Author Archives: C.J. Birch

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About C.J. Birch

I was born on Thursday 13th July 1972 in Harare, Zimbabwe, to an English father and a South African mother. I was christened Catherine Jane Birch and - from the outset - I've been inquisitive about most of life's elemental questions; its myriad paradoxes and unpredictable anomalies, their sources, solutions and their propensity for unmitigated change. From a very young age I was captured by the enigmatic life process, the challenge of living and what it 'means' to be alive. I spent countless invaluable hours in nature, watching the world at its work. I had a fascination for everything around me, curious about what things were, how and why they worked, what they represented in relation to one another. I began writing at the age of 5. Journals, stories and poetry, illustrations, have been a constantly evolving source of quiet self-reflection, expansive expression throughout my life. I'm fortunate to have travelled many miles, to have visited a variety of differing destinations and though I've learned a lot about life in the last 50 years, my questions about its complexities are neverending. I currently live in the south-east of England, having returned to the United Kingdom after a particularly harrowing period of 7 allegedly 'invisible' or 'non-existent' years of absolute hell in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. I've decided to erase those memories, altogether. My 15-year-old son lives in Switzerland, with his father.
30 Aug 2013 · 14:48

Celebrate – Blog No. 68

Celebrate_2Celebrate that inside you somewhere is your genius.  We all have one.  Some.  We all have an idiot as well.  It is better to pay attention to finding out who and what your genius is, and how it wishes to express itself, than it is listening to your inner idiot.  We are tempted from time to time to let the idiot guide and it should be said that because this leads us to idiocy, it is preferable to follow your fool.  The fool – when trusted – guides the right way.  The fool leaps.

It is important to celebrate your being.  That is not always easy, in fact sometimes we forget altogether that we are immaculate creatures and we ought to be pleased – if not amazed – to be alive.  We are not without flaws and we are not without complications, complexities, but we are remarkable as reflections of the generations that preceded us and we are pretty impressive as communicators of the meaning of life.  The meaning in your every day is clear when you watch your day unfold for you.  You do not need to feel nervous about the pace at which life flies by.  Some of your day will be predictable – you must eat, for instance.  You must sleep.  Some of your day will come as a surprise.  A chance encounter – a compliment, an insult.  It must be this way.  Even though tomorrow technically does not exist, for the sake of exercising foresight you need to know that your tomorrows are anchored in your todays and how you react to your todays shapes your tomorrows.  Not everybody has foresight.  Those who are destitute cannot plan.

It’s Friday.  Celebrate that.  The week is over and done with.  No matter who you are you cannot tell me there is nothing for you to celebrate.  When you look hard enough, there is always something in life to celebrate.  If you cannot find anything in your life to inspire you to celebration then perhaps think about the fact that your planet is sustaining you.  That – if you are a human being – is reason enough to have a fiesta.

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27 Aug 2013 · 11:50

Fukushima – Blog No. 67

fukushimaOops, Japan.  Big, big oops.  I think it would be safe to say that the Japanese and the Chinese are doing an exceptional job of fucking up the planet for the rest of us.  How is Japan going to compensate for killing the Pacific?  About 400 tons of poisonous water is leaking into the ocean every single day.  Who is going to be held accountable here?  Someone better had be held accountable.  It is HUMAN error that built a reactor next to a tsunami.  Who is Japan to cry about a tsunami washing it away?  Nature will do her business and she will make her statements and she will not ever be answerable to man.  Ever.  He should mind his own business of raping her every facility and realise that the more he infringes on her territory, the more she will protest his presence on her planet.  Her animals – every single one of them – is held captive in one way or another, under human control.  She accepts that in a world this small, that must be the case.  What she does not accept is the way a lot of these animals are forced to live and die.

A handful of people died as a result of the Fukushima disaster.  Five, I think.  Five human beings for the Pacific?  No.  I don’t think so.  That is a very serious imbalance.  Nature likes the scales to be balanced.  Please understand that, if you understand nothing else.  She will work at equilibrium until she has it perfected and whichever way that goes for the humans is the way it goes.  Do not make the mistake of thinking that she feels sad about the plight of the humans.  She does not.  She is intrigued, perhaps.  Disappointed.  That is all.  Nature is more concerned about sharing her legacy with a future she can anticipate than she is mankind’s eventual extinction.  She has the ears of the gods and for now, she shares that legacy with them.  Nature still has so many secrets to tell you about yourselves.  Don’t kill her.

