New Abbey: Sweetheart Abbey

The ingenious wheel window in the south transept

Located on the eastern edge of the village of New Abbey stands an impressive shrine to human and divine love. The ruin of Sweetheart Abbey sits between the grey granite bulk of Criffel and the waters of the Solway Firth. Lord John Balliol of Barnard Castle died in 1268 and his grieving widow, Lady Dervorgilla of Galloway, had his heart embalmed and put into an ivory casket. Dervorgilla undertook many charitable acts which included establishing the Cistercian abbey of Sweetheart, not far from her home at Buittle Castle. When she died in 1289 her body and her husband’s heart were buried there.

View from the west front towards the presbytery

Established in 1273, the abbey was a daughter house of Dundrennan Abbey near kirkcudbright and was devoted to the worship of God. While builders were still working on the abbey church, the Wars of Independence erupted and after 50 years of bloodshed, the monastery was in a poor state of repair. The new lord of Galloway, Archibald Douglas ‘the Grim’, had the abbey repaired but thereafter little is heard of the abbey until its demise following the Protestant Reformation of 1560. Despite the prolonged wars with England, much of the abbey survives almost entire providing a lasting testament to the monastic ideal that was of such pivotal importance in the medieval age.

The crossing tower

The site of the abbey was perfect for the Cistercian way of life with shelter provided by rising ground to the west with fertile land drained into a slow winding burn, Abbey Pow, and a neighbouring loch provided water for drinking, flushing toilets and powering corn mills. A little over a mile from the abbey was a safe natural harbour for ships bringing in building materials and other provisions and carrying away the produce of the monastery’s granges (estate centres).

View along the nave to the west front

The abbey church at Sweetheart, in common with all Cistercian churches, was dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. It was planned in the shape of a cross and divided up into different areas including the presbytery, monks’ choir, transepts and nave. A pulpitum (timber screen) to the west of the central crossing divided the long church into two with the presbytery and monks’ choir to the east and the nave to the west. The west front and upper part of the nave were only built in the later 14th century as a result of the Wars of Independence interrupting the building schedule.

The wheel window in the west front

The abbey would have been designed by a master mason appointed by the abbot. The builders lived in temporary wooden huts as did the monks themselves until their new home was ready. The land was cleared of granite boulders which were used to build the precinct wall, the domestic buildings and the cores of the church walls. The red sandstone for the church and for the window and door surrounds in the cloister buildings was brought from nearby quarries. Oak for the roof and fir trees for scaffolding may have been imported by sea. Although the building has beautiful stone tracery in the windows, Cistercian austerity is evident in the planning of the building. There is no triforium and the tower over the crossing was deliberately kept low in deference to a ban in 1157 on bell towers. The battlements and gables above the tower were added much later.

Stone boss bearing the Douglas arms in the vaulting of the south transept chapel

The stone tracery in the presbytery windows demonstrates the influence of the style of Gothic architecture which developed in France in the 1230’s. The presbytery, in the east end, was the most sacred part of the church where the high altar was situated. In the vaulted ceiling of the south transept chapel (above) is a stone boss bearing two croziers in saltire together with a heart and three stars (the Douglas arms). This is evidence that the abbey church was repaired by the Douglas family after the Wars of Independence. The nave is six bays long and aisled down both sides. The phased construction of the abbey church is visible not only in the clerestory, where the two eastern windows are of a different design from the other ‘eyebrow’ windows (below), but also in the arcade where the moulded capitals on top of the two eastern pillars have simple mouldings while the four western ones have carved foliage.

‘Eyebrow’ windows along the top of the nave

The monks who built Sweetheart Abbey were Cistercians. The order was founded in 1098 at Citeaux, near Dijon in France, by monks desiring to return to a purer observance of the monastic rule compiled by Benedict of Nursia for his monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy in around 540. The Cistercians, or ‘white monks’ as they were known from the colour of their habit, first arrived in Scotland from Rievaulx settling in Melrose in the eastern borders in 1136. Sweetheart Abbey was the last of 12 Cistercian monasteries set up in Scotland.

Dalemain House

Situated 1km to the south of the village of Stainton is the large country house estate of Dalemain. Meaning ‘Manor in the Valley’, there has been a settlement on the site since Saxon times. The first recorded mention is of a fortified pele tower in the reign of Henry II, one of a line of towers built to protect the country against the marauding Scots Reivers. A manor hall was added in the 14th century with a second tower and in the 16th century, two wings were added housing the kitchen and living quarters on either side of the main building. The impressive Georgian front was completed in 1744 and built to enclose the old house within a central courtyard. Originally, the medieval hall would have been a barn like building open to the beams in the roof where trusses are supported by arched braces that rise from corbels.

The earliest parts of the building are constructed of calciferous sandstone rubble with pink sandstone rubble extensions and flush quoins. The two storey building features a nine bay facade with sandstone ashlar chimney stacks and an open balustraded parapet. The facade has central panelled doors with a pedimented doorcase supported by fluted Ionic pilasters (above).

The Courtyard

The courtyard was evolved over the centuries from a medieval hamlet, built for defensive reasons, immediately surrounding the pele tower. As times became less turbulent, a more recognisable set of farm buildings took shape including one of the largest loft barns in the north of England.

Wild flower spiral garden

When Sir Edward Hasell bought Dalemain, the garden principally provided plants for culinary and medicinal purposes. By the 1680’s, work was being carried out to create a more fashionable garden. A terrace wall was built in 1688 creating a wide grass walk with a sundial as a central feature. Work progressed throughout the 18th century creating landscaped parkland.

Dalemain House is Grade I Listed.

Clifton Hall Tower

The Tower of Clifton Hall dates from about 1500 and is all that remains of a substantial medieval manor house which was begun in about 1400. The hall was constructed by the Engayne family and was demolished in the early 19th century to make way for the existing farmhouse. Gilbert Engayne had been granted the manor, village and lands of Clifton some time before 1173. One of his descendants, Elianor Engayne, married into the Wybergh family and it was during her lifetime that the first manor house was built on this site. Following the death of Elianor, the sole Engayne heiress, in 1412 the house passed to her son from her first marriage to William Wybergh and became the property of the Wybergh family. The late medieval tower wing was occupied continuously from the late 15th century until the early 19th century and retains considerable medieval fabric and many original architectural features.

Characteristic of the borderlands of England and Scotland, tower houses are a type of defensible house that were important centres of medieval life. Fortified towers were often added to manor houses during the troubled and unsettled northern Border regions throughout the medieval period. Not only built for defence, they were fashionable additions to the houses of ambitious local gentry like the Wyberghs and provided comfortable accommodation for the family.

Constructed of red sandstone, the ground floor of the tower is divided into three rooms which later functioned as service rooms and a kitchen. Originally a single large room that functioned as a parlour, the ground floor would have been well furnished with a wooden decorated ceiling and painted plaster walls. The room was converted in about 1600 to serve the new hall built to the south of the tower with three new doors inserted into the south wall. The principle chamber, or solar, was a comfortable living room for the family and was originally entered at first floor level from both the old hall and an external staircase to the south.

Ground floor 18th century fireplace

Shortly afterwards the family got into financial difficulties and in 1640, Thomas Wybergh was forced to mortgage the lands surrounding the manor. In 1652, during the Civil War, the next Thomas Wybergh had his remaining estates forcibly sold owing to his support for the Royalists. Only the manor house itself now remained in the possession of the family. Further trouble arose during the Jacobite uprising when William Wybergh was kidnapped by Scottish soldiers in 1715. The building was occupied and plundered in 1745 shortly before the Battle of Clifton Moor which was the last military engagement on English soil.

The Upper Chamber

Access to the upper floors is by a newel or circular stair situated in the south west corner of the tower. The Upper Chamber (above) was the most private and secluded space in the house accessible only from the principle chamber on the first floor. Still retaining an original fireplace, the Upper Chamber has been subdivided in more recent centuries with the addition of 18th century windows in the east wall. When the house was altered in 1600, the two upper chambers were retained with one of them perhaps used for dining.

The hall was demolished in the early 19th century with the tower remaining in use as a farm building until renovation during the late 1970’s. The tower was placed in the guardianship of the Secretary of State in 1973.

The present roof is a 17th century replacement

The present roof (above) is a 17th century replacement of an earlier roof and was raised at the same time that the tower’s crenellated parapets and south west corner were built. Clifton Hall Tower is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Remaining fabric of the old hall

Dalemain House: The Great Barn

In the courtyard at Dalemain House is a 16th century Great Barn. Built in the 1500’s, the large loft barn is constructed of mixed sandstone and rubble walls with flush quoins. The two storey building features parallel stable ranges, casement windows and slit vents on two levels.

Flat headed under loft doorways of the Great Barn

The height of the roof was raised in 1685 and the upper floor of the building is now home to a Fell Pony Museum.

The Fell Pony Museum

The museum features an extraordinary collection of agricultural implements which chart the history of a bygone country life. Much of the equipment and tools have only become outdated over the last seventy years as a result of mechanisation.

Exposed roof timbers in the museum

The breed of ponies that have worked and travelled through the history of the Lake District have been known for over a century as ‘the Fell’. Native to the north of England, the breed are mostly found in the old counties of Westmorland and Cumberland and are known locally as galloways.

