the art of practice

Really, what is the need for writing this blog? To be honest I don't know! I do know that my life is one of action or activity (lets face it even breathing is an action) so at the root of it all I guess, the right question should be more like why not? If life is of action, writing seems like a fine activity. Why not?

If I really look underneath it all there is no purpose for my sitting down to share, express and write. There is no motive, no money, no name and fame that drives the action of writing and this I find beautiful. The ritual is the reward. Showing up everyday to do the same action or craft with a fresh eye (a newness) or with a child's enthusiasm is the art in it's self. How often do we show up for ourselves? How often do we give ourselves time? Sometimes we are so busy running that we have forgotten to care of our very own bodies.

A little daily ritual like writing or painting gives us a moment to honor our uniqueness and when we feel full and complete we can offer that fullness to the world around us. Daily practice may appear boring to the untrained eye but if one takes a deeper look one discovers that every moment is different, new and fresh. The writer of yesterday has changed and what is written expresses differently from one day to the next. Never a dull moment! The routine is a liberation of sorts and within the ritual, freedom. This is the beauty of practice; awakening to the splendor of each and every moment. Show up to the NOW.

Most often we don't even show up to our friend's home for dinner parties (especially if we have to drive cross town) unless its convenient. And these are people we say we love! Be very clear, if we are not showing up for our friends then we are most definitely not showing up for ourselves. If we are alone in the evening, how often do we cooking a beautiful meal, take out the best china, and light a candle for dinner? Almost never! More likely, if we are alone, we will open the fridge and eat a little of this or a little of that while standing by the kitchen counter not even reaching for a plate. If you do not care for yourself who will?

In my youth I had the great fortune to show up to classical dance lessons. Today my ritual is writing. The Buddhist meditate. Take your pick. Give to yourself and just see how beautifully you give back.

Everything exists in relationship.

eat when you eat

Lack of fulfillment keeps us running from one thing to the next. It keeps us in a state of fantasy about a future date or event and it keeps us in state of restlessness deep within our being. (A sort of 'what's next' approach to life and living.) Being unfulfilled is like a thirst that is never quenched.

I was on holiday recently with a friend and we met for lunch at a beautiful restaurant cafe. The atmosphere was stunning, with out door seating and our meals themselves, were works of art. There was much to be savored and enjoyed in our reunion and in the present moment. Yet, my friend was already dreaming and planning about our next meal and encounter. Wow! Just think, you are eating lunch thinking about the next lunch you will eat! How can we even begin to enjoy our meals our ourselves for that matter? Our bodies are in one place and our minds are in another. We did not even have a moment to cherish what we were given and already the mind jumps to the next best thing! This is amazing.

This shows that we have lost our awareness to the present moment, the here and now. If we always look ahead we may miss what is right in front of us, leaving us unfulfilled and in a hurry to keep looking for something else, something more. When we fall into the present moment we find gratitude and become open to acceptance, joy, and love for all that is.

How do we fall into this present moment? How do we find fulfillment? Maybe we slow down just a bit. Maybe we spend a few moments going inward and take a few deep breaths. Maybe it's just a small break at work. Maybe it's a walk around the block to feel the grass underneath our feet and the wind at our backs. Try it and see how you feel. That's the secret, feeling! It's moving from the chattering mind that oscillates like a swing from the past to the future to the feeling heart which grounds us in the present. The now moment is full of life and pregnant with solutions. We just may be to busy to see all of the options.

Eat when you eat. Sleep when you sleep. The future arrives in the form of the now.

The Form and the Formless

why do we get up in the morning?

I have nothing to say. My words were never really my words. My guru was never really my Guru. We come into this world with nothing. And we leave with nothing. I am complete unto myself. I get up in the morning because I am the morning sun. My body is only an expression of a larger whole. I am alone and this is the truth. This is both beautiful and frightening all at the same time.

You inspire me to be me. Without you I am nothing. I have nothing to say. There is no me to say anything. Emptiness is fullness. There is no I only You.

a little friendliness goes a long way

I don't know where the words come from but they just land on me like a ton of bricks. It is like they were meant specifically for me and are given to me precisely at that very moment that I need to hear them. If I 'think' or 'try' I miss them completely and my efforts send me quickly into frustration or disappointment. I have to let them come in their own flow and trust where my fingers are taking me on the keyboard.

Yet, so often we censor the words that come to us. We may be saying or thinking one thing in our heads and then along comes 'the editing process' and only after careful editing do we finally speak or express.

