www.smallfarm.org

05 - This is an 80-acre organic for-profit farm located in a beautiful area of Long Island’s East End (called the North Fork). We are about 2 hours from NYC in a great area of beaches, ponds, forests, farms, and great summer weather. We cultivate approximately 30 acres of mixed vegetables and 3 acres of cut flowers, focusing on great-tasting heirloom varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, potatoes, etc. We also have a flock of 1000 laying hens, and a few cows, sheep, and goats for milk, meat, and fun. We sell produce to approximately 700 CSA members at ten locations in NYC and on Long Island, to local residents from a busy farm stand on the farm, and at Greenmarket in Brooklyn and farmers markets on Long Island.

If you are interested in learning how to develop and run your own diverse sustainable farm to sustain you and your family someday financially as well as spiritually, you will find working with us very interesting. If you are just looking to learn how to grow your own food and relax in the country for a summer, you may not find it as enjoyable. We hustle.

Experience preferred but not necessarily required. We are looking for apprentices who are self-directed and enjoy “attacking” the challenges that arise throughout the farm season, and who are interested in helping us improve the way we do things on the farm by sharing with us lessons from their experience on other farms and by taking responsibility for the parts of our operation that interest them. Drivers license and the ability to drive a truck, particularly in New York City, is highly desired. Sense of humor, independence, initiative, a good attitude, and a large dose of common sense are also desired. Mechanical experience, driving or fixing tractors and machinery is also highly desired.

Approximately 55 hrs per week will be expected (i.e. 8 am – 5 pm 6 days per week), with one full day off, and some schedule flexibility upon advance request.

Education is mainly hands-on, learning-by-doing. We have a weekly meeting where the farmers answer questions in-depth, and many lunches turn into spur-of-the-moment lessons on everything from marketing plans to cultivating implements. We lend books from our sustainable agriculture collection and will make limited reading and writing assignments. We facilitate monthly exchanges with other area farms, including vineyards, tree farms, etc. and other organic farm apprentices, as well as social events with neighbors and friends. Enjoy our area's natural attractions on days off including kayaking, canoeing, hiking, and swimming. Special projects can include opportunities to make additional income through entrepreneurship, such as growing and marketing your own crops on unused farmland, pastured poultry, and production of pickles, cookies, jams, and farm arts and crafts for sale at farm stand. Other projects to improve the sustainability of our farm are welcomed including establishing educational gardens, teaching on-farm classes, and experimentation with alternative fuels (straight vegetable oil, bio diesel), etc.

PERIOD OF INTERNSHIP: Farm Manager: April 1 - end of Nov. Other positions: begin between April 1 and June 1 – end Nov. Novice Farmer: 1 or 2 month period during growing season. Please make the dates you are available clear in your letter of interest. Possibility to extend position through the winter for 1-2 exceptional individuals, based on performance during the regular season.

We will provide housing at a farmhouse on the farm property which is fully furnished and includes bathroom and kitchen. Within walking distance of beach, 5 mins drive from town (also bikeable).

Vegetables, eggs, and other farm produce are provided free of charge. Apprentices take turns cooking lunch for the group, and Garden of Eve provides some free staples for these meals (beans, rice, pasta, etc.). Condiments, dairy, snacks, and many other foods are available for purchase at our farm store at wholesale prices.

MATERIALS TO BE SUBMITTED: All interested applicants should submit a resume, three references (of which two should be former employers), and a letter of interest explaining previous experience and skills, and reasons for interest in this position via email.

FARM APPRENTICE

- Will participate in all aspects of vegetable farming including seeding, transplanting, weeding, and harvesting vegetables;

- Specific areas of responsibility for different apprentices will include: Greenhouse Management; Livestock Management; Flower Farm Management, and Market Management of different markets.

- If qualified, driving and accompanying box truck into NYC for CSA deliveries, as well as driving to, setting up, and managing farmers market stand.

