FEAST OR FAMINE

  Tamar Zhghenti, the internationally recognized Georgian poet, and the   Poet in Residence  in my  Rainy Day Healing  website.   Georgian-born and now residing in England,  Tamar Zhghenti  is a poet, medical graduate, and English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher. Her latest poem in April 2024 is “Metropolitan Epiphany.”   Metropolitan Epiphany   It was a car park, not a park, But one night, I distinctly heard A lark singing in the dark.   The voice was sweet, its tune stark (Not many birds there to be stirred - It was a car park, not a park),   Thus, my ears could easily mark The sound of the little bird - It was the lark, out in the dark.   Filling my soul with a vivid spark, It felt as if I stood allured Before Eden, the biblical park.   Though the moon had hidden its arc, The sky was spoiled, like coffee with curd, I sensed light's triumph over dark.   Like the Dove to Noah's ark, It brought hope to th...

  Members of the Association of Health Professional Artists – Association des Artistes Professionnels de Santé (AAPS) – are exhibitiing their artworks in the « From the dream to the real » exhibition from 24 June to 15 July 2023 in the Town Hall of the 6th arrondissement of Paris. About 40 members of AAPS in the  ‘world of health’ are also painters, sculptors, and photographers.    The exhibition presents artworks with various techniques: paintings, drawings, photography, pastels, engravings, monotypes, inks, watercolours, collages, and sculptures. Artist: Benedicte Petiet Artist: Bernard Nury Artist: Delia Share Artist: GLOMO Artist: Sophie Brosse Artist: Laurence Siarry Artist: Agnes Brouard Artist: Marie-France Boucheron Artist: Annick Sachet Artist: Francois Mayu Artist: Caroline Jardin   MARTINA NICOLLS MartinaNicollsWebsite    I     Rainy Day Healing    I    Martinasblogs    I     P...

I'm pleased to launch my new website  Rainy Day Healing  which offers an abundance of self-help guidance and strategies for individual, group, and community wellness, healing, and social/collective healing.  Rainy Day Healing  is for people who are long-time distressed, in shock or trauma, experiencing a brief moment of mayhem, or having a bout of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) - aka the 'winter blues.'  Gain confidence, gain resilience, and gain ground. Try the Scream Room, or En-Trancing, or Pop Up Poetry, Art of Distraction, or even Creative Chili.  Website:  https://rainy-day-healing.com   Rainy Day Healing Rainy Day Healing Rainy Day Healing Rainy Day Healing Rainy Day Healing Rainy Day Healing   MARTINA NICOLLS MartinaNicollsWebsite Rainy Day Healing Martinasblogs Publications Facebook Paris Website Paris blogs Animal Website Flower Website SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES  MARTINA NICOLLS   is an inte...

  Shelter: Notes from a Detained Migrant Children's Facility  (2020) is set in America at a border detention shelter after children are arrested for entering the United States without papers.   The author is a high-trauma therapist, documenting the daily lives of 14 unaccompanied children, from the time the U.S. Border Patrol arrests them to the time they are released from a detention facility. ‘We had twenty-four hours to vaccinate, provide clothing, get full background, call home … and four hours to report and address trauma.’   They are all minors, aged from pre-school to teenagers. They each have a case worker. One is a deaf, mute Mayan girl; one is a teenager from India who walked thousands of miles to reach America; and another is a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy.    Shelter is not prison, but for the unaccompanied minors, it is not home. It is a place to get a medical assessment and assistance.    Their situational tales are brief, and so is th...

Listening to a German radio program, Science Unscripted, the hosts were discussing the psychology of a haircut in the COVID-19 pandemic. In Germany, hair salons re-opened on 1 March 2021. The radio program was timely – I was having a bad hair day.   The hosts interviewed citizens in Bonn and spoke with Dr. Lisa Schmalzreid of the Martin Luther University in Germany. If the coronavirus crisis has shown us anything, the hosts announced, it's that human beings apparently have an irrepressible need to get their hair cut and styled. This is despite the fact that lockdowns have effectively canceled all social events. So, is it really about the hair?   Comments from people interviewed said that a haircut restores their sense of self and their dignity. They said a haircut does something positive for the psyche, how they perceive themselves when they look in the mirror, and how they think other people perceive them.    People generally feel better after a hair cut, but when i...

You’ve Been So Lucky Already (2018) is set in America in contemporary times.  Teenager Alethea is the oldest of four girls, best friends with her hero mathematician father Fischer, and frenemies with her mother when her father dies. Her grief is unbearable – for years – through her first job, when she turns to faith, and throughout her mixed success with dating.  In her 40s, she meets her boyfriend, The Last of the Last Great Men, and now she is truly happy. Why then does she wake with fatigue, pain, digestive problems, hair loss, and memory deterioration? She discusses her condition with three doctors. All three doctors say she’s healthy and fine.    It is not anxiety – it is something more tangible she thinks. Is it mould, or parasites, or something more sinister?  This is the memoir of Alethea’s search for home remedies to health and wellbeing. It’s a personal journey, but one that may resonate with readers. The style of writin...

WEBINAR: Your Wellbeing as an Activist Conducted by Martina Nicolls Hosted by the INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SOCIETY CENTRE (ICSC), BERLIN FRIDAY 3 MAY 2019:                                              13:00 BERLIN TIME FREE Link to Register with ICSC for the Webinar https://icscentre.org/events/activistwellbeing/ This webinar will focus on the tools and resources that activists can employ in order to take care of their own wellbeing. Human rights defenders often find themselves in high-stress working environments, where they are required to focus on the wellbeing of others, and not necessarily themselves. They often suffer from burn-out, post-traumatic stress, and are in need of psychosocial support. As the topic of mental health is fin...