Kill Them With Love

I was lucky to meet Ari-up. She had the strangest accent I could never place. I think that's because she lived in England, Germany, Jamaica and the U.S. The first time I met her, I said where are you from? She said, "I'm a citizen of the World." I've heard of global citizens,but I never met somebody who identified with it so deeply, it was so much a part of her. Ari's people weren't defined by geo-strategic imaginary lines drawn by history. In my heart, I knew what she was saying was true.

The best quote I've ever heard in my life is: "All wars are civil because all men are brothers." It is so true. My dad just traced our D.N.A. back to East Africa to the cradle of civilization. Once upon a time it was also believed that there was one tribe on Earth, with one language. Alas, human beings were way to productive, and powerful when they worked together, and so they were divided by language.

I know that truth is already in everyone's hearts. I wish people thought more like Ari. There is nothing more precious than life, that's why there's nothing more evil than killing. After seeing families cry for loved ones for the 12th year in a row on September 11th, I realized that love is so great. When you steal someone's life, the suffering endures. I don't know if Ari came up with this slogan: "Kill Them With Love", but she certainly sang about it. I wish KILL THEM WITH LOVE was our country's domestic and foreign policy. I'm so sick of bombs and and drones and what looks like another war coming with Syria. I wish the money spent on killing went towards feeding the starving, or the thousands of other problems our brothers and sisters face. Let's heal the World instead of blowing it up.

Up In The Book Of Life : Yom Kippur

Every year on this day I fast with my husband from sundown to sundown. I wish my observant friends an easy fasting, may we find some favor with our maker. Most importantly, remember how precious life is. And in the coming days, let's be better human beings, let's love one another, help those in need, stop all wars, and to stop destroying the Earth and its incredible wonders of life. I leave you with one of my favorite lyrical inspirations by Mister Marley's son. 

AND IT WAS WRITTEN UP IN THE BOOK OF LIFE! 

. 
Well, did the pen is stronger than the knife
They can kill you once but they can't kill you twice
Did you know destruction of the flesh is not the ending to life?
Fear not of the anti-Christ

Did you know that I exist before the earth?
And did you know that my eyes are windows to the world?
Did you know you can't go, ah Zion and wear Jerry curls?
Can't tell the boys from the girls

Your body is just a vehicle transporting your soul
It's what's inside of people is beauty to behold
Fear not of evil, every day them flesh it grow old
Changes of the times take a toll

And it was written up in the book of life
That man shall endure forever more
And it was written up in the book of life
That man shall endure forever more

Our Deepest Fear

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Used by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural speech

CUJules  Maryanne Williamson quotes

September 11th : Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn.

12 years after September 11th, the suffering continues by the families who were robbed of their time with their loved ones. I never really understood WHY someone would do something like this. Why would someone kill thousands of strangers who never wronged them. The closest I've seen to explaining such evil behavior, comes from BATMAN. "Some men aren't looking for anything logical like money. They cannot be bought, bullied, negotiated, or reasoned with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

Amen Aunt Vag!

Last week, my mom wrestled with death. It was clear her body was shutting down. My brothers and I made the twelve hour drive to North Carolina to see her. My two brothers that drove through the night, were the first to see her. Her head was swollen, and she could barely speak. Her shortness of breath sounded like she was being strangled. It took all of her strength for her to say "I love you." Me and my brother Gabriel arrived at the hospital after midnight. We joked that we might have to beat up janitors and steal their outfits to sneak into our mom's room. Luckily, the hospital allowed 24 hour visits and we didn't have to beat up any janitors. When we got there, the swelling was down, and she could speak again. When the potassium I.V. burned her arm and she screamed, me and my little brother disco danced and laughed her through her pain. She felt every ounce of pain, without pain killers, just like the day I was born.

The thought of losing my mom, crushed me. I don't know if I'll ever be ready to lose her. The truth is, I feel like I never got to have her. When I was a little girl I was raised by my dad. I always saw my mom, but it was never enough. When I saw her, she always made everything warm and beautiful. When I hug her, there's always sadness that lingers there, a deep longing for my beautiful mother. Losing one person can change your whole life, and your entire family.

