Content Catnip

Comforting Thought: Rough Diamonds

Retaining wall in Japan by Timothy Buckwalter

What eyesore, abandoned sites can teach us

Abandoned sites and places that are not aesthetically pleasing can teach us a more sophisticated way of looking at the natural environment, not in terms of the picturesque, or even the care of which it has been tended, but with an eye upon ecological virility.
Seen in this way sites go from being eyesores and worthless to being deeply ecologically significant – their ugliness and worthlessness might very well be the quality that has kept them abandoned and saved them from overenthusiastic ‘management’ and therefore destruction.
Islands of abandonment

Five Creepy Islands in Sydney Harbour http://wp.me/p41CQf-97

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." ~Winston Churchill

Book Review: Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flynn

Extracted from: Islands of Abandonment

Read the review

“What happens when humans foresake and ruin landscapes? They are never truly abandoned. Instead they are engulfed by the non-human world and they become teeming with many other foresaken wild lifeforms. The weeds, plants, insects, birds and large mammals move in and populate these places. Pushed to the brink of extinction elsewhere by the ever-expanding need for human progress – these ugly, abandoned fringes of our world are the places where these animals can finally breathe a sigh of relief.” ~ Cal Flynn

Islands of Abandonment is a book-length poem and an ode to the places humans have used, abused and then rejected due to pollution, war, or physical danger.

Read the review

Content Catnip

Images by Craig Jones Wildlife Photography.

Book Review: The Secret Language of Animals by Janine M Benyus

Book Review: The Secret Language of Animals by Janine M Benus

An exquisite reference guide to the behaviour of animals, written without clinical distance but instead a warm, familial, empathic understanding of our sentient non-human cousins. This is an emotional journey of discovery as well – once you realise how similar we all are. 5 stars.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Non-Fiction, Reference Guide, Animal Psychology, Ecology, Zoology.

Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers.

Review in one word: Kind

If you are a passionate advocate for animals or simply love your pets and you happen to be a non-scientist, then you will adore ‘The Secret Language of Animals’.

The storytelling and illustrations are totally gorgeous and rich with detail. The book combines imaginative details with clear-eyed scientific information in an accessible way for anyone to understand common animal behaviours. Many animal behaviours are similar across mammalian species, and they should be recognisable to you if you have cats, dogs or horses. Likewise bird lovers will be familiar with these behavioural signals.

Illustrations by Juan Carlos Barberis

The sepia tinted illustrations are beautiful in a retro style and capture perfectly the movements, behaviour and facial expressions of the animals.

IBook Review: The Secret Language of Animals by Janine M Benyus llustrations by Juan Carlos Barberis

However, there is much to learn here, particularly about lesser known species like large crocodilians, giraffes, large reptiles, cetaceans, penguins and more more.

This book is a treasure for people who value and appreciate animals as sentient intelligent beings with their own emotions, reasoning, memories and perspectives of the world – albeit non-human perspectives on the world.

If you want to understand more about the ethics and morals about why humans should care more about animals – this book is a great start because it allows you to see the full spectrum of emotions, social behaviour and intelligent solutions that animals have created for themselves while relating to each other.

These animal worlds exists independently of the human world and evolved millions of years before we hairless upright apes even traversed the earth. Up until quite recently, these animal worlds existed in harmony with human worlds, although (as you likely already know) most animal worlds are now poised to be expunged completely out of existence by the human world.

If you don’t care or feel indifferent to the lives of animals, you won’t enjoy this book at all.

Wild animals are fascinating, soothing and calming to watch – preferably in the wild, but failing that by digital means – technobiophilia. This is an armchair look at the strange and beautiful ways that animals relate to each other, if you can’t go on wildlife tour in their natural habitat to see them for yourself.

One thing didn’t sit well with me

As an animal advocate constantly educating myself about animals, I have come into the knowledge from many sources that the majority of Zoos and animal parks that claim to “look after” animals frequently do nothing of the sort. Instead these are places of cruelty and imprisonment. Animals there (most of the time) have short, miserable, often solitary lives.

