#942 + BLACK WHEN WHEN BLUE 2020 Catherine L. Johnson + NEST: THERE IS MORE FOR YOU 2010 Catherine L. Johnson

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BLACK WHEN                                                                                            Catherine L. Johnson   2020

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WHEN BLUE                                                                                            Catherine L. Johnson   2020

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NEST: THERE IS MORE FOR YOU                                                        Catherine L. Johnson   2010

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http://www.mnartists.org/artwork/nest-thereismoreforyou-2010-painting-selected-national-poetry-award

NEST: THERE IS MORE FOR YOU

was selected as a visual accompaniment to a 2010 prize winning poem:

http://www.mnartists.org/article/mnlit-original-what-neurologist-doesnt-say

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Samba Je Hed  

an intimate improvisation  Anthony Cox / Billy Higgins 1991

Please click on link below for this sonic balm – a spontaneous, beautiful, intimate conversation

– an improvisation,

pure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeNEaT4sfZg

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#919 + “You’ve Got A Friend” + LOWERTOWN ST. PAUL’s BLACK DOG CAFE’s “PAY-IT-FORWARD” PROGRAM + “And I’ll be there – yes I will”

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“You’ve Got A Friend”

When you’re down and troubled,
And you need some love and care,
And nothing, nothing is going right
Close your eyes and think of me,
And soon I will be there
To brighten up even your darkest night.

You just call out my name
And you know wherever I am
I’ll come running to see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I’ll be there
You’ve got a friend

If the sky above you grows dark and full of clouds
And that old north wind begins to blow
Keep your head together and call my name out loud
Soon you’ll hear me knocking at your door

You just call out my name
And you know wherever I am
I’ll come running, running, yeah, yeah, to see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I’ll be there
And I’ll be there, yes I will.

Now, ain’t it good to know that you’ve got a friend
When people can be so cold?
They’ll hurt you, yes, and desert you
And take your soul if you let them,
Oh, but don’t you let them

You just call out my name
And you know wherever I am
I’ll come running, running, yeah, yeah, yeah, to see you again.
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I’ll be there, yes I will.
You’ve got a friend

You’ve got a friend
Ain’t it good to know, you’ve got a friend?
Ain’t it good to know?
Ain’t it good to know?
Ain’t it good to know, you’ve got a friend?

Oh yeah, now
Oh, you’ve got a friend
Yeah, baby

You’ve got a friend
Oh yeah…
You’ve got a friend

 

Carole King

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THE

PAY-IT-FORWARD

CONCEPT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_it_forward

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_business

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy

 

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Siblings Andy and Sara Remke,

co-owners of the Black Dog Cafe

in St. Paul’s Lowertown,

where customers can participate in a

pay-it-forward

meal program.

Wednesday, April 29, 2020. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)

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At Lowertown cafe,

customers buy meals

for

struggling strangers

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“…The coronavirus hit suddenly and made the artists sick or out of work.

Most were unaccustomed to asking for help.

“We are humans.

We are all concerned about being embarrassed,” said Remke…”

 

“…The program has been broadened to accept anyone hurt by the epidemic.

Donors pay the restaurant, often while picking up their own meals.

Remke thanks them on social media, using their first name or an alias.

The recipient uses that name in the daily code.

“They might say, ‘Bob sent me’ or ‘Kat sent me,’ ” said Remke.

Donors say they are helping their favorite restaurant

as they help economic victims of the virus…”

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Please click on link for the FULL article

featured in the Pioneer Press by reporter Bob Shaw:

https://www.twincities.com/2020/04/29/at-lowertown-cafe-customers-buy-meals-for-struggling-strangers/

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Please click on link for

THE BLACK DOG CAFE’s

PAY IT FORWARD

PROGRAM

https://www.blackdogstpaul.com/gifts-more/1e6to72e2s7bp05p2a1dkfpyow85nj

Pay It Forward

$10.00

Help feed a Lowertown resident, laid off restaurant worker, or musician…

The Black Dog will provide one or more free meals with every contribution.

Vegetarian options will be available.

