Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh has a few questions to ask the audience in a public talk and the questions might touch something very deep in you and provide you with insight to see the way to go. Allow the question to penetrate into your heart.
– Are you in love? – Are you still in love? – Do you want to reconnect with the person you used to love? – Do you think that he or she is happier than you are now? – Do you have the time for each other or are you both to busy? – Have you been able to preserve your freshness and beauty for yourself and for the other person? – Are you capable to offer him or her freshness and beauty everyday?
– Do you know how to handle the suffering within yourself? – Are you able to help handle the suffering in the other person? – Do you understand your own suffering and the roots of that suffering? – Are you able to understand the suffering in the other person? – Do you have the capacity to help the other person suffer less? – Have you learned the way to calm down your painful feelings and emotions?
– Do you have the time to listen to yourself, your suffering, your difficulties, and your deepest desire? – Do you have the time to listen to him or her and help him or her to suffer less? – Do you know the Buddhist way of restoring communication and bringing about reconciliation?
– Are you capable of creating a feeling of joy and happiness for yourself? – Are you capable of helping the other person to create a feeling of joy and happiness?
– Do you really think you have a clear spiritual path to go? – Do you have the feeling of peace and contentment within yourself? – Do you know to nourish your love everyday? – Have you ever met a person who is truly happy?
Paul Signac, Opus 217: Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones, and Tints, Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890, 1890, oil on canvas, 73.5 x 92.5 cm, MoMA, New York. Source
Paul Signac, Two Cypress Trees, Opus 241 (Mistral), 1893, oil on canvas, 80 x 64…
100-year-old box of negatives discovered frozen in block of Antarctica’s ice
While restoring one of the exploration huts in Antarctica, Conservators of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust discovered a box that turned out to be a remarkable treasure. It contained 22 never-before-seen cellulose nitrate negatives documenting the life of Antarctic explorers a 100 years back. Preserved in a block of ice, these negatives surprisingly lived up to our days to shine a light on the Antarctic heroic era and the landscape itself. After being frozen for a century, the negatives had to be gently restored by firstly separating one from another, then cleaning, removing the mold and consolidating the cellulose nitrate image layers. Only after this painstaking process they were turned into digital positives.
As stated in the media release by the Trust, the box of photographs was probably left in Captain Scott’s hut by Ernest Shackleton’s 1914-1917 Ross Sea Party, an expedition that was stranded after their ship floated away to the sea during a massive blizzard. The group was finally rescued but only after three men were already lost.
On Monday, January 19, 2015, We, @Werqatl and the Black queer community of Atlanta marched under the banner of #ReclaimHERDream to RECLAIM the radical legacy of ALL Black women in the Civil Rights Movement.
After the march, we disrupted the rally to hold memorial/mock funeral service for ALL Black women, cis and trans, queer and straight.
Brief of the opening statement:
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today because Black women are DYING and we need to begin fighting for the freedom and safety our BLACK WOMEN with the same URGENCY that we hold for our Black men. – @WerqATL
WERQ responded to a national call from Ferguson to #ReclaimMLK. In doing this work, we wanted to place Dr. King within a larger movement of Black working class women (cis and trans, queer and straight), who with Dr.King, risked their lives on the frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement, only to be relegated to the sidelines of history.
We marched for Harriet, Ida B., Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Septima Clark, Pauli Murray, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Diane Nash, the Four Little Girls, the women of SNCC, SCLC, CORE, and the other countless and nameless women and girls who lives did not MATTER in the making of history. Because we believe #BlackWomenMatter!
We marched for Kathryn Johnson, Kim Jones, Sakia Gunn, Mia Henderson, Islan Nettles, Renisha McBride, Marissa Alexander, Rekia Boyd, Islan Nettles, Yaz’min Shancez, Tiffany Edwards, Aiyanna Jones, Yvette Smith, Tarika Wilson, Tyisha Miller, our mamas, our sisters, our grandmamas, you, and so many others.
Black women are MORE than the mothers and sisters of Black men who are murdered by the police.
We are beaten, terrorized, raped, choked, shot, and murdered.
Black women are MORE than the daughters and lovers of revolutionary Black men.We are the revolutionaries!
We are freedom fighters, we are activists, we are organizers and we have stood on the front lines of every movement for freedom in this country!
We will not remain on the margins of your headlines or your movement. We will fight for Black Women! Because in the words of June Jordan:
Skrik 