It's downright awful out there
Some days I can feel the waves of change and like the Universe has it all figured out...some days I can't believe my ears and eyes and i weep for the freaking planet.
Today, unfortunately is the latter. Reading the headlines, and yes, perusing GD, I get the distinct feeling that this crazy train called humanity is heading for the cliff. Environmentally, there has been NO GOOD NEWS for a long time now. Corporate and financial interests are not only stripping us of our rights, but are buying our elections blatantly. And I don't see how our President can/will help when his hands are tied (and his campaign is funded) by the same folks who rule the rest of the game... the whole clusterfuck is pretty dire. I just don't feel like I have much faith today...and yes, there is fear right behind that sentiment.
While I feel guilty for not helping hold the light, I feel like it also needs to be said out loud.
you know, I said before that I felt the Election might not even happen... I wonder more and more if I am just getting that feeling because it is a farce to think we can exert any control over who we want in the first place. maybe it's just a non-event in that it is already 'decided' behind closed doors....or maybe it won't matter anyway because the rest of the shit is gonna hit the fan and everything will dissolve into chaos anyhow...
I applied for a couple good jobs last week, and yet I fear if they interview me and ask "where I see myself in a few years" my answer may turn their hair white.....
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Some days I think there is no way we can pull this out of the crapper. Then I open DU and the first thing I see is that jerk from PA saying how they've succeeded with their plan and voter ID will be what delivers PA for Romney. It just made me sick!
Another thing that really REALLY bothers me is how many friends I have that get so nasty about Obama. I just don't understand how they can reason the way they do. The last time I looked, none of their photos were on the 1% list, and one of them in particular has had to really rely on what Obamacare has had to offer both for his wife and for his daughter. I think there really must be a mental deficiency in these people to think/believe the way they do. It really makes me want to not associate with them, and that's sad. I've been friends with some a short time, but several of them for over 30 years. Never has the meanness come out of them as it has last election and this one so far.
I'm so heartsick thinking about it at times that it brings me to the brink of tears. 
I am wondering if there's something astrological ...but in reality, i think the crazy is like a runaway virus
but Saturday, our emergency room overflowed into the aisle, which also was full up. Our in-patient census was and remains at max. Sunday was crazy too. Suddenly the doctors are ordering magnesium tests like crazy and the analyzer ran out mid-morning. The 2 people that were on ignored the system alarms and waited for me to come in and fix it. 
Then we ran out of a 2nd reagent, and then a 3rd. Two of them were "new lots" which need to be calibrated, QCd, and have 2 patient tests run and compared with results from the old reagent. In the meantime, the emergency tests were piling up...
And Sunday the crazies were out. We had one patient that was stuck in rage. On an anti-anxiety med, and ranting and raving. Thing is, I recognized everything she was saying and doing because I've been there. But it's like she was "stuck" in it. Every so often, she'd suddenly turn normal and rational for a couple sentences. And then she was off. Pacing around the room "I've got to get out of here! I've got to get out of here!" and threatening to sue a neighbor, and the apartment kids driving her crazy. After I was set up, I got her to lie down. As soon as she relaxed, she started sobbing "I'm so ugly. I'm so ugly." "No, you're not ugly. You are not ugly." "Yes I am. Yes I am." I wanted desperately to just hug her and hold her...I was able to stay calm and centered. 
(All of us, not just you, FL. ) 
Wishadoo is ready for those who resonate with everything we discuss here in this forum. It's not a "hide your head in the sand," airy-fairy environment. It's a place to connect and share more of the positives going on and try to do something about the negatives, focusing on positive action, rather than the bitch-and-moan fest that is the Internet, and most definitely is DU.
I'll throw in some negativity to shed any Pollyanna image you guys may have of me....
I've been working nonstop for years trying to create a space that DOES everything we've been talking about for years...a true reflection of this new world. All while I myself am barely making it from week to week.
If people choose to stay mired in what IS -- and it IS a choice -- that's up to them.
If people want to take baby steps -- no pressure, no expectation -- toward what COULD BE, they're the ones I seem to be endlessly sending out invitations to join me.
The invitation will always be there, so long as I and Wishadoo are alive, that is. As you can see, I mention it less and less here, as I, too, have to conserve my energy and stay focused on what I choose to create. It's not my place to convince people that what I choose to create is any better than what they're creating; I just hope people are mindful of how they're allowing themselves to feel simply by what they're giving so much time, energy and attention to.
Of course, every path is valid. Being mired in shit is something we've all done at one time or another, and there may be a very good purpose for it.