The cloisters under the Great Barn in the courtyard

Sylvia McCosh (born a Hasell of Dalemain) was involved in the revival of the breed during the post war years and she bred many prize winning Fell ponies that were exported all over the world. Some of her prizes and equipment are on display as part of the collection within the museum.

The enclosed castellated courtyard

The Great Barn and Stables are Grade II Listed.

Left stable range with segmental arched doorways

Dacre Castle

Located on a spur of high ground between Dacre Beck to the south and a small ravine to the north is Dacre Castle. The castle stands on the eastern side of a moated sub-rectangular island and was built soon after the licence to crenellate was granted to William de Dacre by Edward II in 1307. Moated sites were built throughout the Medieval period with the provision of a moat intended as a status symbol rather than a practical military defence. The fortified tower house is constructed of mixed sandstone with battlemented parapets concealing the roof. The east tower was built by Humphrey de Dacre some time before 1485. The castle remained in the Dacre family until after the death of Lord Dacre, Earl of Sussex, who lived an extravagant life at Court having married an illegitimate daughter of Charles II. The castle and extensive lands were purchased in 1715 from his Trustees by Sir Christopher Musgrave when he transferred the Dacre lands to his son in law Edward Hasell. Since this time the castle has remained part of the Dalemain Estates.

Dacre Castle is Grade I Listed and the ground beneath is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Temple Sowerby: Acorn Bank Mill

There has been a mill on the site of Acorn Bank Watermill for hundreds of years although the current building dates from the late 18th century. The mill was the manorial mill of the Acorn Bank Estate, also known as Temple Sowerby Manor for a while, and the miller was a tenant. The earliest mention of a mill is in 1323 when the estate passed from the Knights Templar to the Knights Hospitaller and at the time the mill gave an annual income of £4. The machinery suggests that substantial changes were made around 1840 when a French Burr millstone was installed. The original building is constructed of coursed squared rubble with quoins and although primarily a corn mill, the mill has also been used to provide power to the estate gypsum mines. The mill ceased to work in the 1940’s and gradually fell into a state of ruin.

Restoration began in the late 1980’s and the Watermill was little more than a ruin. Many of the walls have had to be dismantled and completely rebuilt yet much of the machinery survived and has been retained. The mill is now partially restored and has been open to the public since 1996. Flour was ground again for the first time in September 2011. The water supply for the mill starts at a weir and sluice on Crowdundle Beck – about a quarter of a mile upstream of the mill. The weir directs water into the millrace and the sluice allows the miller to control the amount of water that flows to the mill. The race has a very shallow fall while Crowdundle Beck drops more rapidly. By the time the millrace reaches the mill, the water in it is about four metres above the river level and high enough to pass over the wheels.

Upper Mill Machinery

Acorn Bank Watermill is unusual in that it has two sets of mill machinery driven by separate waterwheels. The upper set of machinery (above) is virtually complete with two pairs of millstones for grinding grain and making flour. This set of mill machinery is driven from the uppermost of three waterwheels. The large vertical cogwheel is on the same shaft as the waterwheel. This cogwheel is the pitwheel and it turns the smaller gear, the wallower, on the vertical shaft. The great spur wheel is the large gear above the wallower and this could be made to drive either or both of the millstones via the small ‘stonenuts’ to each side of the great spur.

Lower Mill Machinery

The lower set of mill machinery (above) is no longer complete but was once almost identical to the upper set. The large cogwheels were probably removed when the waterwheel was adapted to provide power to a local mine. The lower set of mill machinery, like the upper set, has two pairs of millstones and was driven from the middle of three waterwheels.

The Drying Kiln

The drying kiln (above) was used to dry the oats before they were milled. A floor of perforated tiles existed above a fire and the oats were spread over the tiles which were dried from the heat of the fire. Suspended above the kiln fire was a baffle plate which spread the heat more evenly and prevented a hot-spot on the floor above. The perforated tiles of the drying floor were supported on cross beams of stone and slate and later, iron. The earliest tiles were made of roughly fired clay with holes punched through. The oats were spread over the floor to a depth of a few inches and were turned regularly to prevent the lower grain burning and to ensure an even drying. The miller would be able to tell when the grain was dry enough by biting it. Once dry, the grain was swept off the drying floor to be milled.

There were once three waterwheels at Acorn Bank. The top and middle wheels drove corn milling machinery while the bottom drove a saw bench. The middle wheel was adapted to provide power for a nearby gypsum mine. There were two types of wheel in use at the mill. The upper wheel is a pitchback meaning that the water falls onto the top of the wheel at the back and the middle and bottom wheels were overshot meaning that the water falls onto the wheel at the top. In both cases, the water fills buckets and its weight turns the wheel. The bottom wheel was situated below the mill building.

Acorn Bank Mill is Grade II Listed.

Nithsdale: New Abbey War Memorial

On the A710 next to Sweetheart Abbey stands New Abbey War Memorial. Dedicated to the memory of those lost in the Great War (1914-1918), the monument is of rough surfaced granite and set upon a stepped plinth. An ornamental sword adorns the cross shaft and the memorial lists thirty six names of those who lost their lives.


Top 10 Most Useful Health Websites

Finding reliable medical information can be difficult. To help us out, the Medical Library Association has created a list of the most useful free consumer health web sites  (sites are listed in alphabetical, NOT ranked, order):

(Note: How did they come up with this list? The Consumer and Patient Health Information Section (CAPHIS) of MLA evaluates web sites based on the following criteria: credibility, sponsorship/authorship, content, audience, currency, disclosure, purpose, links, design, interactivity, and disclaimers.)


Category Archives: Family Constellations

Disease as a chance: every symptom and disease has a message

This is a brilliant article explaining how Family Constellations work and providing examples of the powerful healing and insight that clients receive from doing a constellation.

If you would like to experience this in real life I am holding a Systemic Family Constellation Workshop 28 Oct in Meadows, South Australia. For details click here.

Do we need to forgive?

Many people say that to have peace we need to forgive those who have hurt us, to let go of the pain and any resentment, judgement, hate or anger we may feel towards the other person. It is true if we hold onto these emotions we are keeping our self stuck in the energy of the past events and keeping it alive in our body. By focusing on the “wrong doing” we keep our self reliving it and replaying it in life, as we attract in other similar situations – in a subconscious attempt to heal the wound.

If we have formed beliefs that the world is dangerous or people can’t be trusted or everyone’s out to get me, then we live life with that viewpoint. Our eyes can’t perceive all the data that is there when we look at a scene. Millions of bits of information is sent to our brain which filters it based on our beliefs of what is most vital for us to see for our survival, our well being. So if we are locked in fight or flight or trauma from the past with beliefs that we are in danger all the time, then that is what the data gets searched for and we only see that subset of infomration about the scene we are viewing. We don’t notice the beauty, the love being shown between people or animals and their owners, etc, we just see the potential dangers, threats and situations to avoid in order to best protect our self. It is a self protection mechanism called a ‘negativity bias’. It is an evolutionary tool, a mechanism that makes sense biologically to keep us alive.

The sad part is that if you have those type of negative beliefs or buried trauma inside your body you miss out on seeing and feeling all the goodness in life that is their waiting for you to see it, to let it in, to trust and believe it is possible, that you deserve it and to accept it. You are worthy of good things, of fun, of love, of laughter and joy. You are worthy of wealth, abundance of food, shelter, clothing, health, etc.

The world is abundant, there is goodness out there, all around us, we just have to do the work to heal our programming – our negative beliefs and to shift out the pain and trauma in our bodies so it knows the war is over and can relax and start to enjoy life more.

If you are holding on to a grudge about what has happened to you or onto what you have missed out on because of your experiences – then you are keeping yourself caught in that dynamic of feeling bad, victimised, empty of joy and vitality. You are punishing yourself with your choice of thoughts and actions that will result from that level of thinking.

Forgiveness is not about letting go of wrongdoing, it is about realising that whatever has happened in your life has happened and accepting it and getting on with your life to let more goodness in. You accept what is and turn towards life, to focus on the now and what is to come, instead of being turned away from life focused on the past, entangled with it and missing out on your now. Focus here, now and move forward, you can do it. It is a choice you have to choose to make.

Many people hold on as they think it is punishing their parents or those that hurt them. They don’t want to let them off the hook, but doing this just keeps you caught up in the pain. You need to choose to let it go for your own sake, so you can move on and enjoy life. Your parents may not have been perfect parents, but they did what they could for you with the knowledge and emotional maturity they had. They too may have been suffering and caught up in the pain of their past.

Family Constellations shows us that when people are entangled with ancestors and the traumas or unfinished business within the family system, their energy is literally stuck there in that event or with that ancestor who may have been rejected, died young or suffered some tragedy that wasn’t spoken about or fully grieved. That stuck energy, that trauma occupies their energy, they are bound to it, turned towards it, enmeshed with it and literally unable to look away and focus on their now.

If your parents were entangled in the past in this way, they simply could not focus all their energy on being present with you, giving you the love and nourishment that children desire, hunger for. They literally were not available to live their lives fully and you missed out on their attention, the full connection with them that you wanted. They too missed out on being fully present in their life and on being an attentive, loving parent with their children. They missed out too.

