The River

The River by Jessica Faulkner Chase, July 2014

Creeping in steadily, I shiver as the cool water chills my skin.

The shiver slowly becomes a comforted rush of Mother Nature's soothing touch. Plunging deep in the abyss I am renewed, refreshed - baptized for a new day, for a new moment of peace. 

Lying back with my legs and arms outstretched, my hair flows through the current, my cheeks feel the cool river water rushing against them. 

I stare at the blue sky with giant cumulonimbus clouds bordering the horizon. 

The trees sway, the birds chirp, the cotton flies through the air, and my heart is content. 

In this moment I feel full of life and gratitude for all this universe has to offer. Let go of the struggle against the current. The river will take you through the serene abundance of life if you surrender. Abundance surrounds me. 

The Raw Truth About Equal Rights

All my life I've studied about all types of fear and segregation. Whether it's the the Holocaust or The Civil Rights Movement or Women's Rights...we've all been told not to speak of these things on our blogs or we won't get hired for jobs, or won't be accepted by our families/religions. There are a lot of fear-based suggestions of why we should not express our true thoughts and opinions. God forbid anyone stand up for what's right - right? Can you imagine if there weren't people that stood up for what is right in our history? We would live in a scary, scary world. Would our world and the people in it even exist?

Fact is, I am not black, or gay - but I am a woman, so I have felt some segregation and intolerance in my life. In the grand scheme of things, however, I haven't been discriminated against nearly as much as many people in this world are, and I am grateful for that.  All labels aside, I am human. And as a human, I have a duty to stand up for other humans regardless of age, rage, gender, religion, sexual orientation etc.  I don't know a lot of things for sure, but I do know that making other humans feel less than equal is WRONG at a fundamental level.

I recently had the opportunity to walk for an organization called The Trevor Project at the local Gay Pride Parade. The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people ages 13-24.

Did you know that suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24? Did you know that LGB youth are 4 times more likely, and questioning youth are 3 times more likely, to attempt suicide as their straight peers? Did you know that LGB youth who come from highly rejecting families are 8.4 times as likely to have attempted suicide as LGB peers who reported no or low levels of family rejection?

How is this happening? Why are we allowing this to happen to our fellow humans?

I thought about this today because I watched a movie called "The Normal Heart" about the 1980s timeframe when American's in New York were trying to identify the cause of the aids virus. It is a heart-wrenching story about a gay community that is dying off in New York. They created an activist group that keeps encouraging the government to find an answer on what the virus is and help with treatment. The amount of time and effort it took these people to get any bit of reaction from the government is baffling to me. There were roomers that the government created the virus to "kill off gay people" and the government wasn't denying it. Sound like the Holocaust at all to you? Granted, that was a rumor, but who knows what really happened. It was such a sad time, and it makes me happy for how much progress has been made since then.

We still have a long way to go so SPEAK UP and STAND UP for the underdog. That's the only way we are going to make progress as humans.

If you are a believer in equal rights, this movie is a must see. Here are just a few reviews about the play that won Tony Award and the movie from Wikipedia - "In the New York Daily News, Liz Smith said, 'An astounding drama . . . a damning indictment of a nation in the middle of an epidemic with its head in the sand. It will make your hair stand on end even as the tears spurt from your eyes.' Rex Reed stated, 'No one who cares about the future of the human race can afford to miss The Normal Heart,' while director Harold Prince commented, 'I haven't been this involved – upset – in too damn long. Kramer honors us with this stormy, articulate theatrical work.'"

Also, some great quotes from the movie, "Weakness scares the shit out of me. My father was weak and I'm afraid I'll be like him. His life didn't stand for anything and then it was over. So I fight constantly. And if I can do it, I can't understand why everyone else can't do it too." - Ned Weeks, Gay Activist

"I scare the shit out of people. The holy terror in a wheel chair. Learn how to use it, you don't need everybody's love and approval." -Dr. Emma Brookner, a physician and survivor of polio who helped with the virus research with little to no government funding.

And a quote, that, of course, I love -
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." -The Declaration of Independence

Peace and love,

Jess*

There's beauty in the breakdown.

Sometimes you have to break down to find peace. 

Prague Day 3/4, Holland Day 1– “I Don’t Speak Freaky Deeky Dutch.”

We started out the evening going to a really nice restaurant in downtown Prague. I had the vegetarian risotto and Scott had the lamb. We had great conversation and laughs with the people we were traveling with then went out to hit the town for a couple hours.

