Changing Places

Express yourself:
That is meaning.

Ask yourself each day, “What remains unexpressed within me?”

Whatever it is, bring it out. But be judicious. The rantings of mad people do not yield greater freedom. Those who are with Tao use expression to find greater understanding of themselves and so find liberation from ignorance and circumstance.

All that is good and unique in you should be brought out. If you do not do this, you will be stunted. Never hold back, thinking that you will wait for a better time. The good in you is like the water in a well : The more you draw from it, the more fresh water will seep in. If you do not draw from it, the water will only become stagnant.

What is dark, perhaps even evil, inside you must be expressed in a proper way too. Lust, hatred, cruelty, and resentment — these must all be carefully taken out of yourself, like finding a bomb and taking it to be detonated harmlessly. Your heart may be quite a mine field, but you must persevere in clearing it if you are to plant crops and frolic without concern.

Ask yourself each day, “What remains unexpressed within me?” Unless you can express it, you will not clarify your inner nature.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“In California in the early Spring, There are pale yellow mornings, when the mist burns slowly into day, The air stings like Autumn, clarifies like pain – Well, I have dreamed this coast myself.”
– Robert Hass

“The comic spirit is given to us in order that we may analyze, weigh, and clarify things in us which nettle us, or which we are outgrowing, or trying to reshape” — Thornton Wilder

Most of what I feel today is resentment. I resent that people haven’t done things they promised me would be done, that things remain unsettled that should be settled, that I need to take care of things for other people that they should take care of themselves. I resent that I have to threaten legal action against someone to get them to do their job. I resent that so many people have expectations of me this time of year, when perhaps what I really need is time for quiet and reflection, to miss those who I don’t have around to celebrate this time of year with anymore. I resent the messes that others leave that I have to clean up.

So many resentments. So little time.

There is a silence, the child of love, which expresses everything, and proclaims more loudly than the tongue is able to do. — William Drummond

“Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find ”tomorrow” on the calendars of fools. Forget yesterday’s defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make it the best day of your year. The saddest words you can ever utter are, ”If I had my life to live over again. ”Take the baton, now. Run with it! This is your day! Beginning today, treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.” –Og Mandino

“The folks you help won’t remember it and the folks you hurt won’t ever forget it.” — Bill Clayton

We think about loving family, loving friends. What we don’t think about are the simple courtesies we can extend to those we meet, to show our love and respect for them and the jobs they do for us, the help they provide us. I’ve seen so many people act rudely towards store clerks, waitresses, post office employees, neighbors, other people in their daily lives. We think our own lives are somehow more important, our own tasks more necessary, that somehow a dozen more clerks should instantly appear when the store gets busy for ten minutes because a lot of people happen to check out at the same time, or the post office should hire extra people for the 30 minute rush at lunch hour.

Take a deep breath and remember how many other people there are in this world, this country, this town. All with lives they value as much as you do yours. All with families of their own, some trying to live on a fraction of what you may make.

Be nice to other people, already. Even if only with your silence and a nod of thanks.

Larry Young, Unity

Suddenly, things snap into focus.
I’ve been pursuing unity all my life,
But could only glimpse the monstrous vision in fragments;
It has haunted me for years.
Each time I sighted it, I struggled to make it concrete.
At first, it seemed I only had a sculptor’s yard of unfinished figures –
Then it slowly began to make sense,
Gathered from glimpses and inferences.
More and more, this mysterious life comes together.
It may take years more to reveal the whole.
That’s all right.
I’m prepared to go the distance.

One’s life’s destiny is not easily revealed. It’s too big. You may certainly set your sights early, but you will still have to make changes and adjustments as your true purpose is clarified. When it does begin to come together, there is a tremendous feeling of assurance.

Then with each step upon the path of Tao, your certainty rings from peak to peak.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.”
– Og Mandino

“To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche (sorry, Nietzsche makes me laugh…)

“Looking good and dressing well is a necessity. Having a purpose in life is not.” — Oscar Wilde (Wilde makes me laugh, too..)

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home.” — Australian Aboriginal Proverb

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”
– Pablo Picasso

“My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?”
– Charles M. Schulz

“I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, “Where’s the self-help section?” She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose”
– George Carlin

“While goals are chosen, a purpose is discovered. Our purpose is something we have been doing all along, and will continue to do, regardless of circumstances, until the day we die.”
– Peter McWilliams

“We’re so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about.”
– Joseph Campbell

People ask why others blog, how they blog, what they blog. For me, it is an attempt to capture “the rapture of life”. My own, if I can, or the work of others. That is why the artworks show up that sometimes make people gasp or leave comments about how surprising or pleasing they are. That is why the quotes are here, to perhaps bring someone to that “aha!” or “oh, yes..” or “hmmm” moment. That is why I cite my own experiences, to connect myself to a thought for the day and maybe inspire others to think about that thought as well and see where it leads them.

