Cinco De Mayo?

Mexican Independence Day is a major holiday in Mexico, the celebration begins every September 15th at 11 pm in every single city and town in Mexico. In Mexico City, the President, following the ritual, rings the historic liberty bell that Father Hidalgo rang to call the people. Then gives the "El Grito" (The Cry). He shouts "Mexicanos, Viva Mexico" and the crowd echos back, establishing the tradition which has been solemnly followed every year thereafter. And it is echoed by the governor of each state throughout the country.

Of their History leading to Independence is the beloved Emilliano Zapata, a leader of the Revolution who came up from poverty and is quoted as saying,
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."

Something we can learn from, and what we can say to these monsters who standby while large corporations violate the Constitution, it's intent and the people it was meant to protect.
Our elected officials swore an oath and yet they standby, head turned toward their offshore bank accounts and do nothing.
Zapata, where are you? Where does your spirit live?
Thomas Paine, where are you?
If we utter Patrick Henry's declaration, our administration would give us.....

I casually read a report written in a magazine I picked up at the coffee shop. I was waiting for a friend to arrive so had time to read an article or two.
The article was about Aspartame, an artificial sweetener. I have used stevia for last six years but like diet sodas.
I read a report stating the FAA requires Airline Pilots to abstain from having any diet drink before Piloting an Airliner.
The article was brief simply stating Aspartame in sodas have been found to effect Pilot's thinking and performance.
You can guess the rest.
I researched on the internet and was astonished.
Words like toxicity, seizures, dementia, tumors, and so on sprung forth from my searches. So I wondered how such a nasty substance got approved by the FDA and what do ya know. Mr Rumsfeld was mentioned as facilitating approval and then sold his rights to Monsanto for a tidy fortune. The same person bringing war, brings poison to his own country.
Now I opt for iced teas with stevia, or juice and I read the label of ANYTHING I am about to ingest.
A strong knowledge base is what we build a stong life on.

In the inaccurate History of our leveraged Schools I remember our teacher talking about the Roman Emperor Nero playing his fiddle while Rome burned.
Fuzzy history but it became euphemism that carried on for years to come.
We have our Rome and we have our Nero.It was implied, by our bedraggled teacher, Nero was insane.
I would say he simply knew it was part of a larger plan.

When we don't see the larger plan, no matter how insane the plan, behavior by those around us loses context. Without context, actions and speech becomes nonsense.

Now we see our little Napoleon cracking jokes as the Constitution is cast aside, the economy is crumbling and Monster Corporates destroy little business.
Nero fiddles while Rome burns. He either knows it is part of the plan or..

A lone crow flies overhead, Caw, Caw, as if it's seen it all before.

Living life seems like a great circle. Moving through it, being part of it, and being it. Moving on the great circle it seems as though it is a straight line where we move from one experience to another, never going back only, seemingly, to slow down or speed up.
We see little circles in our life when we make the same mistakes or repeat actions. We see bigger circles when friends come back into our life, when we return to places we have left long ago.
And, larger still, we return from where we came after completing the circle of life.
The circular journey of life. When we have humor, compassion, understanding, love and joy our journey is one of shared experiences. We are strength
If we have anger,fear, hate, blame, and complaints, we are a journey of tears in darkness and always alone. We are weakness.
We have choice each hour, each day, each week to make our journey on the circle of life what we want.
May your Circle Of Life surround joy, kindness, compassion and strength of Spirit.

Standing on the old bridge over one hundred feet above a ravine. Late afternoon and overhead a Cooper's Hawk glides away towards the setting sun. The blue sky taking on the warm glow of evening. The Hawk silhouetted as are the crows that are harrassing rentlessly the Hawks journey. The Hawk seems unusually stoic as he runs the gauntlet of attacks. They diminish in the distance
I turn around and look up the ravine. There, landing on a tall snag of a branch is a female Cooper's Hawk. She lands and her head immediately begins the stop/start scanning processes.
I get it. The husband draws away the crows and blackbirds while the wife glides stealthily in for a chance at an evening meal.
I watch her scan, look and reposition herself.
Unexpectedly the Husband comes in for a slightly unsteady perch right next to her. He looks a bit ruffled from his part of the ruse.
After steadying himself he turns his head and beak toward his wife and tilts his head. she turns to him and bobs her head.
I could see it right away.
He saying
"You haven't got anything? After the beating I took to give you a clear field to hunt?"
She saying,
"I just got here my self. It's not like there is something waiting to be eaten"
Then they turned and looked out at the expanse. Time passed and unceremoniously he leaned forward, wings spread and glided off. He caught a thermal and soon was a speck.
She left just a minute or two behind him and flew to another tree, waited and then glided off home.
Only the warm glow of the Sunset remained.