I do believe that these bodies are just our shells, and I whole-heartedly believe in more. The only reason I believe in anything is because my mother gave me faith. All these years, if I've ever been scared, I would repeat something she told me: "Greater is he, that is in me that is in the World." So many times those words walked me home alone at night. I'm not going to lie, I've called on G-d so many times. I said, "Please God" when my car was spinning on the New Jersey Turnpike after having avoided getting crushed by two tractor trailers. I got out of the car and looked over the edge of a bridge that my car just bounced off of. I was waiting to see my body in the car when I got out, but I was alive with a broken head light. Someone who saw the accident pulled over and said he couldn't believe I survived. I called my mom who answered, "Rosie, I was just thinking about you." I started crying and told her, "I was in an accident." Silly as it is, even when you have a boo-boo as an adult, you need your mom.

The doctor was sure that she would be dead if she didn't get to the hospital when she did. Within twenty four hours, she could breathe normally again, the swelling went down. It looked like all the prayers were working. In fact, I was told I saved her life. A week ago on her birthday, I called my mom. I told her I made her a video birthday card, but I could tell she was to sick to get out of bed and watch it. I wished I could be there to take care of her. I messaged one of her friend's daughter on facebook. I asked her if someone could go and make her soup and take care of her on her birthday. They went and stayed with her for a few days, and these were the people who when they saw she wasn't getting any better from the anti-biotics, they decided she should go the hospital. My mom told her friend, "I'm not going to make it." I wonder if it weren't my mom's birthday, and if I didn't get in touch with her friends, would she be dead now? It certainly looks that way. The timing of everything was perfect. I spent the whole week in a hospital, even after we had to wear masks, gloves and gowns because she contracted some hospital staff infection.

So many friends called me, messaged me, people prayed for her, and sent me so much love and wisdom. I'd like to dedicate today's words of wisdom to the people who sent love, flowers, and especially to all of those who have lost their mothers. These words of wisdom were written to me by my Aunt Vag (that's her nick-name, it's a whole other essay.) When I was so broken and scared Aunt Vag's words gave me great comfort, and faith. Thanks Aunt Vag for saying these words! May your words live forever, and bring great comfort and strength to those who face an unbearable loss of losing their mother. I'm very grateful for every little moment with my mom. I'm happy to say that my mom is being released from the hospital, and that we all have a second chance at life today.

" You will never lose your mom as long as you love her. She is part of you. Every cell in your body started inside your mom. " 

"Even McDonalds is tired of lying."

"Even McDonalds is tired of Lying." - A. Babajian

Fiona Apple Cancels Her Tour To Be With Her Dying Dog. :(

Fiona Apple

It's 6pm on Friday,and I'm writing to a few thousand friends I have not met yet. I am writing to ask them to change our plans and meet a little while later. Here's the thing. I have a dog Janet, and she's been ill for almost two years now, as a tumor has been idling in her chest, growing ever so slowly. She's almost 14 years old now.I got her when she was 4 months old. I was 21 then ,an adult officially - and she was my child.

She is a pitbull, and was found in Echo Park, with a rope around her neck, and bites all over her ears and face.  She was the one the dogfighters use to puff up the confidence of the contenders. She's almost 14 and I've never seen her start a fight ,or bite, or even growl, so I can understand why they chose her for that awful role. She's a pacifist. Janet has been the most consistent relationship of my adult life, and that is just a fact.  We've lived in numerous houses, and jumped a few make shift families, but it's always really been the two of us.

She slept in bed with me, her head on the pillow, and she accepted my hysterical, tearful face into her chest, with her paws around me, every time I was heartbroken, or spirit-broken, or just lost, and as years went by, she let me take the role of her child, as I fell asleep, with her chin resting above my head. She was under the piano when I wrote songs, barked any time I tried to record anything, and she was in the studio with me all the time we recorded the last album.

The last time I came back from tour, she was spry as ever, and she's used to me being gone for a few weeks every 6 or 7 years.