Fukushima adds to the extensive debt Japan already owes Nature.  When they have killed their connection to her entirely, and their very small country becomes uninhabitable – because it will – where, then, will they live?  Where will the Chinese live when their pollution and their demons chase them out of the cities, themselves?  I think the Japanese and the Chinese will find out then that the rest of the countries on this planet are full-up.  They will not be welcome, anywhere.  Sorry, the world will say, no space for people like you.  It is coming to that.

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23 Aug 2013 · 10:07

Community – Blog No. 66

‘Words have an intrinsic power.  When they are true, sensible, and sincere, they heal “the hearts that mourn.”  They help to settle disputes between husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters.  They help to establish and realize initiatives by the community and relieve suffering.  Words are sacred.’

– Aminata Traoré

2011There is a community in the Kwahu mountains of eastern Ghana that is wanting to stand on its own two feet.  It needs to find a way to get its youth into work, there are too many unemployed.  There are too many single teenage mothers, too many women who have too little.  The women are desperate.  They will accept a proposal of sex for something to wear, something to eat, or somewhere to sleep the night.  Can you imagine being in that position?  Your body becomes your trade.  Where is your self-esteem when you must trade with your flesh?  The problem is that these women are not having protected sex and the result is often a child, or an infection of some kind.  The men understand the power they have and they use it, women are dispensable, a convenience.  The community is watching itself come undone.  The chiefs are looking for a solution, they consult with their people and they look for a way forward.  They are strong in their commitment to a better future.  My concern is how does a community keep its spirits up when the world rushes by on its busy business of being without even being aware of real-time problems of hopeful people who want change?

Community holds people together.  It holds hearts, and heads, together.  Perhaps the dissolution of community in places is more serious than the world realises.  Africa is founded on community spirit.  It is a web, a network whose reach you should never underestimate.  You will not find a continent better-equipped to work together – if it can heal the damage done to its soul by the scramble for Africa.  Someone, somewhere, needs to say sorry.  I think to start with, an apology would make Africa a lot happier.  Then she will be able to view herself as whole again and the work can begin.  Whilst she is divided – as she currently is – there are two many skirmishes, too much in-fighting.  What is she still doing warring with herself?  Watching her unfold is like watching a slow-motion movie.  The point that should be made is that the longer the community must farm out its resources in trying to keep itself together, the longer it takes for it to make progress.  Slow progress is still progress, but perhaps for a change the community must address its defectors and recall all of its wanderers.  It is time for a bigger picture and in order to realise that bigger picture, we need unity.

 

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20 Aug 2013 · 08:43

Vanity – Blog No. 65

mirror-mirror-on-the-wall2You are not vain if you take care of your appearance.  You are not vain if you are self-conscious about how you look to the world and you spend time on presenting your best.  Just do not get caught in the trap of thinking you are the reason this earth revolves.  If you should imagine that the sun shines out of your backside, please reassess yourself.  That would be vanity.  When you follow the thinking that you are in some way superior to another person because of how you look, you are misguided.

Vanity is not an attractive quality.  It negatively affects the nature of a person, you lose your sense of self when you become vain.  People who buy into their own hype in life, are vain.  I do not understand how anyone can buy into their own hype.  How can you fall for your own tricks?  These society people who are in love with themselves are falling for the oldest trick in the book.  When you are mesmerised by your own reflection in this world, you are closed to possibility.  Worshipping yourself is not advisable if you have any plans of going anywhere worthwhile or having a lasting impact on this planet.  People tire easily of those who love to blow their own trumpets.  The noise they make destroys the peace of transformation going on all around us.  When you are stuck staring at how great you are you forget that you are here to serve humanity.  The planet needs more people who are prepared to put down their mirrors and see for real.

It is easy to check where you are in life with vanity – you need to ask yourself why you are loved.  That is always a very interesting question to ask of yourself, and of the people who love you.  It is not always easy to spell out the reasons one has love for another, but it is worth checking with a partner why they think they ‘love’ you.  When you hear why, you will understand how your partner sees Love.  You should always consider important how your partner views Love.  It may not be the same way you look at it.  Love should be able to speak clearly for itself.  If someone loves you and they are too shy to tell you why, that is sweet.  Perhaps treasure that innocence.  If a person can show you why they love you, even better.  Showing is usually far better than telling.

