DAY 100 - Parlez Vous Triage?

photo courtesy of gambier20 at flickr commons

I don’t speak French
but used to really like the word “triage”

I’m attracted to order,
and maximizing good, comforts me

then I grew up,
began to know and feel
my connectedness to all things

finally saw the battlefield that lies around us
bombs and napalm
loneliness and fear
hunger and disease
violence and torture
ecosystem poisoning

for some, each day is a triage
for water, food, and shelter

interestingly, many of us,
who are not living hand-to-mouth,
turn from,
or don’t see the bloodier battlefields
and instead, each day
triage work and income
the car and the water heater
a relationship strained
sciatica or headache
the lure of sugar
laundering clothes
brushing teeth
falling into bed
struggling to get up,
the alarm squawking

triaging is not a relaxed endeavor for me
yet calm is one of the wounded that must survive
hope, another

and why is it,
that so many folks use drugs, alcohol and video?
oh ...

can we stay on our feet?
conscious enough to move beyond war?
to come together in love?
combine our energies to heal our world?

yes, we can!

it’s either that,
or the hamster wheel for all of us,
‘till the rain of radiation

Note to all dear readers: while writing “Parlez Vous Triage”, I worried that in sharing my struggles with life, that you might read it to mean that I am near a tipping point, and that you might feel distressed. I am not near the edge. I am simply trying to stay aware and in contact with the world, and those who suffer. There is enormous beauty all around me. I am soaking up the pervasive good vibrations, while trying to help us stay out of the ditch. All is well.

DAY 94 - Sleeping Like a Baby is Not Always Great

photo courtesy of xlibber at Flickr Commons

While it is generally true that infants sleep more soundly and peacefully than adults, and while it is also true that there are few sights more calming and beautiful than that of a little one at rest, not all babies sleep like a baby.

If you doubt me, ask an exhausted new mother, or the weary parents of a 2 year-old who still doesn’t sleep through the night.

It is common for newborns to wake frequently, being fussy, and appearing hungry. The usual assumption is that the infant is not getting enough nourishment. In many cases, the waking and fussiness are not from insufficient food, but rather from food that does not agree with the child’s digestive and immune systems.

Given that most of us would think that breast milk would be the perfect food, and some would think that a medically approved formula must surely be good for the child, few of us realize that each may cause distress, pain and aberrant sleep in a newborn or infant. Clearly, breast milk is the finest food for a newborn; but the content of breast milk is altered by the foods that the mother consumes, and can have disastrous effects on the comfort and health of the nursing infant. Formulas, even medically approved, commonly cause gastric and other distress in infants.

When foods have not been considered, nor ruled out as causes of disturbed sleep, a family often simply accommodates to the dysfunction and the harmful effect on the household, and lives with the idea that this is just a quirk of this child. As months and years roll by, the problems which often expand beyond the initial sleep disturbance, are explained by – “he has always been this way...”

Good sleep is not a luxury, it is a necessity.

If your baby is not sleeping like a baby; find out why not, and think foods.

DAY 63 - Yoga

 photo by Carolyn Coles at Flickr

 

Yoga

my body,
a stiff, dry sponge
waiting for a splash of water
to bring back its soft, resilient nature

yoga is that water
absorbing, penetrating, expanding
my breath, fuller and more relaxed
muscles calmed
connecting tissues no longer taut

each day,
the choice to moisten my sponge
readying it for its role in the day ahead

each day,
the choice to leave it parched

DAY 15 – Smoking is Not Bad

smoking is not bad

it is a response to needs

it calms; it comforts

yes, it increases the risk of lung cancer

yes, there are other ways to create calm and comfort

yes, change can be made

                                           but, smoking is not bad

                                              you are not bad

                                              in fact, you are beautiful ...

                                                    ~ by Kristofer Young, DC – May 16, 2004 ~

 (photo by Conanil at Frickr Creative Commons)