How can we make the world a better place to live?  In a perfect world there is no suffering. What can we do to right the wrongs we see? I believe that it is up to us to continually strive to make the changes necessary to relieve as much suffering as possible.  So, if it were a perfect world, animals that are destined for the dinner table would not suffer in the process of providing us with food. 

Most people have heard the gruesome stories of how animals are treated on factory farms. Cows are castrated, de-horned, branded, and mutilated without pain killers. They live in filthy, overcrowded pens, are fed an artificial diet with hormones and antibiotics, are not allowed exercise and are separated from their calves at birth. Chicken, pigs and other animals are subject to the same inhumane treatment that causes them to suffer throughout their lives.

The Catholic Church Demeans Women 

The church utters of the glass ceiling for women having been broken at the Vatican, but we know they speak of positions of neither real power nor any authority on church doctrine or decision making. It is more like an unattainable and gross visible ceiling for women in a “man” only church. It is actually akin more to a cement ceiling. This ceiling has smashed many a female skull who has attempted to break through. Women with advanced theology degrees from Catholic Universities remain like the rest of women- nothing but second class believers, vessels for connubial sperm and Raggedy Anns of ecclesiastical prayer. They are like venomous snakes ready to strike down a female at any time. It is a bitter imbroglio. 

If I should name the perfect gift, which would help me through daily life with chronic pain, it would definitely be the perfect maid. Not the kind of maid which comes by every fortnight and washes the floor (and nothing more), and probably does a lousy job as well. But the kind which declutters, vacuums, washes floors, does laundry, does the dishes the dishwasher can't do, washes windows, dusts etc. And loves what she does for a living. It would make my life so much easier, both mentally and physically.

I have always hated housework. It's a task way down on my list of priorities. But it has to be done, no one else will do it, and it saps my strength in every way. There have been days I've had to call in sick because I did too much the day before.

Mary...Lady of light, Lady of mercy, Lady of protection and nurturing...

“Hail Mary Full of Grace, blessed is the fruit of thy womb - Jesus the Christ.  Lady of the sea, lady of the sky, Lady of the moon—Mother Mary, the Blessed Virgin.....”

For around 2000 years, Mary has been worshipped and esteemed as the eternal Mother—pure, spotless, perfect, untouched by man. Meditation on her elicits in many people, profound feelings of peace, gentleness, loving forgiveness, protection, nurturing.  Visionaries report that when she manifests her presence, the fragrance of roses fills the air. 

It's gonna upset some people reading this, but I AM done with the double-minded, denial doin's of humanity. Including my own! I refuse to sit back and silently watch myself and others make choices that support the self-destructive systems we use to perpetuate our Culture of Comfort and Convenience! That culture is one of seductive illusion and slavery to a system of technological oligarchy. If you don’t know what that means look it up, this is what our better K-12 teachers would have told us to do.