See how the trauma continues down the line. If you judge your parents and turn away from them, reject them, assume you are better than them or know more than them – then you too turn away from being present fully in your life. A lot of your energy is caught up with your past and what you missed out on, on the pain and disappointment or anger over what happened. You say no to them and in essence no to life. You stop letting whatever goodness they can give you in. When you have kids they too will feel the lack of your presence and feel like you are not fully present or available for them. They too will feel they have missed out and they may judge you and turn away as they get older. The pattern repeats unless you heal the trauma, so that all who are entangled can finally let it rest and turn to focus on their own lives, to live them fully, joyously, focused on creating and accepting the goodness of life.

Family Constellations can help to untangle the traumas and past hurts, it can help free everyone involved, so they can focus on the now and enjoy it.

Your parents didn’t deliberately hurt you. If it seemed like they did, this was just their pain seeping out, being projected onto you. They too have wounds from their childhood and from their ancestors which they carry. They too are burdened and lived out all this pain the only way they knew how to do so. The result was what you experienced as their child. They didn’t have the tools to do it differently. Now we can. Now we can set ourselves and them free, to enjoy life more fully.

Do the work to heal and let go of the pain, accept what happened and see your parents for who they truly are, and thank them for your life. Focus on the goodness they gave you and let it in. Even if there was trauma and abuse, they gave you life and that is a great gift. Accept that and honour them for that.

If your parents are still alive and you interact with them, let yourself receive their love in whatever way they can show it to you. They may not be able to express it, but perhaps you can see it in their gestures, their gifts, their contact with you and wanting to spend time with you, their compliments or money or food – whatever it is, let them give to you, let yourself receive the goodness, love and energy from them, so that your cup is filled, so that you are nourished and can live your life from a place of fullness, not emptiness, barrenness, darkness.

If your parents are dead or are not able to give you love then you can visualise receiving the love and goodness from them and from other relatives who you may have had more positive interactions. Recall positive times and relive those memories, anchoring in the fun, the love, the goodness. See those ancestors around you in Spirit, supporting you, encouraging you, cheering you on as you live your life.

Let the goodness in. There is much waiting for you to receive it, but to do so you have to let go of the old emotions and traumas, so your arms are free to receive the new. You can do it! You can do it for yourself, for your children, for your family. All will benefit when you heal and let go of the past burdens that you have carried. The whole family system is affected when a member of it chooses love and does the work to heal. It is a true gift that you can give to yourself and your family, so all can live more peacefully.

Forgiveness is not about right or wrong, about who did what and atoning for it, making up for it. It is simply about accepting what occurred and healing the wound so you are free from the pain. It takes effort to heal and become free. Simply saying “I forgive you” does nothing, very little. It actually has a negative effect because in essence it is a judgement on the person and their action. It says “I know you should have done better, but you didn’t, and I begrudgingly accept that and I will forgive you because I am a better person, a bigger person than you”. See the judgement in this, feel how it stops the flow of love.

It is like putting a boulder in the river, disturbing the flow of life force energy from your ancestors, your parents, to yourself. It is like you are trying to politely cover up something that is disgusting and pretending it is no longer there – like putting a white cloth over the top of some vomit or dog poo. It still stinks, it is still there, but it appears to be gone, buried, hidden. You then tiptoe around it, trying not to look at it or step in it, but it is still there, just waiting to be seen, festering, decaying and having a negative impact on your vitality.

You are not bigger than or better than your parents. They are the BIG ONES and you are the LITTLE ONE. They came first, they gave you life and the life force flows from them to you. If you resist them, you resist life. Let the life force flow to you unhindered. It is not about forgiving them, it is more like accepting them for who they are and letting them stand there with no judgement or condemnation. Just let them be who they are and thank them for what they did give you. Anything they couldn’t give you, you can get from elsewhere. You can make something good out of what they gave you, make something good out of your life and the opportunity presented to you. In this sense forgiveness is about peace, acceptance and harmony, and restoring these to the family system for the wellbeing of all. Blessed BE, Amen.

By Jodi-Anne M Smith (21 October 2017).

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Stop carrying responsibility for Mum and Dad’s issues – healing family trauma

Are the emotions you struggle with yours? Science has now shown how unfinished trauma is passed on genetically to future generations. We carry the wounds of our ancestors in an attempt to heal it. This process and ways to help release what you carry is explained in the attached article.

For example: Did your mom or dad reject their sadness and grief? Are you, or your kids, depressed or always grieving?

Did they hide or bury their anger? Are you or your children unusually angry, or did you choose an angry partner? Or perhaps you can’t access your anger at all, while feeling depressed and broken?

Did they disown their need for love and intimacy? Do you hunger for love and yet cannot find it?

Family systems seek wholeness by re-creating what was disowned by previous generations. These later generations (ours and our children’s) try to bring this wholeness by acting out rejected family aspects.

Family Constellation work shows us when these patterns run our lives and how to disentangle from them.

Positive experiences reverse impacts of trauma

This is a great 2:37 min podcast explaining recent scientific research that has found that the impacts of trauma experienced in your life or trauma inherited from your ancestors through changes to their DNA that are passed onto you in their sperm or egg, can be reversed through positive environmental experiences.

In this study, which involved mice who had been traumatised, they found that the trauma behaviours such as depressive behaviours, cognitive problems, anti-social behaviours, and risk taking all stopped after exposure to positve environmental experiences. Furthermore the trauma markers on their DNA healed and were not passed on to their offspring.

If you find this information useful consider donating to support the sharing of more useful information.

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How does Family Constellations work?

How does Family Constellations work? It works by calling in information from the field of the family soul. You do this by the client asking a question such as “I just can’t seem to make a relationship work, I want to know why”. The field will then provide information relevant to that topic. After a short discussion the facilitator will suggest to the client that they look at a specific topic – a selection of people who are most relevant.

For the question above they may look at the client and his current relationship to see what information is reveealed. In this case they would set up representatives for the two people involved and allow the field to show the dynamics including any blocks. Another option would be to set up representatives for the client and each of his major relationships to see the pattern and gather information and insightes from throughout his life. A third option would be to setup representatives for the client’s family of origin – Mum, Dad, and siblings to see what gets revealed that way.  There are many options.

Once setup the field will reveal insights and clues as to why the client is having difficulty. It could show a blockage between the parents that is affecting the client or an identification, an entanglement with a past ancestor who never married or who was heartbroken by a partner and never trusted another. The client could have a hidden loyalty with this ancestor and it would impact the client’s ability to have a successful relationship.

These loyalties, entanglements and identifications occur at the soul level, the subconscious level. The client may never have heard of the ancestor or what they experienced, but energetically they are intertwined. The field will reveal this, enabling it to be acknowledged, respected and let go of. The entanglement can be resolved, any unfelt pain or trauma felt and released. This benefits all involved.

The family soul is looking for harmony and peace, to have the pain released, for love to flow. It recruits current family members to do this on behalf of the ancestors. Once it is completed all are free from the burden. The Family Constellation process enables this to occur.

Trust your intuition and inner guidance, it will tell you whether this is a process you wish to undertake to free yourself and those you love. It is well worth doing so love can flow freely between you all. So be it. Amen.

By Jodi-Anne M Smith (26 March 2017).

What is Family Constellations?

Family Constellations is a method for clearing our blocks to love within families. When the blockages are cleared, all members of the family feel stronger, more supported, more connected to who they are, where they come from and they know they belong, that they are okay, good enough and a necessary part of the whole.

Much of the pain that people feel comes from a sense of not belonging, of having been rejected or not accepted in some way. Many people feel not good enough in some way. This comes mostly from their childhood experiences, but it can also come from further back the ancestral line.

Unhealed wounds within the family soul will affect how the current generation feel. It will affect how much of their energy is available now to use as they please and how much of it will be entangled with their past experiences or their ancestors’ past experiences.

Family Constellations helps to clear these entanglements so that more of your energy is available for you now. This helps you to feel stronger, clearer and to be able to focus on achieving your goals, living your life and raising your kids.

By clearing out the wounds, traumas and entanglements within the family soul it stops the transmission to the next generation. It frees them of the burden to complete it on behalf of the ancestors. You are being of great service to all of your family when you do this work to free them all from the chains of past trauma – rejections, exclusions, unspoken of tragedies, losses and early deaths.

Pain does not disappear. If trauma is buried, life does not just go on as before, it is tainted, limited, the life force choked and diminished. Freeing it back up, feeling and completing the trauma, lets the life force flow more fully again.

Family Constellations is a technique for identifying blockages within the family soul and clearing them. It helps individuals to break free of the entanglements that have impacted them and enables them to move forward with greater peace and harmony. It is a powerful process, sacred in nature, with its respect for the bigger movements of life, destiny and evolution.

It is a process worth doing, not just to benefit yourself, but your whole family. They may not consciously notice the effects, but energetically they will and you may notice changes in their behaviour, their thinking, their sense of self. For their energy will be freed up enabling them to move forward in whatever is the best way for them, for their highest good.

Family Constellations enables love to flow throughout the family which benefits all. I recommend it and have experienced powerful shifts myself through its use. No longer do I judge my parents or my family. No longer do I resent their choices or their lack of love shown to me. I have seen their pain, their entanglements and accepted they couldn’t do any better with the burdens they were carrying. They did the best they could with the situation they were in. Each had pain and felt unable to move, to be present, to give to me what I needed. The pain I felt was theirs and others in our family lines – it passed on through them to me. This continues to occur until it is healed. In doing Family Constellations I have resolved much of this, so my children will be less burdened than I was or my parents were. This is the gift of Family Constellations, to free yourself and your loved ones, so all can feel more love, more acceptance, more peace. Blessed BE, Amen.

