All My Words

kids

2012-02-17T06:22:00.003-06:00

IF

2012-02-06T10:31:00.003-06:00

BY RUDYARD KIPLING

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

A new year, a new intention

2012-02-05T07:10:00.001-06:00

2011 came and went. Just as it was meant to. I looked back today at where my 2011 began. I breathe and it feels like I have lived a few lives since then, I breathe and it feels like yesterday. Not a single month without travel. Each lunch and brunch and sleep over documented. It looked like this:

Missouri Arkansas Louisiana Texas New Mexico Arizona California Washington Oklahoma Missouri New York Connecticut Rhode Island Massachusetts Missouri Tanzania Michigan Illinois Missouri New York Massachusetts Rhode Island Missouri Illinois Missouri Oregon Missouri Utah Missouri New York Massachusetts Washington DC Missouri Texas.

It’s almost exhausting, but it was a kick ass year. January 1^st 2011, Recently back from Tanzania, I drank in the New Year with family. The ones who I honor the most. The days came, and the year brought many things. Marriage, death, birth, engagement, dismayed, betrayal, hope, honor, discouragement, perseverance, perspective, denial, truth, pain, joy, contentment, turmoil, triumph. I reflect on the small moments and the grand gestures but most of all, among these, the stillness and the words that formed the shifting that occurred. The shift within me that no one else sees. The shift in intention and mentality and approach to humanity, and to love. It’s beginning. I fuck it up all the time, like today. But I notice now. And I am shifting my intent and my focus and how I show up for the world, and how I show up for me. I hope one day this will transform me, that one day I will really embody love in a new way, that loves well. I may be old and gray before its recognizable, but it will be my life’s journey. I will love with purpose and trust and connection and support and boldness and freedom and joy. It's 2012 and I endeavor to be someone new this year, someone new for me and someone new for you. Here’s to loving, to failing, and to loving again.

2012-02-05T06:43:00.002-06:00

"Change comes from millions of tiny acts that seem insignificant." - Howard Zinn

If we truly knew that, believed that, then we wouldn’t hesitate to take those acts.

water

2012-02-05T06:42:00.002-06:00

2012-02-05T06:23:00.002-06:00

Happiness comes more from loving than being loved; and often when our affection seems wounded it is only our vanity bleeding. To love, and to be hurt often, and to love again - this is the brave and happy life. - J. E. Buckrose

2011-11-20T10:26:00.002-06:00

Wake up. Day calls you
to your life: your duty.

And to live, nothing more.
Root it out of the glum
night and the darkness
that covered your body
for which light waited
on tiptoe in the dawn.

Stand up, affirm the straight
simple will to be
a pure slender virgin.
Test your bodys metal.
cold, heat? Your blood
will tell against the snow,
or behind the window.

The colour
in your cheeks will tell.
And look at people. Rest
doing no more than adding
your perfection to another day.

Your task
is to carry your life high,
and play with it, hurl it
like a voice to the clouds
so it may retrieve the light
already gone from us.

That is your fate: to live
Do nothing.
Your work is you, nothing more.

- Pedro Salinas

For now.

2011-11-07T21:35:00.002-06:00

I am within myself. Full of me. Embodying who I am. I am in my mind, in my heart, in my body, in my step, in my vision, in my voice. I perceive me as me, as I am, not as I am perceived. I am the me I create, the creation I am.

Acceptance and those we forget exist.

2011-11-07T21:34:00.002-06:00

"I don't know much, I don't know where I am going or where I will end up. But, I know I have this cigarette and I know I have right now."

-Quail (Wanderer, Austin Texas)

Dog Shit park, its a patch of grass. It might as well be home. We sit in a circle, taking long pulls from the whiskey bottle. Pull and pass. There are six others, that makes seven. Ellie sits to my left, rolling her dreadlocks between her thumb and forefinger. Quail lies in the grass beside her, propped up on his knapsack, taking long drags on his cigarette. He was raised traveling as a child and hasn't had a home for 13 years. After the whiskey bottle passes, a can of beer, Natural Light.

Someone made extra today with a borrowed guitar, singing the blues on the corner of Guadalupe and 25th. I met them earlier in the day sitting on the corner. I knew no one in this town. I bought Ellie a beer, her in a black trench coat and overalls, me with moccasins and a sweater drinking Highlife together behind a parked car. Some things are simple. She brought me to the group and we joined in, singing like dinner depended on it. A nice man with grey hair bought us a pizza and beers wrapped in brown paper bags. We sat in the alley behind Urban Outfitters sharing the slices, sipping from cans, and laughing about traveling stories as we pull our jackets tight against the wind. Some have been out here for years. One young boy says he left home two weeks ago, he can’t be older than 16 and he passes out before I learn any more. No one speaks of the past.

Hours later, the group is quiet, an honest kind of quiet. I pull my hat low and wrap my jacket tight. Shay is round and kind with a big red beard and has a genuine joy about life. He is wearing coveralls and carries his guitar and a large canteen filled with beer. The girl to my right introduces herself as McKenzie, and she smiles through the night, her boyfriend never says a word. She is the only one with a job, walking dogs in the morning. She laughs as she packs her pipe with weed. "I found this here in the grass last week," she is thrilled.