- Working at the farmstand and at farmers markets;

- Help pack and load truck;

- Presentation and marketing of vegetables;

- Basic livestock care of goats, sheep and chickens at the farmstand;

- Participating in all other crop-related tasks

Qualities desired:

- Ability to lift 40 pounds

- Serious Interest in the biological and entrepreneurial aspects of farming

- basic Spanish language skills helpful but not required

STIPEND: $1000/month plus housing on-site, & income from entrepreneurial farm project including growing your own crops to sell at the market or farmstand, or other activities such as preserving, baking, drying herbs, etc.

FARM MANAGER

Duties include:

- Communicating daily with Chris regarding tasks for the day;

- Holding brief daily meeting with other apprentices to outline daily/weekly schedule;

- Directing daily activities including planting, cultivating, harvesting, processing;

- Driving tractor for most transplanting in the spring, and helping do tractor-mounted cultivating through the summer and fall;

- Maintaining all harvest data and records;

- Managing and working with farm crew and other apprentices;

- Helping harvesting, washing, packing, and loading produce with farm crew;

- Maintaining crew productivity data and time sheets.

- Monitoring packing room and inventory of harvesting supplies;

- Organizing and cleaning packing room, coolers and storage facilities;

- Analyzing and refining harvesting and packing room methods and efficiencies;

- Loading truck for delivery;

- Driving box truck into NYC for CSA deliveries (if qualified and necessary).

QUALITIES DESIRED

- Tractor and cultivating experience highly desired

- Minimum one season's farm experience

- Some managerial experience and aptitude required

- Disciplined, Organized, Responsible, Independent and Positive.

- Basic Spanish language skills, or willingness to learn

- A valid driver's license and ability to lift 40 pounds is required.

- This is an excellent position for someone planning to start their own farm in the next year or two, as the Farm Manager carries significant responsibility and decisionmaking independence.

STIPEND: $25K approximately depending upon experience, with a 3 year requested committment.

　CHILDREN'S PROGRAM INSTRUCTOR and part-time childcare provider

If you like to spend time with kids and have a background instructing at a camp, environmental education, or other outdoor education experience, this could be a good opportunity for you.

The Children's Program Instructor will plan, promote, implement and teach classes at our farm markets on topics including organic gardening, cooking, preserving the harvest, etc. Our farmstand products and programming are oriented towards families with children and each year we look for someone with experience and interest in creating, scheduling, and teaching activities with preschool aged kids (i.e. 2-7) and their families (i.e. Bug walks, berry picking, seed planting, cooking projects, etc.) about 2-3 days/week. You may also plan, implement, recruit staff, promote and teach a small farm day camp on the farm during the summer months.

We are looking for someone who is highly self-motivated and independent, with prior experience as an instructor. The successful candidate will also have an entrepreneurial bent, with experience in creating and marketing programs successfully.

In addition, the person hired will care for Eve and Chris's 3 and 5 year old kids 2-3 days a week on the farm. Activities will include farm walks, going to the library or the beach, visiting friends, etc. Drivers liscence required.

Duties include:

20% : farm work with the other apprentices

40% : childcare for two farm kids (ages 3 and 5) on the farm i.e. walking around farm, in the house, etc);

40% : independently develop and teach weekly events for kids and families including playgroup, farm tours, cooking demonstrations, etc.

Qualities desired:

- Enjoyment of small children and previous work experience i.e. babysitting, camp counselor, educator

-Experience in creating and marketing programs successfully

- Ability/interest in independently developing educational activities for kids to offer on the farm

-Self-motivated and independent, with an entrepreneurial bent

STIPEND: $1000-$1500/month plus housing on-site

NOVICE FARMER

We are willing to fill one position each month with people who have a positive attitude and interest in exploring farming as a vocation, but who have had little prior experience. The period of the “Novice” position will be 1-2 months (i.e. you can select April-May, Sept-Oct, etc.). Email us with your interest and the months you are interested in.

Qualities desired: Ability to do physical manual work of farming, and interest in learning about farming & food

STIPEND: $600/month plus housing on-site, vegetables, & income from entrepreneurial activities.

