Wise Women Back Online – Where was I?

Actually I was in Syria, heart, mind and soul…. although not, thank God, my body. It is sobering to go back and read what I wrote when that journey first began and I invited you all to The Journey of Love. This then ‘forgotten’ world grabbed my attention and then every waking hour for a year after my birthday last year. Post Bosnia, Rwanda et al, here was another opportunity for the human race to decide that the days of murderous dictators and the rule of force are over. The suffering of the people, especially the women and children was beyond telling, and the dedication of the Syrian people to their peaceful protests amidst such regime violence, extraordinary. Echoes of Gandhi, Martin Luther King in my teen years and Mandela in later years were reawakened. I truly believe that most of the human race is more than ready for the maturity of individual human rights and responsibilities, the natural next step in our human evolution …. but many of our world ‘leaders’ aren’t, as we now see more clearly.

I don’t know when… if….I will ever be able to put the experience of the last year into words … and for the security and safety of the people I worked with then, as now, I refrain from saying much. Every day we collected and reported the news and videos, sent out of Syria at the risk of peoples lives and appealed to the UN and the world’s media to listen and act. It was Hell, but hell strips away all that is not essential until you only hear, feel, see the deep love that lives at the heart of all of us … the place where our true and essential oneness and connectedness lives. I will always be wedded heart and soul to the wonderful people I worked with …. and never forget those who were killed for their beliefs and always remember their courage to live them.

HEAVEN & HELL

So much love, care, sorrow and trauma all in one place. As dear friend Chuck says, there is no place that the light can’t reach. Heaven and hell live together on earth and within each one of us, and especially in our collective unconscious? Ultimately, we can only solve our inhuman(e) problems from that place of love and light within us. For now, the darkness we warned of so long, has descended in Syria … and the UN Security Council, long overdue for reform has collapsed into uselessness… there is no safeguard for a world community … no enforceable responsibility for human rights on a global scale … no protection by peaceful means from brutal dictators. The opportunity will come again …. it is the next inevitable stage in human evolution, but the failure in Syria to implement political and economic measures and arms embargo, leaves the world continuing to count the cost in human lives and suffering. The man and woman eating human dinosaurs, the Thugosaurus, are not yet extinct.

AFTER THE REVOLUTION – WHAT NEXT?

What next for me was honouring a promise to my brother to build a website for his organic sustainable project/farm in Uganda. Kahangi Estate is beautiful … well lives up to Uganda’s name as ‘The Pearl of Africa’. Remembering its beauty, understanding the magnificence of what my brother has achieved in his 30 year African life journey, was very consoling. Even more so as I remembered the Ugandan hell of revolutions …my PTSD brother and sister in law ready to throw themselves onto the floor every time a tractor passed our Welsh country cottage. They had finally escaped from Gulu, in Northern Uganda, which continued for two decades to suffer from Kony and his ‘Lords Army’. (sic) The prominence of organic and sustainable farming practices in Uganda, in a land once torn apart by inhumanity can remind us all that countries do recover. It lifted my spirits and my hopes for Syrian recovery. Uganda is one of the world’s examples of how we can move on from death and destruction to construction, and I loved reading and organising my brother’s words and pictures into his website. It allowed me a healing space as I drew back from the now inevitable horrific civil war in Syria fuelled by global inaction.

THE FORGOTTEN WORLD OF CLIMATE CHANGE

As I upload my note to the web, Haiti and the Eastern USA is suffering so much pain and destruction. The extreme weather events forecast more than 20 years ago encircle the globe. My last intensive campaign was promoting Earth Summit information almost two decades ago … another opportunity and unheeded warning for the world, as with the hoped for Syrian Peaceful Transition this last year. And no, I don’t feel a sense of failure …sometimes we just feel called to do, knowing we do not control the response or results. There is no certainty of victory or success … we can plant seeds, but they grow through their own and invisible forces, often buried for years under human resistance. We need to arise and act, not just talk. We need to find our courage like the Syrian people who arose peacefully for democracy, and not be drowned out as talk of climate change and human responsibilities were in the US until this weekend’s devastation stared them in the face. The personal, local and global world  are all one and the consequences of inaction for climate change and Syria are hitting us in the face daily if we have the courage to look.

MY WHAT NEXT?

My longer term What Next is a little less certain at present. The hullabaloos (Arthur Ransome) have moved in upstairs, and the electrical supply to the building, condemned two years ago is buzzing excruciatingly as people fail to work together to implement a new power supply. So, I need to find a new place of peace and beauty again, ….. and do more letting go…. for it has been both beautiful and easy living here for the last 5 plus years. I am contemplating some house sitting adventures and communing with nature as I consider my next ‘retirement’ project.

NOVEMBER WISE WOMEN RECOMMENDATIONS

So …. apologies for the necessity that I ‘left’ without saying au revoir so I didn’t leave a trail that could be followed to precious Syrian Activists and their families. Alice Walker wrote of sailing to Palestine on the freedom ships, “What else could I do?” I can only echo her words and sentiment about my own ‘sailing’ to Syria.

Everything I ever recommended because it helps is still here…. and I am still using them …..and I must remember to adapt Tapping Techniques to deal with my painful ‘noise’ issues . Sanaya Roman is my constant companion as I recentre myself in my own ‘real’ world. I have found some wonderful ‘pink’ noise …. the noise you play to block out the white noise … how funny that most music for relaxation is electronic when so often it is electr(on)ic noise that drives us mad. Try Nature Sounds Relaxation, and see if it works for you…. you can listen to it free on Spotify if you are in the UK at Nature Sounds

Otherwise, I have no new recommendations this month…. the commodification of personal development seems fairly complete at present, with so many ‘gurus’ proving how good their methods for manifesting, business and the internet are by how much they can gang up to sell us In consequence, I have taken down my PersonalDevelopmentReviews.com site…. as there is so little ‘new’ to review. I reviewed Life Manual again recently…. and it still works… personally further road tested by facing and burning through the pain of Syria day after day this past year. The pattern of personal development repeats….. a time of stasis before newer, brighter ideas will break us through to the next level.

WHAT NEXT FOR WISEWOMEN ONLINE MAGAZINE

I will dust out our virtual ‘cafe’ …. and need to update the back office to get us working smoother and quicker again…. thanks for your patience….. and thanks for the patter of feet that continued through the year. Sorry I haven’t replied to messages….they are buried in thousands of spams, so please write again if you need an answer. Suggestions for more wise women and men to follow happily received. I will gather an inspirations page the next few days….selfishly, I need it and it will be there if you do too.

By December or January at the latest, we will have the next full Magazine addition, but in the meantime I will blog here and have just put WiseWomen on Twitter … please join us at Christine N Herbert ‏@WiseWomenOnLine. Please send your articles and comments …. how about your recommendations for what is really working for you?

IN MEMORIAM - Stephanie De La Warr

Dear Stephanie died from cancer last year ….so happy that she still lives on this site…. and will continue her message here of hope to all who suffer from Bipolar Syndrome (maybe all of us?) I miss her wonderful energy…. still see her glorious crown of hair beneath my window in my mind’s eye …remembering you Stephanie is always a pleasure … your courage, your humour, and the beauty and quirkiness of life and nature you captured for us through your camera are always with us …..fly on.