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Pine Tree: HOPE                                                                                      Catherine L. Johnson. 2005

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Pine Tree: HOPE

For further information, please click on links below

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/early-in-the-morning-on-29-august-29-2005-hurricane-katrina-struck-the-gulf-coast-of-the-united-states-pine-tree-hope-2005-catherine-l-johnson-allen-toussaints-the-bright-mississippi/

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/pine-tree-hope-2005-catherine-l-johnson-serenitycourage-to-changeprayer-xenophobia-america-wasis-an-innovation-an-ongoing-experimentimprovisation-of-freedom-humanly-possible-the-empa/

http://www.mnartists.org/artwork/pine-tree-hope-2005

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My 4 legged BLACK DOG: Zachary William Robert James Woodridge

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#811 +” NEST: THERE IS MORE FOR YOU” Catherine L. Johnson 2010 + “Samba Je Hed” Anthony Cox / Billy Higgins 1991 + Healing is done with lullabies – the balm and the touch of pure love

“THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!”

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Commentator: ProPublica reporter Ginger Thompson

 

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For

For the asylum seekers’ children in America – severed from love and touch.

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You are known by us.

We care.

Hear our heart songs to you.

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NEST: THERE IS MORE FOR YOU                             Catherine L. Johnson  2010

http://www.mnartists.org/artwork/nest-thereismoreforyou-2010-painting-selected-national-poetry-award

NEST: THERE IS MORE FOR YOU

was selected as a visual accompaniment to a 2010 prize winning poem:

http://www.mnartists.org/article/mnlit-original-what-neurologist-doesnt-say

X

+

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Samba Je Hed   an intimate improvisation  Anthony Cox / Billy Higgins 1991

Please click on link below for this sonic balm – a spontaneous, beautiful, intimate conversation

– an improvisation, pure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeNEaT4sfZg

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Observers have raised concerns about the psychological toll on young children who enter this shelter system. NPR’s Joel Rose talked to one former shelter employee who said he quit after he was instructed to prevent siblings from hugging each other. The organization that runs the shelter said it allows touching and hugging in certain circumstances.

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/19/621065383/what-we-know-family-separation-and-zero-tolerance-at-the-border

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What’s Behind the ‘Tender Age’ Shelters Opening for Young Migrants

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Many are toddlers and babies and require special care, and their numbers have been rising since last month, when the government enforced a “zero tolerance” policy on people crossing the border. Estimates suggest that more than 2,400 children under the age of 12 are now in federal custody, including many who have been separated from their parents.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/us/tender-age-shelters-family-separation-immigration.html

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Please note:

The images in the video  below are very distressing and disturbing.

You may choose to read the comments.

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I lived the story it documents

from 6 months to 3 years old

at Shriner’s Hospital for Crippled Children.

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Hospital policy:

ONE parent 1x week and NO touching of your child,

who was in an institutional bed in lines in the nursery.

All designed for administrative ease.

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We know better now.

Touch + comfort of/to/from a loved one is fundamental + imperative for living!

The repercussions and reverberations are real,

severe

and

inscribed in the heart and bone of a child forever.

The story does not lift away in time.

It can be re-constructed for meaning

and

re-contextualized

to serve

the freedom voyage / flight of others

to set out to sea to enter their ship

 and

fly boundlessly with their full wing span.

WOUNDED HEALERS.

Of course, I remember!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_healer

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I had within me a fierce,

compassionate and courageous

divinity,

a radiant wilderness,

a  luminous chapel

that was stronger

than I was.

I was given this sacred fire.

It was mine to keep alive as it kept me alive.

I prevailed.

I became an artist – giving voice.

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My Mother, Doris Eileen Cottor Johnson Omlie,

wrote a 12 page, a  hand-written memoir, in 1996

(two years before her sudden and unexpected death)

to “tell me the truth”.

And the writing, her writing, was a release for her.

She was a young woman of 26

when it all occurred to her

and

my Daddy’s, Richard Harold Johnson, life.

She was 66

when she wrote it in blue ink,

with her delicate song of Palmer’s handwriting script,

on her favorite stationary.

She wrote my Genesis story for me,

She did not rise until it was completed.

The air changed,

the light changed

– the harvest of knowing

and

being SEEN for WHO you are.

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I am sharing this story of truth

to you,

the viewer of this entry,

in my WordPress of 2 July 2018.

