Bee hope For Detroit

Detriot is a city I associate with those icon cars of the 60's,70's .I knew that the car industry has declined in Detroit like it has in Britain and Europe as the cheaper cost of labour land, tax cost and resources of Asia beckons the Global Companies.  but the image of 40 square miles of dereliction  seemed too vast to comprehend. The City is struggling to re-invent itself as other Cities in America and Europe are needing to do.. 

This part of a poem  by Alex called "silence".    She posted  it on Cowbird  and it was a powerful  poem in which this stanza stood out in particular for me.

 I don't know what to write about

when  there is serious talk now about

dissolving the city of Detroit, 

bulldozing it back into pre-history

into a primordial swamp. Detroit?

The changes that have occurred in Detroit has devastated many lives.  As livelihoods, neighbourhoods have been destroyed by the closure of mile and mile of car manufacturing companies.  The pain for so many people cannot be imagined.  An image of an 87 year old woman living in the the last house standing in her neighbourhood is terrible  one. She wants to move but no-one will buy her house so she left amongst the bulldoze rubble of her neighbours houses.

The images of East Detroit is like an alien landscapes as the derelict car plants and building crumble and decay.  I can understand Alex's despair and horror. However there is hope

 Nature has already started on the task of renewing the abandoned factories.  Look at the picture above cotton trees are growing through the foundations and grasses, shrubs and weeds are taking back the land.  In 1920 Detroit east side was farmland and now piece by piece, inch by 1 dollar inch new farmers, small holders, nurseries are wrestling back the land to  fertile productive food cultivations.  Neighbourhoods are creating allotments and growing their own food. People are growing food on their Balconies.  

Change is the only certainty in is this life of ours.  Detroit has been devastated by the recession but the seeds of the new resurgence are there. My friend Sue who is moving near to Detroit wrote when I asked:

Is Detroit going to bulldozed?

Eastern Market Detroit food hub

Not sure.  There's been talk about "Urban Farms" and tearing down some of the run down buildings.  The areas or cities around it are beautiful like Royal Oak where 3 of the kids live, Ferndale, Birkley, Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills (were Dean lives) and Rochester Hills were we'll be.   I'll keep you posted.  We're going there this coming weekend.

Detroit has a beautiful "Fox" Theatre which my mom thought should have been called the Tashj.  Inside is so amazing.  There's a great farmers market called Eastern Market and Greek Town, Mexican Town, Irish Town etc.  some really great spots amid the bigger pockets of decay.    

And Mary wrote

Times change and this just might be a change for the future.  I can recall was Boston was a dying city - it was grey and grim.  Then Mayor White came along and really changed the whole city, including demolishing whole areas, re-routing streets, putting up new buildings and shopping areas, and revitalizing historic areas.  Today it is known as Government Center and Quincy Market and, no matter when you go there, there is a crowd of sight seeing individuals and shoppers.  Also, the big dig came along and another part of Boston has had a face-lift.  So, based on what happened in Boston, and continues, I think the Detroit idea of urban farming is a good, healthy thing for the city to do.

urban farm

So perhaps Detroit will not sink back into the primordial swamp but become a food producing hub for the urban areas around. There is vitality still there but also at the present time pain and devastation. But the farms are bringing in the pollinating insects, butterflies, hover-flies, bees and they are bringing on their wings hope and renewal to Detroit.

Detroit farmer 

urban allottment

With Reiki blessings

And healing for all those broken by change

MerryB

Quantity not Quality

The third part of the Creative Sandbox Course was to about Quantity not Quality.  It was about learning to let go of control and perfection and make mistakes and learn from them.  Professional Photographers often take hundreds of pictures before they find the magic one.

Here is one of the many I took in the fifteen minutes set for the task I was taking a picture of the sedums when Poppy stuck her head into the frame . She is looking at a bird on the trellis probably a blue tit.

It isn't perfection but it captures the curiosity of Poppy and the vibrancy of the sedums. Not worrying about the quality, not trying seek out the interesting, beautiful photo opportunity meant I captured some lovely moments with Pops in the garden.  I was hoping to capture birds but Poppy was the only subject that was there.  The birds had obviously been early to the feeders.

