niahburton - Tumblr blog

[niahburton]

[niahburton]

None of my friends are #homophobic... Because all my friends #respect me for me. And because I love my other half because I love. Be it male, female or unknown- unclassified. Isn't it just a label? I find happiness in love. So should you. Love makes your world go round. 🗼 I hug my friend like my brother and sister. I'm not going to crack onto you because you are female. Ii A connection is a connection. Love, hate or attraction. Who the soul is isn't who we choose. It's the spark that is there for us for the moment. The lessons we must learn with that person walks with us for that moment in time. If it's a sexual attraction Awesome! Because who cares.

[niahburton]

LETTER TO A WISH – EMILIE ZOEY BAKER

LETTER TO A WISH – EMILIE ZOEY BAKER Dear all the women who ever existed over the entire span of human history, I wish I could say I’m sorry. I wish I could apologise for everything you have been through. Starting with the woman whose heart was painted black with an apple in her hand. I want to scoop you all up and whisper it into your ears. I wish I was an enormous giant so I could gather you all together, hold you close to my Kilamanjaro of a bosom, and give you all your secrets back. To those ancient girls who were born under stars and hidden in caves, and those women who were ordered to keep their goddesses quiet, or whose icons were stuffed away, their ancestral eternal flames stubbed out like cigarettes – I wish I could have tattooed your words on the hemisphere of my giant back to keep your libraries safe. To the first slave women, whose bodies were used to bear children they never got to see, whose language was ripped from their lips, whose spells were stomped on. To those taken from their warm homes and put on the backs of horses, forced onto ships and passed around like toys for grown men, whose skin was the wrong shade of culture, who fought till their nails bled – I wish I could have reached down with my arms thick as the Milky Way and pulled you from the pain. To all those who believed men when they said that women are wicked, evil creatures, or that they weren’t allowed to make decisions because they get their period, or it was their fault for what they were wearing, or they shouldn’t have been out alone, that they had it coming, or they can’t because they’re just a girl, or God didn’t love them if they didn’t bear sons, or that God didn’t love them at all – I wish you didn’t have to hear that. I wish my timeworn stone-pillar fingers, covered in moss, could muffle your ears. To all those daughters who were born disappointments, to those mothers who hated themselves and cursed their own bellies as a result, to those little girls forced down the aisle to stand with an old man, a cruel man, a heartless man, a loveless man, a violent man – I wish I could calm your panicked hearts, lift your veils and kiss your brows with my shoreline lips. To those who were punished for having miscarriages, to those who woke in the night screaming, their white sheets dyed red, their tears slapped from their faces – I wish you knew that it wasn’t your fault. To those left for war, widowed and abandoned, to those who weren’t allowed an opinion, who believed themselves inferior, who were placed in the dark alone as an incubator for the heir of a king, for an heir with balls, for a billionaire businessman, for the man of the house, because it can’t be a house without one – I wish I could borrow the sun and light your darkened rooms. To those whose love was called witchcraft, their hips told not to swing, their lips told not to part, their hands told not to hold, their tongues told to never be bold. To those who knew the ways of nature and were blamed for terrifying weather, wars, murder and chaos, who stupefied priests, who disobeyed and died screaming, shot with feathered pens, burnt with consecrated candles and hung with the string of their holy robes. To those whose ancestors couldn’t save them, whose prayers had no effect. To those whose stories were left untold on blank pages in history – I wish I could bundle you up in my mountain-range embrace, and fill my veined rivers with ink so you can correct these wrongs. To those who gave birth without so much as a freakin’ Panadol, or who became ill and were told it was punishment, who were kept in dungeons and basements, or back rooms, or distant towns – I wish I could rock you softly in my crescent-moon cradle. To those who were treated so badly they themselves became cruel and infected entire bloodlines – I wish you epiphanies. To those little ones brought up in nunneries, who were told their natural desires were a disease, their menstruations the work of the devil, a monthly curse – I wish I could fill my giant salt-lake heart with your tears and use it to baptise the ignorant. To those who betrayed their sisters and never pleaded forgiveness. To those whose husbands wandered into other bedrooms, leaving cold sheets behind. To those who lived in perpetual fear, whose eyes never once looked up, to those girls who were taken from a farmhouse to a palace against their will, whose fathers tried to hide them, their beauty their curse. To all those who lived as prisoners in paradise, their faces hot with outrage – I wish I could scoop you up in the crystal lakes of my palms and let you float there till you are cool. To those who were ashamed, to any who were shamed, to anyone who ever shamed a girl for being