Many of them are pumped with hormones and forced to breed to propagate their species and ensure the survival of their kind.

In the cases of large carnivores, herbivores, great apes, or cetaceans – if a Zoo or aquarium doesn’t have enough room for a new enclosure for a burgeoning population, and a suitable alternative place isn’t found for them, individual animals will be killed.

Shortly after the death of this majestic, rare animal – a weak and pathetic excuse will be issued out of the facility via a media release. This will say something like: ‘They weren’t able to socialise well with other animals’, they had ‘behavioural disturbances’. That’s total bullshit.

In general if any animal (even humans) is kept in an unnatural environment (i.e. a prison) they will have ‘behavioural disturbances’.

The author here Janine Benyus does a great job of explaining animal behaviour, but she advocates for these horrible places where animals are kept living boring, tiny, miserable lives instead of the lives they were meant to live – being wild and free.

chimp and gorilla — Am I the only one who can’t unsee these two rolling a joint?

What can you do?

If you happen to go to a Zoo and see animals kept in miserable tiny cages, take photos and then call them out on social media about it and leave a review on Google telling people to not go there.

Chester Zoo keeps orangutans in alien looking green cages devoid of any plants and looking not in the least bit homely or comfortable. All the while they take money from rainforest destroyers like Ferrero and greenwash to school children in the UK about “sustainable” palm oil – which is a total lie. More about this here.

If you are an animal advocate, animal lover and/or a vegan then I recommend that you get this book, you will love it.

Content Catnip

Comforting Thought: A traumatic childhood may actually make you more conscious, complex and understanding of others

Before Time Began: Latin Quotes on Ancient Sundials

Dr Elaine Aron in her research looking at Highly Sensitive People (HSPs) found that they are generally more affected by traumatic childhoods and that they are more depressed and anxious as adults. However, there is a big hopeful caveat with this finding – the HSP has all of the emotional tools and understanding of self to do inner work and to overcome this trauma.

Keep in mind that that the earlier the problem occurred, or the more that it was rooted in the behaviour of your primary caregiver, usually your mother or father the more deeply rooted and long-lasting the effects. You must have great patience with yourself throughout your life. You will heal but in your own way but in your own way and with some qualities you could not have gained had there been no problems. For example, you will be more conscious, more complex and more understanding of others.
As adults, HSPs tend to have the right personalities for inner work and healing. Generally speaking, your keen intuition helps you uncover the most important hidden factors. You have greater access to your own unconscious.
Dr Elaine Aron, “The Highly Sensitive Person’

Read my review: The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron

For some of you, reading this book may be like holding a mirror up to yourself and really seeing yourself for the first time. This was most definitely the case for me.

Publisher: Penguin

Genre: Non-Fiction, Psychology, Spirituality.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Review: The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Dr Elaine Aron

Content Catnip

Book Review: Mystical Journey Oracle by Tennessee Charpentier

A sublimely beautiful deck of cards and book that provokes deep contemplation, meditation and clarity on one’s life path and future possibilities. Even if you don’t believe in the woo-woo of reading oracles or cards, you will still enjoy the stunning paintings by French artist Tenessee Charpentier and the deep accompanying storytelling of the book. This would also make a great gift for the spiritual seeker in your life.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Non Fiction, Spirituality, Paganism

Publisher: Rock Pool Publishing Australia

Review in one word: Serendipitous

Everything about this deck is high quality and luxurious, printed on gilted edged 350 gsm card, when the deck is put together as a whole there is a light refracting quality that lends it a magical and sacred vibe.

There is immense love, care and passion that has been put into the creation of these cards both in terms of the artwork and the storytelling associated with each card in the complementary book. There is also enormous attention to detail in the back of the cards, the design and typesetting of the book.

