By being outside I learned about my inside.

-It's GOOD Music

Articles to Read

To Change the World, Ignore Your Parents
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-lewis/ignore-your-parents_b_1584835.html

Call to Action: Students and Professors Get Serious About Impact
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/saul-garlick/students-and-professors-make-impact_b_1515307.html

The World Needs Us To Be Fearless
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jean-case/the-world-needs-us-to-be-_b_1310889.html

Don't Lose Steam

Sources of energy to continuously tap into for refreshment, for re-energizing, for re-focusing, for getting re-repurposed.

DON'T LOSE STEAM

Future Calling (Not just a job)

Incredible article. I have been hoping to find something like this.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brazen-life/10-careers-that-let-you-f_b_1586777.html

My Brooklyn

Everybody wants investment -- the question is how equitably will the benefits of that reinvestment be shared? Will the existing community be displaced, or are there ways of encouraging a co-existence of old and new residents and businesses? Some change is unavoidable. Our point with "My Brooklyn" is that the city is fueling the change in ways that create a more unequal city. The city encourages luxury residential development through subsidies to developers that are unnecessary in a hot real estate market like Downtown Brooklyn's. Residential subsidies totalled more than $200 million in 2011 alone, and they will continue for 10-25 years! This is money that could be distributed in ways that could benefit a wide cross-section of Brooklynites instead of just giving the most affluent residents a gigantic break on their real estate taxes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/gentrification-brooklyn-my-brooklyn-documentary-movie_n_1590667.html?utm_hp_ref=new-york

Contentment

No, I am not content.
But I find contentment in the hope that one day I will be content.
And that place will be in New York.

Relationships

I'm a goddess, and I didn't even know it
But men noticed
Even when I was trying to mess around with no strings attached
I'd always get a call back
"Hey, can we meet up again?"
And I didn't realize my power then
But I know it now
I didn't find anyone worth it
But I gave it up to men who didn't deserve it
They were my mistakes
In exchange for temporary fun I caused heartache and took home baggage
I tainted relationships for you touchin my hips
It was a journey through a state of mind
And I realized that life is not right
For me
But I am not one to judge thee
I'm just too deep to let one go deep and quit it
But at the same time I don't want someone to consistently hit it
I am more grown
And happy alone
And one day,
I'll find someone who is worth it
And let them explore
My mind, soul, and more.

-JAYBE

Time, Dead Prez

oh.em.gee. I don't fall in love often with anything or anyone. But I am falling in love with the music of Dead Prez.

"Don't play with your life because that's time you can't get back."
-from the track, Time

"He was one of our generation who was determined to give his life to transforming America and Africa. He was committed to ending racial apartheid in our country. He helped to bring those walls down".

-Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson

"Vegan food is soul food in its truest form. Soul food means to feed the soul. And to me, your soul is your intent. If your intent is pure, you are pure."

-Erykah Badu

art

Strength

“You have to accept whatever comes along and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.”

Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962

Interdependence

Everyone needs a little help now and then. If someone were to say, “I don’t need any help, ever, from anyone”, well they would just be lying – to their self as well as to whomever they were saying this too. It’s just a fact of life that human existence is dependent on helping one another.

Don’t believe me? Think about it, were you able to give birth to yourself and fully care for yourself as soon as you were born? Of course not, and I’m sure your mom appreciated the help she got while giving birth to you. Oh, I know, there are some women who have given birth without assistance, but I’m sure they would have gladly received help if it was available. Although there is a lot of instinct, and natural bodily processes, that move the birthing process along, the mother has to help the baby enter the world through pushing a little. Then the mother helps the baby find her breast, and she keeps helping that baby through all the processes of growth and development until it becomes an adult. That’s at least 18 years worth of all different kinds of help.


Washington AIDS International Teens helping out at the food bank.

Helping one another is a form of love. We are created in love and are meant to exist in loving relationships – at least that’s the ideal even though it may not always be the reality. Human beings are meant to exist in inter-dependent relationships, not co-dependent, that’s something else altogether. We are also not meant to be as independent as we think we want to be. As a matter of fact, if we could achieve absolute independence we would be alone and miserable. Living is about loving and loving takes two.

There are as many ways to help someone as there are to care about another persons well being. We have no shortage of ability to help because even a kind word or a smile might help to make someone’s day brighter. We can help in big ways or small ways, it’s not really something that needs to be measured because it is simply the way life is designed; to give according to your ability and to receive according to your need. No I’m not a raging Communist, but I’ll prove this point.

