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This is a tribute I have written for Maria Daines. There is no question that she, along with her husband and guitarist and fellow music writer, Paul Killington, are the voice for the helpless and hopeless animals of our world through her incredible musical talent. Beyond that, Maria is an awesome human being and I am honored to be her friend. Please see my music player in the Music section of this page, and listen to some of her wonderful music. You'll hear for yourself just why I adore her.
The Kindred Soul
Our world is made better because of her grace.
Her words so powerful, so strong and true.
Her voice rings like angels' wings flying high on the clouds.
She asks nothing in return, gives all of herself for those
Who have no voice of their own.
She tells each story from her heart and with each haunting song
Come the tears for those whose lives have been lived and ended in pain.
She tells their stories lest no one ever forget;
Of those who might have passed into oblivion's night without her.
She takes the pain she feels from the stories of these precious ones
And turns them into beautiful music for our ears and souls to take in.
She feels their pain and takes her gift to give us all an understanding
Of what might be impossible for some to even begin to see.
She loves with her entire self those creatures who need us so.
The words flow from her mind, her heart, her soul
Until we all can hear that pain and feel their need.
Until we all can realize this horror we humans have created.
She is a kindred soul to the large and small,
All as one in her loving heart.
She lifts us up with her music, takes us down the roads trodden with pain
And the unspeakable suffering of even just the smallest of them.
Those who might never have known more than a few while alive
Are now known throughout the world because of her undying devotion.
Mercy, Biko, Triton,Regina.
Just a few of their names emblazoned into our hearts now forever.
Without her, would we ever have known them?
We all know the answer to that.
Their deaths would have been just another in a never-ending line
Of suffering, unspeakable cruelty, anguish, terror, fear and pain.
Alive she made them, even though their lives here were cut so short
Thanks to the cruel hands of "man".
Yet they achieve a sweet peace and immortality now, thanks to her.
She is an earthbound angel who has a special place already reserved
With her name and words from those whose tiny hearts she blessed,
Saying in their own ways the gratitude they feel for what she does
Each and every day for them and those like them.
She will cross the Rainbow Bridge one day with multitudes following close.
They are waiting for her, because it is she that gave them life
When life was being ripped and torn from them here on earth.
They will dance with glee when that day comes.
Until then, they are her guardians; the ones she saved with her song.
I am blessed to call her "friend".
I stand in awe of her words to me saying I was a kindred soul to her.
How blessed am I to have even heard her voice
Never mind feel that connection of friendship from so far away.
If I can make even a tiny difference, it is because of her.
Her music spoke to my soul and made me want to stand and help.
Like so many thousands of others just like me.
She has touched so many souls from one corner of the earth to the other.
She is the torch of change.
She is the voice of millions.
She is grace personified.
She is the guardian angel of the hopeless and the helpless.
She is the singer of songs that bring life to the lifeless.
She is the bearer of the words we all must hear.
She is the hope for all those who need her so.
She is Maria Daines.
Her light of love shines like a beacon for all of us to follow.
Thank you, my friends, for all that you do.
With all my love.
Bonnie © 07/30/2008
Maria Daines
Who am I?
I am a 56-year-old wife, mother, grandmother and passenger-seat biker on our Harley with my husband. I have gotten a late start, but am determined to dedicate what is left of my life to trying to open people's eyes to the horrors of the animal holocaust that we humans have created. With knowledge, can come change. We must stand strong and fight this battle together. These precious voiceless beings are depending on us. We are their only hope, and we must not take that responsibility lightly.
We must teach compassion wherever we can. While the limitations of my body won't allow me to physically get out and fight, I will try to use my gift of words as my swords, to try to make people see, hear and feel the needs of these incredible animals whose care was entrusted to us, and whose trust "man" has so disgustingly violated time and time again. We are the warriors, each with our own weapons, and together we will make an unstoppable army of change. Find your foothold wherever it may lie, dig in, and do whatever you can to help the seeds of change to take root and flourish.
Bless you all for anything and everything that you do every day.
Bonnie
Here are just some of the things we are fighting:
1. Animal cruelty.
Song "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton.
2. Animal testing/vivisection.
Video compiled by Androclestipster, an incredibly compassionate animal advocate.
Song "Stop That It Hurts" by Maria Daines.
3. Dog fighting.
Song "I Don't Wanna Fight No More" by Maria Daines.
4. Factory farming.
By Farm Sanctuary.
5. Overcrowded shelters full of wonderful animals whose only crime is needing a home and wanting to be loved, and give undying devotion and love in return, but who are killed every day by the thousands.
6. The brutal fur trade.
Where Do We Start?
The task so daunting.
Where do we start?
Every second of every hour of every day
They die in terror and agony.
Some part of the livestock "food chain".