My “sculptor’s yard of unfinished figures” is huge — there are so many things I have begun, only to find that is not the direction I wanted to go at all, that I had to stop working on one thing and begin something else, and yet – there is an overall pattern to it all.

The people I’ve been around in my life have become better people. Even those who have left me were forced to make a difficult decision and had to determine their own values and admit it when they didn’t align with my own. I know it was difficult for them to leave, as it was difficult for me to accept their choice. And yet – I’m a better person for their leaving, for accepting that I did not need their cruelty in my life. No, they did not think themselves cruel, but they were, for they denied me what I needed most – communication. To cut me off and not speak to me is the cruelest thing a human can do to me. It denies my very existence itself. I was destroyed by that, and had to rebuild myself from the ground up, learn I was someone even if they denied it.

And it helped bring me to my purpose here of blogging, at first as a way simply to say, “I am here”, and then, to try and understand the Tao and help others to begin to see it as well. And now, to move on from that as well, and begin to explore new ways of communicating.

I believe our voices here are important – all of our voices. I believe our thoughts here are important, the spoken and the silent ones. I believe our witnessing here is important – commenting when we want, or just our silent “yes” or “no” or “what the hell are they thinking?” or our disgusted clicking back when someone offends our thoughts.

Most people don’t ‘get’ blogging. They think it’s a waste of time or write it off as trivial. It isn’t. This is a world-wide conversation, the first ever. And parts of it are trivial and self-involved, and parts of it are so big, we can’t get our arms or our minds around it – it seems a bunch of “unfinished sculptures” but – there it is – UNITY.

We are one planet, one people, one world, all of us speaking our thoughts and creating our postings and sharing, sharing, sharing – giving ourselves away for free every day here.

What more purpose do any of us need to be here than that?

I ask for strange things. I can offer only my own thoughts, my own feelings, my own perceptions. I have my eyes to see things differently, I have my knowledge of how to make things work better, howe to get people to work together more easily. I have my hands that can create art, sometimes, when I’m in the right place. I have all the creature comforts I need, and can provide some to others. I ask for a ranch, not too large, but large enough for all the golden retrievers I want to raise, so they can help others as I give them away to those who need them. I want to travel and return – with strange things, with old things. I want to learn Japanese, renew my knowledge of German, maybe other languages. I want to taste foods I’ve never tasted, see all the places I’ve only imagined, stay healthy enough to travel far and see much. I want to journal my travels, with peotry, with art, with words and pictures.

I want to be always coming home.

Please Bring Strange Things (Ursula K. Le Guin)

Please bring strange things.
Please come bringing new things.
Let very old things come into your hands.
Let what you do not know come into your eyes.
Let desert sand harden your feet.
Let the arch of your feet be the mountains.
Let the paths of your fingertips be your maps
And the ways you go be the lines of your palms.
Let there be deep snow in your inbreathing
And your outbreath be the shining of ice.
May your mouth contain the shapes of strange words.
May you smell food cooking you have not eaten.
May the spring of a foreign river be your navel.
May your soul be at home where there are no houses.
Walk carefully, well-loved one,
Walk mindfully, well-loved one,
Walk fearlessly, well-loved one.
Return with us, return to us,
Be always coming home.

- Ursula K. Le Guin

“Enlightenment–that magnificent escape from anguish and ignorance–never happens by accident. It results from the brave and sometimes lonely battle of one person against his own weaknesses.”

-Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano

dekado studio

Inside me, it was quiet all day :
I waited until midnight for a sound.
Outside me, it was noisy all day :
I waited all night for silence.
Tao’s power is sound.
Tao’s potential is silence.

It is said that even if one hears Tao before the day is over, then that day has been worthwhile. Even if one hears about Tao before one’s life is over, then one’s life has been worthwhile.

But sometimes it takes a long time to hear about Tao. There are some days when Tao does not manifest itself right away. It seems that the more you want to love, the more hatred tempts you. The more you want to be pure, the more negativity pursues you. The more you want serenity, the more chaos assaults you. The ordinary have common problems. Those who pursue Tao struggle against titanic forces. What can you do but accept it and persevere? If you fret about it, then you have not only spent the day away from Tao, but you have ruined that day with emotional turmoil too.