There is a sense that the Mystical Journey Oracle is Tennessee’s life work. The deck is based on 36 of her paintings. Within the box is 36 high quality cards and an accompanying book to correspond to the meaning behind each card.

Tennessee Charpetier has made a name for herself with her deeply personal, spiritual and soulful art inspired by the goddess and the various phases of life that we all go through. The deck is an ode to the divine feminine power residing within us all.

I met Tennessee in person at the Mind Body Spirit festival and she was kind, warm and generous with her time and energy despite being inundated with people wanting to buy her work. This made buying the deck and some of her artwork for my wall even more special and meaningful to me.

You needn’t be a pagan or a witch to enjoy this deck. If you are seeking inner clarity and a deeper understanding of internal and external conflicts in your life. Or you would like to ground youself or remind yourself of your innate potential to achieve growth, love and success – using the terms that you dictate for your life, not on anybody else’s terms – then this is a deck for you.

Cosmic Connection by Tennessee Charpentier

Using the Mystical Journey Oracle is an immensely soothing and grounding ritual and is the ultimate act of self-care. It’s a ritual you will return to again and again to seek clarity on tricky or uncertain situations or to find greater personal empowerment, connection, self-love and love for others in your life.

About Tennessee Charpentier

Via her website

Tennessee Charpentier is the creative driving force behind Visionary Art by Messiah. Born and raised in Amiens France, Tennessee was encouraged from a young age to explore her natural creative talent. This led Tennessee to gaining entry into prestigious Parisian School ESAG Penninghen where she excelled, attaining her Masters Degree in Graphic Design.

At the completion of her training Tennessee was offered an opportunity to enter the Parisian Fashion scene as an Art Director. After exploring the potential of a professional career on the path well traveled, Tennessee decided to take a leap of faith to explore the diversity of Australia, NZ and USA – discovering arts and culture festivals such as Burning Man and the lifestyle these events teach.

She now calls Melbourne her home and through the local music and arts scene has become inspired to combine formal graphic design with visionary art, surrealism and symbolism to form her unique style.

Visions and ideas arise from her subconscious, communicating lessons to be applied to life – themes of inner strength and courage are expressed on canvas to motivate everyone to embrace their life path and strive to self actualise.

Over the past 3 years she has had the opportunity to learn along side prominent members of the Visionary Art Movement such as Alex and Allyson Grey, Luis Tamani, Vanessa Lemen and C.T. Nelson to name a few.

Her work has been exhibited at Shambhala (Canada), Ozora (Hungary), Modem Festival (Croatia) and many Australian festivals such as Rainbow Serpent, Esoteric, Dragon Dreaming, Earth Frequency and Elements to name a few.

Buy the deck

If you only ever get one Oracle Deck in your life…then let this be the one…you won’t regret I promise!

Content Catnip

Comforting Thought: Keeping Together in Time

As I have always know intuitively: movement, dance and physicality of our bodies is the key to unlocking connection with other people and our connection to our inner feelings and true self. This was an incredibly powerful insight from ‘The Body Keeps the Score.’ This is why yoga feels good, cycling feels good, sex feels good, dancing at a concert with thousands of other people to a deep bass feels good. It is embedded into the deepest part of our mind it seems…

Collective movement and music create a larger context for our lives, a meaning beyond our individual fate. Religious rituals universally involve rhythmic movements. From the wailing wall in Jerusalem, the sung liturgy of the Catholic Mass, to the five times per day prayers of devout Muslims and Buddhist ceremonies. Music was the backbone of the Civil Rights movement in America. The book ‘Keeping Together in Time’ by William H. McNeill examines the role of dance and military drill in creating what McNeill called ‘muscular bonding’ and sheds new light on the importance of theatre, communal dance and movement.
The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk

Luminous Edinburgh during Christmas time lit the way for work-weary me — A dizzying array of colour from the Ferris Wheel. Copyright Content Catnip 2010

Read my review of The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk

Book Review: The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk

Content Catnip

10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet #93

If you have just tuned in…I hope you all have a healthy, happy, prosperous, light and love filled 2023. The clock has just ticked over into 2023 now in my part of the world. People are out partying and ringing in the new year, others are happy just staying home. It has been a bit of a confusing and difficult year for many people 2022 – here is to hoping that the new year brings you all you ever hope for. I hope these tasty tidbits make you chuckle and feel warm inside.