By Jodi-Anne M Smith (26 March 2017).

Intergenerational trauma

In this video, Mark Wolynn, author of the book ‘It didn’t start with you: how inherited family trauma shapes who we are and how to end the cycle’ explains intergenerational trauma, how and why it happens and how to stop the trauma being passed on to future generations. I loved this book and got many useful insights from it for myself, for the courses I teach and the clients I serve.

Benefit your kids by honouring your exes and their new partners

This wise mother is accepting of her exes new partner, knowing that this woman is contributing to the love her daughter receives and knows that to bad mouth the new partner or her ex just creates drama and pain for all involved. Family Constellations shows us that bad mouthing your ex in front of the kids can also create entanglements and drive the kids to subconsciously choose to behave like the other parent out of loyalty to them. So the child who always heard about their no good, drunken, absent, womanising father is likely to become a drinker, a womaniser or mimic some other aspect of the father’s behaviour. The child does so out of blind love for the father. Avoid this by allowing love to flow in your words and actions, not judgment or hate.

The Imprint – Excerpt from IN UTERO documentary

The science of multigenerational trauma, showing how stress is passed on in utero, imprinting the foetus with the trauma and stress the Mother experiences during pregnancy and that which has not been dealt with from the previous generations.  (2:50 mins)

Here is the link to read the whole Huffington Post article by Kathleen Man Gyllenhaal and Stephen Gyllenhaal titled ‘In sickness and in health, it all begins in the womb‘.

Further videos and articles explaining intergenerational trauma and how to heal it, are provided on the Intergenerational Trauma page of this website.

What is an entanglement?

An entanglement is an enmeshment with another person that affects your ability to be yourself and do as you please. You are so caught up with the other person that your thoughts and feelings are tangled up with theirs. It is hard to know where you end and the other person starts, there is no boundary or separation, the two people are entwined, tangled together into one messy situation.

This comonly occurs when a child tries to take care of a parent. The child sensing the parent’s pain or inability to cope with their life, steps up and takes responsibility for helping reduce the burden on the parent. This is a reversal of the orders of love – parents are meant to give and children receive.

Happy kidsChildren are meant to grow focussed on life, play, having fun and age appropriate issues. It is not normal for a child to be thinking about adult problems and trying to solve them. But children will do this out of loyalty, out of love and out of a desire to stay safe and keep their home. No matter how dysfunctional or painful a child prefers to stay with its parent, rather than be taken away into the unknown, even if that unknown is a more loving home with other family members or foster parents.

Our loyalty to our biological parents is huge and stays with us our whole life. If we violate that bond, if we judge or reject our parents we feel a loss, an emptiness, a sadness deep inside, as the flow of love from the family line has been blocked. We are refusing to accept our parents and our life as it is. In essence we are saying ‘NO to life’ and we suffer as a result. The life force flowing to us is diminished as we are saying NO to our parents, NO to their love, NO to receiving any energy or support from them. We are saying “NO, you are not good enough, I wanted more, someone different to you”. This is fighting against life, fighting against what is. These are your parents for better or worse, they are your parents. They gave you life and if that is all they gave you it is a true gift. At the very least accept that, be grateful for that.

As we heal we can come to see our parents as not just ‘parents’, but as people with their own issues, challenges and emotional hurts. If we are trying to fix them, change them, influence them, we are still entangled. We are still caught up unhealthily over involved in their energy and trying to control life. This is like standing in front of a dam that is cracking and trying to order the water to stay there, not to move. It won’t work. As the dam cracks the water is going to gush forth, because that is what water does, gravity does.

Your parents have their own lives to lead and it is not our place to judge them or be overly involved in their business, to be entangled like this stops us from living our lives fully. It is best to accept your parents as they are, to say ‘YES to life’, YES to receiving whatever goodness you can get from them and to accept that as all they can give you, to say “That is enough. What you can’t give me I will get from elswhere. Thank you Mum, thank you Dad, you are enough”. When we can say this and mean it we are freed from the entanglement. The love strength and support from the family line can flow to us, helping us, supporting us to live more fully. We are accepting our place in life and letting ourselves receive the goodness from our family line.

Reaching that place of acceptance can be a long journey. It takes time to grieve what could have been, what you felt should have been and to accept what was and is. That is the journey of life. It is true and authentic emotional release work required until you do feel peaceful inside and accepting of your family.

You could choose to stay in judgement and anger over what has happened or hasn’t happened in your life, but this just punishes you and limits you and your ability to live life joyously. Best to untangle the web, to break free and accept what is and make the most out of it. This is one form of entanglement that can have a massive impact on a person’s life.

Another kind of entanglement occurs when a child takes on a burden for the ancestors present or ancient. It can be a sibling not wanting to live fully because they see their brother or sister afflicted with an illness or who died and they feel guilty for living or being able to do what the other could not. In essence they wish to join the lost sibling. This will result in poor health for themself or some other dysfunction in their lives, as in essence they are saying NO to life, NO to goodness, abundance, health and vitality. They are saying I don’t deserve this or I have no right to this. It is self sacrifice out of loyalty, out of love and entanglement with the fate of the other.

Instead of dying for the other choose to stay a while longer, choose to live fully for them, to do what they could not do, to achieve whatever you desire and to join them when it is your proper time. Whether it was a sibling who died young, your parent or your own child, you do not have to follow them into the grave. You can live and hold them in your heart, feel them in your heart. They are there, their energy is available to you. Your ancestors long dead watch you, pray for you and send you love. They want you to succeed and to advance the family line. It is okay to feel your sadness and to move through it back to peace and happiness.

Another type of entanglement which sounds a little more bizarre, occurs with past relatives whom you may not have even met. It is possible that a young woman having difficulties with infertility is actually entangled with a great Aunt who never married. The energetic connection is such that the present soul put up their hand to relate, to repeat the pattern that occurred in the family line. The same occurs with members of the family who suffered tragedies such as loss of a loved one, death, murder, suicide, etc. A present family member who is connected to the past ancestor may also have suicidal thoughts or mental health problems, they may have financial difficulties or other challenges in life.

Sometimes it is as if the current family member is atoning for the sins of the previous ancestor – they struggle to make up for the wrong doing of the other. In different situations it is as if the family member present today chooses the same fate out of love for the other, wanting to empathise with them. Either way it is not helpful to the present person and it hinders their ability to live their life fully.

When the entanglement is identified and healed the person is free to live how they like. They can consciously honour the past family member and their fate, but choose to be free of the entanglement now, with love and respect, bowing to the ancestor and leaving it with them. This is core Family Constellations work and it is beautful to watch these resolutions occur and people being freed from the knots that have bound them and limited their ability to enjoy their lives. With the knots untied they can walk forward easily to do what they wish, without hindrance. May we all walk freely and enjoy our lives. Blessed BE. Amen.

By Jodi-Anne (18 September 2016).


Steve Spurrier gives media members $100 for answering an impromptu trivia question correctly

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier has a love-hate relationship with the media, but during halftime of Saturday’s basketball game he was in a love mood.

Or should I say, a game show mood?

Media gathered around Spurrier to get quotes about his new hire, defensive line coach Deke Adams, and instead were treated to a trivia question that came with a monetary prize.

"I came across a certain statistical trivia that I wanted to ask you guys today," Spurrier said. "All right, how many college teams in the BCS conferences - you know, the major conferences - how many have won 11 or more the last two years? Does any one of you know that answer?

"I got a bonus for you if anybody knows the answer."

After reporters threw out a variety of answers, two yelled out the correct teams – Stanford, Alabama, Oregon and, of course, South Carolina.

Spurrier seemed pleased with his little game and continued to talk about South Carolina’s achievement.

"You got 'em, there are four," Spurrier said. "And for South Carolina to be in the same neighborhood... Oregon, Stanford, Alabama, South Carolina are the only four that won 11 or more - two years in a row. So that's sorta neat.

"Somebody gave me that statistic today. I thought you guys would want to know that. Next time, y'all do some of that work. But that was sort of neat, yeah."

Like any good game show, there was a reward for the correct answer. According to media, Spurrier handed an envelope to the two reporters who blurted out the correct answer and inside was a $100 bill.

Coaches should take note. If they want their beat reporters to do more research, they should offer them cash prizes. Looking at you, Nick Saban.


