An army of happiness prophets are fighting for our peace and calm. They are armed with luxury advice and weapons of illusions. We need only to sit back, relax and tell them our worries. They will tell us how to think our cares away. It works. For several minutes. Then we must get back to the world where problems aren’t impressed by what we think of them.
“We are encouraged to find peace in our violent world instead of struggling to create a peaceful world.”
Dartwill Aquila
(This is the 9th in a series on racism that appears on the 20th of every month.)
So many things keep us apart.
Yet we are family.
Words, ideas, customs, titles …
keep our hearts from embracing,
our smiles from caressing,
our laughter from mingling.
We are family.
The barriers, obstacles and restrictions
that keep us apart are erected in our minds.
Customs form rusty barriers
preventing us from sharing warmth.
Nasty thoughts, sharp as barbed wire,
prohibit our secrets and our desires
from fertilizing our dreams.
We are family.
Know this my sisters and brothers,
everything that keeps us apart,
keeps us weak
and is wrong.
Wrong as evil.
Everything that keeps us apart
is the enemy of our love.
“To keep a race or a language pure one must inbreed and become weak.”
Dartwill Aquila
“You can own an ocean bathed in light,
without a friend it’s just a well-lit wet place
with nothing in sight.”
Dartwill Aquila
The stinging nettle, Urtica dioica, is also known as burn nettle, burn weed and burn hazel. It’s burn or sting comes from tiny hollow hairs that function as needles injecting a concoction of 4 to 5 irritating chemicals. Although the sting will irritate for several hours, it causes no harm and is even believed to be beneficial. It stimulates blood circulation and relieves symptoms of arthritis.
Cooking destroys the irritating chemicals and nettles can be used for medical purposes to improve the prostate function and increase testosterone. Blended with shampoo it adds glow to hair and prevents dandruff.
Its power as a nourishing food is unsurpassed in the vegetable kingdom. It’s a little powerhouse of vitamins A and C as well as containing iron, potassium, manganese, calcium and other elements. It can also, picked at the right time, boast 25% protein making it the most protein-rich plant in the world.
It can be eaten as a soup, a purée, a pesto or other special dishes throughout the world. The English even make a nettle beer.
Early spring is the best time to pick the young plants. With a little practice at grabbing the plant in an upward motion you can avoid the stick of upward angled needle hairs.
It is said that a bowl of nettle soup in the spring will keep you healthy until next year’s bowl. True or not, it’s a delicious and nourishing meal.
“A nettle can be a good friend.
Treat it right and it will treat you right.”
Dartwill Aquila
Sculptures in a blind arch in Linköping Cathedral
Humans don’t notice the physical ties holding them together.
Language holds them together and language is a physical force. Sound waves are produced with the mechanisms of the speech apparatus. These waves push against nerve receptors and small bones in ears which interpret the sounds. Writing is obviously a physical process and reading demands physical stimulus to the nerve cells in the eyes.
Being connected by sound and light waves functions as effectively for humans as radio waves for electronics. Human connections are bodiless, but, like wireless, keep us connected just the same. Think BOFI (bodiless fidelity) instead of WIFI (wireless fidelity)!
(From the book System Humanity)
“Language goes from mind to mind,
stations on the journey to the heart.”
Dartwill Aquila
Every dandelion wears a crown
to show its royal heritage to the sun.
It sits on a slim, fragile body
supported by a root
biting into the earth
with ferocious determination.
Every seed is a truth of life
prepared to tickle the wind
or the lips of breathful child
and fly on an adventure
to sink its truth
into the womb of the earth.
“Many boast of their adventures in life.
Those who have tasted dandelion wine smile.”
Dartwill Aquila
Now that the cherry blossom petals
have abandoned their flowers
they join together
to build a tide
of loveliness
in a pond
of hope.
“Flowers leap to the earth to help nourish their fruits.”
Dartwill Aquila
The title of genius fit comfortably on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). He wrote so powerfully that he caused a wave of suicides. Among his many interests, the theory of color captured his passion. He believed himself to have a greater understanding of the play of colors than any other human. Perhaps he did. It was an esthetic understanding not a scientific one
He wrote, ”Yellow is a light which has been dampened by darkness; Blue is a darkness weakened by light.”
I wonder what he would have said about the colors of the moss flowing over the rock-faced hillside in the picture above?
“Many people are willing to sell their souls to the devil,
but the devil doesn’t buy damaged goods.”
Dartwill Aquila
An impossible love affair between the wealthy Fausto Amador and the washerwoman Augustina Fonseca produced the ”illegitimate” Carlos Fonseca Amador.
In 1976, 40 years after his birth, Carlos was killed. Because of his work developing the Sandinistas, they took control of Nicaragua three years after his death and implemented mass literacy, extensive health care and promoted gender equality.
Never doubt the power of love.
“A friend is someone who criticizes you to your face
and praises you behind your back.”
Carlos Fonseca Amador
The Swedes are not a particularly religious people, but they do worship nature and the outdoors. The lakes, mountains, archipelagoes and particularly the easily accessible friendly forests could be seen as their churches. You can’t mention wild strawberries or chanterelle mushrooms without causing smiles. Many berries, mushrooms and flowers own a saintly status. One of the holiest announces the definite arrival of spring. Anemone nemorosa (wood anemone, windflower, thimbleweed or smell fox) can tame the wildest heart. It can even attract the attention of the sun and cause mighty rocks to bow in reverence.
Swedes love nature the way a child loves its grandmother.
“Nature clothes the earth. If you destroy the clothes, she’ll dress to kill.”
Dartwill Aquila
System Humanity 