I remember the morning I moved into my college house years ago and found a pipe in my closet left by the tenants before. I thought it was dirty then, but now, I too pull and pass. No one cares why I am here. I look different, and they know I have a home somewhere. But tonight I am one of them any way.

Jake has blond hair to his shoulders, a soft voice and kind eyes. He reminds me of a rugged, homeless Jesus. He tells stories of tripping acid and surfing the biggest waves you can imagine. Everyone gets fucked up as they make plans to hop a freight train in the morning. Quail has come from Eugene, Ellie from Baltimore, Jake from San Francisco others from New York, San Diego, Tampa, but that's not where they are going.

"Home isn't a place anymore" says Ellie. It's past midnight now and the two of us walk together back to the streets. She has been gone for a long time now. "I wander, and I beg, I hitchhike, and I sleep in places people think I shouldn't. Society judges me, and I judge society. It's all the same in the end. Who’s to say what is right. I certainly can't." I find her incredible, and brave, and rare. We sit along the wall under florescent lights. "We might be able to score some drunk change" she says, and starts asking people as they walk by heading out of the bar to their cars and their warm homes. "Do you have a little change to spare?" she asks again and again with a gentleness I admire. Most people push past without a glance. I wonder if I would have done the same. I feel embarrassed and then honored, apologetic and then strong. We make two quarters, one dime, and three pennies that a young woman throws down with disgust. To the world, in that moment, we hardly exist.

It wouldn’t be until weeks later that I realize the type of acceptance I experienced that night on the streets of Austin, in the smoke at Dog Shit Park, under the bridge with the makeshift tents. I learned to accept from those that I previously deemed to barely exist.

Read this. Do it.

2011-11-07T18:36:00.001-06:00

The Sun Magazine | Your Own Damn Life

2011-11-06T13:34:00.001-06:00

2011-11-02T21:54:00.001-05:00

2011-10-08T20:38:00.000-05:00

without writing

2011-10-02T19:10:00.001-05:00

It is safe to say, I may be lying in a ditch somewhere
- when the words go away -
dead or dying
the rain is rising around me
puddles
ponds
rivers
drowning in rain, drowning in tears
fears
the forgotten
or what has become impossible
drowning
minuscule attempts for salvation
there are other bodies here too
given up on living
bodies, bodies, bodies for days
the road remains just out of reach, where the world races by
I cup my hands to my ears
one last attempt
for hearing your voice
I breathe in the exhaust, the discarded, the damned
and for a moment
I cease to exist

2011-09-21T21:50:00.001-05:00

pain is an invitation to grow.

2011-09-18T22:11:00.000-05:00

Lost and Found

by David Hollies

The first few times
Being lost was frightening
Stark, pregnant
With the drama of change
Then, I didn't know
That everywhere is nowhere
Like the feeling when a ocean wave
Boils you in the sand
But as time goes by
Each occurrence of lostness is quieter
Falling from notice
Like the sound of trains
When you live near the tracks
Until one day
When a friend asks
"How often do you get lost?"
And I strain to recall a single instance
It was then that I realized
Being lost only has meaning
When contrasted with
Knowing where you are
A presumption that slipped out of my life
As quietly as smoke up a chimney
For now I live in a less anchored place
Where being lost is irrelevant
For now, only when there is a need
Do I discover where I am
No alarm, no fear
Just an unconscious check-in
Like glancing in the rear-view mirror.

Intention

2011-08-16T22:56:00.002-05:00

know me

2011-08-11T15:55:00.002-05:00

Measure me

With the length of your thumb

Or your forefinger

Not only your eyes

Know me with your heart

Not only your lips.

Ask the questions

To discover

What lies beneath the layers

Of me

Peel back the skin

To explore the universe

That will unfold

Breathe with me

Under the sheets and out into the world

2011-08-10T23:26:00.000-05:00

I am
tangled
in a web of forgiveness

Create

2011-08-07T23:42:00.001-05:00

The danger of a single story

2011-08-06T17:19:00.002-05:00

Awesome Talk

We are human equals.
We are more alike than we are different.
Take the time for a listen here on TED Talks:

Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story | Video on TED.com

2011-08-05T09:51:00.001-05:00

You can't be at the pole and the equator at the same time. You must choose your own line, as I hope to do, and it will probably be color.

- Vincent van Gogh

2011-08-04T22:50:00.002-05:00

2011-08-03T22:35:00.001-05:00

110 degrees.
Thats some bull shit Missouri.

sand

2011-07-13T10:29:00.001-05:00

I wrote your name in the sand

Under the cover of darkness

Where the silence is deafening

The light of day long gone

Betrayal is bitter, more than I imagined

Life moves

With a billion different motions

Separating what we created

Everyone waiting for sky and earth to meet

Some just wait for roses

I stand and wait for the waves

To come and wash you away

it's just different

2011-07-02T12:48:00.000-05:00

Different is not bad.
Different is not wrong.