06 - Enterprises: Now operating in our 25^th year, we are a certified organic produce farm located in Orange County, NY. We grow 12 acres of vegetables and herbs on an old dairy farm that is 88 acres in size. The balance of the land is either fallow, wooded or used for pasturing cows. We have a small flock of chickens. In 2007, a conservation easement was placed on our farm.

Work to be done: Interns are involved in greenhouse work, field planting, growing, tending, harvesting and marketing of more than 100 different vegetables and herbs. Our produce is sold at the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan from late May to December.

We are seeking interns to fill eight positions. We have a long history of working with interns. More than 140 people have worked on our farm over the past 22 years, most staying for a full season, some for two or three seasons. We prefer people with outdoor and physical work experience who can stay for six to eight months (April/May to Nov./Dec.) and who have a strong interest in learning about and practicing sustainable agriculture. Many of those who live and work on the farm stay in touch long after the season is over and return to visit. Learning is mostly hands-on and interns are expected to take responsibility for many tasks and individual projects (greenhouse management, irrigation, record keeping, etc.).

We offer good housing with private rooms, bathrooms and kitchen facilities, plus a $300 per week stipend, increasing to $350 per week after eight weeks, and late season bonuses. Those returning for a second year receive a larger stipend. Meals are not provided but interns can cook and eat anything we grow. A long-term, year-round, co-management position is also available, with salary and benefits increasing substantially over time. There is plenty of discussion of organic methods and philosophy. Reading material is available for those who are interested.

The farm is an appealing place, set well back off the road and buffered by woods. It has varied terrain and topography. It is rich in animal and bird life. It has a creek and three ponds, one of which is good for swimming. We are a short distance from the Appalachian Trail and the Delaware River, and about two hours from New York City. To learn more about this farm and read what ten former interns had to say about their experiences here, check out the book, It’s a Long Road to a Tomato, by Keith Stewart.

New York City A.R.E. Center

241 W. 30th Street, 2nd floor

http://www.edgarcaycenyc.org/areofnyc/groups.htm

The Lion King

200 West 45th Street

New Cats Cafe

2027 Emmons Ave Brooklyn

Monday night karaoke

http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/locations/bushwick

• Brooklyn Botanical Garden
  Free admission on Tuesdays (Admission is free every weekday from mid-November through February)
  1000 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
  Phone: 718-623-7200

• Brooklyn Botanical Garden
  Free admission from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. on Saturdays
  1000 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
  Phone: 718-623-7200

PAPAS PAPAS PAPAS

1.) stream of consciousness

Flying saucers donuts

south congress street wish i could just walk there more

homophobes suuuuuure?

armadillos oh nice shell

Chris Lukas aiii cristobal (hand thing)

oatmeal crunchy

Mexico sad

New York a phase

Honey Ohs o ho ho ho hoho ho hohoho

The Outdoor School silence

How is your brain different from August?

before the outdoor school i think i was very much about collecting knowledge somehow, like having a box inside my head about all the stuff i could know about/stuff i couldn't understand/i thought had no explanation... i still thought that i could have an explanation in my head. but being here i realized that its better to just feel it out instead of trying to understand it, cuz when you try to understand it, its a different idea in and of itself, and when you're feeling it out, you're actually seeing it as it is. i dont know what it means, but, it.

Do you think you can use this newfound mentality to learn piano?

I think so, because when i was looking at the pieces today, at the music sheets, i was not really trying to understand them, because my brain was being a little lazy, but i was still able to (belch) read something by just looking at it, and it was like an overall reading and something i could still understand in a different way then if i had spent hours figuring out the notes.

What is your greatest weakness right now?

Umm... being lazy.

What is your greatest strength right now?

Being open to just doing whatever whenever.

How do you think that you have changed my mind in the time we've known each other?

Well, I think you've been able to watch me grow more than I've been able to watch myself grow, so I think maybe my tendency to abstract things and to put them in a different place in the world while still being able to feel out stuff and not box it up all the time... that may have showed you that you can have both worlds kind of.... im trying to be able to intertwine them... annnndddd... im actually not sure of anything i just said.

a look into the mind of Papita

Don't give too much thought to these questions; just let words fall out of your mouth. This is a first instinct, intuitive type of thing going on here. If you don't like a question then just skip it.

