Im sick

hot tea is God sent.

that is all

Stardust

Almost 1000 light years away, this stardust in Aries spans an estimated distance of 30,000 light years and covers almost two degrees of the sky♥

Prelude

Last night I could not go to sleep so I was browsing through my library and found myself picking up Carolyn Kleefeld's 'Climates of the Mind' once again, and later I wrote some things myself also. well this is one of her poems which is just so incredibly beautiful and exactly where I am in this moment. I want to share it with you all. It is titled "Prelude".

I want to do, be, sleep, hear
without exterior reactions to my being
I want to be an invisible being-
not defined, judged, watched

I do not want to represent anything to anybody
no longer to be inside
the other person's rigid picture frame of me
I want to be-just for the sense of being
To relax again enough to taste, touch, realize life
before it is filtered through me-
through other people's psychic strainers
through their telescopic needs
I want it fresh for me to grasp
before its had so many hands on it first
Just mine to embrace, discover, share
or not share
A privacy, intimacy of me to me-
whatever this may be
to relate directly from where it lies

I breathe a deep breath
at the thought of new discovery-
An intimate first-hand glide with life in my hand
with me connected directly
No filters, no microphones
No need for closed doors; instead-
Open windows Wide skies
No hands on life's clock
Another chance to feel that part of me
that is undiluted
My life to belong to me
to consistently feel its essence

Breathtaking

you have to view full screen!

Aurora Borealis timelapse HD - Tromsø 2010 from Tor Even Mathisen on Vimeo.

Have you ever seen an aurora? Auroras are occurring again with increasing frequency. With the Sun being unusually dormant over the past three years, the amount of Sun-induced auroras has also been unusually low. More recently, however, our Sun has become increasingly active and exhibiting a greater abundance of sunspots, flares, and coronal mass ejections. Solar activity like this typically expels charged particles into the Solar System, some of which may trigger Earthly auroras. As this year unfolded, the above timelapse displays of picturesque auroras were captured above Tromsø, Norway. Curtains of auroral light, usually green, flow, shimmer and dance as energetic particles fall toward the Earth and ionize air molecules high up in the Earth's atmosphere. With solar maximum still in the future, there may be opportunities to see spectacular aurora personally over the next three years.

I know my last post or two might seem contradictory because I am a kind of animal rights activist, but there is a sweet assurance I feel as I post these things that they are beautiful and proof of the contradictory nature of 'The true, the beautiful, the good.'

"If you don't at least occasionally contradict yourself, your position isn't (nearly) complex enough..."

-Terence Mckenna

Cockfight

Suradita Village, West Java, Indonesia (2010). Children playing with their rooster. Actually it was not a real cockfight because the rooster didn't wear blades on their feet. Children likes to play this game because they almost never have toys in their life.

Photo and caption by Ario Wibisono

San Bushman

A San Bushman shows his hunting technique

Photo and caption by Michael Phipps

Indonesia, Java, Volcano Ijen: sulfur miner chocked by toxic fumes

These Indonesian miners,in primitive conditions not seen in most places for more than a century,often wear no protection,carrying up to 100 kilos of sulfur on their shoulders,climbing steep rocky paths and descending the volcano for 3 kilometers,bare foot,twice daily,choking from stinking,toxic fumes.For this shortened, blinding, gagging life in hell,they are paid 6 Euros a day. These conditions destroy their lungs, eyes and other tissues.“We work in hell,” said the miners,“our eyes and lungs burn the whole day, but there’s nothing we can do. Otherwise, we’re scared we’ll have nothing to eat.”

Photo and caption by pierpaolo mittica

Eyes Of Time

I had the opportunity to walk the streets of Kayamandi, one of the most interesting, eye opening, experiences of my life. To see people live in conditions I did not realize could exist.

Photo and caption by Joshua Smith

Cambodian Boys and Snakes

I was getting an intimate perspective of the Tonle Sap in Cambodia from a local teenager, when these two boys with snakes swam up behind looking to engage us. This was a day in the life of a child living on a river settlement. This was also one of those moments that can not be conveyed with words.

Photo and caption by Thomas Szelazek

The Fisherman Dance in The Morning

look for fish in the morning is a habit of fisherman in the Rawa Pening, Central Java, Indonesia. One of the fishermen in this picture called Sugeng. He has a characteristic in catching fish using nets. While he was fishing he looked like he was dancing.

Photo and caption by thommy auguzth

The earth needs a beautiful and rich nature

This is Daria, 28. She is mother of two children and pregnant with a third. She lives with her family on a landfill in Cebu City. They have an average income of 2 USD a day, earned by collecting the recyclable fractions out of the city garbage. I like this shot because Daria found herself a T-shirt saying "The world needs a beautiful and rich nature". What an irony, considering the environment she and her family have to live in.

Photo and caption by Tanja Schalling

Into the hands of faith

The believer pierced at a Thaipusam festival in Singapore's Sri Sririnava Perumal Temple points at a woman who lets out a shrill scream before falling into a trance-like submission. She is supported by fellow devotees who hold her up while Saffon powder is rubbed on her forehead as a form of blessing.

Photo and caption by Phua Li Ling

The following photographs are some of my favorites from this years

National Geographic Photography Contest

in the 'People' category.

The ocean glowed bright peacock green Sunday off of Namibia.

Phytoplankton bloom seen by NASA's Terra.

Ocean waters glowed bright peacock green off the northern Namibian coast in late November 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on November 21, 2010.

These bright swirls of green occur along a continental shelf bustling with biological activity. Phytoplankton blooms often occur along coastlines where nutrient-rich waters well up from ocean depths. The light color of this ocean water suggests the calcite plating of coccolithophores.

Phytoplankton blooms and the bacteria that break them down can create a complex network along a continental shelf. This swirl of peacock green could contain phytoplankton, sulfur, or a combination.

♥♥♥Flowers for me♥♥♥

There are places I remember....

This is the lake I used to visit (from my last post)

The ducks used to come right beside me and take their morning naps while I read.

Beauty.

things

I just watched the film 'How The Beatles rocked the Kremlin' it was really really good. Tomorrow is my birthday and I have decided to do nothing! haha well to not celebrate it how some people would like me to, I plan on just spending time with myself and to reflect on my 20 years on this earth!, it is much needed. definitely. Things have (mentally) been kind of shakey lately and I really just need to go sit by a lake and relax like I used to, I remember on windy days the tiny waves would rush my way and its the most amazing feeling to have the water want to reach and hug you while the wind caresses your skin, I need more moments like that, I mean they are all around me, all the time, but I need to appreciate them a bit more than I have lately. Its a sad thing, after spending some time in one of the most beautiful places on earth, to come home and slowly accept, or get used to living indoors. It happens. I just need to see every space that I am in with the same amazement, and to see it holds the same beauty as anything else. This by the way is NGC 6357 and its beautiful massive stars.

Happy Birthday to me♥

Stephan's Quintet

About 300 million light-years away, only four galaxies of the group are actually locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters.

‎"Powerful Women are able to draw on both the feminine and masculine dimensions of shamanism in their minds and flesh, truly exemplifying the woman

in the Shaman's Body."

- Barbara Tedlock, PhD in "A Woman in a Shaman's Body"