ACT V

2011-07-02T12:45:00.001-05:00

I just listened to this on NPR. It is an incredible story about bringing inspiration, life and humanity through theatre to inmates in a high-security prison in Missouri as they produce the last act-- Act V -- of Hamlet.

If you have 30 minutes, listen.

career path

2011-06-09T17:44:00.001-05:00

Someone asked me the other day what my career path will be.

I wonder, out loud now, why this cannot be my path,

the one I am on now.

I wonder what a career path is, where the path begins and ends.

Does it begin with money and end with success or can we dare to say, happiness?

Or maybe that is just every ones greatest desire.

And let's not even get started on happiness and the way we all wait for it to come.

Waiting.

patiently or anxiously

for the moments we believe must be out there, away from the stress of the world.

waiting waiting waiting for happy

instead of choosing it everyday ourselves.

maybe our career path in its perfect state can one day lead to happy

or what if happy led to the career path instead.

and it wasn't specific,

as I find my happiness rarely is.

And career path becomes a path indeed, a long winding journey through valleys and hills and mountain tops.

And maybe my career path is just that.

Finding something I believe in, where happiness and life abide, and committing myself to working for the cause.

Following the journey wherever it may lead.

In any capacity

While its not the career path you asked about, or the answer you expected, it is my path indeed.

This I Believe

2011-06-04T12:45:00.002-05:00

THIS I BELIEVE

By: Mary Tumaini

Form Three Student

Orkeeswa Secondary School

I believe life is good to everyone

I believe life can change in a few years to come

I believe God is good all the time

I believe HIV/AIDS can be ended this year

I believe my tribe can stop circumcising girls

I believe one day I will be a youth teacher

I believe everything is possible under the sun

I believe people can stop abusing drugs

I believe people can stop killing each other

I believe witch doctors can stop their bad practice

I believe everybody on the earth can love one another

I believe we have the right to love each other

I believe nobody has to live alone in this life

I believe God loves me more than my parents

I believe my parents love me more than my friends

I believe we can respect elders, and they can respect the young

I believe we have equal rights

I believe life does not have to be complicated

I believe rich people can help the poor

I believe if you have all five senses, you are not poor, but rich.

Call Me On Your Way Back Home

2011-05-24T13:08:00.000-05:00

2011-05-24T12:51:00.001-05:00

Visiting UNITE the World with Africa's partners- the women and children we work to support, educate and empower to positively transform their own lives and improve their communities. THESE are some incredible women. Their stories stir hope, dedication, love and transformation.

What an incredible journey this life is when we endeavor together.

thought.

2011-05-22T07:34:00.003-05:00

I wonder if people can actually change.

explore

2011-05-22T05:09:00.001-05:00

excerpt from "Dogfish"

2011-05-22T04:30:00.000-05:00

I wanted
the past to go away, I wanted
to leave it, like another country, I wanted
my life to close, and open
like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song
where it falls
down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery;
I wanted
to hurry into the work of my life;
I wanted to know,
whoever I was, I was

alive
for a little while.

By: Mary Oliver

May 20th

2011-05-21T11:54:00.002-05:00

If you live in Tanzania, this might be what your birthday looks like! Greatest birthday ever.

A Franciscan Benediction

2011-05-18T02:36:00.000-05:00

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships so that we may live deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in the world so that we can change what others claim cannot be done to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

look who I found!

2011-05-16T13:19:00.000-05:00

rain

2011-05-11T15:13:00.000-05:00

Its raining.
the water comes in sheets
washing away the road
as we pass sliding through the mud
from one side to the other
the crops are drinking now
they have browned without water
with the drought that was anticipated
but its raining now.
the old man in the car next to me turns and says
"God has not forgotten us. He remembers those who remember Him"
Some thought God had forgotten.
He had forgotten them here buried in the hills of the vast land in Tanzania
in the small mud homes where they crouch together
in the dust
But God remembers.

My Birthday Wish!

2011-05-06T03:12:00.004-05:00

Dear Family, Friends, Community and Blog readers-

My birthday is coming up on May 20th, It has been an incredible year of life and this year I will be in Tanzania as I celebrate. Though I am many miles away, I asking you to join me in the celebration by supporting some of my favorite people in the world... the students of Orkeeswa Secondary School!

It is my Birthday Wish to raise $500 to support Orkeeswa students.
Please check out my cause here where you can donate and share the link with family and friends. It is easy, secure and tax-deductible:

Quinn's Birthday Wish

Celebrate with me by empowering todays youth with a voice of their own and opportunities through the gift of education.

with gratitude, light and love,

Quinn Brady

2011-05-05T11:19:00.000-05:00

Quinn and Judith

2011-05-05T11:14:00.003-05:00

"You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you. If you don't have that kind of feeling for what it is you are doing, you'll stop at the first giant hurdle.”

- George Lucas

2011-05-05T11:13:00.000-05:00

For You

2011-05-05T10:56:00.002-05:00

For you I undress down to the sheaths of my nerves.