We may find ourselves out with friends who are gossiping and inside our heads we think, 'I really don't see the value in talking like this,' or 'I fully disagree and find Sally Jones to possess lovely qualities just like you and I'. But what comes out of our body language is some bizarre head nod and, "Yeah, that's right." We sit there and watch ourselves agree with others when we fully disagree. Sometimes we are not even opposed, but we may want to offer another angle or viewpoint to the interaction and yet we suppress our true feeling or emotions. Why?

Have we lost our ability to express and be ourselves because we are too caught up in the cultured European society of please and thank you? And in this cultured world of class and politeness have we just forgotten to be ourselves? And is our view of ourselves so low that we feel like what we have to say isn't worth listening to?

Maybe yes and maybe no but regardless we don't gain much from suppressing our thoughts. In the end, we may give value to others, which is fine, but from that conclusion our logical mind deduces that if the others are 'important' then surely we are not. (If something is right then something must be wrong.) But this may not be the case at all, just the way the logical mind is working. And if our mood is low enough about ourselves we believe this mind of ours and fail to honor our own true uniqueness. We live outside of our very own center and put all of our faith on this logical mind.

If we could just have a little friendliness towards our logical mind, a little sweetness towards our self and rest calmly in our own center then maybe we could foster the courage to speak our very own truth. Then look out world!

Celebrate yourself. 'You' are the only 'you' there is.

no more questions

What wold happen if all your questions disappeared? You would have to welcome life as it is, right? You would have to welcome 'you' as you are. You would have to enjoy, now.

So, what are you waiting for? Drop the mind. Drop the routine. Drop in on a friend. ENJOY!

Sit and Smell the Roses

Every moment is a test and perfection lingers around every corner as we run to fix, carve and chisel. My dad used to say, 'just do your best.' Maybe that means that in this moment your best isn't that great at all. That's okay. Acceptance is key. Tomorrow it will be different. We are not Picasso; we never will be. We too, can be great, but we have to accept ourselves as we are. We have to accept our very own uniqueness. Beautifully what needs to change will change but we can not force 'the changing'.

Just as the rosebush blooms. We cannot force the blooming. It just happens at its own will. If we spend time tilling the soil and nurturing the seed then beautifully the process will unfold in it's own time. Just as we are patient in the garden we must be patient with ourselves.

At this point, when we have nurtured the earth and taken care of the sapling we must give up and allow the process to happen. And it is in that moment, the moment of letting go, that the rosebush blooms. Like this, we too bloom. It can't be forced. There is no quick fix.

Accept yourself and plant the seed. The process may be challenging but the seed has to rupture. At that moment of 'rupture' there is pain. Don't think that life is free of suffering or pain. And don't walk away in disbelief that the bloom doesn't come. There is both. Both at the same time.

Walk in the middle. Live the paradox. Don't miss the roses.

Gone fishing?

I have a copy of "I and Thou" sitting next to me on the table and the cover photo of M. Buber is simply radiating. His eyes know something that I also know, almost as if he is looking right at me saying, "I know you get it. Now just express it." But how? And that's where the whole thing goes wrong!

'It' just expresses all by 'it's' self. (There is no need for me to help out in this adventure at all!) Actually, it is a continual expression, a continual happening all the time. ALL THE TIME! And there is nothing to get, so please don't try to sell me anything like I am missing something. I am enough unto myself, as long as I have gotten out of the way, that is. Actually, I am so much unto myself I don't even know where to begin. It's all so marvelous and so exciting.

Sometimes the best thing that happens is that I just sit with my glorious self. But the big world out there seems to have a bit of a problem with my sitting because I am not catching any fish. Well the truth is, there are no fish to catch. Actually, I have found the action of catching catches me in the end. And beautifully catching fish, like filling up at the pump (the pump of greed), I am only then fueling the machine. And then, tell me what is it that I am serving at the end of a long day when I am tired and have nothing left for those I love. Why is it that I fuel the machine and forget to fuel myself and loved ones?

Things come and go and there is no need for greedy hands in this game of ebb and flow. The ocean knows this movement like the back of her hand. So naturally she comes and goes why don't I? Movement is natural but I have to be still in order to notice. I must have time to sit. And who has time for that when I am occupied with fueling the machine. Catching fish keeps me out of the flow and makes me solid when I am most definitely not.