1.) What do you think about the concept of "healing"? When someone is healing, what is actually happening?

a lot of those conflicts that happen in somebody's life pertain to the self, and constant interactions with everything around them. interactions with the external world are continuous; there's never a separation of the self from the environment. divisions are only there to make things easier to explain. when the interactions are not smooth or harmonious or soothing. when somebody is sick or distraught, it's because the interactions are like shocks. (arms flailing in peripheral vision)

When somebody's healing, those shocks smooth out. Your body is receiving everything better.

when not in the mindset of it, i get really separated from my environment. in order to have a good session with the kids, you have to be there in their own little bubble. i get their attention by being in their place. sometimes when not in the mood of it i go in my own little world and then there is separation, but that's all in your head. divisions are definitely created by yourself.

In yoga you are moving your body through space. muscles relax and contract at the same time. a synergy in the physical world that lets you see beyond the separation of things.

2.) Describe the goodness of Tecate to someone who has never had it before.

It's kind of bold, but it's.... so smooth. Its just...flavor with character.

4.) Have you thought more about what your ex-boyfriend said about you thinking you'll miss him, but not really? Is that even possible? If you think you miss him is that the same thing as missing him?

5.) Give a short autobiography of your life and invent the future if you like.

6.) If you were elected President of a community about the size of TOS, only without the actual job part of TOS, and you had to come up with a constitution, what would be in the constitution?

7.) Do you believe that our souls exist over more than one lifetime? Reincarnation?

I don't think that life is that linear or that easily put into segments. It's easy for us to imagine "oh yeah in the past life I was this being" but I'm sure it's way more complex than that. To me it's more absolute, existing versus not existing. When you're not existing I'm not sure what the fuck is going on, but I know something is.

8.) Do you ever believe that things are so important and so unimportant at the exact same time?

It happens a lot with people. Humanity is one of the things that I am truly in love with, but at the same time I have this.... I feel like humanity focuses on the wrong things a lot of the time. I have this love for every human being, but then sometimes I can't respect their decisions or their actions.

9.) What's something that you want to figure out that you haven't figured out yet.

I sometimes have trouble with self control. In my head I'm very aware of stuff but actually implementing it is a different story sometimes. When I start living in my head a lot, living through memories and photographs, I stop paying as much attention to the now and the real world that is actually happening, and I ignore cues from the now that help me out in interactions. I've been living through photographs and books a lot lately.

fridalarizza

girl is all major chords

TB

"Grandfather spoke again, saying, "Trying to live a spiritual life in modern society is the most difficult path one can walk. It is a path of pain, of isolation, and of shaken faith, but that is the only way that our Vision can become reality. Thus the true Quest in life is to live the philosophy of the Earth within the confines of man. There is no church or temple we need to seek peace, for ours are the temples of the wilderness. There are no spiritual leaders, for our hearts and the Creator are our only leaders. Our numbers are scattered; few speak our language or understand the things that we live. Thus we walk this path alone, for each Vision, each Quest, is unique unto the individual. But we must walk within society or our Vision dies, for a man not living his Vision is living death."

-- The Quest

TB and CG

Tom Brown:
Whatever happens, happens, and if learn from it... I see life as a great banquet at which I am the honored guest... my world has no time, except the seasons and the perspectives of youth and old age. In my world, life is a gift to be accepted, and returned. Life is a celebration... given to us to enjoy.
It has just been recently that I have found, even during my teaching, that I should just be myself and do what I want to do. Every day, I get off by myself in the woods to reorient myself and sort of reaffirm who I am.
If I can have a young person with me in the woods for a weekend and can show him/her that there is another way to look at life, the chances are that person will stay off drugs from that time on. You can get high on nature, high on your own surroundings- more up than you've ever been. Like John Muir said, "There is no upness like the mountains" Kids say to me all the time, "I thought you could only get this way when you're high!" I try to redirect them toward the wonders of nature. Our young people have little to believe in. They look around them, and everything is polluted and dirty. There's crime in the streets. There's embezzlement... They have gone a long time without respect for anything, and now they can see something to respect, and it gives them hope and that all-important self respect they need.