I remove my jewelry and set it on the nightstand,

I unhook my ribs, spread my lungs flat on a chair.

I dissolve like a remedy in water, in wine.

I spill without staining, and leave without stirring the air.

I do it for love. For love, I disappear.

by Kim Addonizio

Baby Quinn

2011-04-25T04:44:00.000-05:00

Visiting Baby Quinn!

2011-04-25T04:32:00.004-05:00

Education.
The need. No service is more crucial than formal education. Only new knowledge and skills can enable the group and the individuals within it to plan for their future needs, organise to defend their lands and resources, and manage independent services and commercial enterprises"

Beauclerk, J., Narby, J., & Townsend, J. (1998). Conditions for Success. Indigenous peoples: A fieldguide for development.

Writing a story

2011-04-23T04:00:00.001-05:00

In life,
If, we only see what we are looking for-
And, it is possible for us to be a part of writing our own story-

And in my life, I cant find the ability to trust-
Then, maybe all I am looking for (concentrating on, aware of, expecting),
is the possibility of being let down, deceived, left, unwanted, forsaken.

If, this is what I am looking for-
Then, it is all i am finding-
and it becomes the story that I write for myself.

And

I want to write a different story.
I Will write a different story.

If M&M's Were Antidotes

2011-04-23T03:54:00.002-05:00

When I was young I had a dollhouse built with care, made by the hands of my father. With soft wood that smelled sweet, the aroma of home. Roof shingles painted red and the front walls open to the world. The rooms were small and filled with furniture, carefully crafted, painted and placed. A bathtub, a bed, a kitchen table, the tiny dishes in the perfect place. The dolls were dressed in prints with flowers and colors, their faces perfectly content. Smiling always at me with ease. I would create their stories, each with their own life theme, the dreams, the hopes, the dashing realities. Hours would pass as I sat in front of these people writing their stories, every day different from the next. A young girl goes out for a walk and if I decide differently, in moments she is upstairs fast asleep instead. The beauty of the redo. The simplicities of moving from one moment to the next. I used M&M’s to supplement the things I did not have. Green ones filled plates on the kitchen table. Everyone needs his or her vegetables; I learned that as a child. Black ones came later if everyone had been good enough for desert. Upstairs on the bedside table there were red M&Ms used for medicine to cure the sick child who was still in bed. The blue were outside in the yard; soccer balls, basketballs and toys, which I never had. Green and orange I ate slowly sucking on the chocolate candies until they melted away.

Twenty years later I sit here eating these small candies by the handful noticing the colors; blue toys, red medicine, green vegetables. I think about the many years that have passed since I held those little wooden people. Who knew these sugar coated candies could meet so many needs. I wonder as I am eating them now what our world would be like if M&Ms were antidotes. I wonder what it would be like to hand the dying mother a red candy to take away her pain, and move her from one moment to the next, from her death bed to her child’s wedding. If only color coated sugar could really make a difference.

Children

2011-04-21T08:08:00.000-05:00

songs

2011-04-12T05:37:00.000-05:00

Still there is silence

In my heart

I wait for the beating

Drums

And music

Of the strings

That you play when I am away

And when I am near you hold me

At a distance with fistfuls of fear

There is trepidation of trust

But even

Dangling

I fling my arms

Open wide

And enter the dance

Immersed

In the songs of joy

I have created

Rumi- Guest House

2011-04-07T07:24:00.001-05:00

This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep you house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Closer To The Edge

2011-04-07T05:49:00.000-05:00

2011-04-05T14:08:00.003-05:00

"It is okay to want what you have, and also want what you are missing."

-my friend

guess it's just me here

2011-04-05T14:06:00.000-05:00

I stand before you
my body bare
chest exposed
to your scrutinizing glare
my heart beating
I stand before you
and you are nowhere to be found

sinking

2011-04-05T13:25:00.000-05:00

Your ocean is in my hair now
tangled where the waves meet the winds
vast space exists between here
and the edge of the earth
where dark places and abundant secrets are hidden
beneath the tantalizing layers of beauty
your crystal blue
I wade into you and
let myself sink deep

my palms

2011-04-05T12:42:00.000-05:00

When I sit and look
at my open palms long enough,
I begin to see the world
I see humanity
I see love
I see heaven
with open palms, I see possibility
and creativity and grace and giving
I see all things in nothing at all.

entangled

2011-04-05T12:39:00.000-05:00

the dance
we are all participants
holding the throat of another
before the discard
blood drawn with our own two hands
lingering under my nails and yours
our bodies move
from one to another
where we lay in the sweet
entanglement
breathing the air of discontent
you walk away
or I do
to the search
violent inquiry, exploration
of another
starting over with the remnants
shattered hope found in being left or leaving
we enter in, prepared for the great
conquest, migration, and settlement
nomads in the land we come from
it begins with eyes and hair and elbows,
entangled, grasping, strangling, death
it is the dance- we are dancing.