My Gremlins tried a new tactic to put me off exposing myself to the web by saying

"That wall needs painting you cannot take a photo there"

"Ohhh look at the mud on that path that looks awful" 

"Those are weeds, pull them out quick." 

As I snapped pictures the gremlins were making me feel that me garden was a mess, that I was showing my self up by taking photos there.

 I did  stopped taking photos for quite a long  while after a friend lost my camera. The new one he brought to replace it was smaller, had no view finder, I felt I couldn't see what I was photographing blah blah. What was holding my pack from taking photographs was not my camera but the unexpressed resentment that a friend had carelessly lost my original camera.   He seems to feel was no great deal.  He bought a new camera for me but did not let me choose it.  He just gave it to me.  I pretended to be delighted but really I was angry about the lose of my camera.   I did tell you yesterday my gremlins are male.   It wasn't until my  friend Jenny took pictures with it and they were good snaps that I started to use it..

I kicked the gremlins out of the garden and  I learnt to day that my gremlins are holding my back from being creative and I need to play in the sand box some more and make sure those gremlins aren't buried inside the sand ready to jump out to discourage me and keep me safe in my comfort zone.

I hope to go out for a walk with my muse Poppy and take many more photographs

Melissa Dinwiddle  talks about the joy a child has in creativity and says:

If you're worried that mucking around like a 4-year-old, not focusing on the outcome, means you'll never master your craft, let me assure you, as long as you aren’t being sloppy, if you take care of the quantity, the quality will take care of itself.

With Reiki Blessing

MerryB

Creative Joy

The second task in the Creative Sandbox course tutored by  Melissa Dinwiddle is:

all about letting your 4-year-old out, and 4-year-olds are much more interested in theexperience of creating than in what they make.

It was all about returning to the Joy of creating without worrying about the outcome.  I went into my meditation room, where the cats were asleep on the cushions.  I put my gremlins outside the door and  found a sketchbook and my pastels.  The instructions for the task were to make an ugly picture using colours with colours I did not like.in fifteen minutes    I settled  comfortably in a my chair and  I started.

 I looked up at the clock thinking the time must be up but barely five minutes had passed.  One of the gremlins had sneaked in.  Out he went - yes my gremlins are all male. I stayed put and continued making shapes with the pastels I like the feel of using them and the way different pressures made differing shades.  I used the ends, the sides.  I drew in circles, blocks and  points.Time was up the floor was littered with pages from the sketch book and I felt relaxed and happy.  My hands were covered in the dust of the colours I had used.  I left smudges on the table room but Hey!. 

OOo

I meet the gremlins at the door  one said:

 Oh dear not very good! 

another said: 

 You aren't going to put the picture on the web are you?  Tut Tut

They all chorused

No bin it, it is rubbish.  Don't show yourself up!

 But I pushed past them and took my camera and took pictures of my ugly pictures and I posted it on the web and it is OK.The task was about the experience of creating the outcome did not matter but in fact I feel good about the outcome.

think sand castles, which will be washed away at the next high tide. Let yourself get your hands dirty (literally and/or metaphorically) and simply enjoy the work itself.

The pictures are on my desk and I will find a way  to return to the joy of creativity  again and again.

Wish you Reiki blessing

and Joy in Creativity 

Merry B

"If I were totally free to play, I..

Poppy going on an adventure

Oh dear I do not know what to write.  "If I were totally free to play" what would I do?  Play is fun but do I have fun?  I enjoy things, I am content but I rarely play.  Play -  that magic world were my  imagination and creativity takes me into new spaces and expresses a side of my that is tidied a way now that I am grown up.

Have I forgotten how  to play to let my imagination soar high and I feel the fun of just doodling playing with words, splashing paint and feeling the experience with out expecting an outcome. Do I go paddling in the sea, crunching through the autumn leaves? Build a snowman?  I used to at least I think I have done those things once upon a time.

Hey I do not bounce with joy, my dog bounces with joy as soon as I fetch her lead she bounces up and down runs up the stairs and flings herself at the front door.  I love her bounce but hear those voices saying,.