I believe that I am even made up of 90% water. (Or something like that.) So in other words I am the river itself and the big fish is inside. Don't think that the fish are outside like objects to be had. Nothing can be caught and nothing can be bought. But that is not what I have been told. Experiences can only be shared and I would like to experience more of my friends. But everyone seems busy or tired. We are running and maybe it's time to sit. Sit and experience the flow.

I am the river. I am flowing into and with the ocean. And the fish are inside. Don't miss. Go in. Read Buber.

where is God?

How does one talk about the un-talkable? Keats did it with poetry about truth and beauty, Balanchine did it by capturing bodies in the most splendid shapes, Miles Davis did it by making music with the space in between the notes, Kandinsky did it with the visual representation of vibration and our masters do it with their sheer presence alone.

Talk is cheap. And so is the newspaper. Don't miss the truth.

item # 2

try and define me
you can't

not even with facebook
posts
or tv.

that's not the real me.

it's a marketer's
land
than we must band
but we cant
because

they have made marketing out of you and me.

see,
there is no more
benefactors
and the grants are dry

so just forget that pie in the sky

and see
you are free.

you cant define me

item # 1

all my life
i have wanted to disappear
into that
which is
without form

i am that
child
hiding from the mother
i am that
teen starving for food
i am that
twenty something running after fancy fur coats
i am that
who finally disappears into the deep
void
i now call the work force

i am all of it and none of it

tightly wrapped around the identity
of my singular job
knowing no separation
between the me and the work
living a lifeless life
deathfully alive
hooked up to the machine for air
or for what i am told is air
for what i thought was sustaining me
but was nothing more than a mere paycheck
to the machine that makes me run
i was hooked

no beginning no end to that identity
and to the solid i

i wasn't disappearing at all
but in the business of manufacturing and selling
selling a false reality of myself to my self

no i wasn't disappearing
i wasn't disappearing at all
i was deathly

holding on at all cost
clutching tight with my head ducked low
scared to look
or move
or breath

and no car or house
changes the solid existence
that is in denial
of the beautiful sun

frozen in the junkyard of objects and things
let me disappear
and become like that child
who is happy
with nothing and all

and who stands up quickly after
a fall

let me disappear
into that

i am that

i am that
which you cannot write
which you cannot explain

so refrain
disappear in to the mall
where you can
get it all

Look Ma No Hands and the Broken Record

So, I learned something new today. I learned how to make masala chai. Usually we are all set in the same routine from the minute we get out of bed. But today was different! Most mornings we may get up, make coffee, read the paper (or a blog) and then venture out the door into the beautiful unknown to go to a job that is very known. Sound familiar? And this record runs over and over again, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. So, my question is, can we really call this living? Why are we stuck on the same track? And can we simply change the record?

This record, the one that we call life is nothing more than a habit. As we all know habits seem hard to change. But are they really? Or have we just brainwashed ourselves into believing so? So, why don't we just go ahead and tell ourselves that these habits are easy to change. It's easy to change outfits, it's easy to change the radio station, and it's easy to change oil in the car. Then why is it difficult to change the smoking habit or the morning cup of joe habit?

Well it all boils down to what we want. The truth is we want to smoke and we want to have that cup of coffee otherwise we wouldn't do it. Right? So, if we are complaining that we never get to make our dreams a reality (quitting the fags) we are actually secretly in love with them. Who are we kidding? And we may just very well be fooling ourselves into thinking otherwise.

Furthermore, these habits, like the smoking and the morning cup of joe are beautifully running our life like sailors at the helm of the ship so to speak. And we rightfully argue that we enjoy these habits as we keep fulfilling the sense organs with doses of pleasure and write it off as happiness like the hungry dog at the food bowl. Well, it might be happiness for the fleeting moment. That is, until the food bowl is empty and we look for something else to fill it. Or bark at someone else to fill it.

And what happens when these pleasures turn into something painful? Like when one day the pleasure of reaching innocently for the tub of Ben and Jerry's suddenly turns into type II diabetes. These moments, ever so fleeting, make us slaves to the external objects. Can the ice cream and the cup of coffee satisfy the real nurturing that we all crave? We are so busy spending our lives consuming, dumping objects into our bodies, and reaching for the next product that we have simply forgotten to enjoy ourselves without any external object. The simplicity of existing and enjoying the moment has turned into a bit of a challenge like sitting in the grass, or being with the sunset. (We don't grasp for the sun or covet the grass. We simply enjoy it.)