cake

2011-04-04T13:11:00.000-05:00

In the porcelain tub the water runs hot and long. I lather my hair with soaps smelling of flowers, and then I wash it again because I can. Using the blade against my legs as the water runs down the drain. 30 hours later I am under running water that drizzles lightly from the faucet and is cold with a lack of power. A spider scurries up the wall beside me. I am thirsty, and put water on the stove to boil for 20 minutes in order to have something drinkable. I lie on the bed and soak in the moments. In many moments I feel like I never left this place. And in the periphery of some of those very same moments I feel like the foreign, the challenge, is all I see. I am struck by the differences, the lack of American understanding. The immense challenge that we the people face to even touch the fringes of understanding and then begin to move that understanding to advocacy, action and change. I lay remembering the feathertop mattress in my room and the doctor’s appointment I so easily attained at home. I don’t think one way of life or the other is wrong, I don’t disagree or think a culture should be downplayed, discarded, or deemed wrong. But I do think that something greater exits, that being a part of the bigger story is possible for all of us.

Driving through the village, everything is green. When I left 3 months ago dust kicked into the air under the feet of every passerby. Brown covered the land. The water was cherished by the drop. Sickness spread and people wandered miles to haul a Jerican of water back home. Now the water overflows washing away roads, filling damns and lighting up the land with color and life. Water means growth and crops and survival. It also means typhoid and mosquitoes which mean malaria. It seems the challenges never end.

I spend an hour in the land rover learning to drive a stick shift. I wish I would have learned years ago. Instead I am learning here, driving on the other side of the road, through mud shin deep among the goats and children running through the village. After killing the engine several times on the hill, Michael looks at me and laughs “QB, this is easy like eating cake with juice!” The kids laugh at me in the back seat, teasing me every step of the way. We celebrate as I conquer the hill. The laughter and ease settles me and I drive along navigating the muddy roads pretending I am eating cake. Hours later I am sitting in the hospital waiting room with students, one is going deaf, another is having anxiety attacks as a result of home life, one is suffering from typhoid and another has possible appendicitis, hunched over for hours in pain. It doesn’t feel like eating cake.

I think maybe it’s about laughing and celebrating and eating cake with your friends in the moments we are given, and standing together navigating the cake-less moments as they come.

seven things

2011-03-24T08:31:00.003-05:00

from a dear friend Paige. I love her, and I love this.

By: Keri Smith
http://www.kerismith.com/blog

Back to Tanzania!

2011-03-13T19:37:00.002-05:00

In a few short weeks I will be back in Monduli, Tanzania with 100 of my favorite people in the world and I couldn't be more excited.

The Indigenous Education Foundation of Tanzania (IEFT) is a community-collaborative organization, providing quality, affordable education to under-served children in rural Tanzania, East Africa. Through the organization’s collaborative model involving both village government and tribal leadership, IEFT staff members work alongside community members in the implementation of the organization’s projects. Straying from the common “aid giving” model, IEFT believes in empowering community members by providing youth with the knowledge and skills to create positive change within their own communities. Education is the key in breaking the cycle of extreme poverty.

I would love to hear from you!

If you would like to get involved or know more about how you can help with educating Maasai youth in Tanzania, contact me at quinnlbrady@gmail.com.

To find out more about IEFT and Orkeeswa Secondary School, visit http://www.ieftz.org/.

We are far grander than we have been told

2011-03-13T19:17:00.001-05:00

"We started by asking what's wrong with the world, and we ended up discovering what's right with it."

New York and the Future

2011-03-13T18:57:00.005-05:00

I spent a wonderful week on the east coast with some fabulous people, having conversations about our families, about our dreams, about how to fight poverty, promote education, train medical workers, and teach public health to communities in need. A million miles removed, sitting around a table with brilliant women, surrounded by buzzing taxis, skyscrapers, and wine we talked about the people we have come to love in Tanzania. We talked about our commitment to one another, our commitment to the people in our own communities and abroad, and about our commitment to be change agents in the world. We shared our desire to be a part of the global community and the conversations that are taking place among humanity. As we talked about our strengths and our weaknesses, we talked about our skills and solutions, what we have to give and what we have to learn. And as we departed days later in our own separate ways, some of us heading back to Tanzania this month, others in the next year, we walked away together. We walked away empowered, with a renewed passion and dedication to open our hands and our hearts to the world, and love big, with all the love we have.

UNITE team and friends

We hope you join the conversation and the adventure with us.

http://www.unitetnz.org/

A Powerful Truth

2011-03-13T11:55:00.001-05:00

Nicholas Kristof, author of "Half the Sky,"
Discusses girls education as a means to fighting poverty in this incredible video from the New York Times...

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/08/20/magazine/kristof-audioss/index.html

Check it out.

2011-03-10T15:40:00.001-06:00

Let my life be an example. Let them learn from what I do rather than what I say.

-Ann Richards

2011-03-10T15:35:00.004-06:00

Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all.