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16 Aug 2013 · 16:03

Stress – Blog No. 64

spannungStress can kill you.  Easily.  Take it on at your peril.  Whether it is relationship stress, work stress, parenting stress or a personal stress – know that it is not good for you.  Your body – your muscles – retain stress for years and years.  Massage – strong massage – is one way to eradicate stored stress in the body.  Exercise, clearly, is another.  If you should leave unattended the stress that living your life has generated, it will mutate into disease and it will harm your body.  It is a given.  You can speak your stresses free.  People should understand that they do not tell themselves enough about what is going on in life.  Silence – when it comes to yourself, your person – is non-productive.  If you cannot give yourself clues about how to run your life, then what help are you to yourself, the world?

Half the stress in our days is generated by our doing other than what we should be doing.  There are very few people on this planet – when you consider that there are about 7 billion of us – that love what they do for a living.  There are too many people following the mentality of the previous generations.  What are they doing?  Every single generation must think differently.  You have to think in the now.  This world is not like it was, then.  If you cannot align your thinking with the way this planet works these days then you are at a disadvantage to begin with.  To become aligned, you need to accept that there is a lot of hate and a lot of hurt in our world.

Animals feel stress.  They feel pain, love, terror, hate.  Only those animals trained to fight and do stupid tricks for humans, learn hate.  Cruelty and abuse break their spirit.  In the wild, animals do not know hate.  Animals just get each other – in fact far better than people do, as humans.  Each type of animal accepts its place in the scheme of things.  They use each other when the need arises.  They are not usually shitty about it.  They eat each other and they breed with each other, they co-exist in the ecosystem.  They play with life and they survive, they are not cruel.  They are not greedy – they are not human.

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12 Aug 2013 · 09:56

Revolution – Blog No. 63

love-revolution1It’s time to look at what it means to (r)evolve.  A full revolution will take you 360°.  That means going full-circle.  When you have hit your beginning – and you will know when that is – you are ready to decide how you would like to proceed.  Until you reach your beginning, you cannot start.  It makes perfect sense.  Perfect sense is where you want to be.  In order to find perfect sense, you have to try different things.  You might like a bit of this, a bit of that.  It takes time to build for yourself a perfect picture.

Your revolution can happen any time you want it to.  You must just be decisive.  You cannot be wishy-washy when it comes to choosing revolution.  What will it take for you to reach your beginning?  It will take you facing up to yourself.  That means looking equally long at your good and your bad.  In your 360° revolution you will find yourself in every frame, different.  You will understand from this finding that you are – in this particular embodiment – simply another challenge sent to face circumstance.  We are all gladiators in this life.  The key to a successful revolution is to accept yourself in every frame.  It is not easy to accept every part of yourself, but it must be done.  Be tolerant of whatever you present to yourself in terms of life trials, too, i.e. the choices you make.  You make your choices consciously.  Know one thing – they alone are what cause the calm or drama in your life.  If you are tired of drama, remove yourself from the dramatic situation you are a part of and refrain from making the kind of choices that take you back there.  It is as easy as that.

Once our (r)evolution is complete, we find ourselves in a new, clean headspace.  In this headspace you will find your best, the part of you that has been watching, and learning, all along.  Whilst you have been busy living – however you have chosen to do that – the work has been going on.  That is the wonder of (r)evolution.  It is not for you to be alarmed by the open ground ahead.  The best news about open ground is that there is space to create what is needed.  When you get given your reigns and the authority to manage without interference both your dark and light sides then you will find that you have every single tool at your disposal with which to craft perfection.  If you are not interested in a perfect world then you are on the wrong planet.

 

 

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09 Aug 2013 · 10:30

Cruelty – Blog No. 62

Siberian-Tigers-forced-to-crouch-at-Fuzhou-Zoo-SE-China-2010You are what you learn.  If an animal learns cruelty from a human, whether in life or in death, its wild will become ferocious.  That an animal has enough self-control to perform tricks in a circus without killing the ringmaster is testimony to its tolerance for man’s desire to wield power.  Man does not wield power well.  It corrupts his giving spirit.  Keep in mind that we are all of Nature, we all have wild within.  It comes to us through the ages of our DNA, no matter where we are born or brought up.  Our wild feeds from source.  Source is contaminated.  There is a lot of cruelty to assimilate.  The scales are off-balance where wild is concerned and the imbalance is being visited upon the planet in the shape of man hurting man in a barbaric fashion.  Man has always hurt man – that is his way, his demonstration, his ascension to the top has always involved battles, scars.  The problem is that in our society there are a lot of people doing a lot of hurting and either deriving pleasure from the experience or not giving a shit.

