Inside the Most Sacred Parts of Your Being.

On Mogul

Writing is breath to me, blood pumping to sustain life. It is the air I breathe, the food that provides my body with strength, the desire and passion that keeps my soul alive. Writing is letting go and rebirth. It is release. 

Writing is healing.

Writing is a positive force and I am grateful I am able to write without fear of ridicule of what anyone perceives about the subject matter of my writing. In order to truly write, you must bare your soul to the world, allowing the public inside your heart, soul, mind and the most sacred parts of your being.

This is an immensely brave act.

Every writer knows that their secrets, desires, dreams, loves and letting go, can be found in their own writing.

Get it all down first, free form flowing thought, anger, sadness, happiness, love, every emotion you feel, every thought you think. 

Editing is for later. 

If you cease to document those very first moments the need to write strikes, you will lose what is instinctual and natural as a writer. 

So leave your pages bloody.

Leave them ripe with sweat, hard work, love, pain, grief, loss, light, warmth, enlightenment, rebirth, rain, fire, ice, ashes, matches, gasoline and lastly, most integral, life. Leave the pages of your mind drenched with the ink of the breath of every solitary subconscious thought.
 

Make sure your words set fire to cities and nations, to hearts and minds, to the very core of every human spirit who is paying attention. Make sure your words seep into the skin of the reader, leaving trace minerals that sustain the ailing human shell.

 The main purpose of writing is to make a point.

Your words must imprint the reader so deeply that they begin to create and form different thoughts; quite possibly, they may start to see, if they already do not, this crazy, beautiful, lovely mess of a planet we exist on with new sight. Anything less is selling your own precious soul. 

You experienced all of that love, loss, pain, grief and bliss for a greater purpose:   

To leave your pages bloody.

Look around you. What do you see? What are you ignoring? What are you grateful for? Use all six senses, and ones you do not know exist, and tell me, what do you hear?  

Try it. Then write about it.

To take the meat out of writing, the lymphatic fluid, the millions of veins, arteries and capillaries selflessly pumping oxygen and blood that berths within the lungs, to the heart of the artist, is quite simply, utter and irreversible, literary death.

Make them pay attention.

Set fire to the soul.

Anything less is an abomination to creation.

buzz-saw

Published On Mogul 

Photo © L.R. Heartsong

The buzz-saw
grits and grinds,
metal teeth rip skin,
chewing and spitting
parts of bones and marrow.

Fumes spew smoke-trails
for miles,
so all can see my death,
my demise.

And no one seems to mind
that each tear into flesh
is pain,
and that the dust
is my blood,
falling onto the grass,
laying there,
as if
it is nothing.

My cries are not heard by humans,
my voice is muted,
but the sound of the buzzing of the saw,
the heat of the blade
boiling in the sun,
the sweat of the hands
of the man,
driving that blade deep
into
my
very
soul -

The core of this Earth.

Someone stop this -
please, they are killing me,
someone hear me cry.

With each buzz of the blade,
my eyes grow more dim,
my breath is caught.

My God -
I am bleeding
right into the roots
of where I was born.

The grass holds me dearly,
- God bless the green -
the dandelions tilt their weary heads
and tears turn to puffs of cotton
flowing on Spring-times breeze.

And the hands that hold the blade
have mercy on them,
for they are but a vehicle.

And a lone tear escapes
from the eye of the hand of the man
cutting my limbs to pieces,
and it falls upon my shoulder
now bare, once covered in bark.

And my goodness,
the tears are hidden
beneath the cap of a hat,
shielding the human eye from sun
or perhaps,
from the stares of onlookers -

who may deem him mad
for having a heart.

***This was inspired by the first line in this article and experience written by L.R. Heartsong [River] called "Saving the Grandmother"

Photo © L.R. Heartsong
Words © Susan Marie
On Soundcloud HERE

DNA & Paternity : From a Child's Perspective With Live Interview

Published On Mogul
ON WGRZ  

DNA Testing can determine if an adult is the biological parent of a child. 

The non-invasive procedure involves collecting and examining the DNA [your body contains as many as 100 trillion cells containing DNA or Deoxyribonucleic Acid] of a small sample of bodily fluid or tissue from a child and potential parent. DNA testing can prove biological grandparents, maternity, and siblings. 

There are various terms associated with DNA Testing such as Paternity Testing, Relationship Testing, DNA Profiling, and Genetic Fingerprinting. 

The testing involves collecting cells found on the inside of a person's cheek using a cheek swab. The swabs have wooden or plastic stick handles with a cotton swab on a synthetic tip. The collector rubs the inside of a person's cheek in order to collect as many cells as possible. From there, the DNA from the cells are sent to a laboratory for testing. 

Paternity testing is the legal procedure that declares who the father of a child is by providing genetic proof. For paternity testing, samples from the alleged father and child are both necessary.

Paternity and other family relationship DNA testing results are legal evidence for child support, parental rights, inheritance claims, social benefits, immigration, adoption and other circumstances when proof of a blood relationship is required.

When experiencing all ranges of DNA testing, oftentimes the overall well-being of the child is not the first aspect considered. Adults tend to become absorbed solely in the rights of the parent and forget the emotional effects that biological proof can have on the child and/or children. 