Claudine:
telepathy
light and warmth
altered vision
physical contact
"miracles"
empathy

tom brown jr

there is a world beyond that of our everyday physical, mental, and emotional experiences. It is a world beyond the five senses, and different than the realm of the imagination. It is the world of the unseen and eternal, the world of spirit and vision. It is a dimension of life that very few people of today seek, or perhaps care to know. The demands of modern life often mean that there's little time to slow down long enough to take a good, long look at life and its motivating forces, to contemplate one's current path or foreseeable destiny.
For me, the spiritual world is truly the stuff of life. Once rooted on a spiritual path, I found that life loosened its shallow fleshiness, that I was able to transcend time and place, and enter a new, fuller dimension of life. The path of a spiritual seeker is one of the most difficult paths a man or woman can walk in life, and I urge it on no one unwilling to devote the time or take the risks involved. It takes a lifetime to understand and a zealous dedication to reach this higher plane of existence. The spiritual world is a world to which the seeker comes slowly- first with the faith of a child and then with the patience and dedication of a sage. It requires one to let go of all beliefs, all prejudices, and all need for modern scientific methods of verification. One must abandon logical thinking and learn to deal in the abstract, learn to accept that each moment is an eternity and that each entity becomes, at once, a physical and spiritual teacher. It is here that I started, with the faith, openness, and curiosity of a child, that magical time of life when anything and everything was possible, where reality and fantasy mix, and where dream and flesh are fused into the eternity of mind.

Wind, Sand and Stars

No man can draw a free breath who does not share with other men a common and disinterested ideal. Life has taught us that love odes not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction. There is no comradeship except through union in the same high effort. Even in our age of material well-being this must be so, else how should we explain the happiness we feel in sharing our last crust with others in the desert? No sociologist's textbook can prevail against this fact. Every pilot who has flown to the rescue of a comrade in distress knows that all joys are vain in comparison with this one. And this, it may be, is the reason why the world today is tumbling about our ears. It is precisely because this sort of fulfilment is promised each of us by his religion, that men are inflamed today. All of us, in words that contradict each other, express at bottom the same exalted impulse. What sets us against one another is not our aims- they all come to the same thing- but our methods, which are the fruit of our varied reasoning.
Let us, then, refrain from astonishment at what men do. One man finds that his essential manhood comes alive at the sight of self-sacrifice, cooperative effort, a rigorous vision of justice, manifested in an anarchists' cellar in Barcelona. For that man there will henceforth be but one truth- the truth of the anarchists. Another, having once mounted guard over a flock of terrified little nuns kneeling in a Spanish nunnery, will thereafter know a different truth- that it is sweet to die for the Church. If, when Mermoz plunged into the Chilean Andes with victory in his heart, you had protested to him that no merchant's letter could possibly be worth risking one's life for, Mermoz would have laughed in your face. Truth is the man that was born in Mermoz when he slipped through the Andean passes.
What all of us want is to be set free. The man who sinks his pickaxe into the ground wants that stroke to mean something. The convict's stroke is not the same as the prospector's, for the obvious reason that the prospector's stroke has meaning and the convict's stroke has none.
It is using a pickaxe to no purpose that makes a prison; the horror resides in the failure to enlist all those who swing the pick in the community of mankind.
We all yearn to escape from prison.

ohhh the layers, she called it
and she took them from inside her mind
and made them real, and handed them to me
i didn't look too carefully
now im looking much more closely
and what do i see?
still the mind, open the heart
thats the only way i can do my part
try to understand why you share your history
if your end goal is to let everything be
we are looking for pure love to fill up pure hearts
advertising in size 6 font somewhere 2/3 of the way through the Sunday paper
expecting the advertisement to go unnoticed by almost everyone
but still there lingers a hope
for that some one
if you followed your heart, where would you go?and if i followed mine?