The next day, we decided to take the advice of my friend Teri and go see the Lennon Wall. While on our way we passed over the Charles Bridge and looked at all of the souvenirs on the bridge. The first day when we saw the Charles Bridge, it was raining so not very many vendors were out. When we saw it for the second time – the bands, musicians, vendors were out and it was a truly beautiful experience. There was a musician who was playing us Mozart on crystal glasses. It was pretty brilliant.

We then made our way to try to find the Lennon Wall and found a beautiful, quiet little area by a river. The fall leaves were falling over the river with perfection. We found a wall of “locks” near the river and found out later that if you have found true love, you are supposed to add a lock to the fence (to bad we didn’t have a lock with us!). You are also supposed to carve your names near the locks and throw a key in the river/canal behind it. Apparently there is something similar to this in Paris.

Right after we saw the locks, we made our way to see the Lennon Wall. It was a truly great experience and one of my favorites in Prague (got some great pictures! – thanks Teri!). It is a tribute to love after John died. It has lyrics from The Beatles all over it and represents peace and love in Prague. When Prague was run by a communist dictatorship, the leaders did not like the wall because they saw it was their citizens being hypnotized by western capitalism/mental derangement. Isn’t that ironic? All these people wanted was the word of love to be spread. Does that make you mentally deranged? If so, I am proud to be mentally deranged! : ) I loved that no matter who you met at the wall, you were instant friends because you could sing Beatles songs with them and you instantly had that in common. Even if you spoke different languages, you could still connect through the lyrics.

After the wall, we decided to climb a bell tower near the castle (with about a thousand steep steps). Apparently Prague was one of the main places where bells were made before WWI and WWII. They melted down all of the bells to use for the wars, but before that time – they had 256 bells that sounded off all over the town to alert citizens of what was going on around the city. All of the bells around the city sound different and mean different things.

We got pizza in a realllly weird little place that had “Neverending Story” like fantasy paintings. The place was supposed to be a cave… it was weird, but had great service which is rare in the restaurants in Prague. By the time we got out of the restaurant, it was sunset and a beautiful time to cross the Charles Bridge again to take pictures.

We tried to find the Communist Museum for a couple hours while shopping, but couldn’t find it and couldn’t find anyone who spoke English to tell us how to get there. We decided to climb the clock tower that has the Astrological Clock in it and when we go to the top, both of us found that we were afraid of heights with how high it was off the ground! The view was beautiful at night though and we are happy we did it. We then decided to go get a massage near our hotel. The massage was just what we needed to rejuvenate ourselves for a couple more days in Europe (especially since you walk everywhere – our legs were killing us!). We decided to go out for a night on the town (it was our last night in Prague), so we met up with the people we were traveling with and went to a couple night clubs.

We met an Irish couple there who we totally clicked with – Joe (Josephine) and Liam. Liam and Scott had an instant “bromance”, and Scott said that if Liam lived in the states that they’d be best friends. We found out that they are both Leos (of course I asked) and then it all made sense as to why they were getting along so great ; ) We danced, walked the streets, and had generally just had a great time with them. We were very sad we hadn’t met them earlier. Anyway, Liam and Joe said we can come visit them in Ireland anytime (and vice versa) so we may just take them up on that offer!

We traveled about four hours on flights through Warsaw, Polland yesterday and arrived in Amsterdam, Holland late last night. We went out to a place called WagaMama for some Japanese noodles (weird pick eh?) and checked out the city late last night, but for the most part – we were exhausted and decided to get our first eight hours of non-jet-lag sleep. We are now plotting what we will do today, but we are for sure going to go on a “bike tour” which I am VERY excited about. Everyone rides bikes here and I absolutely love it.

I keep watching out for Gold Member (you all know what a big Austin Powers fan I am) and “the very toit” Austin Powers “Fasha”. I think I may run into Dr. Evil at any moment and here him say “I don’t speak freaky deaky dutch.”

“I vant everyone to have an Amsterdam good time.” - Goldmember

Movie Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats - 3 1/2 stars

"Mother Earth... you are my life support system. As a soldier I must drink your blue waters...live inside your red clay and eat your green skin. Help me to balance myself as you hold and balance the earth, the sea and the space environments. Help me to open my heart, knowing that the universe will feed me. I pray my boots will always kiss your face, and my footsteps will match your heartbeat. Carry my body through space and time. You are my connection to the universe and all that comes after. I am yours and you are mine. I salute you."

This movie seriously surprised me. Although it wasn't the best movie I've ever seen, I thought the concept of the movie was original and inspiring. I've never thought about joining the army, but I wouldn't mind being part of the army division of psychic intervention a.k.a the New Earth Army. A job where being competent in energy work, karma/aura work, and yoga practice are the main requirements sounds great to me!!

Loved this quote: "We are Jedi's man! We don't fight with guns. We fight with our minds." - George Clooney