MyFirst Blog Post

Drum Roll Please (Standing Ovations Gratefully Accepted)

Well this feels slightly momentous. (Truly, I don't mean that statement to sound as pretentious as it does) It's just that I feel a little embarrassed and not sure where to begin. It's a bit like meeting someone for the first time, which in a way I suppose I am. So hello world wide web! In all seriousness, I began creating my blog site and then I agonised over how to begin posting, what to post etc. I realised OMG! I know nothing about blogging, time to do a little research methinks. It turns out there are millions of sites on "How to Blog" and after a few hours I knew I wouldn't be able to read them all. But I did find some really good resources on this subject. http://www.problogger.net/ being the best I have come across so far, and in particular their Blogging for Beginners page: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/14/blogging-for-beginners-2/

The slightly depressing thing is that I have discovered I've already got it all wrong and I haven't even finished my first post!. For a start the serious blogger doesn't use a weblog provider, but gets their own domain. Secondly the best blogs have a focus, some kind of niche subject matter or message that they want to get across, the fundamentals of which they include in their title. (All the better to get noticed by search engines by.) As is evident from my title, I just intend to ramble on about any particular topic that pops into my head on a particular day, albeit with an emphasis on a particular range of topics. So my blog is without purpose it seems. Hey ho, start as I mean to go on I say.

The thing is I am not focused on any one particular facet of life. I am fascinated by almost everything. I do have passions, experience and talents but like most people I am multi-faceted, (like a crystal) not a one dimensional being and I don't know how to pigeonhole those interests and abilities in one neatly shaped blog. I don't really want to. So what can I offer? Well I am enthusiastic about learning and sharing knowledge and I am like info-sponge. I absorb and can regurgitate various bits of acquired knowledge endlessly. I am also very opinionated (although open minded enough to consider alternative points of view that differ to my own) on the topics that are important to me, some of which are as follows:

Parenting. I have recently become a mother. My daughter is nearly a year old. I love being a parent and have quite a different take on childcare from what is the conventional accepted norm. My holistic view of the world means that I believe child rearing should be child-centred. (Woahhh..revolutionary stuff.) For example my daughter does not have a pram or pushchair. I prefer to carry her as I feel this makes my little one more confident and secure Ala "attachment parenting".This site http://www.thebabywearer.com/ has lots more info on this subject. I breast feed and intend to do so for as long as I can. (Believe it or not I have found that breast feeding is a political statement, not merely a naturally provided form of sustenance for babies. More on that in another post.) I also have never fed my little darling on baby puree (or mush as I prefer to call it) I breastfed exclusively until Jasmine was 6 months and then gave her solid food that was actually solid. Check out http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/ for great tips, ideas and photos. Also (Shock horror) My baby is vegan just like me. I am also a passionate advocate for baby signing, which is the best thing ever. Absolutely the best thing ever. Jasmine is able to communicate what she is thinking about, what she wants or needs or even to make little baby jokes thanks to this wonderful communication tool meaning less crying and less frustration on both sides. With my training in complementary therapy baby massage is another topic I have much to expound on. I believe that babies are first and foremost people and need to be treated as the alert, intelligent and amazing people that they are, not just as sleeping, suckling, poop machines. As you might have gathered parenting is a subject I have a lot to say about.

Next passion: Responsible and ethical consumerism. The fact is SLAVERY exists. Unacceptable though it may be, we in the developed world create the demand for slave labour. I'm not talking sweat shops and economic slavery which are also a modern day reality and horrific enough, but actual old fashioned, deprived of freedom, beaten, threatened and tortured, even raped and forced to work with out pay, denied basic human rights slavery. There are an estimated 27 million slaves worldwide and that is felt to be a conservative estimate by some. http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/ has more info on this as well as http://www.freetheslaves.net/ . A significant proportion of those in slavery are children. Add to this exploitative mix cheap third world labour, the afore-mentioned sweat shops, "free trade" agreements which force countries to accept subsidised cheaper goods from western nations glut of over production which then eliminates internal suppliers and production in that country and leads to dependency on imported goods, exploitation by big business, whole economies of developing countries reliant on income from cash crops bought by multinationals at the lowest prices possible and the poverty caused by natural disasters which are the results of environmental damage (deforestation, desertification, pollution etc) and you have the needs of the many being ignored and denied in favour of the privileged excesses of the few. We can do something about this as individuals. Our cash and how we choose to spend it is the biggest democratic power we still have. When you buy a product you do not merely condone that suppliers conduct and practices, you FINANCE it and create the demand for more of the same. So surely it is much better to support businesses and manufacturers who have ethical practices than support the degradation of your fellow souls on this planet. Have a look at the brilliant Ethical Trader site http://www.ethiscore.org/reports.aspx?free=true if you want information on how to use your purchases to good effect. This is something I feel very passionately about, so you can expect many posts on Fair Trade, Equitable Trade, ethical consumerism, civil rights and the abolition of slavery and environmental issues from me.