The values that are reflected at Wishadoo and Our Collective Good and other projects are the path I choose to walk for as long as I can now. There may come a time when that path closes because it really is a collective path, not a solitary path -- it's not a space that was created for me alone. No doubt there are other versions of Wishadoo out there now; maybe people will resonate with them.
And that will be just fine, too. Being immersed in this creation is what has kept me sane for the last few years, so I didn't get completely overwhelmed with The Shit. It feels good to create something like Wishadoo so, selfishly, it has already served a great purpose and it has helped people along the way.
I still refuse to accept that we can't have a better experience while we're here; we can choose how we respond to the ever-shifting sands beneath our feet.
You've got Wishlist waiting for you.
You've got Groups, with private forums, waiting for you (including ASAH for our unique topics of discussion).
You've got a Forum area, where I just posted a few articles about wealth inequality. Topics we can truly discuss and explore; topics which tend to sink like a rock elsewhere. No, the forum isn't as wonderful as DU's, but we get used to anything if we want to. Plus, the developer is going to upgrade the forum to have the thread flow and some of the other features we enjoy here.
You've got a Business Directory where we can find businesses of Integrity.
You've got a Marketplace, like an "ebay for good."
There is Our Collective Good, with stories to inspire and empower.
There will be a comprehensive directory at www.wishadoo.net -- a rather humungous project, but there isn't anything like it at present -- a truly comprehensive resource for people to find various types of assistance via one portal -- and it's desperately needed.
And there's so much more.....
But, really, the time has come where I can't do this all myself any more. That was never my intention, and I'm growing very weary.
We've got a Facebook type of setup, a craigslist tool, an ebay tool, Yellow Pages tool, a potential grassroots HuffPo, a discussion forum....all under the Wishadoo umbrella. No corporate overlords. Just me.
And it could be you, too, helping to shape it. I've always wanted Wishadoo itself to be a member-owned co-op. But, before blasting it to the world, I've been hoping those I consider friends would find a second home there and want to help shape it.
I don't post this for anyone to feel guilty or anything (there's absolutely nothing to feel icky or guilty about as it concerns me or Wishadoo! 
. And if people feel icky because of my attempts to inject positive action and positive choices into the equation, I've come to accept that that is their problem, not mine.
I'm just being completely honest, here with friends. I admit that I encounter doubts about what I've been working on when I haven't been successful at getting those closest to me more engaged there. On the other hand, maybe I'll be more successful with complete strangers!
Thanks for reading.
Blessings and Big hugs to you all....
I always feel the love vibration strengthening when you post!
Thank you One Grass!
I really appreciate that! (I kinda always feel like I'm a downer or that I come across as chastising, and I don't mean to...lol)
So thank you kindly for the LOVE!!!
of what we need to remember. And that's always a good thing! Voila!
ogr - you ARE an amazing light of grace bringing so much to the collective with your work on Wishadoo! (and more) and making the commitment to show up and keep on trucking.
I want to be so much more a part of it and help but i often don't know what i can do, being just one small person...then i think about how you are one person and you have done do much...
please feel free to PM me if you have any specific needs that i can assist with... maybe it's time to get you involved with an Occupy group or some other 'movement' so there's a bigger traffic there? maybe it's time too look for a grant....?
hard work
we are blessed to have you
You can scan Wishadoo's new QR code! (I don't have a smart phone, so I'm clueless...lol)
Only recently did I begin to notice these codes on EVERYTHING...snail mail, websites, merchandise packaging...so I asked what they do.
Evidently, for people with smart phones, they can take a picture (or scan them in some way?) to download the code (called a "QR Code" to get the mobile app for their phone.
I still don't have a smart phone or iPad or anything, so this is all rather foreign to me.
I'm okay with the term "do-gooder" (and am on a mission of sorts to retake such terms that have been denigrated by the Limbaughs and Becks of the world for years), but I completely get your point and agree.
I'm not really big on people doing things because of the recognition (or because it's a tax write-off). That's why Wishadoo is largely set up to take place, one on one, not with any great fanfare. Hopefully the intentions are more sincere then.
Welcome to DU, btw.
and it's going to get much worse before it gets better.
WE can make it better by taking the high road
the high thought
the high intention
Humanity is falling apart as we reach Mayan December, because it is the end of our childhood collectively
It is time for us to grow up.
Be somewhat detached from it, else it will make you batty.
