On Thanksgiving, my friend Bill Anderson sent out this video of his hand surgery. Bill is my friend who gave me the idea and the space for my Love Medicine retrospective show at the Yellow House. He also shot my first video, Love Medicine, talking about my art and sexuality.

He is a brilliant conceptual artist,  photographer, videographer, and visionary thinker. I could spend many words writing about his generous friendship to me and others, but out of respect for his modesty, I will just say that he is a generous and inspiring friend.

The film is intense and gory, so be warned. This is my friend and his hand on the table, and I am awed by what he went through, and what he has achieved. This video is his expression of gratitude to the new hand and the medical team that made it possible.

Here is Bill's lead in for the video:

Twenty five years ago, a surgeon named James May corrected an imbalance
by amputating my right hand and transplanting it to my left arm.
Sounds crazy, my psychologist thought so, but the situation was
extreme, and it was the only course of action left to me.  I took it.
A film was made of that incredible transformation, and this is the
release of that momment.  Caution!  The middle surgical section is
extremely gory, please be advised not to watch if you are sensitive.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPSetxyhR6Q

Now for something completely different~ you've seen my friend's hand transplant.
Time to watch this hilarious hollywoodish musical production making a fool of proposition 8, with a show stopping cameo by JC himself.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c0cf508ff8/

Last night I visited the Labyrinth at the Center at Westwoods. I met the designer and builder, Colin Garland, who is simply put, an extraordinary person. He leads adventure tours to Baja every winter for kayaking, hanging out with whales, archeology, nature, eco-service. That is a drop in the bucket of who he is and what he does.
To keep the blog short and to get to the point, I am going to Baja sometime the second half of January. I think it would be a great place for Gaians to meet, to connect with the land the animals, and help support the conservation and education work that Colin has founded at The Global Classroom

Here's the link to the Baja trip.

If you are intrigued, write to me and I'll tell you a bit more about what I know. Get this:
the price is under $2000, and that includes airfare from the lower 48 states. So non US gaia baja trekkers, get to the US, and go on to Baja for a great deal.

Photo credit: I think Colin Garland took the photograph. He is an amazing photographer. More on that in a future post.

Surrender.

I have signed the petition to encourage our Farmer in Chief to choose the new secretary of agriculture who is pro independent family farm, regional food systems, environmentally sustainable farm practices, and nutritionally sound food policy... just for starters.

Read the letter my friend sent me or just go to the website and sign the petition.
http://www.fooddemocracynow.org

You may sign the petition, but if you are not into that, please read the contents of the site to become more informed about your food and US food policy. Thank you.
******

We would like to invite to sign this live petition effort to encourage
President-Elect Obama to consider a Sustainable Choice for our next Secretary of Agriculture.

The letter is at: http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/

Time is of the essence…

Within the next few days President-Elect Obama will be naming one of the most
important posts in his cabinet — our next Secretary of Agriculture.
For those of us who care about the environment, sustainability, healthy food, animal
welfare and creating  local food systems, NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT.

A groundswell of grassroots support is needed to encourage
President-Elect Obama
to nominate a Secretary who will bring sustainable change to the United States
Department of Agriculture.

A grassroots effort has taken flight.

We invite you to JOIN US in this grassroots effort by signing this
live letter advocating a
Sustainable Choice for the next Secretary of Agriculture.

Current signers to this letter include Rick Bayless, Michael Pollan,
Wendell Berry, Marion Nestle, Bill McKibben, Wes Jackson, Catherine Sneed and Alice
Waters among many others.

Please join them by once again casting your vote for change by
supporting a Sustainable Choice for our next Secretary of Agriculture.

Help make this type of change possible by signing this letter. Our
work has only begun.

PLEASE SIGN this letter at: http://www.fooddemocracynow.org

And then FORWARD to all your friends.

As you may know that this effort has appeared in numerous blogs,
including Grist, Salon
and in the New York Times online

Where your heart is.
Giving multiplies joy and does more good work when it is backed by passion, compassion, and matches the giver's soul calling.

And please, do some of your giving locally. The world is hurting, true, but so is your neighborhood.

I have time on my hands Christmas day. I am looking around to see who could use some of it in my neighborhood.

Mainers have a bumpah stickah we like the flatlanders to read: If you can't take the winter, you don't deserve the summer. Winter is a challenge, a test of mettle, a mythic trial. A mild winter is a disappointment. This winter is not disappointing anyone yet.

If you've followed my status line, you may have noticed a recent obsession with firewood. It is Maine's state pastime, right up there with ice fishing, and gardening under blackfly netting. Bellying up to the woodstove is the only way to get warm in Maine. No matter what kind of modern heating system your house has, the people in the house are cold without a woodstove fire.

Here is mine:




Here is how I fuel it~ they say wood warms you four times: when you cut it, when you split it, when you stack it and when you burn it. I did all four with this wood.


Here is what things look like as the blizzard is getting started:
Last year I got snow shoes, and my experience of winter changed into beauty and fun. My friend made a silly movie of me on snowshoes for the first time:




And that is what winter means to me.

The End.

This Christmas was the most emotionally challenging I have had in a long time. It caught me by surprise. It has been a few years since I felt so powefully what I call Divine Longing. It is good and sacred, but painful. I kept trying to switch it off or change my feelings, They did not yield to my control, so I just rode right on through. On the 24th I had a beautiful ceremonial fire outside. That made me full much better, reminded me that I am never alone. The Fire Beings were a hoot in the snow and rain. We had a good time.

So what is my favorite part of the season? the thinning of the veil.

Blessings and love,
DC