Some for their coats.
Some for the "delicacy" of their meat.
Some for "sport".
Some for the satisfaction of a sickness that defies explanation.
Some people react with no reaction.
"Better not to know."
Some react with knowledge, but wear blinders.
"What I don't know won't hurt me."
Some react with disgust, but beyond that - just empty words.
Some react with horror and it's just too painful to see.
Some react with outrage and soul-wrenching pain and say
We must do something to stop this!
And then the inevitable....
Where do we start?
There are the shelters and rescues that never have enough room
Who face day in and day out the need to choose
Who lives another day to hope,
Who dies because hope is now lost,
Or are run by the very evildoers we need to fight;
Monsters dressed as doers of good.
There are the poor ones who live in the streets.
Fighting for the tiny scrap.
Terrified to trust.
Always on alert.
Targets of the most brutal of abuse, torture, death.
There are ones born and seconds later ripped from their loving mothers
Tied in crates to make pale flesh.
The mothers impregnated over and over until the body breaks down;
For the milk intended for that precious torn-away baby
That billions of humans consume.
There are those whose lives are spent never stretching legs,
Never being able to turn around,
Chewing at bars and hoping to find a way out.
There are those who live having tubes rammed into their throats
To make their livers sick.
So some even sicker "humans" can have the "delicacy".
There are those who are crammed in wire boxes,
Plucking out feathers, breaking legs,
Hearing only the constant noise.
No soft nest to lay their eggs.
There are those skinned alive for their fur or hides
So someone can drape it over their body
And feel as if they are something above everyone else,
At the cost of so many beautiful lives.
There are those stolen from their homes,
Or bred on farms whose only aim
Is to provide the labs with those creatures they can control
So they are able to do nightmarish experiments,
These current day Mengele types.
Our animal holocaust, growing every day.
There are those who are bred to run;
Dogs and horses from fine lineage on paper,
Culled out to keep the fastest ones.
The others expendable.
Easily hacked up and thrown away.
Shot, starved, mutilated, hung.
The mighty beasts upon whose backs so many countries were built;
Bred for light and fast.
Fragile legs that shatter and it's over in an instant.
All the while the other offspring or too-soon-spent
Loaded onto trailers out back of the stables bound for Canada or Mexico.
Or others of so many types, sent from one continent to another.
Thousands of miles over days;
No food, no rest – only fear, hunger, thirst, pain.
To be sent off overseas to satisfy the palates
Of the ones who don't want to see what they are causing.
There are the ones in homes that were supposed to grow trust and love,
But instead are a pulsing business grown on forcing
A gentle giant to lust for the blood of another.
Which they do because they want so much to please;
Any scrap of kindness gobbled up.
And they do what they are told they should....
To the death.
I see this.
I feel this.
I want to run from this.
I know it is not in me to run.
And I think to myself....
Where do we start?
The answer is simple really.
We start wherever we can gain a foothold.
Whether it be music that reaches both the mind and the soul;
Sprung from the hearts and talents of those who truly care.
Or the rescuers whose life's work is to try to save
As many as can be saved with whatever they have to save them.
Or the ones who take the pictures that can blister the eyes
Of those who have never looked.
Or the ones in power who have not been tainted yet,
Who will fight where it has to be fought so that people sometimes pay
For the horrors they commit.
Or the ones who make the choice to eat a compassionate diet.
Personal, individual choices that still hugely impact
The bottom line of numbers of those for whom we are too late,
But for whose offspring we might not be.
Or those like me,
Whose bodies won't allow the physical battle,
But whose mind can somehow spin thoughts into written words
For others to take in and ponder,
And sometimes say, "That's how I feel!"
Creating a tiny bond.
We were made for this.
All the guardians of the precious, voiceless ones.
Armed with a sparkling prism of ways....
To start.
With every small victory that I find - I cheer, regroup, and get ready....
For the next round.
Until then I know tomorrow brings
Another wretched list of the daily results of the holocaust.
I will see the visions in my mind, which shrieks at me to stop looking,
But knows I can't stop.
The visions of their complete helplessness, their inability to even try to fight back....
Or even know if they should try.
I will hear the screams as they ring in my head
Echoing so loudly as if I am right there.
The witness of their confusion, terror, burning desire to live,
As their blood drains their life away.
We will look into the eyes of our own beloved animal companions
And see there reflected back their total immeasurable intelligence, love and devotion;
Their only desire to be everything they think we want them to be,
And know that to some they would be seen only as a pelt, dinner, or an object to inflict pain upon just for a momentary thrill.
And we will hug them close and let them know
We are fighting the good fight.
We are trying.
We are looking for that foothold.
We are making noise.
We are being heard more every day.
That, my friends, is where we start.
Bonnie Snider
©08/09/2008