The May Just Posts

(edited to fix a mixed up link and to add a couple of missing posts. Sorry.)



Happy anniversary my beloveds. I'd like to thank you all for making this six month anniversary of the Just Posts such a charmed time here in the 'sphere. I have been floored by your insight all month and your generosity this past week in particular. Thank you for helping Jen and I raise money for AIDS orphans in Africa. Today is the last day of our Open Arms campaign. If you can possibly spare a little extra this month, we ask that you send a donation either to Open Arms, a grass roots organization in Eastern Cape South Africa that houses and educates a group of AIDS orphans OR to the Stephen Lewis Foundation, headed up by the former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, an organization that directs its funds to local initiatives throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

Now, because I am cornier than toddler diarrhea, let me spin you a bit of a simplistic metaphorical yarn. Last year, a couple of robins built a nest over my back porch light. It was really rather dim-witted of them. I go in and out the back door twenty plus times a day. The back door sticks and needs to be kicked loudly and forcibly each time it is opened (ah, century homes). Our daughter plays on the back deck a lot: her sandbox and cheap plastic pool are there. It's where she eats popsicles, dribbling gleefully. We like to sip our morning coffee in the summer sun. Really, we provide far too much hub-bub for a pair of family-minded robins to endure. Last summer, they took the hint and after a few days they moved elsewhere. I didn't have the heart to dismantle the nest. Besides, its mud and grass composition was simple, artistic, and a pleasure to behold.

The robins must've over-wintered with Tony Rob(b)ins, because this spring they returned with the edge. My resolve to keep the deck ALL MINE had weakened. I was less boisterous. I avoided bursting out of the back door, opting to walk 'round from the front instead. I decided I might have it in me to be neighbourly. The robins settled in.



A couple of weeks ago when the nest was empty, I perched myself precariously atop a stepping stool that was balanced on a kitchen chair in order to take a sneak peak inside. Even on my tippy-est toes, I could barely see over the lip. At the first glimpse of blue, I jumped down from the chair, took Miss M inside, and cried. Dammit. I saw that blue. There was an egg. If it killed me, I was going to make sure those robins had the peace they needed.

At my insistence, we all changed our routines. We still used the sandbox and plastic pool but our approach was more quiet and respectful. We no longer sat in the deck chairs; we prostrated ourselves on the weather-treated deck slabs. I refused to allow anyone to turn on the porch light: c'mon, I had an Easy-Bake oven as a kid.

Then, last Sunday, I noticed a change in the robins' behaviour. They were no longer taking turns sitting on the nest. No, they were bringing worms back, perching, and fretting. My head was dive-bombed many times as I innocently crept onto the deck to turn on the spigot for the hose.

Life had given way to life. And then two days ago, as I sat out back looking at the nest from a safe distance, I saw three skeletal tufts of nothing but beak emerging, hungrily calling their mother home. I was transported. It wasn't so much this tiny wonder of new birth that took my breath away but rather the small miracle of my compromise. Somehow, I was able to allow this to happen in my backyard. For a very brief period, I had managed to become neighbourly; life was the result.


one babe


two babes

Today is the last day of our Open Arms campaign. I know a lot of you have given already. Thank you. (The numbers, btw, are overwhelming--we plan to surprise you with the final tally on Tuesday.) I know that some of you are not in a position to give right now; others of you work on other causes or give at other times of the year. I understand completely. If, however, you are reading this and think to yourself, "hey, I've got 20 bucks or so to spare," then please consider clicking the links above.

I've spent all week spouting stats at you but I can't resist closing with one more. The population of Canada in 2006 was roughly 31.5 million. The number of people worldwide living with HIV in 2006 was 39.5 million. Two-thirds of people living with HIV live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Think of all that is great and good about this nation, Canada. Think of our leaders, our artists, our thinkers, our labourers, our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, our children... Think of all of us, ALL OF US, being handed the death sentence that is HIV. And, yes, in Africa HIV is a death sentence even more surely than it is here because of the lack of drugs and on-the-ground support.

Think of humanity and all that is being lost because of this pandemic. Yesterday, a few of us Canadian bloggers were agreeing that Stephen Lewis is the greatest living Canadian. Ask yourself, who is the greatest living African? I know a lot of names come to mind: Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu to name a couple of obvious ones. Now think of how many potential greats, great minds and great hearts, have been swept away by this pandemic. What might civilization be with the mothers and fathers who have been lost? What might the lives of these orphans look like if we all fought the good fight to make this world better?

Think about what it might take to be that little bit more neighbourly.


The May Just Posts are (and, oh my goodness, there are a lot of them)
Alejna at Collecting Tokens with A Tale of Two Buildings
Alice from And She Wrote with The Politics of Babies or the Rise in Infoant Mortalitiy Rates in No Name
Andrea at A Garden of Nna Mmay with Interpreting Hate
Bon at Crib Chronicles with Riddle me this
Bangkok Dazed with Behind the Shootings
Chani at Thailand Gal with The more things change...
Cinnamon Gurl with Passing by
Deanna at Crunchy Chicken for Low Impact Week
Emily at Third Story with Baltimore Stories
Flutter at Fluttercrafts with Talking in Sentences
Jen at One Plus Two with Mistakes were Made, Cut and Run, pt2, Knocking on Heaven's Door, I hold this in my hands, and Purple Dragons
Jennifer at Faking it with Thank you
Jennifer at Under the Ponderosas with Pond
Jess at Oh the Joys! with Fly
Jill at Not So Sage Wisdom with It's in the Blood, pts 1, 2, 3, 4
Julie at The Ravin' Picture Maven with Human Rights? Are they humans? With rights? Or just ex-cons?
KC at Where's My Cape with Medical Advice Monday: Commencement
KittenPie with Undressing
Mad Hatter with I am Woman Hear Me Meme and Swervice
Mary Murtz at the Eleventh with Light and Shadow
Mouse with Blogging for LGBT Families and her ongoing Global Warming Wednesday Series
Nakedjen for Your Support for a Marathon Effort
Phantom Scribbler with Steal this Idea
Sandra at Mama Karma (MBT) with Parents for Children's Mental Health, Standing on Mother's Day, and How Old is a Mother?
The Silent K with Mad Spirit Pride
Slouching Mom with Port Authority, the 1970s
Susanne at Creative Mother Thinking with Why it was right not to buy pink shoes
Tabba at Stretched to the Limit with Watching a Rose Bloom in Reverse and Wide-eyed Idealism
Thailand Gal with I am so against censorship, Not a hand out but a hand up
Thordora at Vomit Comit with Please tell me this isn't what I think it is
Urban Urchin with What I would have said

Those who keep spreading the wealth
Alejna
Aliki
Bon
Chani
Cinnamon Gurl
Christine
Flutter
Hel
Kiki
Jen
Jess
KC
Lawyer Mama
Liv
Mad
Nina
Sandra
Susanne
Tabba

Yo, if you are on this list and didn't get the glitzy button, email me at madhattermommyAThotmailDOTcom and I will send it to you ASAP.