She has Addison's Disease, which makes it dangerous for her to travel since she needs regular injections of Cortisol, because she reacts to stress and to excitement without the physiological tools which keep most of us from literally panicking to death. Despite all of this, she’s effortlessly joyful and playful, and only stopped acting like a puppy about 3 years ago. She's my best friend and my mother and my daughter, my benefactor, and she's the one who taught me what love is.


I can't come to South America. Not now. When I got back from the last leg of the US tour, there was a big, big difference. She doesn't even want to go for walks anymore.  I know that she's not sad about aging or dying. Animals have a survival instinct, but a sense of mortality and vanity, they do not. That’s why they are so much more present than people.


But I know that she is coming close to point where she will stop being a dog, and instead, be part of everything. She’ll be in the wind, and in the soil, and the snow, and in me, wherever I go. I just can't leave her now, please understand. If I go away again, I’m afraid she'll die and I won't have the honor of singing her to sleep, of escorting her out. Sometimes it takes me 20 minutes to pick which socks to wear to bed. But this decision is instant. These are the choices we make, which define us. I will not be the woman who puts her career ahead of love and friendship. I am the woman who stays home and bakes Tilapia for my dearest, oldest friend. And helps her be comfortable, and comforted, and safe, and important. Many of us these days, we dread the death of a loved one. It is the ugly truth of Life, that keeps us feeling terrified and alone. I wish we could also appreciate the time that lies right beside the end of time.


I know that I will feel the most overwhelming knowledge of her, and of her life and of my love for her, in the last moments. I need to do my damnedest to be there for that. Because it will be the most beautiful, the most intense, the most enriching experience of life I've ever known. When she dies.
So I am staying home, and I am listening to her snore and wheeze, and reveling in the swampiest, most awful breath that ever emanated from an angel.


And I am asking for your blessing.
I'll be seeing you.

Love, Fiona

Cat Stevens Will Set Your Inner Hippie Free!

Oh I'm on my way, I know I am, 
somewhere not so far from here

All I know is all I feel right now, 
I feel the power growing in my hair

Sitting on my own not by myself, 
everybody's here with me

I don't need to touch your face to know,
 and I don't need to use my eyes to see

I keep on wondering if I sleep too long, 
will I always wake up the same (or so)?

And keep on wondering if I sleep too long, will I even wake up again or something

Oh I'm on my way I know I am, 
but times there were when I thought not

Bleeding half my soul in bad company, 
I thank the moon I had the strength to stop

I'm not making love to anyone's wishes, 
only for that light I see

'Cause when I'm dead and 
lowered low in my grave, 
that's gonna be the only thing 
that's left of me

And if I make it to the waterside, 
will I even find me a boat (or so)?

And if I make it to the waterside, I'll be sure to write you a note or something

Oh I'm on my way, 
I know I am, somewhere not so far from here

All I know is all I feel right now, 
I feel the power growing in my hair

Oh life is like a maze of doors and they all open from the side you're on

Just keep on pushing hard boy, try as you may

You're going to wind up where you started from

You're going to wind up where you started from

Don't Cry Over People Who Don't Get You!

"It's none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier." - Anthony Hopkins

Jerry Seinfeld Gets Deep...

…Why is commitment such a big problem for a man?…when a man is driving down that freeway of love, the woman he's involved with is like an exit, but he doesn't want to get off there. He wants to keep driving. And the woman is like, "Look, gas, food, lodging, that's our exit that's everything we need to be happy…Get off here now!" But the man is focusing on the sign underneath that says, "Next exit twenty-seven miles," and he thinks, "I can make it." Sometimes he can, sometimes he can't. Sometimes the car ends up on the side of the road with the hood up and smoke pouring out of the engine. He's sitting on the curb all alone, "I guess I didn't realize how many miles I was racking up."

                                                                                                    -  Jerry Seinfeld

Love Suffers All Things...

A Great Poet

Words That Inspired Tiffany Hagler Geard

In The Face Of Obstacle Comes Great Treasure!

"Where You Stumble 

There Lies Your Treasure."

 - Joseph Campbell

Amen Maya Angelou!

The Fifth Age Of The Sun: Olintonatihua

The Word Is Born

"In the beginning was the Word, 

and the Word was with God, 

and the Word was God." - John 1:1