-=-namaste-=-

thursday, november 1

Yay!!! Letter-writing helps!! I wrote a letter to the CEO of Trader Joe's asking him to take duck meat from factory farms off of the shelves along with a bunch of other people, and he paid attention to our letters! Trader Joe's is going to stop selling duck meat until they can get proof that the duck meat that they buy wasn't produced with inhumane methods.

Handwritten letters. You may feel like no one is listening to your small voice, but when joined with others it becomes a mighty chorus...

and now I can return to one of my favorite grocery stores without guilt. I had been boycotting the store for months. I love this.
2:31 PM 0 comments

I love the way that John Robbins writes. This is a great essay on what he thinks our nation should do during this time of terror. My must read for today!
1:40 PM 0 comments

Reading Jeff's stuff that I have missed since I worked the day before yesterday and was busy rounding up the acoutrements of boo-day yesterday, I see so much excellent thought. He is baring his soul at times, which I am always a fan of. But, in between all of the stories, questions, and ponderings he says "enjoy this beautiful weather" or something to that effect.

You know, that is all that I am going to think about for the rest of the day. This weather is beautiful RIGHT NOW. We live in an amazing city RIGHT NOW. I am alive and my friends and family are alive RIGHT NOW. I have an appointment for some righteous bodywork from my great teacher Beth at 4:00. The cat meows, the baby eats, the breeze blows, and the sun shines RIGHT NOW. I'm not going to think about what COULD happen five minutes from now. right now, all is right in my little world and my heart glows as I read all of the art that my friends and husband make on the electronet every day.

I'm going outside to breathe...
12:26 PM 0 comments

I don't even know if I should link to this article because reading it this morning has made me nauseous. It is a risks assessment of all of the different types of attacks that Al Quaeda could possibly use against us any minute. Basically, it is saying that anything could happen and that even nuclear attacks would not be all that suprising.

Now is the time when faith is tested. Do I continue to wake up every morning scared and short of breath from anxiety? Or do I wake up every morning, drop to my knees, and utter the four words that are often so hard for me to say, "Thy will be done".

Thy will be done. We here on earth cannot ever begin to understand the detailed script that is already set out before us. No amount of my worrying is going to change anything that happens here. Should my life here end today, I will go somewhere better.

I don't think it is even MY own death that scares me most. It is the death of Mat or my mom or dad or brother or my grandparents... the death of any one of the members of our community of friends here. I'm not ready for any of this enormity. The air is heavy lately. Laden with waiting and bated breath.

I must have faith. I have it in me somewhere... I need to find it. If ever I have needed to lean on my creator it is now. He gave me life... continues to bless me with every breath that I take. Every one of these breaths is a sacred gift that is not a guarantee but something to be thankful for when it comes.

This article has thrown me. I am scared. I don't want to spread my anxiety, but this journal is the best place for me to express it.

11:27 AM 0 comments

Just in case there are some people who read this page who don't also read -:][: e m p t y a g e :][:- or The Temple of Moi, our dear friend Matthew's house burned down the night before Halloween. He lost everything that he owns except for some of his incredible artwork and a charred journal and the clothes that he was wearing. Ezra has put up a very good relief site for Matthew.
Please visit the site and send him some prayers and thoughts or just a nice email. Also, if you can send him any extra stuff laying around your house or some cookies or some clothes or shoes...?

We love you matthew and our hearts are united with yours... may you feel the strength of all of those who rally around you in this time of upheaval...
10:53 AM 0 comments

monday, october 29

My site has been pretty dark lately... a little angry maybe? hmmm....

I have a hard time allowing myself to be angry in real life. I think that this website gives me just enough of a buffer from actual people and their expectations to get some of it out. I have always been "happy harper", which is actually a ton of pressure. Because deep inside I am NOT always happy. I actually do get angry.