-Helen Keller

your edges

2011-03-10T15:34:00.001-06:00

At the edge of you
I wander
through your cool streams and twisted banks
I linger in the overgrowth
tangled in the weeds
consumed in your scent
blinded by the moments
forgetting the grandeur
the strange beauty of what was meant to be
exactly
as it is

2011-03-10T11:40:00.002-06:00

Canada

By: Caroline Muggia
Age 15

The warm breeze and calm lake

Wood deck and blue chairs

The tall green trees that shade the sand that is sprinkled with sea glass

held together by the strong rocks and seaweed strewn

Lemonade and bite size turkey sandwiches on the glass table

The worn hammock swinging above the slate rocks

Orange lounge chairs hot from the sun

Green hose leaking water

A little news...

2011-03-06T14:46:00.003-06:00

Here is a little story from the Washington Missourian sharing what has been going on with IEFT and UNITE in Tanzania!

Check it out Here at the Washington Missourian Online.

creating possibility

2011-03-05T23:41:00.000-06:00

Pregnancy is the worlds leading cause of death

for 15 to 19 year olds

Shop for a Cause

2011-03-05T23:27:00.005-06:00

The Ashe Collection

http://www.ashecollection.com/

Check out UNITE's new Ashe Collection which provides a showcase for the diverse collection of designers, artists and craftspeople living and working in creative havens like Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.

All procedes directly benefit the artists of Ashe and our parter NGO's working in Tanzania working within Women's health, education and finance initiatives.

We believe great style can come from the most unexpected places, so we explore the very edges of the last frontier to shine a light on the new and emerging talent hidden within. the Ashé Collection crosses borders and boundaries to bring you the most inspiring stories and styles on the planet.

Take Action.

2011-03-05T23:14:00.000-06:00

Be engaged in the world. Get creative. By taking some positive action to help women in need makes you part of the human effort toward change, toward creating a better tomorrow. Do something because you should, because you can, and because there are people across the globe who need you. And people in your neighborhood who need you. Exercise the important role you play in shaping the world. Take action.

The End.

2011-02-23T23:23:00.000-06:00

Five weeks later, after many many many miles, and incredible gas milage in the Toyota Prius I borrowed from my sister, (thank you Nora) I am back again.

Here are a few ROAD favorites.

KOA. Little Rock, AK.
Jambalaya around the kitchen table with some of the sweetest people I know. Ruston, LA.
The Women's Museum. Dallas, TX.
Drinking too much wine in celebration of Carter and Mallory's engagement. Dallas, TX.
Alem, the Parking lot man. Somewhere in downtown Dallas.
Staying the night on the streets, drinking beers in the alley with street kids and travelers. Austin, TX.
Great cappuccino on the patio with Anna. Las Cruces, NM.
Long hike through Petroglyphs. Albuquerque, NM.
Wandering through art gallery, after art gallery, after art gallery. Santa Fe, NM.
Hiking Cathedral Rock alone. Sedona, AZ.
Guided meditation. Sedona, AZ.
Hitchhikers across California.
Watching the sun set over the sea. San Deigo, CA.
Pointa Loma hostel. San Diego, CA.
Paddle Boarding with Sarah and Lindsey. Los Angeles, CA.
Bike ride along the coast. Monterey, CA.
Whale watching. Monterey, CA.
Clam Chowder and wine. Monterey, CA.
Dancing all night. Seattle, WA.
The nudie spa with Bree. Seattle, WA.
Trapeeze flying. Seattle, WA.
Tea by the fire with Suzi. Novato, CA.
Slacklining with Max. Novao, CA.

Petaluma and memories

2011-02-23T22:06:00.003-06:00

Seattle

2011-02-16T14:21:00.002-06:00

Trapeze Flying

San Fran

2011-02-13T23:24:00.004-06:00

Monterey

2011-02-13T23:17:00.001-06:00

LA

2011-02-13T22:54:00.002-06:00

Invest in a Girl!

2011-02-09T23:30:00.002-06:00

Check out this great article from Time Magazine about fighting poverty by investing in girls!

"To Fight Poverty, Invest in Girls"

From Woman, To Woman

2011-02-09T00:48:00.000-06:00

I found out today one of my very favorite people, a 17 year old girl, was raped and is now pregnant. As a citizen of humanity, my heart breaks. As her friend, my heart breaks. And as I cry for her and all the other girls in the world who face similar issues everyday, I can not help but cling to the possibility and the fervent hope that change is possible in our world. I was a 17 year old girl once, and in my own way I have seen what this world can be like. Yet I know that with open hearts and willing hands we can be the agents for change in our own lives and in our own communities. As I take a look at the young women in my life, those I have known for years, those I will meet in the future and those I will never know, I am practicing the diligence and art of noticing. Noticing these girls for who they are, and for the pure potential they hold. I implore you on their behalf, notice them. And then ask yourself what your role is. Women of our world- It is our duty and privilege to stand with younger generations of women, as their advocates, as their leaders, as their mentors and as their friends. It is my great hope that as women, we will each take a closer look and we will notice those who cross our paths. I ask that together we step out to walk with these young women, to empower them through their own journeys. Together, let's create the change I believe is possible in the lives of girls. Join me. It just starts with one- one you, one girl. From woman, to woman. You have everything you need inside you. Share it with the world. You will help others become who they were created to be.