Kant and Locke - Essay Example

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Kant and Locke

The two are not only concerned with the individual, but also the manner in which the individual interacts within a group, and the consequent tensions that may occur out of these interactions. This essay attempts to explore the manner in which both Locke and Kant address the concept of human freedom. Freedom, or the manner in which individuals are in a position to act on their own accord, is an important philosophical argument in the contemporary world. History indicates that Kant supported multinational organizations and the republican government. He had a strong faith in the universality of humanity. However, Kant argued that the natural end that everybody seeks to accomplish is personal happiness (Kant 98). However, the concept that people act out their own accord does not communicate all that Kant meant. According to Kant (6), nothing in the world can be regarded as good without sufficient reasons. Kant argues that as humans, we cannot prove that freedom is something real within ourselves and in the human nature. In Kant`s thinking, human thinking revolves around a circle. People tend to assume that they are free so that they think the moral law as are meant for them and as a result, they must obey them. To Kant, freedom is a subjective state of the mind, a concept of reason, which may be difficult to comprehend in reality. ...Show more

This essay attempts to explore the manner in which both Locke and Kant address the concept of human freedom. Freedom is an important philosophical argument in the contemporary world…
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Sweet Prince or Arrant Knave - Sample Essay

By making Hamlet speak of his father in both Christian and Renaissance Humanism values, Shakespeare has highlighted Hamlet’s religious confusion. By doing this he also leaves it to the audience to decide which set of values holds the most importance, making them understand the dilemma that Hamlet faces even more as it was a dilemma they too were facing. In the first quote Shakespeare has used an abundance of similes to compare his father to the Gods, giving the audience the notion that Hamlet senior lives on in a god-like state.

This would enable Hamlet to justify seeking revenge, as he too would be considered to be in a God-like state. In the quote below this Hamlet uses Christian values, saying that Claudius killed his father before he had had the chance to repent his sins on earth so his soul would be clean to enter heaven, reflecting that Hamlet senior could be in hell. By doing this Shakespeare highlights the fact that God alone should carry out justice.

In his book called, ‘Shakespeare and the Renaissance concept of honour’, Curtis Brown Watson states that, “In recent years critics such as S. N Bethell, Wilson Knight et al thus arrive at the conclusion that the Christian ethic provides the key to a proper interpretation of Shakespearean Tragedy” (page 283). If this were right the 16th century audience would have clearly seen that Hamlet’s father would have been in hell due to being murdered by his brother before he had time to repent. But it would have also made the audience realise that God should be the only avenger.

This would emphasise Hamlets sense of traditional family values and the audience would probably relate to his wanting to be the avenger and appreciate his dilemma all the more. Again this would emphasise the dilemma Hamlet faces and would take the audience on a roller coaster ride along with him as he tries to discover which system of beliefs are the correct ones to live and die by. This would not make Hamlet be perceived as the rottenness in Denmark that would be aimed at Claudius. “While murderer and revenger thus merge into one another, likeness does not imply equation.

Pyrrhum, mercifully, is not Hamlet; and the guilt of Hamlet and Claudius is not the same”, Harold Jenkins, The Arden Shakespeare, Hamlet, page 145. Hamlet sees Claudius as the source of the rottenness in Denmark and when the ghost claims he his Hamlet’s father, killed by the hands of his brother, he is thrown into a world of bitterness, resentment and corruption. This is different to the contented life of learning at Wittenberg University. But this education prevents Hamlet from being rash.

It is his intellect and ethics that force him to seek the truth before he takes action. Shakespeare has placed Hamlet into a world of illusion and reality and he must discover which is which. In order to keep to his morals Hamlet feels the need to expose Claudius so he can justify taking revenge. This would make Hamlet the executioner and not an assassin, upholding his Lutheranism beliefs that his soul would remain pure, enabling his entry to heaven when he dies. In his essay entitled, “The morality of Hamlet- ‘Sweet Prince’ or ‘Arrant Knave’?

” (1963), Patrick Cruttwell wrote of Hamlet stating, ” he has become a figure of myth; and just as Odysseus is the myth – character of the Traveller, Faust the seeker, Quixote of the Knight and Juan the Lover, so Hamlet has been made the myth – character of the doubting, self- contemplating intellectual”. This is mainly due to Hamlet’s connection to Wittenberg, an emblem of Protestantism. Hamlet’s dilemma stems from his protestant beliefs, as it is not a singular religion. It is, in fact, split into two belief systems, Lutheranism and Calvinism.

The Lutheranism belief system says that your soul must be clean to enable entry to heaven whereas Calvinism states that God has already decided your outcome before you are born, no matter how you behave in life. Then when the ghost appears to Hamlet he is thrown into further religious confusion, as the ghost of his father appears to be in purgatory, a Catholic belief. ” I am thy father’s spirit, Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confin’d to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purg’d away” Act 1, Scene v, lines 9-13.


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If approved, the suppliers can use this permitted indication to market its listed product, one of about 11,000 listed complementary medicines on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (indicated by “Aust L” on packaging).

However, the spreadsheet of 1,345 draft permitted indications includes many that seem to lack evidence to back them.


TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Tuscaloosa will experience a partial solar eclipse when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth in August, and astronomers at the University of Alabama are preparing to help people view the astral phenomenon safely.

Dean Townsley, an associate professor in UA's Department of Physics and Astronomy, said the eclipse is expected to be visible in all 48 of the continental United States on Aug. 21.

Most astronomers on campus plan to head to points north on that day, settling somewhere inside the 70-mile swath where the sun will be obscured entirely and viewers on the ground can experience a total solar eclipse. Townsley, though, will be on the Quad in front of Gallalee Hall equipped with a number of tools for safely observing the event.

"I run simulations and work with stellar physics, so I'm more about calculations than observations," Townsley said. "That may make me a little less sky-oriented than others in the department, so I'll still be here."

Townsley plans to set up a table with a telescope, a projection screen and 100 filtered viewing devices so anyone can walk up and experience the partial eclipse without damaging their eyesight.

"I think people are so interested in eclipses because they don't happen very often, it's only every decade or so that there's an eclipse people can see," Townsley said. "It's really interesting to us to observe something in the sky change, to become different while we're standing there and it's also dramatic -- if you're in totality, the sun just goes out."

William Keel, another UA astronomer, said 90 percent of the sun will be obscured during the height of the eclipse in Tuscaloosa. He said an eclipse that "deep" was last visible here in 1991 and the next won't occur until 2024.

The real show, though, is predicted in August 2045, when astronomers expect Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, Dothan and all points in between will experience a total solar eclipse.

"It's an astonishing thing that we can tell where the moon is going to be to the fraction of a second, but we're far enough from the sun and from black holes that even Newton's understanding of gravity made the study of the motion of planets a really exact science," Keel said. "Planets and moons move through space to with extraordinary high accuracy, and when you're calculating that motion, nothing but gravity matters."

The partial eclipse next month should begin a few minutes after noon and reach the moment of greatest obscurity around 1:30. Keel said observers in Tuscaloosa and elsewhere across the country will be "completely at the mercy of the weather," but said he was rooting for a clear day.

"For anybody's who has ever experienced a total solar eclipse, it's an emotional experience on top of what you see visually," Keel said. "It's something else."

The best way to view the partial solar eclipse over Alabama that day are pinhole projections, solar filters and projections from telescopes or binoculars, he said.

. Pinhole projection: In this method, sunlight passing through a small hole makes an image of the sun on whatever surface is used as a screen. The image of the sun gets larger the further the screen is from the hole, and only small holes will work, Keel said. A puncture in cardboard or aluminum foil works well, but any material works, and even gaps in tree leaves can project the eclipse onto the ground, he said.

. Solar filters: Solar filters are thin films in a cardboard or plastic mount. Only special-purpose solar filters, such as eclipse glasses or handheld solar viewers, are sufficient to look at the sun. Several vendors can provide safe solar filters, Keel said.

. Projections through lenses: Most telescopes and binoculars can focus enough to project a sharp image of the sun onto a sheet behind the eyepiece. Telescopes with eyepieces at a 90-degree angle from the tube offer easy ways to shade the image for clearer views, Keel said. Those choosing this method need to be careful to keep anyone from looking directly through the eyepiece to avoid severe damage to the eye.

Information from: The Tuscaloosa News, http://www.tuscaloosanews.com


May 18, 2007

What is the Ventura Obedience Challenge

Ventura Obedience Digital Challenge is a fun team based competition it is part scavenger hunt, part trivia challenge, and of course obedience stops. You must find the answers to the clues by exploring Downtown Ventura. The Ventura Obedience Challenge format, teams of two to three puppies (6 months or older) and their raisers solve a collection of puzzle-based “quests” and earn points for each correct answer. The quest book will also tell you where your next obedience challenge is, this is where you earn more points. In addition to the core quests of the game, teams are given EyeSpy photos and are directed to identify the mystery pictures taken around downtown Ventura and digitally photograph it. After the game we are planning a noon picnic award ceremony at Emma Woods, were the top five teams will receive their prizes. The Route is a loop of 2 ¼ miles around the River Walk, Beach Promenade, Pier, and Downtown Ventura. Game running time is to be about 3 hours.


There are many advantages to mediate a business dispute, and it’s just not about the money. Here are five of the reasons you should consider mediation before you litigate or as early in the process as possible.

Mediation is a forward thinking process useful in finding out what the parties are hoping to achieve now and in the future. Venting about past wrongs may have a place in the overall experience, however letting go and even forgiving those past mistakes allows both sides to change focus, and open the door to opportunities beneficial to all sides, perhaps those never explored before.

Mediators are neutral, with no preconceived idea about the outcome of the mediation. Mediators provide direction, focus and insight by asking questions attorneys or others close to the parties may not ask. The outcome is up to the parties however a good mediator controls the process allowing freedom to explore possibilities.

Mediation is confidential; litigation is not, unless you go to great lengths to seal records. Even when you know you are blameless, allegations have a detrimental effect on business and morale. The claimant may have a legitimate claim, but they also may want to keep matters quiet for their own employment or personal reasons. All parties, attorneys and mediators agree to keep all information and negotiations private, even if the mediation does not lead to a resolution.