A Calf Born in Winter by Khruangbin

This uplifting, peaceful and cruisey song from one of my favourite bands Khruangbin seemed like a nice way to start out the new year. If you are in the north you will be living through a freezing cold winter right now, so this song seems very appropriate.

A beautiful and goulish 17th century Momento Mori ring

Death has a smiling face and a shadow side. One side has a woman’s face and the other an enamelled skull. Materials: gold and porcelain enamel. Collection: 2017 University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.

Originally tweeted by Archaeology & Art (@archaeologyart) on September 25, 2022.

Floor 769: Intergalactic meme and pop culture animations for your eyeballs’ enjoyment

Imagine if you will a gigantic and intricately rendered animation showing classic films, TV, internet memes and more all interlinked and interacting together in weird ways. Floor 796 is what a space station would look like containing the backend rumblings and mutterings of Earthlings on the internet. Absolutely superb! If you zoom in you can see the exquisite detail and each time you move around, the URL is adjusted as though you are using Google Maps and have coordinates on a map.

View full animation

Janus: the world’s oldest two-headed tortoise

Janus’ two headed tortoise recently celebrated their 25th birthday. They share kidneys, a stomach and a large and small intestines. However they have two different brains. The head on the right is a much stronger personality and is curious about everything, the left head is more passive and content to watch the world go by.

Notice how Euronews refers to the tortoise as an IT. This tortoise is not an inanimate object or a thing…we are talking about a sentient intelligent being here, so best to refer to animals as either she/he/they, which shows them greater respect as autonomous, intelligent beings. I’ve referred to this tortoise as a they because they have two heads and therefore two brains 🙂

Dunc Tank podcast: Angelo Pentaris

Angelo Pentaris had a challenging early life. He was diagnosed as a child with Cerebral Palsy and tetraplegia. He did not let this slow him and spent many years in physical therapy. He tells his amazing and inspiring story in this podcast. He got incredibly fit and became a drummer- this is his story on the incredible Dunc Tank podcast.

Making a mini moon garden

A fascinating and soothing video showing the progression from odds and ends to mind-blowing Zen masterpiece.

The Greenland Shark: the world’s longest living vertebrate finally gets protection

Greenland sharks move really slowly. They tend to wait until they are 150 years old to start having babies! They can live to between 270 to 500 years old. This makes them the longest-living known vertebrate on the planet – and a more critical reason to protect them.

In 2022 the Northwest Atlantic Fishing Organisation (NAFO) banned the intentional catching of Greenland sharks as well as unintentionally catching the species as bycatch. There is a loophole and exception in the rule which would allow countries like Norway, Iceland and Faroe Islands to continue to continue take these sharks from the ocean.

However conservationists are optimistic that more change is afoot in the regulations. I really hope so! Via Mongabay

OSCOB – Praise the sun god

There are shades of 90’s lounge and acid jazz, world music ethno-house in here, there is a lot of depth to the sound…I really like it. Good background music for when you are working.

Jacek Yerka: sublime surrealist painter

Jacek Yerka is an award-winning Polish surrealist painter from Toruń in Poland (b. 1952). He has exhibited in Poland, Germany, Monaco, France, and the United States, and may be found in the museums of Poland. A quiet kid he hated school but quickly gained the respect of school bullies by drawing comical depictions of them. He began working as an artist in 1980 and cites Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, Cagliostro, Jan van Eyck, and Hugo van der Goes as formative influences on his art. I just love this painting of the cat in the golden forest and the tiny village. One wonders…what was going on in there and what happened after the cat’s arrival? Enchanting!