The entire Universe exists on the basis of inter-dependent relationships, giving and receiving in cycles that support all life. A simple example can be seen in the trees that give us oxygen and we breathe back carbon dioxide. Trees help us in a multitude of other useful ways as well, so wise people fight to preserve the existence and reproduction of trees (and other plants as well). That is not only helpful to the trees but helpful to the preservation of the planet and all life. Oh there are endless examples I could give of how all living things are dependent upon one another to thrive and prosper, but I think you get the point. All life is inter-dependent.

I often wonder why it is that humans are so insistent upon being independent, and oftennot helping each other. We find it easy to help when it is convenient, or to our advantage, but we don’t often stretch ourselves to help as much as we are capable of helping. We create reasons for not helping and wrap ourselves up in doing what we think we need to do to take care of ourselves and those closest to us. By doing this we limit our capacity to love, which is also limiting our capacity to experience the full value of life.

Striving for independence is something we do as we are growing up and the purpose of this is to become fully functional and capable according to our individual potential. Once we become a fully functional and capable adult, if we are really mature, we realize we received a lot of help along the way and we begin to look for ways that we can give back. We also realize that although we may be very capable and independent, we are not really complete or happy alone, we want someone to love and be loved by.

If we could just take this simple process a step further and project it onto a global scale, I think we might find solutions to the worlds problems. There are enough fully functional and capable adults in the world to help those in need, but we have been focused on our own perceived needs and limitations for so long that we have forgotten our purpose. We have confused wants with needs and created a really ugly system of taking as much as we can get and still wanting more. The world is in a mess because we are looking for fulfillment through “getting what I want, because I want” instead of “giving what I can, because I can”.

Sometimes we need to receive or ask for help, it is natural and there is no shame in it as long as we are doing our best to also give what we can according to our capacity. There will always be times and places and possibilities for giving and receiving because it is the natural design of life, inter-dependence. Unfortunately, the world is very out of balance with it’s own natural design because of human greed, lust, resentment and generally self-indulgent thinking – the world needs a lot of help. You and I can help, by creatively using our time, abilities, knowledge or resources to help those who have serious needs, in your community or someplace else in the world. Join me in striving to live in balance with our natural design, by creating each day with a helping hand toward others.

http://createabeautifullife.com/2012/05/29/create-the-day-with-a-little-help/

Controlling the Mind

“To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace at all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.”
Buddha

Take a break to
reaffirm my intentions.

Good Vibes... Hopefully this helps you in your life jounrney

Vibration = Energy = Existence, Action & Development



Everything comes from an invisible creative force. I believe that invisible force is love. What do you believe?



Is what we believe important? Consider this: What you or I believe deep in our subconscious will determine the types of choices we will make in life, and where those choices will lead us. The subconscious mind together with the conscious mind, and our physical impulses, are constantly having a dialogue and creating a whole framework of beliefs through which we interpret life. Based on the conclusions of our thoughts and feelings we make plans & take action. You create your life.



Is it a beautiful life? I hope so. When I look at the incredibly complex, unique, unending and abundant beauty of the natural world I know it is an expression of a vast mystical & eternal love. Nature is constantly sending good vibes to us, we just need to look around and appreciate it. As they say (whomever they are), take time to smell the roses (or whatever flower you want). Whenever I’ve felt a little down or have had troubles on my mind I find a plant or tree to gaze at, lie down in the grass and watch the clouds, take a drive in the country, or visit a beach or botanical garden. There is an amazing world of good vibrations and inspiration out there.


http://createabeautifullife.com/good-vibes/

"I’m a person of movement and I’m grateful that I can still move. For me, life is about change and growth and discovering all the beauty and goodness there is to be grateful for. I’m grateful for the past, but I’m more grateful that I still have time to do new things, to meet new people and to create in new ways. Maybe I should write this on my ceiling so I can read it every morning to motivate myself out of bed."
http://createabeautifullife.com/2012/01/29/morning-reflections/

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice" (Boyd 74). -MLKJr.

"What you do when you don't have to, determines what you will be when you can no longer help it."

"Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind."
-- (Joseph) Rudyard Kipling

"It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."

I want to be the one that makes you happiest and hurts you the most. -The Light (Common)

hip-hop and New York City,
You the love of my life.

Learning Experience

In the opportunity of free will, true character & loyalty is proven. -My sister

WORDS ARE MY AMMO

We can't change the world but we can change the way we live.

It's hard to be a warm person in a cold world.

Learning what I want in a lover.

It truly is something to figure out. 1. Getting deep to getting down

Pussy is power

Being Yourself

E.E. Cummings wrote: “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”

If you struggle to be true to yourself in a world that often pulls you off course, you’re not alone.

And you don’t have to struggle alone, either.

-Ocean Robbins