Mediating saves money and time. Litigation and arbitration are both dictated by a set procedure and strict rules. Most courts are backlogged so it will take at least a year, often several, before a judge or jury decides a case, and then there are possible appeals. Arbitration is generally faster, however most of the same procedures apply and an appeal can also occur. If parties are smart about their money and time, they will agree to mediate as early in the process as practicable.

Mediation agreements can be made enforceable as contracts, drafted and signed by the parties with consequences for breach of the agreement, such as paying the attorney fees of the harmed party if litigation is needed to enforce the agreement. It is important parties have their own counsel review mediation agreements before they are signed, to protect their interests. However, trust can be restored when parties willingly put into writing a binding agreement, thereby ending the dispute and perhaps beginning the restoration of a relationship.

There are many other reasons to mediate business disputes and I am happy to discuss those with you. I have seen mediation succeed in many settings and types of disputes. Let me explain the advantages and work with you to put these principals to work for your business.


PHYSICIAN ASSISTED DEATH ? — How’s “Termination of Suffering”

The debate over physician assisted suicide (PAS) is hampered by its terminology.  For some, suicide is always an evil.

I personally don’t have a problem with the term but other’s prefer physician assisted death (PAD)_.  There is legal precedence now accepted in four states.  It began in Oregon and is making its way through the NJ legislature. (not sure where at present).  Criteria are extremely strict and the process is highly regulated.  Physicians who sign on to the program can prescribe a lethal dose of  medication.  The patient must be physically and mentally capable of ingesting the drugs.  There must be no clinical evidence of depression.

The Oregon experience seems to contradict the fears of many who oppose such legislation.  Massive numbers of individuals did NOT sign up for the program.  Only about 10% of those who qualified and received the drugs actually took their own lives with them.  Palliative care and Hospice use actually increased in Oregon (as opposed to opponent’s beliefs) and there was no deterioration in the patient-doctor relationship.

Kevorkian exhibited the right intentions but his efforts were not well thought out.  He was actively challenging the law and forced the country to take notice.  His active euthanasia was too provocative for the population to accept.  He was not particularly careful about screening out those who were severely depressed and not truly terminal.

 Perhaps there would be even more acceptance if our labelling of the program would change.  Termination of Suffering says it all.   Perhaps we should change the term to PATS (physician assisted termination of suffering).  I hope no one truly believes that hopeless suffering servers some higher spiritual purpose?

Who in their right mind would object to that?  How naive of me.   There are those who will.

THE BLACK JEWELRY BOX — Unexplainable Experiences

A devout skeptic, my metaphysical journey was first triggered by hearing first hand the personal experiences of ordinary individuals who had unexplained experiences.

 What was so compelling was the context of these experiences.  They were told to me in deepest confidence.  The experiencers were rather reluctant to share what had occurred for fear of appearing strange or foolish.  Yet I knew many of these individuals for years.  I knew they had nothing to gain by fabricating these stories.  They were compelling yet unexplainable. There was a level of credibility to them that drew me in.

 I still find them compelling and worthy of investigation.  Although they remain unexplainable, they point ever so subtly to a level of reality which transcends every day awareness.  Do they “prove” survial of consciousness after physical death.  Hardly. Yet taken as a whole they cannot be easily dismissed.

 The following was told to me by a patient and acquaintance of many years.  His credibility is without question.  I have altered the names and details of the story but the core of it remains intact.

 I was cleaning out my Mother’s house prior to the official closing.  After she died we tried to empty it of all its objects.      First we held a garage sale.  They we donated what was left to a local church.  Some of it became garbage.  We went through her possessions is great detail, many times, as did the numerous visitors.  We were particularly seeking to find her black jewelry box which she claimed had become lost.  She had suffered from some dementia before she passed.  She cherished the modest jewelry she kept inside and my family had bought it for her.  It was essentially gone and we began to believe it would never be found.  Now I was the last one to visit the home.  I walked through the rooms one last time.  I removed the mezzuzahs from the door posts.  I spoke out loud to my Mother thanking her for all she did for us and that now she was moving on as were we.  There was a deep silence that followed.  For some reason I glanced one last time into the empty living room.  The jewelry box was there!  It was literally impossible for that to be so.  Dozens of people had marched through the home.  Our family checked every square inch of it for that box.  But there is was.  Here’s the photo of it.  We have it securely with us  now.  I thought you would find this interesting.

   To say the least.

THE TRIBAL GENE — Our Dark Nature

It goes like this. We are tribal creatures. Deep down in the recesses of our DNA we evolved with the propensity to associate in small groups and to regard them as our kin/family. We immediately perceive outsiders as a threat and are capable of annihilating them without remorse.  We do not see them as ourselves. Although they are like us, exactly like us, we are capable of de-humanizing them. We feel no guilt or remorse regardless of what and how we destroy them.  After all they are a threat to our existence and the existence of our tribe.  How do I know this to be true?  Look at the world today.  Look at the world yesterday, or a thousand years ago or probably since the inception of Homo sapiens sapiens.  And perhaps further back to our primate ancestors who we share with contemporary chimpanzees.  They, too, are capable of ripping apart fellow chimps found within their territory.  They, too, create military-like bands which fight to the death for their tribe.  The tribal gene was necessary for our survival.  Today it threatens the world.  Our tools are powerful, and the subsequent destruction they can inflict can destroy the planet.  But the instinct to use them runs deep within us.  When we teach our children to hate we merely reinforce their inherent tribal instincts to do so.  This is not about religion.  We point to radical Islam today, to Hamas inculcating hatred into their children.  We are shocked when Palestinian mothers dress their children in homicide bomb outfits.  But we should understand why and how this is so.  The tribal gene leads us to sacrifice our own lives for the sake of the tribe.  We see this in the heroism of the battlefield as well. We know that religion alone is not the culprit.  Hitler was successful in his creating of the German myth of tribal supremacy.  The Jews and others were clearly of another tribe and by definition a threat to be dealt with by any and all means. Racism is tribalism  but even within the same race African tribes annihilate each other by virtue of the same tribal impetus.  There is rarely a sense of guilt when members of the other tribe are destroyed.   And so it goes.  Is there any hope to at all?  The answer is yes.  The approach is shockingly simple.  We must recognize our true nature.  We need to be aware of this tribal imperative.  We need to re-define what a tribe is and our relation to it.  We need to recognize our common humanity and teach this to our next generation.  We are ONE tribe.  It is the Golden Rule expanded to recognize the biologic truth.  Our DNA speaks to it.  But we must fight the impulse to break down into small units.  Our tribal gene pushes us to find differences amongst each other.  Our neocortex provides us with the ability to think.  We need it to direct us away from instinctive reactivity.   Is any of this realistic?  Perhaps not.  But we have nothing to lose at this point by trying.

Access to medical records seems like a perfectly fine idea.  After all they are your records.  I have always been a supporter of that contention.  Problems occur, however, under conditions when medical records are released to patients without explanation.

Patients have had access to their lab work for years. Abnormalities that are noted by these print outs may have no real clinical meaning and yet will induce immediate and unnecessary distress.

 Now patients have access to radiology reports with detailed discussions of findings.  Many of these are “incidental” meaning they have no clinical significance.  But does the patient know that?  No and they should not be expected to know.

What then occurs in the real world is a frantic attempt to read, comprehend and analyze medical terminology by the lay public who do not possess medical knowledge and experience. The inevitable results–internet searches, panic, despair and immediate calls to doctor’s office to make sense of it all. Patients want immediate phone discussions or internet responses.  That sounds just great.  The problem is that communication which is not in person is much more difficult and often leads to more confusion.

 I would prefer to discuss medical records/ radiology documents, pathology reports, endoscopy papers, lab data etc. etc. face to face in front of my patients.  Then I could immediately put their concerns to rest, or offer explanations, or suggest subsequent testing or referrals.

So hurrah for full disclosure. Let’s bring some practical sanity back to the situation.   Now I understand the impracticality of ALL discussions in person.  When a quick call can dispel immediate fear, I all in favor of it.  But when then there is further confusion or significant complexity, the examination room, not the phone or internet is the best place to do so.


Genetic evidence for cuckoldry in bluegill Lepomis macrochirus

Tel. 217 244 5055. Fax 217 333 6294.

In colonies of bluegill Lepomis macrochirus, some males provide parental care for broods in nests, whereas other males steal fertilizations and do not provide parental care. Using experimental pond populations of bluegill of known genotype (determined through protein electrophoresis), we demonstrate that cuckolder males successfully fertilize eggs in parental male nests. Using electrophoretic techniques to assess the fertilization success of nesting parental male bluegill in Lake Opinicon, Ontario, we demonstrate that paternity of these males ranges from 41% to 100% among four colonies studied. This difference among colonies is related to the density of cuckolder males.


Saturday, October 21, 2017

Everything Old Is New Again

I'm presently in the midst of working on pieces that are of a more personal explorational purpose, while simultaneously starting the third installment of Funky Porcini.

That said, I'm letting the Store ride as-is with its current stock of original art, that is from what I refer to as "fringe projects." Projects that were done in collaboration with another writer, and/or works done using preexisting "company" characters.
All of which are priced at such a low rate, I cannot reduce them any lower, or put them on sale.