You can buy a limited edition print of this magnificent painting from his website. I am definitely tempted! Read more

Why do people walk on two legs and have chins?

Find out the answer to these questions in this fascinating dissection of human evolution and the oddities and inconsistencies in our bodies that don’t really make sense! Read more at MIT Press Reader

Naturally, not everything in our bodies serves a purpose, otherwise we would have to ask ourselves why we (and not the Neanderthals) have chins.
‘Bipedalism and Other Tales of Evolutionary Oddities’, MIT Press Reader

Wild European bison will roam around Britain – YAY!

It’s not really a surprise that these massive animals that once roamed in Britain 6000 years ago are important to the ecosystem there. Steppe Bison were wiped out by anthropogenic factors like hunting.

That’s why their cousins the European Bison will now be introduced back into the UK as caretaker mammals to restore ecosystems, spread seeds and trample down overgrown plants to allow more plant diversity, just by roaming around.

They will be the biggest wild animals living on UK soil and they will perform a very important ecosystem function. Via Mongabay.

Gift by R.S. Thomas

Some ask the world

And are diminished

in the receiving of it. You gave me

only a small pool

that the more I drink

from, the more overflows

me with sourceless light

Ronald Stuart Thomas (1913-2020) AKA R. S. Thomas, was a Welsh poet and Anglican priest.

Yummy orange sesame crispy tofu by Will Yeung

Extra firm tofu is really the king of all ingredients in cooking – you can make it into whatever the hell you want, a desert/pudding, stew, salad, roast, BBQ, breakfast, lunch or dinner. You can add it to any dish on the planet and with some love and care it can be transformed into something truly wonderful. Will’s videos are produced in such a calming and pleasurable way too.

Is your home making you depressed?

An interior decorator shows you the mistakes you may be making that might be affecting your mood and how you feel.

Fontaines D.C – Big

Dublin in the rain is mine

A pregnant city with a Catholic mind

My childhood was small

But I’m gonna be big

I am well obsessed with this band. This video clip is like a chatty and post-punk James Joyce novel.

I hope you enjoyed this edition and happy new year dear friends, stay warm and cosy. Let me know what you think of these things below.

Content Catnip

Six overlooked, obscure and incredible podcasts for your listening enjoyment this holidays

Are you looking to crunch down on some substantial podcasts but are sick of reading or listening to the same thing? Here are some high quality podcasts that are often overlooked.

The Many Minds Podcast

Do you enjoy learning about animals, nature, human and animal psychology, environmental topics, biology and history? If so, you will adore the Many Minds podcast. It’s interdisciplinary, animal rights focused and features experts in many different fields from Neuroscience, psychology, animal behaviour, biology and more.

Dunc Tank

Host Duncan Gammie interviews curious and interesting guests with an incredibly broad spectrum of interests and expertise. Expect talks about philosophy, history, transhumanism, politics, digital culture, literary luminaries of the past, environmentalism, subcultures, religion and spirituality, AI and technology, psychology and much more.

A bit of optimism with Simon Sinek

Author Simon Sinek is a kind of genius at blending different disciplines like communication, psychology, spirituality and history into his books. In his podcast he talks to people he finds inspiring, kind and caring and who have managed to overcome horrible things in life and who still preserve a sense of optimism. His chats with people are warm, friendly and often funny.

An Anarchist FAQ

This podcast seeks to demystify and clarify what exactly anarchism is and what it isn’t. There are loads of misconceptions about it and in this educational and fascinating podcast you will find out how anarchism actually has noble and ethical ends and is founded upon personal and community autonomy, independence and how the philosophy of anarchism is naturally compatible with social justice, animal rights and environmental justice movements.