So, what happens when we take these objects of desire away? Can we be "happy" unto ourselves? Or are we no different from the rabbit chasing the carrot? We may have thought that we have gotten rid of our favorite blanket years ago, but the truth is we have just substituted it for something else. Yes, we may be grown up and our toys of the past don't seem to serve us any longer because our intelligence has been updated but I can say that we are still holding on and, well, just playing with new toys. Maybe it's time to let go and say, "Look ma! No hands!" as we sail into a new adventure or fulfill that long lost dream. And then brilliantly move on to something else. Not attached to the result or the OBJECT but beautifully enjoying the ride just like we beautifully enjoy the grass or the sun.

Yes, we are bound and frozen to objects and patterns that we call living. We are most definitely NOT flowing hands free downstream with the river of life but clutched to a dead log in fear of letting go, or greedily holding on because we have been told that there is nothing better out there for us.

Go ahead and take on a new adventure. I learned how to make chai tea! And check to see if you are playing that broken record, clutched desperately to that dead log, or in dire need of that cup of joe? And maybe even take a moment to ask yourself why you are holding on so tightly? The problem isn't the cigarette, it isn't the coffee and it isn't the job. But could the problem simply be the holding on?

Buddha offered non-attachment. I say, go ahead and ride that bike down the street of life with no hands and simply enjoy. Can you see your neighbor's habits? Recognize any zombies? I certainly do!

Henry Miller

I have fallen deeply in love with Henry Miller. My cat is named Henry and by association I am now pondering if there is any sort of sign here. My father-in-law (I hate that word. It always seems so terrible) has always been a big fan of Henry Miller. So, why is it that only today I am catching on? It's like once you buy a new car the only car that you now see on the road, or in a parking lot just happen to be the same model car as your brand new one. It's amazing how our minds do this! The truth is that these cars and Henry Miller were here all along but for some reason today I decided to take notice and look. Did "I" really choose to look or was it something else that what showing me? Was it something else leading me beautifully to Henry Miller's book title that just so happened, today March 20th, to be screaming loudly from the top of the bookshelf.

It's a seeing differently of sorts. Just a simple shift in perspective and a whole new world opens up, like a 'choose your own adventure' storybook where someone else is doing the choosing. And it's as though this new world was never there before, but now it's the only living reality there could ever be. And I have FALLEN privy to it. I have fallen.

It is the only world that I want to exist. And the minute that "I want" it to continue it vanishes just as quickly as it came. Am I really the creator of my own reality? And is this what Alice meant by "down the looking glass?' How long will my love affair last with Mr. Miller? Where will I be led to next?

The real love knows no object. And as I watch the drama unfold I feel like Henry Miller really IS choosing me. Be the witness, and witness the changing reality REALIZE you.

Who CARES?

I walk into Starbucks and even the grocery store and I am greeted as "guest or friend", but in reality is this the truth? Am I really a guest or friend? Am I really treated like a guest or friend like my mom treats one at the house with the best dinner plates and the fancy desserts, not holding back but showering with grace and love? In our communities where did this kind of motherly care go? Is this care out there in the community? And where is this community? The real community! Not the online community posing as the next best thing. Who out there really cares? Who cares?

Our mother cares. Our mother cares, but she too was sold a bad deal. Somewhere in time we told our mother that she needed to be something more than what she was. We told her that being a mother was just not good enough. We told her to get out of the house and that would equal freedom. Is that really the freedom that our mother was asking for? The freedom to run and head a fortune 500 company. The freedom to take care of the family from the sidelines with take-out food and maid service. The freedom to ultimately be armed and ready to take on the world fighting! The freedom to swim in the pool of stress. Is that what our mother wanted?

Or was our mother asking for freedom in another way? Was she simply asking for a little room for her creative, round, full, feminine body to be accepted and heard? What is it really that our mother wants? Did we ever stop and ask?

I don't pretend to know. But lets give her the room to be her big beautiful round self. Let's not chisel her into something linear and straight, something that she most definitely is not. If I look into my mother's eyes, she is crying. She is holding back tears. She wants to nurture, she is a mother. But we don't let her. We all can see that the world is in need of the nurturing, but we have be sold the notion that we can 'do it our selves'. More nurturing may mean more community and more community may mean less separateness. But our mother can't do this alone. She needs to be nurtured herself.

Who Cares? Your mom does. Gershwin wrote the song and Balanchine made the ballet. Call your mom. Heal the planet.

What's a smile worth?

So I stopped by to see an old friend today, someone who I haven't seen in a very long time, and it seemed like he had it all! The designer house, the zen garden, the new sound system, the modern furniture (right out of those fancy magazines) and the right cars too. You name it he had it. And he even told me that he was doing well.

