval offices and fancy new curtains or a military apparatus that leaves its own people starving and impoverished.

As capitalism crumbles i will take a front row seat, tearing down walls and challenging colonialist ways. My ancestors were colonizers. Probably victims too, of politics that left them poor and desperate and willing to conquer others for a taste of comfort. I wear the badge of privilege as a scarlet letter. But I choose to turn shame into empowerment. I will lead, not in offices, in endless meetings disconnected to the people. I will meet you in the streets and mark my words, this revolution will most definitely include dancing and laughter, and love. VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

International Women's Day 2017

Women rising
depths of Gaia churning
fertility of magnificent soil
transformation to hope

Mother rising
sewing her fields
of wildflowers
scattered across lands
bountiful and free

Divine Feminine rising
cosmic consciousness upon us
casting shadowy glances
to our future
forboding harbinger

Women rising
ancestor wisdom harmonizing
collective spirit dawning
the dance never ends

Mother rising
gathering the indigos
telling stories of survival
tending the heart fires
fiercely passionate, fiercly resolved

Divine Feminine rising
overcoming hatred and fear
singing icaros of our souls

I accept trouble.
I accept trouble if it means that voices are heard
I accept trouble if it means that less children die
Chain me if you must 
But know
I will not be silent
I will never be silent
I will walk with every woman
I will walk with every man
Who drops their guns
Who looks to the beautiful sky
Who cherishes a loving glance of humanity
Who sings on my porch
I accept the trouble it might bring
You, the fugitive, the shamed, the blamed
I accept you with all your beautiful warts and scars and tears
And I will not be silent
I will never be silent
And no chains will ever bind me
And i will come to you in your moments of sadness
And i will wipe your tears and I will play music and dance with you
And together we will rise

We are fucked.

When my newsfeed is full of dead and dying babies

When all you have to do is scroll down to escape an image

of torture, of suffering

when a polar bear clinging to ice looks cute

when another bomb is just another bomb

when the bloodied face of a mother looking for her child

in a pile of rubble

seems ordinary

when our 'democracies' use voicemail and bullet proof cars  to 'reach the people'

when we don't stop to listen to the birds or the frogs or the elephants who are all screaming at us to STOP what we are doing

then i start to lose hope

i smile at everyone i meet

i try to give humanity a chance to prove herself

but holy fuck it's getting hard

Aleppo 
the blood, the rotting bodies
they stain our rotten souls
while i string christmas lights
for a holiday that has no religious meaning for me
dear children of Aleppo
humanity has failed
again
no gas chamber good enough
for our lack of humanity
dear Aleppo
i am castrated and a noose around my neck
no phone call, memo, or email
will make me understand
the gods shake me
and like a dog i shake it off
and prepare for war

IN HONOUR OF THE 14 WOMEN MASSACRED IN MONTREAL, ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE DECEMBER 6, 1989 

Throughout my career as a social worker, I have been up close and personal with many instances of woman abuse. I honour those women's stories every day as I fight for a more just world. 

When I was working in Belize with the 'Women's Department' I met a young woman, 15 years old. Coming from a family with a strong Catholic belief system, she spurned her boyfriend's advances to have sex with her. Or maybe she just didn't like him that much..it doesn't matter why. She was young and beautiful and wanted to focus on her studies so that she could be the first person in her family to complete high school. Her boyfriend became very angry at this perceived rejection and stabbed her in the back, severing her spinal chord. When I met her she lay paralyzed in her bed in her family's home, no hope of ever walking again, no hope of finishing school, no medical rehabilitation, nothing but emptiness in her beautiful eyes.

 Her sisters tried to cheer her up every day, but eventually they went on to live their busy lives, as Luisa languished. While I was there, I worked with the school to ensure that she could continue her studies at home, occupy her mind somehow as her mother shed rivers of tears every day. I read to her when I could, told her stories and asked her about her hopes and dreams, but then I too had to leave to come home to Canada. I kept in touch for a while but then the family stopped writing.

Another project I worked on was establishing a phone tree with village women....a PHONE TREE, so that women from neighbouring villages could be harbored in safe spaces to escape abuse.

I don't know what happened to Louisa or to many of the women I have worked with, but I know that violence against women and girls must stop. The patriarchy must crumble. Sisterhood rising <3 span="">