Ning started running a 100 mile race about 31 hours ago.... I cannot even imagine what that boy is feeling right now. So much respect.

Empathy is the ability to read and understand people and be in-tune with or resonate with others, voluntarily or involuntarily of one's empath capacity. Empaths have the ability to scan another's psyche for thoughts and feelings or for past, present, and future life occurrences.
Empathy is a feeling of another's true emotions to a point where an empath can relate to that person by sensing true feelings that run deeper than those portrayed on the surface. People commonly put on a show of expression. This is a learned trait of hiding authentic expression in an increasingly demanding society. An empath can sense the truth behind the cover and will act compassionately to help that person express him/herself, thus making them feel at ease and not so desperately alone.
Empathy is not held by time or space. Thus, an empath can feel the emotions of people and things at a distance. Empathy is genetic, inherent in our DNA, and passed from generation to generation.

An Empath is someone who can feel other people’s emotions as their own: you litterally feel what other people feel.

Notice that this definition does not assume that you are aware of it nor that you know what to do with it. It simply describes that can experience someone else’s emotion, even if they are not in your physical presence.

Empaths find themselves in the tricky situation of being overwhelmed by the quantity of emotional information they receive. I can sense the emotions of everyone around me, even my next door neighbors. It comes to me like a scrambled radio station where I get bits and pieces from all those people. In its raw form, this emotional information is incoherent and even painful as we feel all the negative emotions from everyone around us.

The most problematic aspect of being an Empath is that most of us have no idea how to manage it. We don’t know how to turn it off. We don’t know how to use it effectively to accomplish something productive. Some of us don’t even know that we have it. We just think we’re weird and have random mood swings and tired spells.

Emotional Intelligence is defined as “the ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one’s self, of others, and of groups” (Salovey and Mayer). Developing your Emotional Intelligence means that you know what to do with the emotional information you receive and it’s not just a burden you must bear anymore.

If you know how to trust your true nature, you will lose your fear and sorrow. A wave in her ignorance is subject to the fear of birth, death, high, low, more or less beautiful, and the jealousy of others. But if a wave is able to touch her true nature, the nature of water, and know that she is water, then all her fear and jealousy will vanish. Water doesn't undergo birth and death, high and low.
When we look at the flower we see the same thing. The gardener is only one of the causes. There must be the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the compost, the seed and many, many other things. If you look deeply, you will see that the whole cosmos has come together in order to help the flower to manifest.
If we continue to look deeply, we see that a cause is at the same time an effect. We find that every cause is at the same time an effect. There are many things we can discover with the practice of looking deeply, and if we are not bound to any dogma or concept we will be free to make our discoveries.

music is the language of the soul

i tell you i walked into that room and everything felt all wrong. heart beating too fast, muscles too tense, stomach all jumbly, wishing i could squirm out of my own skin. but like goethe knew, you can't run away from yourself. but room 5266 isn't just a room anymore. there is a powerful memory there that i can call up and set everything straight. the final memory before the wheels were set in motion. whether i consciously call it up or not, the same effect will happen. i will channel the music that is in my soul, my soul that i was mercifully able to empty out to get filled up again, and it got filled up by You. You, the Universe, the infinite beauty and knowledge and wisdom of the Universe. If able to stay empty, you are always able to be filled. Breathe out and let the wind blow away everything that is simply taking up space, making you miss out. You are free, you are free, you are free to be.

late one afternoon i carried myself on down a grayish road. the trees had want for leaves, the potholes for loose gravel. i saw many a passerby, but we did not look each other in the eye. we were lost inside ourselves, the mindless dialogue on autopilot in our heads. the gray matter of my brain was extra soft and squishy. it was sleepy, so without an ounce of prevention on its own part, it simply went into hibernation.
on and on down Hibernation Road did I meander, stopping to observe the scenery on a few rare instances. in the end, though, i saw almost nothing.
Hibernation Road has an intersection, or maybe it has many; i wouldn't know if i missed em or not. but one morning i did find myself at a crossroads and i heard some voices laughing just a little ways down. i followed the voices and began a travel through time, through the seasons and the colors they came a whirlin and a swirlin and i started twirlin, i took some more turns and started to get lost, i knew i didnt have a map but i didnt care. now i've been lost for a time but the road's getting more colorful and gaining more scenery day by day. ive joined up with those voices and put faces to them. now we're a skippin and a jumpin hand in hand and there's no turning back.

from Walden

No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal- that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality... the true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.