Do you want to know what was missing? A smile. Nothing can buy you bliss.

Help I am locked IN!

I feel like my hands are tied behind my back, my mouth is taped shut, and I am screaming at the top of my lungs from the depths of some unknown closet with the door shut and the key has been carefully thrown away. I feel like I have SO much to say and no body is listening. And you feel the same way too!

Why is it that we don't listen to each other? If you really look we aren't having conversations. We are talking to ourselves. How many times do you go out with a friend and she says something lovely (or no so lovely) and you aren't listening at all, you are preparing your answer! What you are really feeling is that her experience isn't worth the listening but yours is, so you are saying 'listen to me instead'. (The "me" is running the show here and the "listening" is put on the back burner.) In the end, we are just out doing each other with a "well listen to this one" approach to conversation. But who is really listening? No one. Our spouses don't even listen. The dialogue is just a laundry list of how bad my day was compared to how bad your day was. And that's why we end up paying someone to listen to us. Enter the shrink. We pay people to listen because NO ONE DOES.

We aren't sharing with your friends. We are dumping our disastrous day on our near and dear ones because maybe we have taken on too much and maybe we have forgotten to appreciate just what we have. So, in our attempt to feel better and share, we begin the one way dialogue with ourselves because NO ONE IS LISTENING.

And this leaves us feeling like we want to scream. This becomes the catalyst for us writing blogs. The truth is we all have so much to say. We all have so many beautiful experiences and ideas to share. Don't miss out on your friends just listen to them. Give them your ear and unlock them from the depths of that closet. You hold the key.

stop running

Why is it that we are never satisfied with what we have? Why is it that we always miss out on the present moment for the mere hope that it is going to be different, better, and more exciting in the future. Where is this future anyway? As we all know the future never comes as we imagine and the house and kids that we thought would make us happy never does. And this leaves us running after more more desires in attempt to make it all better. First it's the dream job, then it's marriage, then a house, then it's a kid, then another kid to see if that helps soothe the marriage, then, then, then! We are all running marathons and calling it life. I think its time to sit and smell the roses and enjoy what existence has given us. The future only comes in the form of the present. So, eat a bowl of cornflakes, relax in your favorite chair, and just watch your neighbors run after things they don't even really remember wanting in the first place. Get out of the game and get into the lawn chair. Enjoy.

you can dish it out but can you take it

So it seems like the minute that I tell myself to go on a diet all I can do is visualize and desire food! Yikes!

If I follow my own advice I should just know what I really want. Follow it. And drop what isn't working. I really want to eat and at the same time I really want to be thin! Impossible!!! Conflicting desires. I guess I'll have to choose one. Okay, I guess I'll choose being THIN.

Right. So I guess the diet wins out over bathing in cookies. I'll let you know how it goes.

NOTE TO SELF: Words are powerful. If I say monkey all of a sudden an image of a monkey pops up in your head. And if I say cookie you just may be running to the kitchen now. Well I will be saying celery for the next few weeks. That is my choice. Celery. Celery. Celery. I think I can do this. NO I am doing this. No thinking allowed. Only right action.

I'm just not in the mood

Have you ever told your husband that you are just not in the mood, not now at least? Have you told your best friend that you'll meet up with her next week but you never actually do? Have you ever gotten around to making that dream project a reality? I didn't think so. So in reality life is on hold for some future date that never really seems to come. Right? Your friends seem to be doing it all but you are just left behind. In other words, you procrastinate through life by blaming external events and objects for getting in your way like your poor parents or procrastinating in fear that you don't deserve your dreams anyway. (They are your dreams! Who else is going to make them into a reality?!!!) So how to tackle this one? Lets do a small experiment! It'll be fun. No exploding volcanos I promise. It goes a little something like this....

Pick up a glass with your left hand. Come on, humor me, go ahead and do it. Okay, got the glass? Great. Now, how many of you procrastinated in picking up the glass? How many of you actually picked up the glass no questions asked? And how many of you didn't pick up the glass at all telling yourself that it was too much WORK to go all the way to the kitchen so let me just read on she'll never know!

So as you just found out the mind plays a big role in this lovely game of procrastination. Also in the mix here is our lovely friend desire. Do I really want to pick up the glass?

