hello lovely souls
India, 17, Gemini
“I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.”
This beautiful fruit is a Hala Fruit from Hawaii
Select artworks from Nigerian artist Njideka Akunyili:
“Nigeria is almost a third character in my work,” she said. “A lot of my work is about investigating my love for Nigeria and my life in America.
“I met my husband at college and there was some anxiety that if I married outside my culture I would lose my identity, but there is a space in my work where these things come together.”
Akunyili is hoping to help change attitudes to art in Nigeria, where she said appreciation is growing slowly.
“If I hadn’t left Nigeria, I wouldn’t be an artist, I would be a doctor,” she said. “When I told my parents I wanted to be an artist, they couldn’t get their heads around why an educated person who went to college in America would want to be an artist.
“If people think of artists, it’s somebody by the side of the road painting signs.”
[…]
“When I was young, the less Nigerian you were the cooler you were, but now we have gone back to tradition,” said Akunyili. “There’s a nice energy about the country that’s finally coming into its own.”
(via loveisthewateroflife)
"Your body is the key to your soul. Learn to use your body wisely and with appreciation, and it will turn out to be your very best teacher and your very best friend. Give it nourishing foods, good air, healing sun rays, lovely sunsets, inspiring music, clothes made of natural fabrics, uplifting fragrances, oil massages, internal cleansing, and supportive environments. Don’t let fear be the motive for your actions. You are worthy of receiving the very best that life can offer. Spend time in nature, touch the trees, the plants, feel the ground and the grass under your feet, breathe in the breath of nature. Mother Earth thrives on your loving contact and she greatly values your presence. She needs us to be channels of divine energy and suffers if even one channel is blocked. Every one of us is equally important to her. Those who are blocked and cannot feel her presence but continue to harm the environment are given the opportunity now to open up physically, emotionally and spiritually. For them, the experience of sickness and suffering becomes a way to reconnect to natural law."
(via terrasmiles)
Struggling to Get the Child Support Payments You're Owed?
This publication is a how-to guide that can help.
booooost.
this shit is important.
my father owes us $30,000, I’m sending this to my mother cause we should not be struggling like we are.
(via dancing-with-diversity)
8-year-old follows Tenn. lawmaker around Capitol until he drops anti-child welfare bill
A Tennessee lawmaker has relented and agreed to drop his bill linking academic performance to the family’s welfare benefits after an 8-year-old girl shamed him by following him around the state Capitol.
On his way to vote on Thursday, state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) was confronted by 8-year-old homeschooler Aamira Fetuga, who presented him with a petition signed by people opposing his welfare bill, according to the Tennessean. Nearby, a choir of about 60 activists sang “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”
“You are so weak, to not listen to a child,” a parent said as Campfield walked away with the girl following.
“Why do you want to cut benefits for people?” 8-year-old Fetuga asked after she caught up with him on a Capitol escalator.
“Well, I wouldn’t as long as the parent shows up to school and goes to two parent-teacher conferences and they’re exempt,” the state Senator explained.
The confrontation continued during what appeared to be long, uncomfortable walk to the Senate floor for Campfield.
“Using children as props is shameful,” he grumbled at one point.
But the protest tactics may have worked because Campfield decided to withdraw the bill before Thursday’s vote after several other former supporters began to express doubts.
“You can say that withholding the money from the parents doesn’t harm the child, but you’re fooling yourself,” Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris (R) pointed out.
Under Campfield’s bill, families could have lost up to 30 percent of welfare benefits from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program if a child did not attend school regularly and make “satisfactory academic progress.”
Campfield, however, said he was not giving up on the idea. He asked the state Senate to further study the bill, giving him the opportunity to bring it back up next year.
“To me, it’s not a dead issue at all,” he told reporters. “This may be a slight detour, but honestly I think this could hopefully make it even better.”
As for the protests, Campfield remarked, “It is what it is.”
“There’s always going to be detractors.”
Watch this video from The Tennessean, broadcast April 12, 2013.
Check out this badass little girl. Remember her. Bet you we’ll be seeing her kicking ass again later on!
(Source: delphinediallo, via terrasmiles)