There are too many children being raped in this world.  That is cruelty.  There is too much shit being spoken in the name of love.  That is cruelty.  People need to trust love, because it is very real.  As a force, it is breath-taking.  People need to know that love tells them the truth, not lies.  Love will not tell you what you want to hear.  If you are hearing exactly what you want from someone all the time, you must question their motives in life.  It is likely that they do not care for you the way you think they do.  Perhaps it is that they want something, or that they are already taking from you and in order to continue doing so they keep you sweet by filling your ears with shit.  Do not feel angry if you should realise that you have been or are being taken advantage of.  Used.  You allowed it to happen.  Your ego allows it to happen.  Keep your ego where you can see it, do not let it run away with you.  Be aware that a cruel person is addicted to cruelty.  Do not tolerate cruelty.  If you are with a cruel partner you must question your motives in life.

If you are a person who speaks shit in the name of love, please stop it.  You are giving love a bad name.  Love is sensitive to its reputation on Earth.  It is sensitive to the lies you speak in its name.  If you are spending time fucking people for a living and calling it ‘making love’, please stop it.  You are lying.  And for god’s sake, stop believing that you are ‘making love’.  You are not.  Love has NOTHING to do with fucking someone.  You are insulting Nature when you choose to pretend that it has.

 

 

 

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05 Aug 2013 · 13:35

Speech – Blog No. 61

325a4a385d2f6b6abbb00bcf5477d6a4Please be aware of how you speak to yourself.  You would be surprised to know how often you upset yourself with your tone of voice.  When you are being shitty – either silently or out loud, hear yourself.  Really listen to what it is that you are saying.  It will tell you a lot about which of your needs are not being met, which parts of you are disgruntled.  Your life is about getting your needs met.  Your basic needs – safety, sustenance, love.  It is about identifying and addressing the archetypes that reside in your psyche.  If you spend enough time watching your behaviours without judging yourself for your actions, you will notice how certain aspects of yourself come to the fore in certain situations.  It is very interesting to watch these archetypes act, and interact.  Battle.  The stiller your mind, the clearer your components and their motivations.  We are all made up of components, coping mechanisms, skills.  Every single person on this planet has a skill.  You must find out what your skill is, and develop it.  Adults should help children identify their skill(s), the younger you discover what you excel at, the more informed your choices for your future.  Should you have missed the opportunity to identify for yourself what it is that you are good at, then your life is still a mystery.  Don’t give up on finding a solution.  There is always a solution.

Free speech is vital when you are communicating with yourself.  But mind your tone.  You must say it as you feel it if you wish to be heard, so know that direct is best.  Diplomacy is good if you can manage it.  Ears are attuned to decency in a person, kindness of mind.  The truth.  Don’t lie to yourself.  Be disciplined enough to tell the truth.  Truth is a discipline.  Should you lie to yourself about anything whatsoever, know that is your first failing on the path to self-actualisation.  If you want to know who you are, tell yourself how it is to be alive as you – how it really is – and listen to the news of the world.  Hear, too, any advice you give yourself.  The way you guide yourself counts.  There will be a gentleness to your ministrations, and a harshness.  A harshness of spirit indicates an impatience, a determination.  Anger.  Usually, at self.  Keep that in mind.  It indicates, too, a striving inside.  When you will not settle for things the way they are – when you will not accept of yourself or your world anything less than best – you will have to entertain the harsher side of your being.  Do not be afraid of your darkness.  We all have a harshness of spirit, it comes with the territory of being human.  We need it for this life.  Train your harshness to drive you forwards.  It is your wild.  Welcome it.  It can take you places.