Unless I let go of the anger by expressing it, it collects and squeezes out all of the light in my spirit. I can dance with anger... allow it to do what it needs to do for me and let go of it. and make room for light.

This website is so good for me because I also always try to please others and be this good little girl who makes everyone feel good. While being the good little girl I lose track of who I actually am. Someone who wants to scream FUCK!!!!!!!! at the top of my lungs every once in a while. also someone who wants to dance on mountain tops, listen to crickets, swim with dolphins...

Right now in my life i am just dancing more with FUCK!!!! than with daisies. A website gives me a medium for expression without having to see anyone's response to what I put out there. Because, knowing me, if I saw someone's disappointed response to something I had written it, I would stammer and adjust... apologize and delete.

Right now, growth for me is all about remaining true to myself regardless of anyone else's reaction. I can't lose what I have by blending it in with mediocrity to make society happy. This website has become a spring board.

That is where I am in my journey right now. Not to worry, I will soon be turning cartwheels in the tulips but ONLY because I have allowed myself this spell to sulk and say FUCK... Gotta get this darkness out to make room for the light. There's about 25 years of it worth stored up in here...
1:53 PM 0 comments

I can't say enough how much I think everyone should read the NYT article that I linked to earlier (spelling it aritcle)... incredible insight and graceful wording. It doesn't point fingers or blame anyone.

I am the owner of a toyota forerunner that I got in 1993. My parents had no idea that SUV's were so destructive when they bought it, and neither did I. I drove a lot back then.

Now, that I know... I move it from street cleaning day to street cleaning day here in the city and that is pretty much it. I ride my bike to work, to the grocery, to the dentist, to friends' houses... I ride the bus or bart. I don't drive... Well, every once in a while I take it to Rainbow grocery if I need to make a big haul that would be impossible no matter how many backpacks I strapped to my body on my bike... I pick people up from the airport in it, too.

I sometimes think about selling it, so that I will no longer have a guilty conscience. I love the car's spirit, though. I know that that sounds silly, but that car went with me as I graduated high school and moved to college. It took our free-spirited college road trips with me to Mardi Gras and the beach and the lake... It drove me across the country with my brother to move here, carrying all of my stuff.

I think that if I sell it, someone will buy it who will drive it a lot. That will be much worse for mother earth than it is for me to have it and get in it occasionally to go camping and that's it. I think that we will keep it and make our next car an electric or a hybrid when my beloved truck dies of old age.

for now it will rest as I crank the miles on my bike.
I just thought I should make that confession. there now, I feel a little better. Nothing like confessions to ease a guilty conscience.
12:45 PM 0 comments

"But we will never be able to drill our way out of even our short-term energy problems, much less our long-term ones. America consumes 25 percent of the world's oil while possessing less than 4 percent of global oil reserves. Even opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling would provide a mere 140 days' worth of fuel. Such modest new supplies would take an estimated seven years to reach the consumer and would be more costly than imported oil."

From the NYT article about our dependence on oil. I read a heartbreaking story yesterday in Denlines, the magazine of Defenders of Wildlife, about how severely endangered the habitiats of polar bears are by our selfish, greedy plans to drill in the Arctic Refuge. Polar bears are extremely sesitive to their environments, and already many are dying from things such as antifreeze ingestion... Also, a denning mother (one who is having babies) will leave her den if she even thinks that there are humans anywhere around. Her baby dies. Where do you think that the most popular denning area is?

You guessed it. Right where the greedy asshole americans want to rape the land with their drills, spilling their black crude everywhere. Ride your bikes!!! Ride your bikes!!! Ride your bikes!!! or the bus...

Dont' buy petroleum products.
12:25 PM 0 comments

Start riding your bikes America!!! This is a good aritcle about our dangerous appetite for oil...
12:12 PM 0 comments

Wow! Maybe we should all move to San Jose!
12:08 PM 0 comments

sunday, october 28

Don't read this if you love Dubya...
1:12 PM 0 comments