attacked, raped or beaten – I wish I could forgive you. To anyone who spoke up about freedom or feminism, who started a revolution, who rallied, changed, created or fought – I wish I could encircle you with meteorites to deflect the slings and arrows that come your way. To those brave hearts who swelled with service and joined the army, only to be humiliated and belittled by their own peers – I wish I could encase you in the strongest metals from the earth and furnish you with unbreakable swords. To those who painted, sculpted wrote, designed or invented something spectacular only to have their husbands take credit. To those who were told they shouldn’t drive a car because of hot flushes, and that new vacuum cleaners were a revolutionary kind of freedom, who received an ironing board for their birthday, who were given the Pill as a liberation but really just to make them more available, no strings attached, when free love turned out to be mostly about guys sleeping around, and the other pills were to keep you quiet and presentable, and by the way the boss is coming to dinner – I wish I could wake you from what turned out to be a dumb dream, so you could drive to work and take your seat at the boardroom table. To those who felt the need to inject their faces with disease to feel young, to those who felt they were inadequate and put fake salt pillows in their breasts, broke their own noses, cut their own skin, or made themselves sick in the name of thin – I wish you already felt beautiful. To those who were so scared of ageing they poured chemicals on their faces, terrifying their teenage children, who had always thought their mothers were the most magnificent creatures on earth – I wish I could swoop in with my mirror the size of the sky and show you what your children see. To all the weak mothers who didn’t protect their daughters from leather belts, backs of hands or turning midnight doorknobs – I wish I could’ve strengthened you. I wish I could have wielded Saturn’s rings to shield every woman who was ever Jill Meagher or any woman that was just taken from the street. I wish I had that power. To those who burned with ambition only to be told their job is strictly to be mothers, wives, cooks and cleaners. To those who aren’t allowed to have an education, to those who had to read books in secret and undertake clandestine classes – I wish I could build you a castle for a school, complete with silver soldiers to protect your beautiful minds. I wish my brain was the size of the universe, able to store a billion solutions to a million problems. To the women who were told not to try, to stick to being supportive, to swallow ambition, to those who tried and were laughed away, or who succeeded and were jeered and insulted, and held to different standards, hounded out of positions of power, or who were thought unsuitable for leadership because they had young children to take care of, or because they didn’t have young children to take care of – I wish I could arch my back and push up islands in the sea beneath your bobbing chaff bags, so you could climb out and start new and better worlds, or at least try and fail, like anyone else. I wish I could stretch out my Amazon river of a spine, sail all of you to these islands, across cultures, lands, tribes, generations, religions and eons, so we could talk, share our stories, lace our hearts together to form a bridge so long that it reaches all the way to the next generation, so they know whatever happens they have us, they can tap into this giant pulsating suspended wisdom at any moment, they are never alone. And when they hear people say that all girls are bitches and that women can’t work together, or that they shouldn’t speak, up, or that they’re too emotional to be CEOs, or that their life has no worth simply because they were born female they’ll laugh, because they know about this crazy ancient heart bridge. I wish I could hurl myself back in time, to the first season, to the debut episode, to the pilot, and let the girl with the apple know that people are going to try and make out that she was an add-on accessory to Adam, that people will try and pretend she’s a slave and not a creator, that her job was to serve man not God, or the God that man decided. I want her to be strong, tell the truth, and show her daughters there’s no need to ever be afraid. I wish there was no need to ever be afraid. To all the women who ever existed over the entire span of human history, I wish you knew, I’m sorry. AUTHOR: EMILIE ZOEY BAKER Emilie Zoey Baker is an award-winning Australian poet and spoken-word performer who has toured North America, Europe and Asia as a guest of international festivals. She was also the winner of the 2010 Berlin International Literature Festival’s poetry slam Slam!Review. At home, she performs regularly at arts and literature festivals, and has appeared at the Sydney Opera House and TEDx Melbourne. In 2013 she toured Indonesia with the renowned Woman Of Letters storytelling series, performing in Jakarta and Jogjakarta, as well as a guest on their US tour performing in NYC. Emilie is a 2014 Fellow at the State Library of Victoria. She has been poet-in-residence for Museums Victoria and coordinator for the National Australian Poetry Slam. She teaches poetry and slam in schools and in April 2014, she will be core faculty at Canada's Banff Centre. Emilie is also the author of eighteen children’s books and has published several poetry collections.