 "You should be the Leader of the Pack ."

Poppy should sit quietly before you open the door, and then she should quietly walks along side you."

My Poppy sits quietly for a moment then bounds out of the door on this adventure called a walk, what smells, what things to sniff, see, what to at bark?  Will she see a cat a pigeon meet a friends the possibilities are endless. 

I have lost my sense of play, my sense of adventure. I had it once, at least I think I can remember.  I want to play and I just do not know how.  Now this minute I will go up stairs and get my pastels and glitter, glue, paper and just doodle and draw and smudge, and glue feathers, leaves, tissue shapes on this huge piece of paper.  Play, be creative and use my imagination.  But Hey  I have to go up stairs and find all that stuff, and  it will make a mess, which I will have to clear up.........I have got to.......


Wow this playing is hard.  I will get Pops lead and  perhaps she can show me how to bounce and play.

With Reiki Light

Hope I find out how to play soon!

MerryB.

Stormy Times

ESO

Today an Autumn storm is sending heavy rain lashing against my window.  Leaves from the beech trees outside are scooped up and swirl around in a frenzy and then the wind eases and  the leaves drift back to the ground one by one.

Like everyone there are times  in my life I feel as if I am caught up in whirlwind emotionally, and spiralling into  physical exhaustion.Times when my mind swirls with thoughts anxieties and fear in the storm of  present circumstances  Times in which I seem to have lost my footing and I am  being tossed about helplessly back and forward without a will, like a leaf blown here and there in the wind.  I cannot think  and cannot breathe.

Then I strive to catch my breathe and pause and slowly by focusing on one in breath and then one out breath  once, twice or as many times as it takes, until  there is a lull in the storm of emotion.  I hold  myself still and breathe in and out, my breath deepens as I breathe in and slowly breathe out..  I again I focus on the  in breath and  sense of calm envelopes me, the out breath brings ease.  I relax and smile as a sense of well being flows through me.  I stand quietly and the flurry of thoughts diminish and drift away.  I am drawn back into the peaceful  centre of my nature. Like the leaves that flutter softly back to earth after the wind has ceased, . I may have  to begin again and then yet once more before  I have brought peace and equilibrium  back into my heart space.

Mindfulness meditation allows me the space to find my peaceful  centre.   I can face the circumstances that the storm of life is bringing me by being in here and now. I am  not looking back or dreaming about or fearing  the future.  I am no longer full or recriminations, fear, hopelessness or anger.  I can see  through the storm  the dawn of  light and the healing rays of Reiki 

---

With Reiki Golden Light

MerryB

I saw this quote and comment written by Jean Claude on Cowbird today

 "The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too."

Vincent Van Gogh, in a letter to his beloved brother Theo 


Jean Claude writes:on Cowbird

As we know now Vincent's heart knew mostly storms. He never found out how much light he brought, brings to the crumpled hearts of others. The pearls, that his work was, are shining forth.

Ripples of love

It was a dark and foggy night and Raymondo Cat stalked purposely down the path on a secret mission known only to him.  My heart was crying don't go it is too dark, its a dangerous world out there but I let him go he is an outdoor cat.

I have been stalking Raymondo during the past six weeks because he suddenly became very seriously ill.  He wasn't eating had a dangerously high temperature and possible a mass in his stomach  I prepared myself to loose him but then a treatment was found and he started eating first  a teaspoon of food became a tablespoonful, then a half bowl full then a bowl twice a day Now he is putting on weight again and is strutting his Tom cat walk as if nothing has happened.  He wakes me at five thirty each morning after prowling his territory.  He calls  for fish as he come up the stairs.  I make him wait until after 6.00.  He purrs in my ear to keep me aware of his presence.  Then I go downstairs to cook his fish He eat,stays to relax and purr contently before he is off  again climbing the six foot trellis  into the world of cats, mice and nature.  

Nearly loosing him has made him more precious than ever and has sharpen my awareness of how each moment should be cherished.  Caring for Ray has rippled out into paying attention to all those in my life and increased  awareness of natural world.   Frank Lloyd  Wright wrote, 

"I  believe in God only I spell it Nature." 

