Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Our friend Linda Sepp ... environmental refugee in Toronto, CA

Man at his best, like water,
Serves as he goes along:
Like water he seeks his own level,
The common level of life,
Loves living close to the earth,
Lving clear down in his heart,
Loves kinship with his neighbors,
The pick of words that tell the truth,
The even tenor of a well-run state,
The fair profit of able dealing,
The right timing of useful deeds,
And for blocking no one's way
No one blames him.
-The Way of Life According to LAO TZU (transl. Witter Bynner)

Pete and I began writing these blogs to make sense of the circumstances of life on Earth that was not at all making sense.  When the first words of VardoForTwo filled this blogspot we had landed in a place safe enough to feel an attachment to something more than fear.  RELIEF?  That would describe it to a degree.  We were and continue to a lesser degree at the moment, fleeing an environment that would not allow a deep clear breath of air, a safe and non-toxic next moment, and to explain our reactions or our decisions to others was futile.  Our resources financial, physical and emotional were as Lao Tzu wrote were at a 'common level of life' ... a place uncommon to the society of consumption and chemical produce use ... only the essentials for a functional life allowed us to rest enough to build a new life.  That life is growing from the seventy square feet of safe haven on wheels.  Through the connectivity of the internet people found there way to our blog and we began to know about the common level of life that is life with MCS or Environmentally induced illness.  One of those early connections via the internet was "Linda."  Slowly, her comments and our interactions through the society network of The Canary Report, sketched a real people living with severe chemical sensitivities.  During the year and more of my awareness of Linda's situation, I often forgot how desperate her daily reality is:  her writing and her articles about MCS Safe Housing and her vision for a collaboration between governmental, community and personal needs reflected a woman of deeply passionate and widely researched insight.  Linda sought a big picture and solution. 

Today on The Canary Report, Susie Collins' posted an article that caught my eye.  "Linda Sepp has published her own blog."  That signified a major next step for our friend.   Publishing a blog meant something major was changing.  And so it has, Linda Sepp will be evicted from her Toronto apartment in April of this year and needs a safe place to go. My heart goes out to our friend, and as Lao Tzu wrote, I put words here to serve as healing water, right words to tell the truth.  Our friend is in need, and we post a link to her blog here with the hope that among our readers there will be help: an advocate to assist her in her search for safe housing and/or donations to provide her safe clothing. 

Mahalo,
Mokihana and Pete

4 comments:

linda said...

tears in my eyes Mokihana, as I know you too have also had many, too many... I hold that vision of a better safer world for all of us...

Mokihana Calizar said...

yes Linda, I know you hold that vision and it will be. blessing to you, friend.

Mokihana

Susie Collins said...

Mahalo, Mokihana, for sharing Linda's story with your readers. Susie xo

Mokihana Calizar said...

Susie,
I was happy to do what I could, and hope the process unfolds with just the right connections.
Mahalo to you for all the stories you published.
Aloha,
Mokihana