World AIDS Day 2009 "Universal Access and Human Rights"

No Explanation Needed.

NAPCAN's latest campaign for a Child Friendly Australia.

NAPCAN is an organization in Australia focused on child abuse and neglect prevention and child well being.

Native Plants!

Result #13 from dictionary.com after searching the word "native":

13.
originating naturally in a particular country or region, as animals or plants.

The two pictures above are my two best-friends in my native plant adventure. They are tremendous resources!

Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy is a wonderful book. It has been described as a "call to arms" and that is exactly what I felt reading it. I first heard Tallamy during an interview on NPR - Science Friday, I think. He was articulate, passionate and chock full of important information.

Most importantly for me: Tallamy imparts the message that YOU can help fix this problem. By planting native plants in your own back yard, you can help restore so much of the ecosystem that we have destroyed. Destruction from lawns, foreign ornamentals, non-native species can be reversed - a yard at a time.

Check this book out - but I strongly suggest the new and expanded version. The new version includes lists of natives to your area that the older ones doesn't.

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, The University of Texas at Austin is an amazing website. You can research and look up almost all native plants, no matter where you live. I found 99% of what the Oregon natives while on the site.

Plants can be searched by common and scientific names and the results provide a lot of info. Pictures, too!

Just So YOU Know....

I am NOT going to hell. No matter your opinion.

You don't know my path, as I don't know yours.

I don't assume to know the state of your relationship with God, so don't assume mine.

Nothing angers me more.

Worry about yourself.

Possibly more on this later....

Gardening

I'm gardening this weekend. Clearing out the ever present weeds, preparing the beds, pulling stuff out and putting stuff in.

What I really want to plant is a Tree Peony! I LOVE the Peony. I had really wanted some for my wedding, but it was the wrong time of year. So, I think I will plant one or two, thus getting to enjoy them when I want.

Native plants are my focus for the yard, but I just can't resist. And, apparently, Oregon is the PRIME climate for such beauties.

I'll keep you posted.

My J-to-S Quotient

I'm not sure how I have gathered so much junk. Ok, some of it is not junk...just stuff. Stuff is different than junk. And belongings are different than stuff. Belongings have emotions attached. "Stuff" are objects that are a necessity, but have no emotions attached.

Not believing this are you?

I have come to understand my Junk - to - Stress Quotient. The more junk I have, the more stress I have. Apparently this is the case with Rex too.

Yesterday was the first day of "purge, clean, de-stress". That's a working title. It could turn into "hey, my whole house is going on Craigs List - come and get it".

It's not that I live with stacks of things around me. We aren't "hoarders". But for some reason there is too much stuff in my small house. So, in order to get things in order - and thus reduce our stress levels - "purge, clean, de-stress" has commenced. I think I'm liking it. And, coming from someone who gets easily overwhelmed and thus can not figure out where to start - that fact that I did start is already a step in the right direction.

I'll keep you posted as to our progress.

I'm So Damn Frustrated!

Health care should be a right for all. No one should be allow to suffer slowly because they can not dole out the money needed to pay for treatment. I think our law makers and their federal health insurance have no idea what its like to NOT have health care. Let us revisit the Hippocratic Oath...perhaps our government leaders and decision makers should read it again.

The Hippocratic Oath: Modern Version

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:


I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.


I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.


I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.


I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.


I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.


I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.


I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.


I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.


If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

Written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, and used in many universities.