Today, June 14th is World Blood Donor Day and is dedicated to "thanking and celebrating voluntary non-remunerated blood donors". It always occures on June 14th as this is the birthday of Karl Landsteiner who created the ABO blood group system, for which he won the Nobel Prize. In celebration of this day I encourage you all to give blood, especially those in Bermuda, because we have a large deficit in our blood supply. I would love to give blood, however due to the amount of time I spent in the UK during the BSE crisis I am not permitted to give blood in Bermuda. This policy desperately needs to be changed if we are to increase our blood supply in any meaningful way. There are too many people on the island who are exempt and therefore cannot supply blood no matter their interest in doing so.
Today was a bittersweet day as I said goodbye to my best friend Mia who has gone off to the UK to pursue her music career. As someone who left behind a steady income and a solid life to pursue my dreams I am so proud of her for doing the same, knowing how rocky a road it can be. I am so unbelievably happy for her, but the distance between us is further, especially when I return to LA. To comfort myself I took up my friend Sophie's offer for a free kerastase treatment at Inner Sanctum here in Hamilton, Bermuda. They take microscopic pictures of your hair and show you where it's broken. My hair is soooo soft and shiny now I couldn't recommend it more.
Today in 1928 Ernesto "Che" Guevara was born. I'm not a proponent of communism, but there are certain more socialist ideals that I agree with, universal free healthcare being one of them. I have always felt a certain level of affinity for Che ever since I was young. I have been dying to go to Cuba, and in fact wrote my high school thesis on Fidel Castro and his consolidation of power. Therefore, I have to share multiple quotes from Che:
"Let the world change you and you can change the world"
"Be realistic, demand the impossible!" "Better to die standing, than to live on your knees.”
"We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it."
Today's music is a beautiful acoustic version of Star Mile by Joshua Radin who was born today in 1974. He's an American singer-songwriter and I first heard his music in the film Adam, about an autistic young man. He has such a beautiful voice and this song is incredible both on the album and acoustically, possibly even better live.
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
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
'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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