Oh lord how I love my family, my first thought. Yet writing that line has brought tears to the surface of my eyes. Isn’t nature a wonderful gift, when you know, learn, and you allow yourself to be open to its lessons?
Tears are to cleanse the spirit, tears of love, sorrow, though such tears are salty; encourage the growth of peace in your spirit, when you lose a loved one.
If, a big if, you let them flow externally, from cheek to lip, while being held in friends’ and family’s caring arms. They cure grief.
Tears that we conceal; that flow internally, behind your eyes into your spirit, that we hide with false pride, tears we deny exist within us in the public domain, exhibiting our strength, will flood your heart, and drown your spirit.
That type of false strength is a huge weakness in the natural cycle of grieving.

People in power have to enjoy the privilege of secrecy in order to exercise that power. Why? What is it that that we the public cannot handle?
Is it, as Jack Nicholson famously said, “you can’t handle the truth?”. What would life be like if all decisions were made in the public arena? What would it be like if all our politicians spoke freely and honestly during debates? What would life be like if all cabinet discussions were printed as they happened, if we the public could read or listen to all their utterances real time? If the truth was reported raw?

By any criteria you care to mention, this has been some year. Peaks and valleys, highs and lows. My health, like the economy, is going to shite, but my spirit is growing.
The love I am receiving from so many is driving me on; I can no longer drive. Love is walking beside me; I cannot walk. My family growing in strength, as I grow weaker. Flocks of friends hover; rhyme, wine, song, laughter, not a whine. Possible isolation, loneliness, dispelled by community; company.

Mad Pride Ireland Launch National Campaign ‘Decriminalising Human Emotions’ – National radio and online campaign calls for an end to ‘Force’ in Irish mental health

Monday September 5th: Mad Pride Ireland is set to launch its first national campaign calling for an end to ‘Force’ in Irish mental health.  The campaign entitled ‘Decriminalising Human Emotions’ will be launched on Wednesday September 7th at 4pm in the Vertigo Lounge, Cork County Hall.

Submission to The Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality on Proposed New Mental Capacity Law
On Behalf of Mad Pride Ireland. 
The use of force as a means to cure emotional distress is over. The normality of madness as part of every family’s reality must be faced up to as a human reaction to pain of the spirit. The defunct ethos of the chemical imbalance theory and the marketing of the pill for every ill by vested interest across business education and medicine have destroyed enough people’s lives it is time to shout stop.
This is a moment to grab an opportunity; this is an opportunity to grant full and equal rights to the mad community as honorable and loved members of the community.