Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

Our last forest school of the year... Oh Rathlin -  rose in winter Golden is the light All those impossible hues Walking the path we have done so before A kind of modesty Testimony One morning, an unwritten poem on a new sky Everytime I return to Rathlin I love it more. It is true, it grows on you, Like a barnacle. Like lichen. Like a climbing rose. Like a spiral, a thought. It delivers gratitude - with time. With age. The alchemy of the staring sea, the dreaming of the skies. It does. There are so many thoughts which wash up and get taken back. It is a romantic idea of island life. As visitors we contend with nothing. We only receive the hospitality and kindness of those who have made a life there. A life after life after life. That is some life... to be able to go to the island. Some life to have forest school. Some life to live it so that it is utterly fulfilled. That is ...

Tell me, why did we decide to have democracy? What was the point? As far as I can see it, it was because we believed that ANYTHING had to be better than to be rule by a group of self-involved despots. I'd imagine the Game of Thrones is an example of this in near fiction. Shakespeare's plays are another forensic study n idiotic monarchs. Also the fall of the Roman Empire proved that infighting and the circulation of power amongst a few cretins was not good for us. So when the entire system had an opportunity to be rebooted, everyone said, not those lugheads, we want democracy. The problem is that democracy was captured by the lugheads. Or should I say recaptured. Well, they had help. They had helped from the arselickers. The bootstrappers who said, well, i'm in it for me and themus, the ones who have had it in for themsleves for generations, they know how it works, so i'm in it for them. And so these assholes got together and just rigged everything so that it all worked ...

Yesterday was Saturday and I was back out marching. It was so cute cos first Ghin and I went toTim Hortons for breakfast. It has been a very funny few days here. Ghin was caught by me leaving school without permission with his friends. I sadly had to turn him in. Yes I ratted on my own son. Later that day we refused to speak with me - Isaid, yes indeed, you have your Miranda rights as I drove him to volleyball practise. Ghin is actually really good at volleyball. After that he was a bit more chilled out. He had had a good sesh and was shaking his head as we recounted his escapade. Such is life. We stayed the night and I made udon with tofu and peppers. For breakfast the next day we went to Tim Hortons. It was perfectly awful. I mean PERFECTLY AWFUL. The doughtnut I had which was Boston Creme did not have any chocolate, the sugar in it was gritty, the doughtnut itslef was meh and the creme in it had no creme. It was some kind of cornstarch sludge. The coffee was ...

We went to the gym yesterday. I just ran - well just ran, it isn't just running though is it? It is running, for half an hour, at 6.5 km/h, at the age of 52 just after having broken my foot and having made a great recover. The upshot of the fall is I am now super carefully going up and downstairs like an old woman. You cannot be too careful. It coulda happened to any body - and clearly in the A&E it has and does, but I just don't want it to happen again. I am journaling once more because Oisin reminded me the importance of journaling. You have to get all the thoughts out there mom, said my wise son. My Oisin, what a triumph of my upbringing. Steadfast, tall, resilient. Everything a first child can be. It is such a pleasure spending time with him. We don't argue because I refuse to argue with him. Oisin so reminds me of myself. When he gets an idea in his head it lodges itself. We have a lot of fun with it. So I am turning up because my son reminded me of the...

elements merch!!!!  our next goddess gathering Monday's Forest School - a magical November evening There are times when I think, this is just too good to be true - this life. 

Cailleach at Samhain After the All is done, You are completion personified the essence - of experience - bound up, then set free. I could not know, so I only  Guessed - you always walked along. Where I fell - you soared - Come on you, you urged - we are Greater than this - we are the sum of all parts. Part serpent, Rebirther - the Slougher - the original  Come Back Kid (Hey, come back kid, you joked.) Part Raptor, part Songbird,  Part Fledgling, Part Egg Hunter All      all     all     Feathers and Flight and - Fight. In the dark - the cat's eyes saw - The impossible, improbable light of  An imagined dawn - pallid - reflected In future sight.  (Get up.) Slither towards me - Towards us. Then walk. run. Then leap. Then soar. Then - Roar. Roar - like you have never Roared before. You Survivor, Shape Shifter, Sun Sister I see you now. clothed in Silver,  All the riches ingrained - Embroidered...

