autumn

Falling Leaves and Blank Screens

| Betsy

For the first time in I don’t know how long, for the past chunk of time, I can’t write. Not a depression-made can’t write kind of thing, or a writer’s block thing, but “let’s just focus on getting through the day” kind of way. I’ve been cross stitching and walking and listening to a freakish amount of Deep Forest and crying and taking deep breaths as I watch those close to me go deeper into helplessness and loss and fear as two loved ones simultaneously get weaker and sicker as time goes on. As health things often do, it brings a crystal clear clarity to everything, what we’re here for, what we’re meant to do, how to best spend our days, what to really, truly appreciate.

And those questions I’ve been turning around in my mind, much like the way leaves twist and fall off the trees in autumn, they’ve been swirling around me and floating and crunching under my feet to not let me forget that they are the real fabric of life. I’ve been pursuing various paths of research and asked questions and reached no headway in certain areas and wondering if I’ve hit an impasse and need to redirect my course and if it’s the universe’s way of making sure I really want it. I wonder where my career is supposed to go and my family life and if I’ll ever go on even a date with someone who simultaneously makes me feel and laugh again. And, just as the leaves do, these questions get stuck in my hair or hitch a ride on my purse or stubbornly get stuck to my shoe. They float and they caress and they follow their simple path of gravity. Their written path of gravity, following the law of gravity.

We all have our own leaves falling, hitting us, reminding us, nudging us, asking us various questions about our lives. Sometimes they’re crystal clear, other times they’re kinda fuzzy and unsure. As I look into the face of my brand sparklin’ new baby niece and hear the excitement in my brother’s voice when he talks about his new role as father on one phone call and then hear tears of sadness on the next, as one watches a loved one fade away, the leaves seem to fall faster and clearer. And all I can think of is that this clarity is no mistake and of some grand design, that these are the moments we should pay attention to and the questions we should pay attention to because they are the quilt we wrap up in when we’re unsure of what to say, what to do or which way to turn.

Each leaf represents a choice that either we grabbed or let float away, and when raked into a giant big pile at the end of the season… We’re met with the important moments and we jump into the whole crinklin’ earthy heap of our lives, our loves, our fears, our regrets, our laughter, our mistakes, our joys and most of all, the snippets of clarity that we were lucky enough to witness because we dared to participate in it with our eyes and hearts open. And therefore, we don’t sink to the bottom, we’re held amid this big pile of leaves, buoyed by all the good stuff that was made sharper by the not-so-good stuff and squeal in delight at just how big and varied it is and how just okay we are.

So I guess I’ve been unable to write because I’ve been too busy watching the leaves fall and not busy enough deciphering what they’re trying to tell me. Instead of running from them and dodging them, I should be welcoming the way they tickle my neck and crackle when I step on them. Because just as each stitch helps me move towards completion of a project, each leaf is just as significant in creating a full and unique tapestry that will keep me warm, buoyed and safe in the knowledge that I’m still moving forward.

Also… something amazing you should check out… this video from the brilliant Reel News of the construction of Carrie Reichardt’s amazing statue of suffragette Mary Bamber.

Mary Bamber: A Revolutionary Woman from Reel News on Vimeo.

testing…the new blog design.

| Betsy

It’s beginning to get cold in my little part of the world. There are so many exciting things to get excited about this time of year!

Frost signals things like big boots, fluffy duvets, cups of tea just to warm your hands, snuggling, warm toasty fireplaces, holidays, crazily darned old wool sweaters, scarves, lip gloss, legwarmers, winter squashes trying to catch all the holiday Claymation movies you can. It’s the most magical time of the year, and I’m not talking about Christmas.

Here’s a photo from last Thanksgiving when I was in Maine to get you ready for all the good things to come.

my continuing love affair with the seasons…

| Betsy

Here’s a little secret:

I <3 fall. Not THE Fall with Mark E. Smith (although I do adore them), or the falls I often make because I'm clumsy, but fall as in autumn. Today I went to the woods and tromped around in pigtails with some friends and we drank coffee from a flask and ate vegan muffins and satsumas. Fall is the time of year that makes me want to run around and create create create til my hands bleed. Fall makes me want to howl at the moon, take walks through downtown London holding hands, fling myself into huge piles of raked leaves, wear bright colours, go to the Battersea Dogs Home and cuddle with abandoned puppies, pull out my old Minor Threat and Operation Ivy tapes and sing outloud offkey.

Also of note, the following information was passed along to me and maybe you’ll find it meaningful, too:

16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is a worldwide campaign that provides opportunities to take a stand against gender-based violence and to mobilize around women’s human rights. The 16 Days Campaign, initiated in 1991 by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, runs from International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (November 25th) through International Human Rights Day (December 10th). The campaign makes explicit the connection between women’s rights and human rights. Over one thousand organizations in approximately one hundred and thirty countries are participating this year.

AIUSA’s Women’s Human Rights Program is once again participating in this worldwide campaign and encourages each of you to do the same. AIUSA’s campaign theme this year focuses on the murders and “disappearances” of women in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City, Mexico.

Background on 16 Days

In June of 1993, representatives of nations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world gathered in Vienna, Austria for the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights. Women’s human rights advocates had worked for two years nationally, regionally and globally to ensure that women’s rights were recognized as human rights at the conference and that violence against women was included in the discussion. The resulting document, the Vienna Declaration and Platform of Action signed by 171 states, was historic in its emphasis on the global pervasiveness of gender-based violence and in its compelling appeal to governments and to the United Nations to take action to eliminate such violence. The document declared:

The human rights of women and the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. Gender-based violence and all forms of sexual harassment and exploitation, including those resulting from cultural prejudice and international trafficking, are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person, and must be eliminated.

Since the Conference, significant gains have been made on the international level for the movement to end violence against women. In December of 1993, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (DEVAW). In 1994, the UN Commission on Human Rights appointed a Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences to monitor the various manifestations of gender violence on a worldwide scale

In 1995, the UN held the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing where women’s human rights advocates again demanded that governments take concrete measures to improve the status of women. The resulting Beijing Platform for Action included a chapter devoted to eliminating violence against women. In 2000, the Beijing Platform for Action was reviewed by the UN General Assembly and the resulting document sought to strengthen governments’ commitments to fulfilling the human rights of women worldwide.

The murders and “disappearances” in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City are but one illustration of the rampant gender-based violence that persists around the world today. Join with Amnesty International and help end violence against women in Ciudad Juarez and around the world.

For more information about how to get involved with the 16 days campaign, visit here.

Screw summer, fall makes me happy. So go do good things as the weather gets cooler and you have to pull out the mittens and you can start to see your breath.

Rock on fall!