Actualized.org with Leo Gura

There are now countless so-called self-help gurus on podcasts. This means there are a lot of wannabes who claim to be well-read and have the answer to everything. Leo Gura is not one of these people, he takes insights from 1000’s of books he has read, which he summarises and reviews on his website. He’s immensely humble and delves deeply into important philosophical and psychological topics like the nature of love, the nature of death, overcoming trauma, understanding war and conflict, does free will exist?, understanding and coping with nihilism, transcendental meditation, does God exist? and every other topic under the sun. If you ever find yourself confused by the world – you may find his insights helpful.

He also has a Youtube Channel but his podcast (which is the same content without the visuals of his face). His podcast is excellent for long walks – each episode is around 2 hours long, but trust me – it is well worth it.

The Endless Knot

If you are curious about the etymological history of many of the common words in the English language and how their usage was tweaked, changed and developed with the flux of cultures then you will love love love this!

This is the companion podcast for the incredible and underrated Youtube Channel for the Endless Knot which I have featured on this blog many times in the past, in the 10 Interesting Things series.

Happy listening, I hope you will check out these podcasts. Please let me know what you think below…

Content Catnip

Comforting Thought: Soft Fascination

We pay attention differently when we are in nature. This is called ‘soft fascination’

The great 19th century thinker William James (brother of novelist Henry James) proposed that there are two ways of paying attention. The first is voluntary and directed, which is used for tasks that demand concentration. For example doing work, walking along a city street and being bombarded by billboards, loud sound and visual stimulation.

The second form of attention is ‘involuntary’ and is sometimes called ‘soft fascination’.

This involuntary attention requires no mental effort, it just comes naturally. This is the kind of attention we use when we are in nature, our minds are captured effortlessly by clouds and sunsets or by the movement of leaves in the breeze or the sounds of birds whispering on the wind. These soothing sensory experiences give our minds a break and allow us to wander and reflect, and so restore our capacity to think more clearly.

On the way to the Isle of Skye via Fort William in Scotland. Copyright Content Catnip 2011

On the way to the Isle of Skye via Fort William in Scotland. Copyright Content Catnip 2011

Extracted from Shinrin-Yoku: The Art and Science of Forest Bathing by Dr Qing Li

Read review

Book Review: Shinrin-Yoku: The Art and Science of Forest Bathing by Dr Qing Li

Read review

[Pictured: Ryoan-Ji zen garden in Arashiyama, Kyoto. Content Catnip 2018]

Content Catnip

Ancient Word of the Day: Maturun / Binturong

Binturongs, also known in English as bearcats, are long, stocky and heavy tree-dwellers with large bushy tails which they use to communicate. Strangely they have an odd but pleasant scent which people who smell them seem to enjoy – like buttered popcorn. Like all animals large and small they are endangered by palm oil expansion in SE Asia and face imminent extinction unless we act now to stop the ecocide.

Binturong / Maturun: n. ‘the one who descends’ from ancient indigenous languages of Sumatra and Borneo, originating from several millennia ago.

Did you know the heavy-set and stocky forest dweller of SE Asia, the Binturong takes his name from ancient indigenous languages of Sumatra and Borneo? #Boycott4Wildlife
Tweet

The earliest form of this word we know about is maturun, which probably meant “the one who descends”. It was inherited by many languages of Borneo and Sumatra, undergoing a series of regular sound changes. This is how the Malay form benturong evolved, which was later adopted by English.

The word binturong first appeared in English in the 19th century as a borrowed word from Malay.

The heavy-set and cumbersome binturong/maturun doesn’t glide from tree to tree like the many monkeys and birds that surround them but rather climb down and moves from tree to tree this way. This is why they are known in Malay as ‘the one who descends’.

Portrait of a young binturong (Artictis binturong)

The binturong is endangered by palm oil deforestation. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife and fight back with your wallet…

Find out more

Binturong Arctictis binturong

Research: Palm Oil Deforestation and its connection to RSPO members/supermarket brands

Why join the #Boycott4Wildlife?

The Counterpunch: Consumer Solutions To Fight Extinction

Content Catnip