Usually my posts get around 5 or 6 views... over the last 3 days they have had about 60 views... where are these 60 views coming from... mostly Ireland apparently. I wonder who in Ireland is reading these posts? I kinda have to be careful. I don't want parents of the children I teach thinking i'm a nut case. I mean I am a nutcase in the way most people are nutcases, but really, whatever I write, I hope I am able to stand over it. The difference has been, of course, the last 3 posts have been about the war in Gaza and the fire in the brain that has gripped Israel. Sometimes you read these stories in the Bible and they we are really no better than they were then. Jacob swindling Easau out of his birthright over a bowl of stew. Jealousy. Favouritism. Violence. How anyone can read the Bible and think it is a Holy Book, I don't know. It is like saying the Doomsday book should be worshiped or something. The algorithms are now steering me away from the pro Palestine materials. Hon...

I am not sure what's happening across the world right now, but people are dancing the dubka, allying themselves with the Palestinians, using TikTok to create solidarity, sending messages of hope and fueling resistance. Meanwhile, on the otherside, Zionists - finally people are understanding you can be anti-Zionist without being anti-semetic - have come to the end of their dining out on the West's guilt about the Holocaust. People who have attended birthright, war veterans, Holocaust survivors, are all standing up and saying this is enough. The political capital which the right-wing factions of Israel, how weird and mad, but also congruent with people who have experienced trauma that they reinflict it upon others - on the bodies of Palestinians is now exposed as the raw throbbing madness which just continues. I suppose Ireland had its own madness, but it was created on the bodies of the women and children who had to submit to the Catholic church. You'd think that freedom mea...

I think  COULD stay in the school another 4 + 7 years - that's 11 years!!! It will pass in no time, do doubt. Yesterday I populated the Finance spreadsheet which Oisín made for me and it was great. There were a few more things which I needed so we are just tweaking as we go along. I also started doing yoga and after the most strenuous session ever my foot was sorted!!!! I could not believe it. The death toll in Gaza is now 10,000 - probably more. The rest of the world looks on - well its leaders look on and they are so devoid of courage that they not only can't do anything, but they are so stupid that they have doubled down on their refusal to tell Israel to get a grip. We are in some kind of a death spiral now as far as world governments go. The halcyon days of co-operation and respect are over. People are in charge are actively saying that they basically can't be bothered to help anyone who needs helping. If they cant help themselves then they can fuck off.  That is basic...

Free free Palestine! 1 2 3 4 - we don't want your bloody war Ceasefire now From the River to the Sea Pretty boys It has been only a week and what a week it has been. What didn't we do? Spoiler alert: it is quite boring and ordinary, but in 2013 I ordered an ordinary life, so it is what I have finally got. And I love it. For a start, it was bookended with two marches calling on ceasefire for Palestine. Anyone who knows me knows I am quite sparing with the marching. I don't believe it accomplishes anything, but apart from shitposting on FB what else could I do apart from march, lend a voice - well not a voice because, into the holidays, day 3 I LOST my voice. Yes, complete gone m Thursday. It still isn't quite there yet, but there we have it. Teacher health collapse over the holidays is not unusual. but I have been having my fair share of health mishaps, thankfully all temporary if not inconvinient. But u...

Boys at the Lagan Lagan burst its banks Full tideline As I write there are more than a few mad things going on in the world and clearly not education, not facts, no lessons, not anything works to ameliorate the horridness of human beings. When we get ourselves into a state, there is literally, no stopping us. There is the Sam Bankman Fried trial which concluded with the jury finding him - unanimously finding him - guilty on all 7 counts. They were fraud, conspiracy to fraud and money laundering. this man-child, or really what is he? - highly educated, you could not be more educated than he, came from this enormously elite and privileged background - both parents professors in Standford. Had this crazy upbringing - you can imagine the humble bragging and the hot housing and the grooming for life as one of the walking through the raindrops denizens - and in this huge fuck you to everyone, he decided to defraud and embezzle in a crypto day ...

Yesterday, after a lot of faffing about, I got the elements admin in gear - and updated the website as well. It has been so lovely looking back. We only started elements in 2020 and look, here we are. A thriving little business. Couldn't live on it, of course, but it makes enough to give me a nice sum of extra money. Here are some highlights from this year... what a life eh? PLUS, let's not forget, I do teach full time as well...