San Diego

2011-02-02T23:33:00.003-06:00

Sedona

2011-01-30T23:35:00.000-06:00

Thawing

2011-01-28T21:43:00.001-06:00

I wake up this morning in my car to a freight train roaring past. It shakes the car, my sleeping bag, and my frozen body within it. My breath hangs heavy and white in the air, and icicles form at my eyes. When I went to sleep all I could see was a dark empty lot. With the beginning of morning light, I sit up in a busy place with people milling around and a large train yard to my right. I can barely move my fingers, my toes, my nose. I am unsure if it is a result of the short back seat or the fact that the thermometer says 17 degrees. I push open my door and roll myself out of the car. I feel like the abominable snowman, I am wearing every warm thing I could find. A small girl is standing a few yards away staring at me. I feign a smile, which I think only scares her more. A few minuets later I wander into the lobby of the hotel next door. It looks bright and warm in there. I tell the clerk I am just wanting to warm up for a few minutes, that I cannot feel my face. "Alright" he says, "but only because you are pretty." I stand there for a moment staring at him, and then I turn and walk out, back into the cold wind of the day. Because I am pretty? What about because I am cold, or because I am human? Next door at Denny's, I ask for a cup of coffee. The young waitress is Indian with thick dark hair and a kind smile. Her and her co-wokers slip easily between Navajo and English. She sets two cups in front of me, filling them with steaming coffee. I look at her confused. "One for each hand" she says, "you will thaw out quicker." I laugh. I am still wearing two coats and multiple sweaters. I don't feel pretty, but I do feel human.

Flagstaff

2011-01-28T20:58:00.000-06:00

Santa Fe

2011-01-28T20:49:00.001-06:00

2011-01-26T08:43:00.000-06:00

Yes I feel emphatic about not being static
and not buying philosophies that are sold to me, at a steal.
Just when you thought it was safe to think,
in comes mental piracy, NO!
What I'm looking for,
cannot be sold to me.
I wish they all would stop trying
cause' what I want and what I need,
is and will always be free.

(when it comes- Incubus)

Albuquerque

2011-01-26T00:30:00.002-06:00

Las Cruces

2011-01-26T00:27:00.001-06:00

Austin

2011-01-26T00:24:00.002-06:00

Alem

2011-01-26T00:19:00.000-06:00

I am sifting through my purse, spilling its contents on the ground by the side of my car. I can't find my damn keys again. This is the problem with purses. I prefer deep pockets. The kind man at the "pay and park" booth comes over stooping down to help me reign in my belongings, plucking my things off the concrete; cell phone, nickels, sunglasses, a tampon, my keys. "too many things in there" he says with a laugh. "No kidding!" I reply. I turn and look him in the eye for the first time. He is grayed and sweet with peaceful eyes, a bushy mustache and missing all his teeth on the right side. He grins, and covers his smile with his hands. "You have nice eyes" he says. Two hours later, I finally leave the parking lot after spending the afternoon sitting next to him in his booth. We talk about life and travels and pain and love and loss. Alem is 62. He is from Eritrea, East Africa. Alem has been working in this same parking lot for twenty years, the companies and owners have changed, but he has stayed with his lot. He knows the names of most people who park here. People come and go and he shares bits of their stories. As he talks about them, he begins to share about his own. He was a guerrilla in the war for freedom and independence from Ethiopia in his country for 13 years before he was wounded. Families were separated, the people were oppressed, an estimated 60,000 people were killed. Eritrea didn't gain its independence until 1993. In combat he was wounded five times by a bomb that exploded in a building where he was. He was flow out of the country by a catholic relief organization and nursed back to health. He still has shrapnel in his brain today. "I used to have mental problems" he says frankly, "but I decided I din't want to have those problems anymore, so I got better." It's as simple as that. He talks about the scariest moments of being alive, he talks about the hope that came through people that cared, he talks about the job that he loves and the future dreams he still has. Alem became a US citizen, went to school and became the head man at a parking lot in downtown Dallas. "There are many good things about this life" he says at the end, "I have much to be grateful for." I hug him and tell him I am grateful to know him. He smiles and covers his broken grin again.

If you want to discover the best kept secret in Dallas, hang out with Alem. He is it.

thought.

2011-01-25T23:33:00.000-06:00

I think someone should write a county song about sleeping in your car at the KOA.

