When I was a child I went to a private school in Bermuda, and it very much followed the UK mold in terms of both structure and content. Sadly, as a result, my Bermudian historical education was quite lacking, but I also later learnt this was the case for most Bermudian students. It is improving, but there is still a great gap between our history and what is taught to us. Today I discovered that on June 13th, 1373 the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance between England and Portugal is the oldest alliance in the world, and still remains in force. This is of note because Bermuda has a significant enough proportion of people of Portuguese descent to count as its own category in the census. They have mostly come from the Acores Islands and they contribute greatly to the economy and the functioning of society. I mention this in particular because my best friend, Mia, (of Mohawk Radio) is of Portuguese descent and I met her at Fairmont Hamilton Princess, where I had possibly the most delicious fish sandwich in the world with cabbage and pineapple. Mia was a bit late, but I started off lunch with our lovely friend Miranda (pictured is her beautiful 12-week old son Henry). Today, in 1966 the US Supreme Court issued it's landmark decision in Miranda vs. Arizona ruling that criminal suspects must be informed of their constitutional rights prior to questioning, which has hence forth been called "the Miranda rights".
If you've read this blog, you know by now I'm a liberal, so such rights are something celebratory to me. In a similar vein, on today's date in 1996 Guernsey finally voted to legalise abortion. Whilst I'm not "pro-abortion" as many pro-lifers would twist the debate I am firmly pro-choice and any advance of this in any country is paramount to the protection of women. It worries me that Roe vs. Wade is so frequently debated in the US in attempts to change the ruling. In a country of over 300m people there are less than 1,800 abortion providers, a devastatingly low figure. Yes, as I show a photo of a beautiful baby boy this may seem like a conflict, but as much as I love babies and their importance and place in the world, that doesn't mean I will ever stop fighting for a woman's right to choose.
Today's music is "The Long and Winding Road", which today in 1970 became The Beatles' last number 1 song and was the last single ever released by the foursome.
It’s 24 days into 2018 and I’m only now sharing my new year’s resolutions. I am, however, giving myself a pass because mine aren’t just for one year, they’re for 26. Since university, I haven’t planned my life more than a few months ahead. I thought I was a free spirit, but I now believe it was indicative of the opposite – one caged by fear. One that’s scared to plan and be disappointed; terrified to make goals, in case I miss the goalposts. The letter A is for... x While I had an incredible past year of achievements, I experienced something akin to daily stress fractures on my brain, which created fissures and cracks in my mind triggering mania and depression in rapid cycles. Now, I have chosen to unlock the cage: I’m committing myself fully to my creative endeavours all while travelling wherever this wild spirit finds itself drawn to, because that spirit was slowly dying. I was not in a good way. Now, here I am with the vastness of life stretched out before me. These e
I have been in hiding. I spent years on this blog revealing my truth, but then I became trapped. I somehow began to believe that I couldn’t share my reality anymore and that belief imprisoned me. It imprisoned me at a time when my mind had become a madman and was living to torture me. Haunted by the continuous splatter of sounds that were crunched, smashed, thrown together and weaved with a poisonous thread; a ricochet of memories, feelings, thoughts and voices. A downright cacophony of crazy. Photo: Nicola Muirhead So, I shared. Six weeks ago, I took to social media and finally expressed how the last 18 months of my life had truly been in a post called “The Street Fight”: “It’s been several months since I’ve posted. In the mental health narrative, we love stories of rebirth, renewal and redemption. We watch the phoenix burn and we are inspired when we see that phoenix rise from the ashes, but we rarely bear witness to what happens in between. Brene Brown calls
'Hidden Damage' Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything That's how the light gets in. - Leonard Cohen Kintsugi ("golden joinery" or "golden repair") is the Japanese art form of repairing broken pottery with gold. It treats the breakage and repair of the item as part of its history, its journey, its existence. Rather than hiding the damage, it brightly illuminates the repair, inviting the world to see its improved beauty. Just like pottery, we humans can crack, splinter, break, shatter. These knocks remain part of our being and, whilst a brave face might create a temporary disguise, nobody can hide forever. At least I couldn't. To heal, I found I had to expose. Kintsugi treats the crack as merely an event in the life of the object, not a reason to end it. Kintsugi knows that something is more beautiful for having been broken. As someone who considers them
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