Yes, I feel exposed.

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Yet, I must tell you

for those who have NO voice and are defenseless:

the children of asylum seekers.

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We know the TRUTH,

that DT and his WH administration

with their ZERO tolerance immigration policy,

a “determent”  policy,

is proof that their empathy wires are cut from humanity

and

what they see are their own demons

rather than

vulnerable, innocent children

who are terrified,

frozen in fear, 

without a voice

and

 who yearn for comfort

of their NEST

and

the balm, the lullaby, the sing-song

of  pure and loving humane voices. 

Incompetence and cruelty go together with DT and his White House.

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My finding of the video below

was a gift that I was ready for.  

There it was on the sidebar of YouTube.

I was viewing the videos of

“FAMILIES BELONG TOGETHER”

nationwide protests.

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I took a deep breath, and clicked on the link.

I viewed what I had lived

– and what other children lived at that time.

Pre-verbal.

It was poignant that this video was silent.

I remember the wails,

the constant lament, the shrieks,

the gurgling sounds of giving up.

The playing with my hands to know I was here, to self-soothe, to hold on.

My body remembered all

–   the inchoate feelings.

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Yes,

I worked with the grace and love

of expert trauma specialists

to slowly,

oh so slowly,

 oh oh so so so slowly

to lift the veils

– like the skins of a burn victim,

and

carefully remove

with sacred attention,

the defending vigilant stones of my fortressed walls

to release my stories

that were prohibited from being told.

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I was fortunate to have certain loved ones

who told, who witnessed,

certain loved ones who I loved

and

I KNEW

loved me who could

SEE the ME within.  

FREEDOM.

 

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Healing is done with lullabies – the balm and the touch of pure love.

INTIMATE.

SACRED Listening.

Call and Response.

Moving forward instilling

HOPE

to those who are devastated,

distressed

and

breathing

the same oxygen as us all

and

know the sound and touch

of authentic

love’s redeeming,

restorative energy and elixir.

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Please click on the link below for the telling:

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2018/06/21/809-the-longest-day-summer-solstice-until-the-story-of-the-hunt-is-told-by-the-lion-the-tale-of-the-hunt-will-always-glorify-the-hunter-african-proverb/

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I turn toward Nature’s grace, beauty + ephemera for restoration.

I turn toward Nature and bear witness and, in turn, I uphold wonder and awe.

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I offer you

what Nature offered this evening,

after I had completed this entry,

while riding my bike:

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My parents took me out of Shriners at 3 years old – doors closed shut.

My life was met by the creative medical genius of

Dr. Mark B. Coventry, Mayo Clinic.

My beloved Dr. Coventry.

 

A remarkable collaboration began between that called out GOLD.

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/13-july-look-to-this-day-for-it-is-life-the-very-life-of-life-dr-mark-b-coventry-promise-me-two-things-only-let-those-who-honor-and-respect-you-come-near-and-always-remain-an-art/

HE ASKED ME TO MAKE TWO PROMISES

 TO HIM BEFORE HE DIED:

“PROMISE ME TWO THINGS:

ONLY

LET THOSE WHO HONOR AND RESPECT

YOU COME NEAR

AND

ALWAYS

 REMAIN AN ARTIST.”

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We are given opportunities

in the arc of our lifetime

to give and accept offerings of

awe + beauty + freedom.

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The salutation of

I SEE YOU

is an irreplaceable intimate epiphany

of

knowing a beloved.

This intimate knowing

illuminates all within the beloved

welcoming

his/her incandescent and fragile truths

slowly,  

with sincere tenderness like a gospel song.

What was once kept captive

within

locked in darkness,

shut down and hidden from view

is

WITNESSED,

embraced with love’s elixir.

Now, irreversibly RELEASED and wings unfurled –

EXODUS.

An unfolding dialectical freedom lullaby

that IS a mutual call and response

– a sacred, fortuitous, blessed

improvisational song.

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And, I / YOU / WE AIN’T GOING BACK…

Moving FORWARD, at last.

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EXODUSIMFREEATLASTIAINTGOINGBACKIMFREE                         CATHERINE L. JOHNSON 2013

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 TO ENLARGE + FOR DETAIL, PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE 

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