My love of nature and life helps me see the Buddha nature in all living beings.

I am grateful for the blessings in my life.

With Reiki blessings to you all

Merryb

Goliath but not David

This is a Story about a Global Goliath  - British Telecom and  me a customer 

Once upon a time ....

I  had a fault on the BT server since  30th July 2012 .  I upgrade from infinity 1 to 2 fibre optic Broadband.  Since then my connection has broken down two or three times a week. I have been battling to get this fault fixed and have encountered  the worst customer service ever.  

 I phoned the Technical help desk countless times and after a waiting 20 to 30 minutes  I have explained my the problem that yet again the remote host has disappeared for hours or sometimes 30 forty minutes.  My purpose is to report the breakdown in connection so that engineers in Portsmouth can discern a the pattern and work out a solution.  Simple - OH NO - the staff have a formula which they worked to:

"Is the computer switched on. "

Have you got your computer/router plugged in.....

Can you check your leads are in.............

They have talked over me I assumed that as I was phoning about the same fault it would be logged under one fault number.

As the disconnection seems to right itself eventually sometimes  when  it did I would report this to the technician some didn't listen and carried on, but the more canny ones did a quick speed test and I am sure reported they had fixed the fault.

Then BTCare on Twitter picked up my tweets to friends and galloped in to rescue me.  That proved difficult as they wanted the fault number as they did not recognise the reference I hd given.  I called a BT Operator she confirmed the fault number was right and as an aside commented.

"you have have had a lot of faults"

No one I cried, One persistent intermittent fault on the BT server which rights itself for a while and then the remote host disappears again.

I felt like the guy in Stevie Smiths  poem  Not waving but drowning

Drowning was how I felt, but hey BTCare were going to rescue me and sort the problem it was OK.

Oh sigh they did not.

As BTCare did not recognise the fault number  I filled in a Twitter form.  They told me they would "sort i and get back to me soont".  Did they heck no.  First there was the email that did not arrive in my email inbox a delay of 48 hours before my cries to BTCare "how long is soon" were answered. This was followed by an email stating..

"Your system has been working perfectly for ten days"

On the 23rd and 26th of August my broadband connection had disappeared for at least couple of hours.  On the 26th I had  a text message that a close family friend who was in a hospice had arranged a web conference call to speak to all of us.  I had no connection to the Internet so I could not log in and hear him talk to us and I could not speak to him. He died two days later. 

I felt helpless and hopeless.

I wanted to leave BT - enough was a enough.  I arranged to move to Plusnet which is a independent Company based in Yorkshire.  But I cannot move because I am locked in to a contract with BT until January 31st 2014.

 BTCare  eventually  did admit they could see the disconnections by the server on their system on the dates I gave. Since then I  have continued reporting faults. 

Next I was asked for a screen shot of my  BT Yahoo mail page which I sent.  60 hours later I got an email from a Technican

Thank you for your email dated 10th of April 2009 and he proceeded to give me a lesson in computer basics

I sent that email to Sir Michael Rake Chairman and he replied.

" I will have this looked into for you today as that email sent to you was not right as you know"

it seemed that rescue was at hand.

Then I got a text message from no company name, no person's name, number withheld,


"Thanks for telling us about your complaint we will get back to you in the next 10 days."

It was then I realised that I was no David all my shots at getting a solution had failed and I was in fact drowning.

This battle with British Telecom has left me feeling so gloomy I need to stop hoping for rescue and just give up.

Mind you I email Sir Michael Rake the contents of the text message!

PS. I came in this evening and found a very strophe email from Dave at  BTCare  in which he threw all his toys out of the pram.  I threw them back in for him

Then I found out he was the guy who was going to decide if I could cancel my contract without paying a cancellation fee - hands up I give up 

PS Hazel Tree story Tellers want me to write this account as a modern fairy tale,  Watch this space.

Update Perhaps I am a David BT withdrew the contract with no charge and also sent me a cheque in compensation. 24/11/12

With Reiki blessing to all

MerryB

Picture Google Giff