Sometimes Tao does not appear until the very end of the day. Maybe it’s just that you are more relaxed and have put aside all your cares. Maybe Tao is capricious. It is hard to say. When Tao does come, it is as if you are just now hearing a true sound. When it does come, such a feeling of serenity overcomes you that it quiets all the noise of the day.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“One of the greatest reasons people cannot mobilize themselves is that they try to accomplish great things. Most worthwhile achievements are the result of many little things done in a single direction.”
– Nido Qubein

“If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your own self-development.” — Brian Tracy

“I thought to myself, ‘I am wiser than this man: neither of us knows anything that is really worthwhile, but he thinks he has knowledge when he has not, while I, having no knowledge, do not think that I have. I seem, at any rate, to be a little wiser” — Socrates

“Do not let yourselves be discouraged or embittered by the smallness of the success you are likely to achieve in trying to make life better. You certainly would not be able, in a single generation, to create an earthly paradise. Who could expect that? But, if you make life ever so little better, you will have done splendidly, and your lives will have been worthwhile.”
– Arnold Toynbee

“All is worthwhile if the soul is not small.”
– Fernando Pessoa

How typical. In trying to put this post together, one of those stupid pop-up ads appeared on a page I visited, with sound! How appropriate that in trying to write about finding the stillness that is Tao, that moment it brings you in touch with the world, yourself, everything around you, I get noise. Yes, sometimes Tao can shout in the midst of a lot of noise, a celebration, a party, or a loud waterfall where the water is joyously laughing away. But usually Tao sneaks up on us in quiet contemplation and whispers to our hearts. If we are not still enough to hear it, it whispers in vain.

This is why Tao is not easy to write about. I hope my writings about Tao here have been worthwhile. Some days it is quiet all day inside me, and I really do have nothing to say. Most days, there is a lot of noise going on around me, news I feel compelled to read, other blogs that seem more interesting writing to read than it is for me to write, whatever tasks the day has in store for me.

Those that know do not say, and I cannot tell you what the experience of Tao is. You have to feel it for yourself. But the experience of Tao can be difficult to find, and I hope I have led you once in a while to a place where you can begin to find it for yourself, through an image or a quote or my own experiences of Tao. Namaste.

Rousseau, Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!)

My boat strikes something deep.
At first, sounds of silence, waves.
Nothing has happened;
Or perhaps everything has happened
And I am sitting in my new life.
– Rumi

As you can tell if you’ve read it, I’m currently reading Christina Baldwin’s “Seven Whispers“. It’s a simple little book with a lot to say about spirit. I’m enjoying the read, and looking forward to reading her journaling books as I get ready to start a new year with a bit of a new approach to my own journaling here.

My surprise for the evening is that my 16 year old prefers going to dinner with me tonight over going to see “Narnia” with a group of his friends. Huh. Imagine that…

Purpose: A century from now it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, or how much money I had in the bank… But one hundred years from now the world may be a better place, because I was important in the life of a child.

This was my purpose for years, to make a difference in my children’s life. This quote convinced me to stop working full-time and go back to school part-time for my MBA. These days, they don’t need me quite so much, but once in a while, I still make a difference to them. Today, I had to email my son a paper he had forgotten to take to school with him. I guess moms are still good for something, even when you are 20. I’m also having to crack down on the 16 year old for homework. Sigh.

My current purpose is partly political, partly spiritual. I’ve certainly become more involved this year politically, and hope to continue in that. I’ve also spent a lot of time writing my Tao meditations and becoming more spiritual, in my own way. I see myself moving this purpose into more creative endeavors, doing more art and creating an art journal.

Long-term, I have my thoughts of my golden retriever ranch. I really hope to be able to do that in the future. Of course I’ll probably go back to work for a while to save up enough to pay for it all. Not sure what direction that will take yet. Hmm, what else? So many things. Get fit, stay healthy, work on my eating habits again.

Is that enough of a purpose? Perhaps for now, it will have to do.

“Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.”
– Buddha

“I am open to the guidance of synchronicity, and do not let expectations hinder my path.” — Dalai Lama

“A man has to learn that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself; that he cannot coerce the wills of others, but that he can mold and master his own will: and things serve him who serves Truth; people seek guidance of him who is master of himself.”
dshefman — James Allen

“No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.”
– Henry Miller

“Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.”
– Shakti Gawain

There is one armor that the world of men and women, as a world, has never yet put on. The churches have long bungled with its fastenings, but the world has gone unfended, and few have been those in whose hands the mystical sword of the spirit has shone with daily use. This armor, waiting to be worn, is the armor of brotherhood and sacrifice, the world of unselfishness, a conquering sword, with the power, where used, to unite the world in love. And there are none who may not put it on. ~M.A. DeWolfe Howe

Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air – explode softly – and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth – boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn’t go cheap, either – not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination. ~Robert Fulghum

“Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.” — Buddha

“Success, happiness, peace of mind and fulfillment – the most priceless of human treasures – are available to all among us, without exception, who make things happen – who make “good” things happen – in the world around them” — Joe Klock

The Circle Holds the Story, Debra Olin

Context. Connection. Engagement.
If we understand these words,
We do not need esoteric terms.