The Fox crowd is largely responsible, but we have to start living together
just like we are here
it's nice to hear some "good" news for a change...even if it's just a vision from a distance...
but so have we. Democracy today is, at best, an illusion.
Freedom is not something the masses will give up willingly...I smell revolution and I've been waiting for that 100th monkey. When it falls, it will fall quickly...and out of the ashes the phoenix will rise. JMHO....no doom and gloom involved, but participation will reach new levels and the co-creation afterwards is what we've all waited for, maybe even for lifetimes.
Why the F*&^ (excuse my french)
would God create all this unbelievable beauty and bliss,
To just say oh, well that's the way it goes..Yawn....
Folks let's all CREATE the reality we want.
IT IS NOW MUCH EASIER TO MANIFEST WITH OUR HEART-MINDED-NESS.
Our numbers are growing! Never,ever give up!
I didn't say the universe is there either
it's very confusing
my trumpet blows sour quite often
I don't think "god" cares one way or the other how we behave, because what is still is
And everywhere!......
I couldn't agree more with what you are expressing...
I sometimes think my words come up and begin digressing...
Confusing most of my recipients.
But.. I enjoyed the forthcomingly beautiful explanation!
You know nothing and everything at the same time!
Finally someone understands me/us! It was so much worse when I was younger, too.. I've really,really had to concentrate to spit things out correctly..
I see the spark of the divine in just about everything when I look around me. Sometimes it maybe isn't evident at first glance, but it IS there if you look. As long as I can see that I have hope for what lies ahead and joy in what is now. I'm not sure I'd be able to keep on keeping on without that faith or that beauty. Call it God, god, Goddess, or even the Great Ceiling Cat--whatever term works for you on a personal level--but don't ever give up seeing that influence in our world and our lives.
Seriously, try it for a short time--look at what is around you and figure out what it is about it that makes you feel love or joy or contributes in some way to your happiness. It is there! It is all connected just as we are all connected.
Laura
And now, I need to go clean the "divine" litter box that my daughter blew off today. Good thing I love that cat and that kid as much as I do!
If you were relating to Neptune = 100th monkey?
Obviously, the 100th Monkey is the collective. Certainly Neptune and Chiron are having HUGE EFFECT upon the
collective in great ways.
But, Pluto and Uranus are too, it's all mixed together.
You have to stand way way back from earth to see it all or else be a brilliant social scientist which I'm not
to the July newsletter.
Trust me, I know exactly how you feel, I feel like I've been through hell this past couple of years.
Certainly we are witnessing the worst in people, we have to, it must be done, when those veils are lifted it's not pretty. Once we know the truth, we'll understand we have no choice but to rebuild. What we have learned along the way will guide us.
It's not enough to know there's a better way, we have to live like it's here and it is definitely "here" in ASAH. Don't worry, GTRO, the better way is the only way left, the one not tried, the road less traveled. You know that, or you wouldn't be here.
We really are witnessing the end of an era. It's bitter and divisive, just remember not to be part of it (the ugliness on display), and be grateful for all the good in you and all you have been given, especially the small things, like this group.
Thankfully, the patriarch is dissolving, and the midwives are present...it'll be time soon...it will be about living from the heart...only good things grow from there.
brought me to tears. I needed that today, as the suffering all around is so palpable.
Thank you.
I have lost some of the vision I used to have.. but slowly it returns.. reading what you have written and, really, what everyone here writes has restored me somewhat.
Thank you
Bless you
was reading a book called The Fourth Turning, William Strauss and Neil Howe.
A turning is an era with a characteristic social mood, a new twist on how people feel about themselves and their nation. It results from the aging of the generational constellation. A society enters a turning once every twenty years or so, when all living generations begin to enter their next phases of life. Like archetypes and constellations, turnings come four to a saeculum, and always in the same order:
http://www.fourthturning.com/html/history___turnings.html
But no matter what book is out there explaining these times, it is so hard to just witness all of the suffering--it is emotionally exhausting and some days it is really hard to turn my hope around. I am grateful whenever I get a chance to share a hug and some encouragement to everyone here.
because of the luminous souls here who remind me that we need to 'keep on keeping on' and remember our hope and faith and love for the earth and humanity at times like this.
The world is changing alarmingly, but it is all part of the Quickening, i suppose.
I am trying to remind myself to just stay focused on my own efforts and changes, so that I can navigate across the gap for my children...and also trying to remember that the crazy stuff is all just part of the illusion, the game, and the pieces moving into place...
thanks for all your words of wisdom and hugs, you guys rock