The truth is mind gives me every excuse in the book NOT to do something! "Don't get up, just sleep in one more hour. You can do the dishes later. I'll do yoga tomorrow. Work can wait; just a few more minute on the sofa. Don't pick up the glass this is stupid she'll never know." This dialog is endless! The mind and the art of procrastination go hand in hand. Everything else seems to gets done before the work that needs to get done. Sound familiar? And it's always a negative dialogue. Notice you didn't even want to pick up the glass or play the game. Well it's like this in the game of life. And you are choosing not to play. Not to make love not to enjoy the company of your friends not to create the dream job. Just look! Widen your scope. There is much more going on than the negative dialog. The sun is actually shining!

And our lovely friend desire if you notice is changing all the time. One minute picking up the glass is no big deal at all and at another time it is the last thing that you ever would want to do. Maybe some of you feel this way about having kids. One day it seems like a grand desire and the next day not so grand especially if you just visited your friends with kids. So we can deduce that the issue here with procrastination isn't about the object itself (in this case the glass) but it could be work or kids or anything else for that matter or the action (picking up the glass) or doing the work or raising the kids. The issue here is the fluctuation of these desires. Do I want to pick up the glass or not?

In other words know what you want. It can be so easy. Just pick up the glass. Just say yes to what comes your way. Or just drop it. Just like you can put the glass down. Again it's that easy. One simple movement of the mind and your whole life can change before your very eyes!

It's your very own free will. I tend to choose play over work. Actually my work is play. Why not? See you at the beach!

Toaster-less in LA

Burnt toast again. Am I the only one here in LA without a toaster? Every time I attempt to make toast another piece of bread joins the black brick club. Not only are we wasting food here (although I will admit to eating several not so black squares for lack of anything else to eat) but there is a chance I could turn into one of those poor starving artists. And we sure don't need any of those kind around here. Especially not in LA! I mean come on lets get real, artists in LA!

Am I just a by product of the 21st century multi-tasking machine trying to do too many things at once and burning toast? Do I need to sharpen my awareness with more yoga classes? Or do I just need a simple toaster that makes a small dinging noise letting me know that the bread is making its final transition in to becoming toast?

The caterpillar turns into a butterfly, bread becomes toast, and LA can have artists. Change is the only constant. Be yourself. Be an artist. Burn your toast.

If you want to donate a toaster please send it to:
Burnt Toast
1319 Kellam Ave Apt 1
Los Angeles, CA 90026
USA

running, great ideas and daring to be unique

Nature doesn't grow in straight lines. Our trees aren't really shaped like picture perfect little gumdrop sculptures and when I get out of bed in the morning my hair doesn't sit perfectly straight. So why are we spending our time ordering, trimming and fixing nature, ourselves and whatnot into the images that are in our heads? And where are these images and pictures coming from? Am "I" making them up or have they been given to me? And who is this "I" anyway? Why is my being giving the driving seat to this "I"? Where is the resume for this "I"? Let me see it! In so many places we are asked for credentials and proof. No one seems to be asking the "I" that is running my life for any proof and all that is happening is running, running and more running.

Maybe we need to feel like we are in control of something so we trim and order and this "I" is telling us to do so. So we oblige. A slave to the "I". Being in control of our image and environment makes us feel like we exist. Like we are someone, a solid entity, with ideas and not only ideas but with what we think of as great ideas. What makes them great? Well at least one minute they are great and the next minute maybe we have already changed our minds and then they are not so great. It is only those who are stubborn enough to stick with one idea long enough who really make it out there in the so-called world with these so-called great ideas.

Can we truly control our image of our self and unruly hair(I could plug a great product right now but won't) or nature? So why are we trying? What would it be like if I went to work with my unruly hair? Or if I didn't perfect my yard and lawn (the yard is not really mine. I am pretending. I still rent)? Would my boss fire me on account of my hair? Or would the "I" receive a small blow? Would my neighbors think ill of me if I didn't trim the trees? Or would I just have a little more time to enjoy the place I call home? Whats wrong with that?

In trying to trim and fix maybe our friends will think that we are cool. And maybe we will feel that we finally fit in and that the moving, talking, trimmed, perfected self that I now call me (which couldn't be further from the truth but is what I have decided to project to the world) is hip and now has something to say! Watch out! "Hey! Look at me with my gumdrop trees, model hair-do, eating an all veg. vegan raw work of art sandwich that I don't even really like but it's GREEN so I bought it!" Yes, I bought it. And so did you. We bought a lot of things. Tomorrow I am going to work without touching up my hair. I dare to be confident and unique! All our great artist dared to be unique.

Dare to be yourself. Dare to be unique. Dare to be an artist. Double dog dare ya!