 

 

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02 Aug 2013 · 17:41

Liars – Blog No. 60

mugabeRobert Mugabe is a liar.  He is an example of how not to be, as a leader.  That he has already celebrated a victory – a landslide victory – demonstrates his corruption.  He cannot be trusted for one minute.  How can you know you have won an election, for sure, before the votes have even been counted?  When you cheat.  It is that simple.  He has won by a two-thirds majority?  What a load of rubbish.  If only the world could help.  Unfortunately, the world seems powerless when it comes to facing up to a dictator.  This is not good.  In fact, the world looks as bad as he does when it does nothing.  You cannot sit by and watch wrong going on.  You have to say no, any way you can.  Why can the entire country of Zimbabwe not realise that Mugabe’s demented head needs putting to sleep if their fortune is to change?  He is older than the pope, for god’s sake.  His anglicised anger is hilarious to watch – because he does not realise how stupid he looks shouting the same slogans he shouted in 1980.  His pompous hissing and spitting is tired – and very pathetic.  He has outdated views, the wisdom of a circus clown.  Why does he even have followers?  I have to wonder.  Perhaps the only reason is because he is a bully.  The old man is tired – he should be retired and sent to hell.  That is, after all, his destination.  Why does the world not recognise his lack of care for his country, his people?  Those that are not in his pocket, i.e. in ZANU PF, are intimidated or marginalised.  Discriminated against.  Hurt.  How hard is it living a life when you are always fearing retribution for your beliefs?  It is very hard.  That this world has to stand by and watch this absolute miscarriage of justice is pure demonstration that there is something very, very, wrong going on on our planet.

Shouldn’t first world minds be saying to the un-evolved ape that is Robert Mugabe – STOP?  Those countries that can prove success with their governments are in a position to advise those that are too stupid to make their own governments work.  Do you realise how many idiots are running governments on this planet?  It is time this world actually had an opinion.  It is time this world said NO.  Not just no to a ‘democratic’ Zimbabwe’s farcical election, but to so many things that are not going right on this planet.  This place is failing as an example of any sort – understand that.  It’s serious.  I am tired of watching this place implode.  It fills my heart with despair and I hate despair.  It is not a feeling any of us should have to cultivate.

 

 

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29 Jul 2013 · 09:48

Racism – Blog No. 59

The-Black-and-White-Minstrel-Show.pngThere is a residual racism alive and well in the world.  This is not productive.  Racism is a dead-end road to nowhere.  When you are tempted to judge a person because they are not the same colour as you, know that you are prejudiced.  Prejudice is not an attractive quality.  You cannot know how it is to be a person of colour if you are not coloured.  Theirs’ has been an uphill battle all along, it has to be said.  They must be getting tired of defining themselves again and again, defending their right to exist in a world fearful of their difference.  Considering people of colour are by far the majority in this world, those that are not of colour should understand their place in the scheme of things.  They have an opinion – that is all.  We all have an opinion that we are free to exercise.  It is important to understand that we should not use our opinions to condemn the lives of other people.  How dare you wish harm to another human being?  That is not your place.  It is not your job to effect doom on another’s days.  If you have ideas of hurting other people, tidy up your head.

It is necessary to judge a person’s nature before you decide to interact with them.  You cannot do that in one minute.  How a person treats you over time tells you a lot about their character, a lot about yours.  If you are open to your world, you will know with whom you are best connected.  You will know, too, who you do not want near you.  You will feel it.  Children are particularly adept at sensing good, bad.  Trust their judgement.  Children will start profiling themselves racially at 5 years of age.  It is important, therefore, that before the age of 5 a child is exposed to other children of every colour.  When a child understands that it is one of a number of others – and through that understanding learns that ‘otherness’ is okay – then we have a situation where tolerance is being fostered.  You simply have to tolerate other people – we all share this space.  Practicing tolerance is good practice.

Racism makes this world weary.  It’s an energy-thief.  Its basis is fear, its power, hatred.  It is time to nullify the hatred.  Men need to be men now.  They need to take control of their dark sides, which  means harnessing their primal drives.  This darker energy needs containing – there are too many men visiting their darker sides upon the planet and turning our reality into a freak show.  A dark side is dark, it is not meant for the light.  It takes a strong man to turn and face the shadows.  Turning is always a slow process, but it is possible to do a full 360° if you exercise enough patience.  360° is where you want to be.  We need to turn and face the tsunami of hatred that is building, daily, for individuals, groups, a system that is failing its people.  By and large, the world of politics is a mess and it is failing at its own job.  Money is a bigger mess than politics.  Politics is about puppets in the today-world.  Puppets are bought and sold every day.  How effective any prime minister, any president, at exacting real change from the masses?  I suppose it depends how they ask for that change to come about.  Since most of them are lying about the truth in one way or another we find it increasingly difficult to find the energy to listen to any of their stories.  In this day and age it is ridiculous that every country is not run on a democratic basis.  And I have to ask – what are the Republicans doing for this planet, apart from marginalising people?  They need to open their minds and get with the programme called Progress.

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