I've always wanted to be a poster girl! Earlier this year Susie Collins author and editor of The Canary Report a blog and social network for and about MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITIES was inspired by Eva Cabelle of Spain. Eva lives with MCS and took her truth to the whirl of disbelievers and challenged all with her naked truth. That inspiration sparked the idea for creating a calendar focused on the real lives of women living with this incredibly debilitating and isolating environmental illness.The Calendar is out! 15 women are part of this 2010 calendar The Naked Truth About MCS. The calendar and the article about its release are available online from The Canary Report. All proceeds go to the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit organization involved and educating the collective consciousness with the truth about the every day chemicals, the industries that concoct, market and hold us hostage/addicted to the synthetic world of "products", and the governmental process and politics that fuel the cycle of greed and toxicity.
The photo above is me Ms November... Wahine Toa (warrior woman) taken at the back of VardoForTwo while Pete and I lived on the beautiful oxygen-rich Ledge in the woods. I chose to face the camera as I wish I could face the world: STANDING proudly encamped in a pesticide free zone with the phases of the moon and the radiance of a full spectrum sun. I hold my o'o, the walking stick to remind me of the need to be sustained by nature ... holding on for all I'm worth and using that stick as a weapon if the need arises. Around my neck is a lei of tiny shells a gift from my son on my 60th birthday, linking me to the salt water that is me. The golden wagon safe haven built with due diligence and tears is our singularly safe space. Chemicals surround that wagon on wheels 24/7, awareness and transformed choices based on the knowledge that saner, healthier choices are possible remain minimal.
Here's a project that shouts the naked truth. Thanks to Susie Collins and the women who contributed their versions of MCS truth, check it out and tell your friends, families, your congress men, your congress women, your mayor, your neighbors, the managers at your local co-op, your local drug store! MCS is real, alive and closer to you than you think.
P.S. Ruby my magical laptop made posting this photo possible. Thanks, Ruby!!
8 comments:
Mokihana, thank you.
oh yes, I totally am glad you did this. I will search out calendars. JT
Linda, thank YOU.
JT, thanks I am glad to have the chance to be loud about the issues, ever an activist tears, fears and all. Spread the word Joan, spread the calendars.
Mokihana
"As long as we persist in closing our hearts to the sorrow the surrounds us on all sides, we remain incapable of growth and insight."
-Siddhatta Gotama ... Buddha the Awakened One
This is the comment I left on the post regarding the calendar over at Susie Collins' THE CANARY REPORT:
"The Calendar project is great, and Lou your sentiments are powerful affirmation for the realness behind the masks and within the souls. Thank you Calendar Women, mahalo Susie for harnassing your significant mana to create this work.
Last night was one of those cliff-dweller times, when thoughts of suicide filled me, the vardo and my whole being. That reality is part of the painful difficulty that comes from an isolation that is as close as the wall outside my window. “So close, yet so very far away.” I am so glad I made it through the night and woke to see the calendar, the commentary and a spark of hope to keep believing.
Mahalo,
Mokihana"
I am very, very glad you did too.
: )
Thank you, Linda!
Aloha Mokihana!
I LOVE your photo! Thank you so much for participating in our project. Your story about your dark night followed by a spark of hope from our project really touched me deeply. I do hope you are feeling better now.
I released the video today and I made your photo the transition slide into the nature settings. While all the other slides in the video are set to 5 seconds, yours is set to 7 (which is really long in a video) because I really wanted your presence to SINK IN to the viewer: your strength and your resolve and your connection to nature.
Here's the link to the video http://www.thecanaryreport.org/2009/12/14/video-the-naked-truth-about-multiple-chemical-sensitivity/
Thank you so much for sharing your story with us!
Much Aloha,
Susie xoxo
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