Al Gore is my Jesus, my Ghandi, my Buddah, my Allah, my last hope.

“Do you feel like you woke up this morning as one man and that by lunch time you were another.” - yes exactly like that. I mean, every moment since has been like a series of new men, growing, changing, awaking into someone else – like someone I was meant to become.

More and more I am convinced that all of life is about learning how to live with this amazingly heavy and inspiring responsibility.

Published on Thursday, July 6, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
Written by Jeff Cohen

These are some initial exploratory steps and research inspired by readings about wastes and toxins like bleach - included is a great list of alternative non toxic ways of doing things. Try a few and let me know what you find - I will do the same.

Today at the most war-glorifying, soldier-heroing ceremony ever - the ceremony that repeatedly bellowed the lies of this war of spreading freedom & democracy while protecting our freedom & democracy - we stand in the middle of the parade route and represent the voice of peace. We (including our 77 yr. old elder) are spit on, screamed at, threatened, materials snatched from our hands & ripped up, as we stand on the grounds of peace.

But something has furthered this feeling of global citizenry during my last trip and reinforced today. I know that part of it is because of the technologies involved in both travel and communication and how easy it is to move both your body and your communications around the globe.

Andrisky Church

It takes becoming regular in certain places and along certain routes to recognize the patterns that teach about a place. There is no doubt that even a short visit like this can teach one about one’s self but to really learn a plus you must find a rhythm or a path and stay in it for a time.

The last time I was in Kyiv, I was treated to winter. This time I am here as winter turns to spring, and more than any other part of the year in seasonal places I love this moment. The moment when out from under the cold and often dark tones of winter peeks the most tender moments in nature.

Sometimes it is the small efforts in life that add up to something much larger.

I think that so much of the wonder of being in other cultures is recognizing that underneath the language, traditions and cultures we have tribes that stretch across the earth.

Today I met my god daughter Sofia Zinchenko! She is soooooo precious – a little smiling cupid that shot a cute little arrow right into my heart.

So I have started over the last few months to ask myself these questions more and more. Asking myself where I am placing value, and looking for ways to do well buy doing good, rather than doing well to then do good.

I recently came across some of the new photos of Abu Ghraib prisoners. I found myself thinking - I know that there are good people out there who are supportive of our current leadership, but I cant help but feeling that these people are truly not paying attention at a common sense level.

and here are those using their powers for good

On PETA I found a list of companies that test animals and companies the do not - this is the list of companies that do. Warning - ignorance is bliss peeps.

exerpt from Ray Anderson’s speach to the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility - http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/article94.html

Captain of Industry or Plunderer of Nautre?

The last few months have seemed to be heavy to me. The other day while driving to work I heard the discussions about Iran and felt some despair about the situation. The thoughts actually popped into my head, “Just think about something else”. I immediately recoiled at this. If I do what does that say about me? Does it say that I am powerless, and that I have nothing to offer? That even my thoughts and passions have no power – even over myself?

my holiday letter that i couldn’t get in the mail on time Mucho love to all.

We’re do I start again?

I just got back from the Green Festival, and boy am I ready to take this fight to the next level.

“If I had let myself think too deeply about what might happen to me, I might have gotten off the bus,” wrote Parks. “I was tired of giving in.”

Please check out this blog

When I went in today, there was a barista I do not know too well but seems like a nice person. The owner of Muddy’s was there too (I will not divulge his name as he may wish to remain anonymous) and we exchanged our hellos. I noticed a plate of candy and asked if they were already getting into the spirit of Halloween. I was told that it was a Mongolian tradition to put out candy when someone has passed on, and that Paulabarak had died in a car accident.

This will give you a little insight to what these California propositions are and why they could be irreversibly detrimental to public eduation.

I am doing the recap of our adventures in installments. I will republish it all as one peice when finished, but for those of you on the edge of your seats, I figured I would give it to you as I finish it in amidst the business of being back.

God I want to “go native” - as in swinging like a monkey right back into that rainforest

I am going back to my natural state – where my brain ends inside of me. I won’t be able to reach out into cyberspace and grab factoids and figures and I won’t be able to check statistics or online news. I will only be able to reach the natural world around me and then of course inward – into the abyss that grows less lit yet more sacred the deeper one reaches.

People, good decent people, will be forced to cross some lines. Some to protect themselves will use weapons against the aggressors that are on the edge of that bell curve, some out of need for food or water will loot places, some out of misery will push and shove. We must respect their struggle to maintain the connection to the law in their heart in some of the worst times of their lives.

I want to reach into myself and into the stranger on the street and I want to lift out all that is holy and all that is the same. I want to take the mother of all road trips and discover every difference that can be pointed to between one person and another and I want to hold it up to what is sacred – beautiful, good and true about us all.

I am on a little bit of a journey this weekend, here in exotic Arizona. This weekend I am going to visit my sick and dieing father who I have been moderately to completely estranged to for the past 10 years…

Can’t say I completely agree with you on this one DB. Faith has always been a powerful force – both constructive and destructive. Faith is also at the heart of things like relationships, recovery from addiction as well as connection with the Other.

The special election is coming up, and here’s something our governator is proposing for teachers…

So how do I categorize this first blog of my life, in Love, Truth, Beauty, Goodness, Politics?

So here is a new and shining soul and what world shall I give her? What, when I turn towards this precious being will I be saying with my life? I am reminded of a mountain top experience when sitting alone at night in a redwood forest I heard my name spoken.