Then, at some point, I'm going to start adding pages from my own creations, at ridiculously fair prices, as well.

Starting with META 4, I'm going to make available all the pages I still have, one issue at a time.

For example, all of what I have left of META 4 #1, including (if) any extras and whatnot, will be put up in the Store.

Then, when I am able to do so, will add META 4 #2, and again, anything else that is directly linked to that specific issue.

Once I've run through all five issues of META 4, I'll move onto my series MONDO, and continue the same process of releasing all the original pages, one issue at a time.

Books will be added in the order they were produced.

So, after MONDO will be Miniature Jesus, and then The Superannuated Man.

This is a long-term plan, and impossible to have every issue's art come out with a specific date, or within the exact same amount of time between each title.

I'm going to put each issue up when I can.

It's a big procedure, and will take time.

But, it will happen.

Now, I just need to remember where I put that second head, and two other arms, of mine.

Friday, October 13, 2017

Funky Exodus

The second issue of my absurdist manual, Funky Porcini, is now Sold Out.

Thanks to everyone who purchased a copy, and made this such a successful run.
Your support is much appreciated.

The third edition will be coming out sometime around January/February 2018.

Friday, September 29, 2017

Cycling the Funky

As an artist, I thrive on swerving down paths that are diversively, and divisively, different than whatever came before.

That's exactly what I'm doing with Funky Porcini.

Originally, I set out to make my absurdist manual an artistic outlet that would simply be an exorcise all of the head-yelling chaos that rambles around my insomniatic brain.

But now, with having released the second issue, Funky Porcini has become one of the most wacked out creatively satisfying endeavors I have ever undertaken.

Which means, I'm going to proceed turning up the funkiness, and making each new manual slightly (or not so slightly) different from its predecessor.

Because, even though change is inevitable, when it comes to the creative process, it sometimes can get caught in a cycle that circles back onto itself, developing into a comfort-zone death-spiral routine, and that is a place I will never allow myself to be.

Nothing should stay the same.

Artistic stagnation is creative death.

That all said, the next installment of Funky Porcini should be out towards the end of  January 2018.

In the meantime, I'm in the process of developing some new Funky merch for the Store.
Along with making a substantial amount of original comic art available, at some seriously jazzy prices.

So, come on back around.
I'll be working somewhere over by the dumpsters.


UIA World Congress, Durban 2014, DECLARATION 2050 IMPERATIVE (extract)

By adopting the 2050 IMPERATIVE at the International Union of Architects (UIA) World Congress in  Durban, the UIA and its member organizations and partners will send a strong message to the Parties of the UNFCCC, and to the world, that we are committed to a truly sustainable and equitable future.
The UIA is acutely aware that failing to act now on climate change will put future generations and those already affected by extreme weather, natural disasters, and poverty, at great risk.
Recognizing the architects’ central role in planning and designing the built environment, and the need to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2050 and provide equal access to shelter, we commit to promote the following actions:

  • Plan and design cities, towns, urban developments and new buildings to be carbon neutral
  • Renovate and rehabilitate existing cities, towns, urban redevelopments and buildings to be carbon neutral whilst respecting cultural and heritage values.
  • In those cases where reaching carbon neutral is not feasible or practical, plan and design cities, towns, urban developments, new buildings and renovations to be highly efﬁcient with the capability to produce, or import, all their energy from renewable energy sources in the future.
  • We commit to the principle of engaging in research and setting targets towards meeting the 2050 goal.
  • Advocate and promote socially responsible architecture for the community, develop and deliver equitable access to the information and tools needed to:
    • plan and design sustainable, resilient, inclusive and low-carbon/zero carbon built environments.
    • design no-cost/low-cost on-site renewable energy and natural resources systems (e.g., passive heating and cooling, water catchment and storage, solar hot water, day lighting, and natural ventilation systems).

This is Our Commitment, Let’s all adopt it.


Gospel.com Topics Feed - C S Lewis 2012-09-11T12:10:10-05:00 GCI info@gospel.com /feeds/topics/c+s+lewis/ Sci-fi and fantasy stories can communicate spiritual truths http://internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/9122 2012-09-11T12:10:10-05:00 The Mars Curiosity landing, and our farewell salutes to Neil Armstrong, bring to mind several sci-fi/fantasy books and short stories based on Moon or Mars landings. These have a spiritual dimension that offers conversation-starting and thought-provoking questions.


Cyberwarfare: Artificial intelligence in the frontlines of combat

In the last decade of the proliferation of the World Wide Web (www), there has been a shift from normal human combat warfare to electronic warfare, where a person with a computer can do more damage to the infrastructure of a country than thousands of soldiers. The amount of data, intelligence, and damage generated by such warfare is astronomical. This type of warfare requires artificial intelligence (AI) and Expert Systems to go to the forefront of the battlefield in order to analyze data and trends to identify potential attacks and provide countermeasures to such attack. This paper will serve as a summary of the review of literature of 26 articles regarding cyberwarfare in an effort to synthesize the current research on the topic. AI has put in a new perspective how Decision Support Systems (DSS) improve defense. DSS implemented today are in place to stop and deter in the shortest possible amount of time a cyberattack, and assist cyber defenders in finding the correct response that can only happen with the different types of DSS available.

Juan M. Padrón and Ángel Ojeda-Castro
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Prepared by: University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies

March 2015

A sustainable aviation sector will require significant and strategic investment to mitigate its escalating impact on climate change. From a review of international best practices, initiatives, and research programs, this report presents an organized set of actionable strategies to reduce aviation’s impact on climate change. Recommended actions are divided into governmental, operational, and technological mitigation strategies. First, the impact of aviation on climate change is presented in the larger context of sustainable aviation. The various aviation emissions and their climate change effects are reviewed, highlighting their trade-offs and the current levels of scientific understanding, along with the need for a better understanding in specific areas. The “business-as-usual” projections demonstrate a continuous increase in the climate change impact of aviation as a result of the projected growth of the industry exceeding efficiency gains. Next, potential government actions are reviewed, including new regulations, incentives, and assistance. The necessary certification standards and market based measures will require significant global collaboration, with oversight from the International Civil Aviation Organization, in order to forge an international path forward. When combined with financial support, these actions will drive research and development toward the new technologies required to address climate change in an economically driven industry. Subsequently, a number of operational strategies are reviewed with the goal of improving the gate to gate efficiency of flight operations. Strategies are considered in the areas of air traffic management, ramp and taxi operations, continuous decent, en-route cruise, and flight mission design. Finally, the advanced technologies representing the most promising investment opportunities are categorized and reviewed. These technologies have the greatest potential for climate change mitigation and aim to ensure the long-term sustainability of the industry. Ultimately, the Canadian aviation sector (including government, industry, and academia) must take urgent and significant action to address its impact on climate change, while responsibly meeting the growing demands for air transport and, in turn, improving the quality of life of all Canadians for the foreseeable future.

Date modified:


What is Intrapreneurship?
Intrapreneurship is the practice of entrepreneurship by employees within an organization.
Difference between an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur:
Example of intrapreneurship: A classic case of intrapreneurs is that of the founders of Adobe, John Warnock and Charles Geschke. They both were employees of Xerox. As employees of Xerox, they were frustrated because their new product ideas were not encouraged. They quit Xerox in the early 1980s to begin their own business. Currently, Adobe has an annual turnover of over $3 billion.
Features of Intrapreneurship: Entrepreneurship involves innovation, the ability to take risk and creativity. An entrepreneur will be able to look at things in novel ways. He will have the capacity to take calculated risk and to accept failure as a learning point. An intrapreneur thinks like an entrepreneur looking out for opportunities, which profit the organization. Intrapreneurship is a novel way of making organizations more profitable where imaginative employees entertain entrepreneurial thoughts. It is in the interest of an organization to encourage intrapreneurs. Intrapreneurship is a significant method for companies to reinvent themselves and improve performance. In a recent study, researchers compared the elements related to entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial activity. The study found that among the 32,000 subjects who participated in it, five percent were engaged in the initial stages of a business start-up, either on their own or within an organization. The study also found that human capital such as education and experience is connected more with entrepreneurship than with intrapreneurship. Another observation was that intrapreneurial startups were inclined to concentrate more on business-to-business products while entrepreneurial startups were inclined towards consumer sales. Another important factor that led to the choice between entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship was age. The study found that people who launched their own companies were in their 30s and 40s. People from older and younger age groups were risk averse or felt they have no opportunities, which makes them the ideal candidates if an organization is on the look out for employees with new ideas that can be pursued.
Entrepreneurship appeals to people who possess natural traits that find start ups arousing their interest. Intrapreneurs appear to be those who generally would not like to get entangled in start ups but are tempted to do so for a number of reasons. Managers would do well to take employees who do not appear entrepreneurial but can turn out to be good intrapreneurial choices.


Human Parts Do Not Have Human Traits

Hey Folks,

To follow up on last week’s post, this truism doesn’t favor any particular body part, really. And most of these aren’t as humorous as “her eyes drifted around the room and eventually lit in the corner on a barrel of nails.” But some of them are pretty good.

Basically, any time any body part is the subject of a sentence, you probably need to recast the sentence.