With parental consent due to the child being a minor in New York State, a sixteen-year-old high school student in Buffalo, New York agreed to speak to me in a ten-minute interview regarding the diverse emotional and psychological effects DNA Testing, specifically Paternity Testing, has on the child. 

In this interview, which is informative and personal, yet confidential, we speak of medical, emotional and psychological effects of DNA testing versus non DNA Testing. 

Listen to the interview "DNA & Paternity : From a Child's Perspective by clicking this link and below:

 

After speaking briefly to a child, we addressed diverse situations that adults typically are not thinking of when they request and do not request DNA Paternity testing. We covered various aspects of DNA testing relating to medical emergencies, crime investigation and peace of mind.
Several key points from the interview are:

• Knowing who the father is, whether biological, adoptive, or step, is a truth that provides security for the emotional and psychological well-being of the child.
• Not knowing who the Father is can result in poor medical care in the long term if a child presents with a condition that may require the biological father to be of assistance.
• Finding out later in life who the biological father is, can be damaging, resulting in a feeling of betrayal of the trust of the child in the parents due to believing someone was their father who truly was not.
• Knowing the biological father can positively affect a child’s sense of identity.
• If a father did not want to be involved in the life of the child and/or mother, Paternity testing ensures that the biological father is legally accountable for supporting the child.
• In the case of a sixteen-year-old male, if a female told him, he was the Father of her child; paternity testing is necessary and the first step in establishing proof of responsibility, care and well-being of both mother and child.
• DNA Paternity testing is essential and the smartest time to do this is at birth or right after. This way, a child does not grow up believing a falsehood and finding out the person they thought was their parent is not.

Most of all, paternity testing can unite your family by giving everyone peace of mind. Distrust, unless addressed head-on, can hurt chances of having a happy and loving family. Rather than living without knowing, finding the answers you need can deepen family bonds and ensure that each child has what they need for a fulfilling life.

* * * 

With parental consent, this is a 10 minute audio interview with a student in Buffalo, NY, regarding recent studies conducted through Renovatio DNA Relationship Testing. In this 10 minute interview, we speak about the scientific, medical and emotional aspects DNA testing and non testing has on the child. This is informative and personal, yet confidential. 

For more information, to educate self, for further study and for testing please see: Renovatio DNA Relationship Testing that works with laboratories nationally to provide DNA testing. To schedule an appointment call 716-332-1633.

Earth Day With Olmsted Parks Conservancy

  On Mogul
On Buffalo Olmsted Conservancy  
On WGRZ

© Susan Marie/South Park Lake

“A park is a work of art, designed to produce certain effects upon the minds of men.” 

- Frederick Law Olmsted

Each year, Earth Day, April 22, marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement. 

The year, 1970, was a time of immense industry in America. Air pollution was at its height and there were few if any, legal consequences to harming the environment. During this time, a consciousness emerged that combined anti-war movements with environmental concerns. The national day of celebration, founded by Gaylord Nelson, was to focus on the environment. 

On the first Earth Day, 20 million Americans came together in streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. College students and universities organized protests. Grave disasters such as oil spills, toxic dumps, loss of wilderness, and extinction of wildlife became a matter for the public to consider. 

This movement provided people with the awareness to become active in the preservation of groups, societies and organizations fighting to keep nature safe. The first Earth Day led to the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.

850 acres of magnificently maintained parks, circles and parkways is a result of the dedication of The Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, the first nonprofit organization in the nation to manage and operate an entire urban park system. The mission is to promote, preserve, restore, enhance, and maintain the parks in the Greater Buffalo area. 

During the late 1800s, Frederick Law Olmsted came to Buffalo inspired by Joseph Ellicott’s street design. Olmsted created his first system of parks in Buffalo, calling the city “the best designed city in the country, if not the world.”

Today, more than 1 million people use Buffalo’s award-winning Park System that includes Cazenovia Park, Delaware Park, Front Park, Martin Luther King, Jr., Park, Riverside Park and South Park as well as adjoining parkways and circles. More than 135 years ago, the first landscape architect in America, Frederick Law Olmsted, implemented the design and Buffalo’s Olmsted Park System is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

As a nature lover and resident of Western New York and the City of Buffalo, I am grateful we exist in a region rich with nature and wildlife along with those that diligently support the park systems so we can enjoy them in the busy-ness of everyday life.

When I am driving, I stop, park, and take a walk through the numerous tree and garden lined trails of our parks. Some of them are home to cranes and ducks, birds and squirrels, flowers and flora. There are lakes and creeks. The parks are family friendly and clean, well maintained, wondrous actually so much that oftentimes I am simply amazed that in the middle of a city, I find peace. Peace within the treasures found within the Buffalo Olmsted Park System. 

The Conservancy consistently requires our help to keep these efforts alive. There are simple, feasible ways to do this. One is becoming a member. There are different levels and each includes various incentives. Another is helping to save ash trees. Third is promoting the parks to others, write of them, photograph them, share your creativity with others. You can purchase a tree, rose bushes or bulbs. 

On a larger scale, you can purchase a bench to honor one you admire and for the comfort of others enjoying the parks. For festivals and corporate events, there are numerous levels of sponsorship available.  

Lastly, and most important, is volunteering.

Let us together, show the world, nature at our doorsteps.

Let us celebrate Earth Day, every day.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

– Margaret Mead

© Susan Marie/Cazenovia Park