[niahburton]

[niahburton]

Rains will come

Have you seen the dust and toil Ever ran your hands in our soil. Leave all your troubles behind. Pray with me for the land down under time. Our farmers need our help Hands and souls are walking away Their smiles as broad as bridges. Accent real true blue. It's been years since parts have heard thunder. Ages since they've smelt rain. Our prayers seem under heard. For our land has dried up. Our livelihoods down the drain. We are committing suicide by the dozen. Killing our hearts with our herds. No worries mate she'll be right Our People aren't seeking help for pride. Help! We need some bails Help! We need some food Help! Pray the rains will come soon. Pray! We'll send you some hay. Pray! We'll send you some food. Pray! The rains will come soon.

[niahburton]

http://obscure-vision.com/mesmerizing-photographs-of-soldiers-faces-before-and-after-a-war/ #peace #soliders #beforeafterandpresent #atwar #warsucks #warrior #photographs #beforeandafter #boystomen #warsucks #LalageSnow @lalagesnow #popart #popart

[niahburton]

The United States has officially suspended a portion of its $3.9 million healthcare aid to Uganda, citing the country’s new anti-gay law as the reason for the hold.

According to the Uganda health ministry, the funding cuts mean health officials will have decreased access to antiretroviral drugs and HIV testing kits offered to Ugandans who need them. This is not a good thing — these resources are crucial in helping Uganda’s already marginalized LGBTQ community. 

"We DO NOT support cuts in support to NGO’s and other civil society institutions that offer life saving health services or other important social services to the people of Uganda," wrote the activists in the guidelines issued by Uganda’s Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights & Constitutional Law. That coalition is the lead sponsor of a constitutional challenge to the law filed in Uganda’s Constitutional Court earlier this week. 

Instead, the coalition encouraged strategic aid cuts, like those made by the Dutch and Swedish governments, who along with governments in Norway and Denmark announced a cumulative $27 million in cuts that would be diverted from Uganda’s Justice sector since the law was passed last month, instead redirecting most of those funds to nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations fighting for health and human rights in Uganda. 

The activists who know Uganda’s government and culture best have given specific solutions on how to make financial decisions that could actually influence the future of the anti-gay law. Denying healthcare is not one of them. 

[niahburton]

[niahburton]

How To Build a 400 Square Foot Solar Powered Off Grid Cabin for $2,000

How To Build a 400 Square Foot Solar Powered Off Grid Cabin for $2,000 Share the post "How To Build a 400 Square Foot Solar Powered Off Grid Cabin for $2,000" How to build a nice small cabin powered by solar panels. Lamar Alexander built this cute little 400 square foot cabin for approximately $2000, and powers it with a 570 watt solar and wind power system. The whole system is very inexpensive, and the best part is he is mortgage free. Very cool little cabin. I’d be proud to build something like this myself, and call it home. This cabin is 14×14 with a full loft and approximately 400 square feet of living space. Downstairs is Kitchen, Bathroom, Dining and Living area. Upstairs is a large Bedroom and Office. There is enough room for 6 people to sleep comfortably. Power system is 580 watts Solar electric and 400 Watts wind power which powers a 12 volt fridge, lights, water pump, TV’s, laptop and many gadgets. Heat source can be propane or wood stove. Toilet is composting or a septic tank system. The cabin is designed for year round use and is fully insulated for cold climates. This cabin design has been tested in Canada, Mexico and Alaska with great results. Perfect for a starter home, hunting/fishing cabin, bug-out shelter or vacation cabin. The cabin can be built from all new materials for under $2000 (not including windows and doors) and is designed for additions on 3 sides. http://higherperspective.com/2013/12/build-400-square-foot-solar-powered-grid-cabin-2000.html

[niahburton]

Age and wisdom

I looked in the mirror before and thought; damn how did I get so old? And a little voice in my head said; how did you get so wise? Natalie Burton

[niahburton]

Okay, new Tumblr rule

if any of you lot ever invent time travel, you have to bring these two with you to Ancient Greece and Roman Empire

and read them to people or pass them around

so they become well known and in centuries, grow into a myth or a legend

and we grow up thinking that the story might have happened and he was a great hero from the past

[niahburton]

I would for a month.

Big Island, Hawaii. $200.00

"For rent is just the bus"

"Its out the road so must be willing to drive."

"Mahalo aloha and be blessd."

[niahburton]

[niahburton]

All what ifs.

Ever thought: things would be so different if I wasn't so scared. I mean if I wasn't so scared at the time I would have a fiancé by now. Or a second house. Or a child. Or a college degree.... Scrap being scared on study... If I wasn't so scared of growing up and settling down. How different would things be? I, all of a sudden today thought about a girl I had met. I think I may have loved her. But I was with someone else. I wasn't with with them. But my heart was with this beautiful black elegant beauty. The Beauty and the essence of her would not escape me. Could not escape me. Yet there was with girl. She was so calm and complex. And understood all to well about my mind. My thoughts and my curse. This girl was a hippy. So am I realise. My thoughts went in text message to her and she still has my Christmas present next to her bed. I Truly care for this girl. But I'm now on the other side of the country. You know that moment when you wished you had let down, all fear, all boundaries, all what ifs.

[niahburton]

Kayla Montgomery, 18, was found to have sclerosis three years ago.

It was a lesson in resilience. “Now I know I can do it,” she said. “It may take a little while, but if I fall, I know I can get up.” http://m.smh.com.au/sport/athletics/the-schoolgirl-with-ms-whos-a-champion-runner-but-cant-stand-at-the-finish-line-20140304-341ye.html

[niahburton]

Save our Tasmanian forest. Have you watched #avatar . #a$$hole #tonyabbot

[niahburton]

If #spc is going out of business why not can our meat, veg. If #canneries want to get rid of their stock #send it to Africa. Processing and canneries will save population. Be it now or in the future when a disaster happens. Why not exporting tinned food? #mining will be looking for tin. #farmers will be breeding cows. #growers will be growing for a market How hard is it to ship to #africa? #banksy