I am a vegan. The way we use animals for our own ends is akin to fascism. We brutalise them, exploit them, imprison them, torture them, murder them and deny that they even feel pain or emotion or have the same basic drives as we do such as the need for freedom, safety, companionship and concern for their offspring's wellbeing. The way some people differentiate between "pets" and "farm" (i.e. food) animals, while still maintaining that they are "animal lovers is at best hypocritical. We use animals for entertainment, food, clothing, often without a second thought. But don't let me put you off your dinner when I tell you how your end product on the plate was actually achieved and lets not forget the major environmental and economic effects of farming livestock as well as the nutritional effect a meat and dairy laden diet. Most people just don't want to know. If I can educate even one person about the reality of factory farming and its impact on the environment, the suffering experienced by these sentient beings we call animals or the health benefits of a vegan or vegetarian diet and thereby encourage someone to adopt a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, I will have achieved something significant. Often people would like to adopt a less animal dependant diet but fear that it might be too hard. I have been a veggie since I was 11 years old, and am qualified to give nutritional advice, so maybe I could share a tip or too.

Complementary Health. This is a subject with so many depths and layers (and a subject I am qualified to comment on and have first hand experience of.) I feel it is hard to know where to begin. I can provide help and advice as well as information on methods of treatment, diet, exercise and psychological stress busters. The main focus of complementary medicine is on treating the person as a whole not just as a person with a condition and a random collection of symptoms. This means looking at factors affecting body,mind and soul, taking in to account lifestyle factors and examining prevention and causative factors not just a "cure". Complementary Medicine is about empowering the individual, helping them take responsibility for their personal well being, providing help to make positive lifestyle changes and choices, develop coping strategy's, and therapeutic remedies. I also have much to say about the way that complementary medicine is rubbished in the media and discredited by many in the scientific community. All is not what it seems! There are ulterior motives for this! Multi-national drug companies have much of the medical and scientific community in their pocket. More of that another time. I will also have dark words to type regarding those "Therapists" who offer miracle cures and false hope for extortionate prices, practice with little or no training and use dangerous methods and denigrate the reputation of legitimate practitioners everywhere by their actions. (oh and don't even get me started on "massage parlours". Why can't a brothel just be called brothel, and not create a completely different connotation to a massage treatment by associating it in name only with an entirely different kind of personal service?). Despite these few gripes the subject of healing therapies is dear to my heart and is a beautiful one at that.

Spirituality is another subject I have much to say about, but I am a seeker like everyone else. I believe we are spiritual people in physical bodies and that each and everyone of us is here to learn, to grow, to serve and to increase both personal happiness and the happiness of others and I welcome any opportunity to do these things individually and in my connections with others. I am not religious but I have faith in the Divine. I call it World Faith and I find wisdom everywhere and in every spiritual tradition. I suppose you could call it "new agey" of me (more and more this is used as a term of ridicule) but I don't care! I would like to share my knowledge and experiences in the hope that you will feel like sharing yours in return. I read Tarot and obviously feel a connection to the spiritual and energetic aspects of healing. I am also (so I am assured) effective at dream analysis. I am interested in astrology, numerology and other forms of divination, psychic ability, paranormal phenomenon and more. I hope I can stimulate discussion and provoke some interesting comments.

So I think that has introduced me and my main interests and enthusiasms. I hope you will pop in and take a look now and then and perhaps find something here that is of interest to you, informative or just funny. I may not become a serious blogger and my blog won't be one of the best perhaps, but I reckon it will be fun, perhaps informative and I might meet a few cool people along the way and be able to improve my writing skills at the same time. Lets face it I need a creative outlet for all this stuff, otherwise my brain might explode. ;0)