We can say that Tao is the context for everything, but we must go deeper than that.

All things are relative to their surroundings and to us. Strictly speaking, something that is one way to us will be another way to someone else. It might be very subtle, but there will be differences worth considering.

What do we do with this understanding? First, we have to reconsider that all things are connected. Although the angles of relationships shift and differ for each of us, we must be aware of the actual connections and even take advantage of them.

Secondly, we have to understand that relationships are transitory. We must have constant awareness to fit ourselves into the changing constellations of life.

Thirdly, we have to understand the value of our own point of view. Out of this mass of changing concordances, we must pick out the coordinates by which we act at any given moment.

We should take comfort in this situation. As long as we engage life fully, we need not fear being separated from the essential current of life.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“I’d like to meet you
In a timeless placeless place
Somewhere out of context
And beyond all consequences.”

— Suzanne Vega

“Making mental connections is our most crucial learning tool, the essence of human intelligence; to forge links; to go beyond the given; to see patterns, relationships, context”
– Marilyn Ferguson

“In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Accepting the end of relationships is probably the hardest thing in life for me. Losing my parents, losing friends, realizing that relationships are transitory – that has been insanely dfifficult for me. Yes, literally insanely – it drove me mad for a bit. Coming back to the world and accepting it as it is really is the most difficult part of the hero’s journey, the difficult part of the path of Tao as well. We would love to be with Tao all the time, in that flow that brings us peace and the sureness and calm that we feel when we are most with the Tao.

But.

My interruption for this morning is my younger son’s school progress report, which is not good. While I try to let the boys follow their own path, sometimes, I have to interrupt their path and remind them that they do not live in isolation from the context of school right now. There are simply things they must do, like homework. They don’t like this idea, but there it is.

But.

I have to put that into context, which is that they are great kids. No drugs, no alcohol, no social problems, no real rebellion. We get along well and I enjoy them as people. So there is good stuff going on. I simply don’t know why boys seem to have a hard time understanding that they have to do things like homework. I never really questioned doing it, even in the midst of wild rebellion against other things. I love learning and homework to me is just part of what you do to learn. They pick up on things so easily they don’t see the importance of the homework.

Sigh. I wish I could be inspirational today, but my day has been interrupted. And that is the context of my day.

There’s nothing to paint anymore.
We’ve seen everything from the classical to the absurd.
There’s nothing to write anymore.
As many books are shredded as read.
There’s nothing to sing anymore.
The once avant-garde is now background music.

In a world where expression seems futile, it is hard to maintain creativity. But creativity is a primal impulse. Cave people painted on walls; everyone’s house has some image on display. Primitive scribes wrote records of their experiences; people still keep diaries. Early shamans sang; we still live with music. We cannot abandon creative expression in our daily lives, though it seems hard to come up with something new.

The only way to have fresh expression is to go deep within. In a sense, today’s extreme pluralism eliminates the obligation to do the same as others. At one time, artists, priests, writers, musicians, and craftsmen were obligated to their feudal lords. Today we are not constrained by hierarchical standards. We are free to commune directly with our inner callings.

By coincidence, this mirrors a more sophisticated understanding of the divine. We are no longer in a position of supplication with what is divine. Rather, divinity is a quality from within ourselves.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.” — William Somerset Maugham

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
– Martha Graham

Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression. ~Isaac Bashevis Singer

When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college – that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, “You mean they forget?” ~Howard Ikemoto

Yes, we do forget – once we were all artists, all expressive, all creative. Once, we were children. When I am working on an art project these days, I often feel like a kid again, just trying things until something comes together and feels right to me. This week it’s dice bags for the kids made out of some gorgeous brocade fabric I came across, last month it was the big paintings for my sister-in-law and her husband. Next month I have to change my approach to this blog. I’ve found some books I’m going to look at on creative journaling, and will probably be doing something with those.

No, I won’t give up the Tao focus, but I am going to come to it in different ways. Having followed someone else’s guide to the Tao for the last year, I feel ready to develop my own approach to it. I hope those of you who have enjoyed this daily (well, mostly daily) meditation with me will be patient as this evolves. I don’t really know what’s coming, which is perhaps the most exciting thing of all.

