It shouldn’t. We make it this way. We keep telling ourselves that if life doesn’t work out the way we always thought it would, should, or could, that we somehow failed the societal system. It makes life scary. Are we making the right choices? Are we hanging around and falling in love with the right people, with the right circumstances? It’s these things that we ask ourselves that actually pull us further away from the present. It pulls us further from experience. I hate that life seems so scary. It’s almost scarier to think that we may go through life without ever having experienced it fully. All I want is for my life to be lived and experienced by me.
I just created my first ever super-heroine! I sometimes believe I chose the wrong profession because I honestly get so much joy from creating something visual from a blank space. I'm so inspired right now to create a series of badass super chicas, it's a true #passionproject (isn't she awesome?)
Here's a tiiiiny sneak peek at a rough version of my next creation, the start of a planned series of badass super-chicas that'll feed my deep inner craving to be a #comicbook artist. Can't wait to post a finished product #lovedrawing #illustrator at heart :)
Haven't posted a #selfie in a while, so here you go. This is what I look like today in #blackandwhite.. You're welcome, world ;) lol #totallyjoking #loveyou
Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clean air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will Americans be free in their country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of human and automotive waste.
I used to believe that I would one day grow out of using of social media. I would banish its utilization slowly as I aged, becoming far too mature to succumb to its arbitrary obsolescence. My real-life social function would be enough, as the online and tangible worlds were and will remain separate entities.
Now I realize its importance as a function of citizens in our modern world. I realize I needed to grow into the proper use of social media, not as a tool to accrue social affluence (as I once naively believed, and therefore began to condemn the use of social sites), but as a means to acquire and spread important information and ideas, while connecting with those precious people who are too far and too busy to remain in our real-lives each day. Nowadays, society has created an important, unbreakable bridge between a one's personal and digital lives.
This is something I believe more people (especially young ones) need to recognize as essential to maintaining a true democracy, rather than a means to fabricate a false self, or define one's self worth through the measure of likes and shares.
It's our responsibility as humans resting on the forefront of the Digital Revolution to use our fairly new-found, connective abilities in a way of virtue, rather than vice.
"Our bodies are incredibly wise. Working as a medical intuitive for the past 20 years I have been able to see some extraordinary things happen in people's healing..."
Speaking of feminism, I have to commend the following ladies for not only being hilarious comedians with large followings, but also for being perpetuates of new feminism.
Feminism is a hot topic in today's world for more reasons than one. For starters, we're living in an age where nearly everyone's voice can be heard. With the influx of blog and social media sites, we as a society have been able to separate our individual selves from societal norms, and therefore create content that reflects the ideas and concerns of real people. This new-found ability slowly increased disparities between what is expected of us and what we expect for ourselves.
Since the 2003, 32 states have legalized same-sex marriage, 31 since 2008. Americans have increasingly recognized that racism still exists in our society, as evidenced by the increased prevalence of viral videos that highlight racial issues of the modern day. Social media platforms have made it so much easier to spread mass awareness and gain a following through their simple system, allowing every issue to somehow be heard. This has become especially noticeable recently with the new feminist movement.
The new wave of feminism that has been dominating online forums is quite possibly exactly what feminists have needed for decades. Redefining feminism has been the tagline for many of these movements, attempting to give a new name to feminism and eliminating the 'hairy armpits and man-hating feminist' stereotype, which has been perpetuated since the start of feminism by multiple male-driven media. It is this stereotype that causes many people who share the beliefs of feminism to shy away from the label--or anti-feminists to attack it.
Whether everyone agrees or not, Beyoncé has become the feminist icon of the 21st century. The modern day reverence of 'Queen B' as a gender-equality activist epitomizes the reformation of the feminist image. Her new status as feminist queen has generated heat, largely because of her nontraditional displays (such as 'twerking') and overt sexuality. However, I believe that a true feminist wouldn't shy away from such displays. I believe a true feminist should celebrate a woman who displays the strength and confidence to show what they want to the world, how they want to show it.
This sentiment has become the aspect of new feminism that has gotten the most attention. More women are throwing caution to the wind and announcing their feminist beliefs, sometimes while also dressing provocatively or embracing their gender roles. These are, simply put, ways of expressing freedom--freedom being an ideal that many feminists believe in and reach for. It's the freedom to be a full human, not just a girl or a little lady.
The way a woman dresses or what a woman does to 'show' her feminism is not what matters. What matters is her (and men's) beliefs that women deserve the same legal rights as men, that women are as socially, intellectually, and physically capable as men, and that women deserve the same type of treatment as men in academic and work environments. Yes, men and women may be different biologically, which is completely essential to human survival, but that doesn't mean unequal as humans. It just means different.
That's what people are missing when they are analyzing the new wave of feminism that has been all abuzz lately. In spite of that, I think this redefinition has breathed new life into the movement.
It's great that nowadays, it is becoming more and more acceptable for a man to say "I'm a feminist." Or, that women can show their vulnerabilities as women and be celebrated for showing their strength. It is great to be living in a time--as a twenty-something woman--when I can look around and see the morphing and merging of gender roles that allow men and women to play on the same team. It's a beautiful thing, and I intend to support new feminism until its mission has been completed.
The above photo is one that I took earlier this summer while enjoying quality time with a good friend one evening. The beauty of the sky–it never ceases to amaze me. I believe in it as God’s art. It is the spectacle upon which we all have the incredible ability to gaze. I wrote this piece while on a road trip from Pennsylvania to Florida. I was experiencing that beautiful moment of awe, brought upon by the witness of a 5 AM sunrise. I felt for our Earth, and I then began to ponder our relationship to her as a human beings.
As I gaze upon the beauty of the cotton-candy, freshly lit sky, I reflect on the ability to awe:
Most humans choose to focus their energies on that which yields the narrowest of benefit—money and its spoils. With such a narrow field of focus on life, these people undermine what ever-expansive riches this life offers that are anything but material. It is these humans who are aching the spirit of Mother Earth with their polluting, their deforesting, their depleting, and their poisoning of her generous gifts—all for the prospect of money. This senseless cycle of living to work for dollars, and dying the same–is the painful result worth it? What is success for if not to continue living healthily on a happy planet?
Let’s face the frightening inevitability for a short time: life continues as is; nature is slowly being ground to poisonous ashes as the materialists work and earn their paper dollars and metallic pieces. With their arbitrarily valued paper and metal, the materialists can purchase their self-satisfying goods. The creation of these goods continually stab at the preexistent scars on the Mother We Share, while thickening her fresh air with chemicals. As the materialists work harder, laugh emptily, drink heavily, and fill their vessels with cancers, the spiritualists water Earth’s surface with their tears. Spiritually aware minds meditate on the safety of their souls for the inevitable day when the death of Our Mother brings humanity to its end. The material outlives the Earth, yet its purpose quickly fade
This idea, this seemingly inevitable reality, can be deferred. There exists hope. Yielding to our powers of awe is an ideal start. We each possess this amazing capacity to freely face the vastness of our Earth’s generous beauty—without cost or tolls—and to then reflect on it. With this reflection, we can grow closer to the kind of awareness that nourishes both the personal and communal spirits. Breathe her fresh air deeply, soak in her natural waters, show kindness to each of her precious creatures, carefully observe the art she’s created for, alongside, and within each of us, and deliberately ponder upon the meaning of our relationship to her and her relationship to us. If we could just understand how essential she is to us, how essential it is that we care for her, and how essential we’ve become to her survival, we can usher in a new era of global reparation.
Our exquisite Earth, she is the Mother We Share. Let’s use our powers of awe to let her thrive pridefully and allow her to heal.