2011-01-21T08:33:00.000-06:00

SURRENDER MEANS SURRENDER, not a dress  rehearsal for surrender.
-sy safransky

2011-01-20T13:03:00.001-06:00

"If the point of life is the same as the point of a story, the point of life is character transformation."
-Donald Miller

Dallas

2011-01-20T12:58:00.003-06:00

being willing

2011-01-20T12:57:00.001-06:00

At the end of the day I sit quietly. My shoes on the floor, my feet on table, my hands in my hair. I listen to the breath inside me, one thing I can know completely as my own. I look. Look deeply at all the places. The moments that are hard to look at, the places I prefer not to see. I am looking now, I have grown tired of not. I have grown tired of being the same. The recreations. My eyes hurt from looking where I wasn't looking, from trying not to see what I was seeing. I ask. Asking myself the questions that prompt the answers that recognize deep within- the roots of me. On the journey of self discovery we don't always like what we find. If I am willing to notice, to really be with it, to be with me, maybe those answers and those things I see can provoke a change. At the end of the day I breathe with the silence, I am with me and I let it be.

Look. Ask. Look again.

2011-01-18T17:54:00.000-06:00

fucking incredible album

check it out: Muse "The Resistance"

2011-01-18T16:14:00.002-06:00

Beauty, like justice, slips through our fingers. We photograph the sunset, but all we get is the memory of the moment, not the moment itself. We buy the recording, but the symphony says something different when we listen to it at home. We climb the mountain, and though the view from the summit is indeed magnificent, it leaves us wanting more; even if we could build a house there and gaze all day at the scene, the itch wouldn't go away. Indeed, the beauty sometimes seems to be in the itching itself, the sense of longing, the kind of pleasure which is exquisite and yet leaves us unsatisfied.

-N. T. Wright

Perfection

2011-01-17T11:13:00.007-06:00

Rosie Thomas- Wedding Day

so much for love
guess i've been wrong
but it's all right
cuz i'm moving on
i've got my car all packed with cassette tapes
and sweaters and loose change and cheap cigarettes
i'm gonna drive through the hills
with my hand out the window
and sing 'til i run out of words
i'm gonna stop at every truck stop
make small talk with waiters and truck driving men
i'm gonna fall asleep in the back seat
with no one around but me and my friends

it's gonna be so grand
it's gonna be just like my wedding day

i've had enough of love
it feels good to give up
so good to be good to myself
i'm gonna get on the highway with no destination
and plenty of vision in mind
and i'm gonna drive to the ocean
go skinny dipping
blow kisses to venus and mars
i'm gonna stop at every bar
and flirt with the cowboys in front their girlfriends

it's gonna be so grand
it's gonna be just like my wedding day

so much for love
i guess i've been wrong
but it's all right cuz i'm moving on
i'm gonna drive over hills
over mountains and canyons
and boys that keep bringin me down
i'm gonna drive under skyline and sunshine
drink good wine in vineyards
and get asked to dance
i'm gonna be carefree and let nothing pass me by
never ever again

it's gonna be so grand
it's gonna be so grand
it's gonna be just like my wedding day

2011-01-14T18:12:00.002-06:00

insist on yourself, never imitate.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

on the road

2011-01-14T18:11:00.001-06:00

I get in the car with a bag of clothes, some camping gear, a camera, a box of books, journals and sketch pads, a harmonica, many maps, lots of great tunes and a few cans of tuna fish. I think I have everything I need. I have weeks, or months ahead of me and a huge uncertainty of what life holds. I know I am headed south, and west and then east- its all out there. I drive alone, not exactly sure where I am headed, but I think I will know when I get there. For now I will trust the peace and discovery that is ahead, and figure out the rest later.

In the first few hours I make some vows to myself. 27 of them to be exact. Raise your right hand and repeat after me. These are the road rules:
1. I will not feel sorry for myself.
2. I will take detours.
3. I will not speed, as much as possible.
4. I will write everyday.
5. I will be bold in photographing.
6. I will stop anytime I want to, and for things I wouldn't normally stop for.
7. I will live healthy
8. I will try new things.
9. I will challenge myself.
10. I will not listen to love songs.
11. I will not make commitments about where I am going.
12. I will be with me.
13. I will eat with strangers.
14. I will practice noticing and acceptance.
15. I will not wait on contact from any so-and-so.
16. I will find a way to serve others.
17. I will stand for peace and let peace guide me.
18. I will open myself to new ways of thinking, to new beliefs.
19. I will drink in random bars by myself.
20. I will see at least one concert of an artist I do not know.
21. I will go to art galleries.
22. I will attend a workshop.
23. I will practice harmonica.
24. I will search for the ability to trust- both within myself and in the world around me.
25. I will open myself to love.
26. I will create what I want in life.
27. I will enjoy it.

new intentions 2011

2011-01-04T09:16:00.000-06:00

Go sky diving, again

Stop letting fear dictate my actions

Invest in people, empower recognition of value and worth. Be aware, reliable, and open.

Write everyday on the ROAD

Drink more water

50 push-ups a day

Say what I mean, mean what I say

Staff a Phoenix course

More photography

Run 5Ks

Be a participant

Take care of me, too

Live like everything is possible

Learn djembe

Tell the stories of others

Step beyond the comfort zone

Get another tattoo

Attend a sun mag workshop

Love well and love big

Thought

2010-12-30T15:10:00.002-06:00

Fuck. I hate all this stuff. How old do you have to get before it stops?

-Nick Hornby