I think I’ll keep the basic format of the posts, since so many love the images, the quotes, and my own thoughts (including me). But I’m hoping for more of the images to be my own artworks. I’ve been looking for something to push me into doing more art, and I think the art journaling approach will help.

And if anyone wants my copy of 365 Tao, let me know. It’s up for grabs soon!

Kris and Pilar Berse

Alternate between the solitary and the social.
Whether alone or with others, keep serenity.

Some people argue that Tao can be known only through bitter asceticism. Others prefer massive congregations. But those who follow Tao are neither too solitary nor too gregarious. They have regular times of privacy. And they equally enjoy being with others.

Privacy is good. But an overly monastic life can lead to unhappiness, delusion, and even insanity. In the same way, relationships are good. But too much social intercourse can lead to conformity, conflict, and stress. Therefore, the way of Tao aims to maximize the good and minimize the bad.

We should have regular times to be alone, meditate alone, even sleep alone. This gives us clarity. Then we can bring this understanding to our relationships. Friendships will be all the more wonderful. Once we understand moderation, we move between the solitary and the social without any mistake.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depend upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.” — Plato

“The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity.”
– Seneca

“Out of moderation a pure happiness springs.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Moderation, which consists in an indifference about little things, and in a prudent and well-proportioned zeal about things of importance, can proceed from nothing but true knowledge, which has its foundation in self-acquaintance.” — Plato

“Be moderate in everything, including moderation”
– Horace Porter

Be moderate in order to taste the joys of life in abundance. ~Epicurus

In our younger days, we were subscribers to what we dubbed Perrine’s Law of Exhaustive Enjoyment: “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.” Once we had kids, we were quickly dissuaded of that notion. Sleep became a prime form of entertainment. These days, we’re pretty moderate in our activities, in our style of living, and in our spending. It’s nice not to be in debt, exhausted, and overworked!

I spend a fair amount of my time by myself, in meditation, and so forth. I really enjoy it when I get together with friends these days. And I suppose I don’t make as many mistakes moving between the too as I used to. I no longer obsess about other people, or try to run their lives for them like I used to do. I am more than happy to live my life and let others live theirs.

If anyone would like to donate to a relatively new charity this year, here’s a worthy cause:

International Midwife Assistance

In 2003 a Boulder Colorado writer and activist, Jennifer Heath, returned from doing humanitarian relief work in Afghanistan. The child of a diplomat, she spent her formative years living in Kabul, and was devastated by the current condition of Afghanistan. Struck by the huge, painful, obvious need for maternal/child healthcare, a group of women in Boulder came together to implement her vision of outreach from American women directly to Afghan women. Working as the Midwife Training and Infant Care Program working group, these women fund-raised and organized a trip to Afghanistan for Carmela Weber, Executive Director, and Jan Lapetino and Jennifer Braun, midwives.
After that April 2004 trip to Afghanistan the working group was convinced that they could make a difference in Afghanistan – and eventually other places as well. IMA incorporated and began planning for a long term presence in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. We believe in supporting the training of Community Midwives, as it is the rural areas that suffer the most from a lack of healthcare. There are programs operating in Kabul to train midwives to work in the hospitals, but rural areas struggle to attract trained healthcare workers.

The Community Midwife Training Program recruits students from rural villages to participate in an 18 month program. All the students are nominated to the school by village elders, or shuras. After their training they will return to the villages to work in Basic Health Centers, providing care for the women and children of their area. IMA midwives are working in Bamiyan to help provide high quality clinical training for the students. The licensed and highly experienced midwives IMA provides are a vital resource to create a clinical environment that supports the students in becoming reliable solo practitioners. As importantly, we are committed to modeling kindness, compassion and strong ethics. The first group of 22 midwife trainees are scheduled to graduate in Bamiyan in spring 2006.

IMA midwives plan to help the Basic Health Centers develop relationships with the Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) in the area around Bamiyan. In the past, TBA training has been tried with mixed to poor results. However, greater efforts are unquestionably warranted because world-wide, 60% of all births occur outside health facilities (WHO 1997). See World facts for more information about infant mortality rankings. See WHO/UNICEF report for more about maternal mortality. As more and more help becomes available, outreach to the TBAs will become vital, as these are the practitioners who need access to a referral network when things go wrong. We envision implementing educational forums for the Basic Health Centers to attract the TBAs – to make the connections that will save more lives.

Pleae consider donating as a gift for someone you don’t know what to get, but who really doesn’t need anything anyway… (like me!)