At least in the example that got me started last week (The baron … raked his eyes across everyone at the table) the author had the human, the baron, actually performing the action.

Had the writer written, “The baron’s eyes raked across everyone at the table” it would have been doubly awkward.

Um, ’cause eyes can’t do that. The baron wouldn’t do it, but his eyes can’t do it.

Only in certain, very specific circumstances can eyes do anything at all on their own.

If eyes ever legitimately “shoot across the room,” their owner better have been slapped in the back of the head with great force a split second earlier. Just sayin’.

So don’t write stuff like

Close to the window, his ears heard an eerie sound.

Her nose (or her palms or her forehead) pressed up against the glass.

Her hands (or hips or butt or forearm) leaned on the rail of the ship.

His hand crept along the back of the seat and eventually made it to her shoulder.

As her left hand held the forestock firmly, her right hand worked the lever on the 30-30.

As my hands ran past my ears, I felt something in my ear lobes.

Tossing my hand across the couch’s back with studied casualness, I attempted to initiate the usual subtle encircling movement but to no avail.

Chloe’s head went up and down.

Bill’s face broke into a grin that wouldn’t stop.

His eyes roamed across the room, stopping at a table with no empty chairs.

His face turned deadly silent.

His long muscular legs effortlessly loped after the bus.

Her eyes slowly climbed the tree.

Her legs raced frantically down the street.

“A place called Valentino’s,” he said as his eyes touched hers.

And as a bonus, one of my favorite oddities, although this doesn’t fit the “human parts don’t have human traits” category. This is from an email I received a few years ago: “I hate to miss your class, but I’m leaving town unexpectedly tomorrow.”

You get the idea.

‘Til next time, happy writing.


Career Opportunities

Graduates of the second-degree programmes will have a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the English language, English literature and English-speaking culture. In addition to the opportunities available for BA graduates, they will  be qualified for various advisory positions in the fields of cultural mediation and organization of inter-cultural contacts, for lexicographical work (compiling of bilingual dictionaries), editorial work for publishers, independent or advisory work in foreign representative bodies, etc. They will also be qualified to transfer capably their comprehensive knowledge of English literature and to provide information about Slovenian literature and other cultural achievements in Slovenia to English-speaking communities.


Morphing Polyhedron

arrowMorphing Polyhedron Applet (below) doesn't work even though you installed Java?
 Run the Morphing Polyhedron Web-Start Application instead.
 This downloads a jnlp (Java Web Start) file that tells Java how to run the Morphing Polyhedron outside of your browser.
 See my Java Web Start notes.

screen shot

More Java applets here.

If you familiarize yourself with the way this thing works, you'll always be able to produce icosahedron vertex coordinates all by yourself (without having to look them up in a book). This can be handy if you're stranded on a desert island. I personally used this algorithm at a halloween pumpkin-carving party to mark up a pumpkin in an icosahedral pattern.

Initially (or after clicking the Reset button) you see a solid Icosahedron inscribed in a wireframe Octahedron. The vertices of the Icosahedron lie on the edges of the Octahedron.

You can morph the polyhedron by adjusting the slider control.

You can rotate the image by dragging with the mouse.

The "text box" above the slider shows its setting, which varies from 0.0 to 1.0 in steps of 0.001. (The slider is a "native" control, which is known to have peculiar behaviors on certain platforms -- you may not be able to adjust it all the way to 1.0.)

By adjusting the slider, you can see these polyhedra:

Polyhedron Slider Setting Exact
Octahedron 0.0 0
Icosahedron 0.382 1/(1+G)
Cuboctahedron 0.5 1/2
Regular Dodecahedron 0.618 G/(1+G)
Rhombic Dodecahedron 0.667 2/3
Regular Dodecahedron 0.724 (1+G)/(2+G)
Tiny cube Approaching 1.0 Approaching 1.0

Where G is the golden ratio: (1+sqrt(5))/2.

Explanation, for Slider Settings <=0.5

A point is selected on each edge of the wire-frame Octahedron. The slider controls the placement of these points along the edge (as a fraction of total edge-length).

On each of the 8 faces of the Octahedron, we connect the three selected edge-points to form an equilateral triangle (green).

Twelve isoceles triangles (blue) are made by connecting edge-points from adjacent Octrahedron faces (two blue triangles under each of the 6 vertices).

The total number of triangles is 20 (8 green equilateral and 12 blue isoceles).

For a particular slider setting (approximately 0.382), the blue triangles become equilateral (and thus equal to the green triangles) and an icosahedron is formed.

At this particular slider setting, the edge is divided into a larger and smaller part whose lengths are related by the Golden Ratio.

This method of constructing the icosahedron is useful because it provides a quick way to calculate icosahedron vertex coordinates if you know octahedron vertex coordinates. Octahedron vertex coordinates are easy to write down. Here are vertices for an octahedron of edge length sqrt(2):
( 1, 0, 0)
(-1, 0, 0)
( 0, 1, 0)
( 0,-1, 0)
( 0, 0, 1)
( 0, 0,-1)

If the slider is set to 0.5, the blue triangles become right-angled, and pairs of them merge to form the six square faces of a Cuboctahedron.

Explanation, for Slider Settings >0.5

The behavior in this slider range was totally unexpected -- a pleasant surprise.

Understanding what is happening here is a little tricky. I have to explain what the applet is actually doing. It uses a method of "slicing" that is a spin-off from my Hyperspace Polytope Slicer. The blue surfaces are made by slicing the Octahedron with infinite planes. These planes are defined by triplets of selected edge-points, as described above.

For slider settings <0.5 (described above), the effect of the slicing is easy to see because the slices create the blue triangles whose corners are the selected edge-points that define the slicing plane. Each pair of slicing planes meets in a raised edge under an Octahedron vertex.

When the slider setting reaches 0.5, that edge is no longer raised. In fact there is no edge because the pair of slicing planes coincide.

As the slider setting is increased above 0.5, the edge where the planes meet is depressed rather than raised. The two planes undercut each other and the solid figure detaches from the Octahedron edges. You can see this most clearly if you rotate the figure so that you are looking directly down on a vertex of the Octahedron.

Note that when the solid figure has detached from the Octahedron edges, the applet draws orange lines on the Octahedron surface to indicate the locations of the selected points.

An exercise for the obsessive-compulsive reader: try proving all the slider settings tabulated above. To do this, you need to know that the regular icosahedron and the regular dodecahedron are "duals". They can be formed from each other by interchanging faces and vertices. For example, if you draw radial lines from the center of the icosahedron to all 12 of its vertices, and place planes perpendicular to those lines, all equidistant from the center, the figure that is enclosed by those planes is a dodecahedron. You also need to know that a rhombic dodecahedron can be formed from an octahedron in a somewhat similar way. In this case, you draw radial lines from the center of the octahedron to the centers of its 12 edges, and place planes perpendicular to those lines, all equidistant from the center.

Notes about the Controls

I got this method of constructing the icosahedron and cuboctahedron from H.S.M. Coxeter's book "Regular Polytopes" (Coxeter01).

Coxeter credits P. Schönemann for the method (1873). (Schonemann01)

Email: Mark Newbold
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About International Jazz Day

In November 2011 the UNESCO General Conference proclaimed 30 April as “International Jazz Day”. This International Day brings together communities, schools, artists, historians, academics, and jazz enthusiasts all over the world to celebrate and learn about the art of jazz, its roots, its future and its impact. This important international art form is celebrated for promoting peace, dialogue among cultures, diversity, and respect for human rights and human dignity, eradicating discrimination, promoting freedom of expression, fostering gender equality, and reinforcing the role of youth for social change.

History and Outreach

Jazz is a unique musical style that originated in the southern part of the United States of America, but has its roots in Africa and merges both African and European music traditions. Years before the integration of social structures such as the work place, education systems, and professional sports teams, the jazz bandstand was an example of tolerance, cooperation, improvisation, and mutual understanding. In addition, jazz provided one of the first forums for freedom of expression and gender empowerment, and is an example of the transformative power of this fundamental human right. During the twentieth century, jazz proved to be a universal language spreading over the continents, influencing and being influenced by other kinds of music, evolving as a merging cultural element for supporters all around the world, with no distinction of race, religion, or national origin.

Jazz music also provided the motivation and opportunity for many women to reach beyond the traditional gender roles designated to them by society, and jazz music was a propelling force in the Women’s Liberation Movement in the United States. Jazz music also helped to provide jobs for women within the music industry, particularly as singers. Prior to the 1920s, almost all popular music was performed exclusively by male musicians.

By celebrating International Jazz Day, UNESCO intends to:

  • Celebrate the unique musical style that jazz represents!
  • Raise international awareness of the need for intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding;
  • Mobilize the intellectual community, decision-makers, cultural entrepreneurs, cultural and educational institutions and the media to promote jazz-related values as a vector of UNESCO’s mandate, pioneering role and intellectual mission;
  • Reinforce international cooperation and communication in the field of jazz music.


Teiú is a lizard genus which belongs to the family Teiidae, and contains seven described species. These large lizards are commonly found in South America, Teiúss are large reptiles, with some species reaching a total length of around five feet, and a weight of approximately fifteen pounds. They are omnivorous, foraging for a wide range of foods using their forked tongues, including fruit, seeds, various arthropods, small vertebrates and eggs.