Austin is a magical place! things that have me buzzing bzzzzzzzz:
--> getting to play with really cool musicians at the pita pit and the hideout, nearly every day!!! and realizing that work can be a party... the employees at the pita pit have such a good time together!
-->getting to play with Acoustalyn, just by chance... this band has shows booked in central TX every weekend throughout the spring and i get to be the alternate violin player at a lot of them =0)
-->getting to play for the gilbert and sullivan society
-->getting to play at school
-->hopefully traveling to nearby state parks with Kevin to create a biker's dream guide
-->Erik. Especially when he plays jokes on me.
-->THE PEOPLE! i feel so excited and blessed to be alive in this place and spend time with these wonderful folks. I am surrounded by role models, all the time... whaaaaaaaat.

Lao Tzu will let ya know what to do, uh

heaven and earth are enduring. the reason why heaven and earth can be enduring is that they do not give themselves life. hence they are able to be long-lived.therefore the sage puts his person last and it comes first,treats it as extraneous to himself and it is preserved.is it not because he is without thought of self that he is able to accomplish his private ends?
highest good is like water. because water excels in benefitting the myriad creatures without contending with them and settles where none would like to be, it comes close to the way.in a home it is the site that matters;in quality of mind it is depth that matters;in an ally it is benevolence that matters;in speech it is good faith that matters;in govt it is order that matters;in affairs it is ability that matters;in action it is timeliness that matters.it is because it does not contend that it is never at fault.
to use words but rarelyis to be natural.hence a gusty wind cannot last all morning, and a sudden downpour cannot last all day. who is it that produces these? heaven and earth. if even heaven and earth cannot go on for ever, much less can man. that is why one follows the way.a man of the way conforms to the way; a man of virtue conforms to virtue; a man of loss conforms to loss. he who conforms to virtue is gladly accepted by virtue; he who conforms to loss is gladly accepted by loss.when there is not enough faith, there is lack of good faith.

Our thoughts on pure love and invincibility

Hey kids, Laura here. I’ve been doing some surveying on unassuming innocent folk such as yourselves and others who happen to be in my path. Here are some results I’ve come up with. I’m keeping them anonymous cuz it’s more fun that way. If I didn’t harangle you yet and you’d like to add your own you can anonymously or not anonymously please do so =0)

What is pure love or the purest form of love?

I’ll start by saying that this question popped into my head while I was gazing into my friend’s dog’s eyes and felt what I believed to be unadulterated love. Some survey results reflect similar feelings, as you shall see.

1. Person to animal

2. The love that comes from helping another person.

3. Joy that makes you feel that what you’re doing is good and complete. Like a dog licking its crotch. (The example is to prove that the answer is not necessarily a deep and spiritual one) (I’ll just go ahead and say this one is from my dad)

4. Love that does not expect love back.

5. Acceptance

6. Bailey! (The dog who started this whole thing in the first place, but that’s not my answer!)

7. Peace and understanding

8. God

9. Absolute comfort

10. The love between good friends. Not the love between mother and child or romantic love; those are too complexly intertwined.

11. Trust, passion, certainty that you don’t want anything else, laughter, among other things.

12. When two people can look each other in the eyes and know the other’s innermost feelings and still be extremely happy, all without saying a word

13. Love without thought or action.

14. Disney. Especially Enchanted. Child to mother. What you make it.

What is invincibility?

1. It doesn’t exist- it’s absolute freedom with no constraints, but we constrain ourselves.

2. Dean Cain, aka Superman

3. Having such a strong sense of yourself and your purpose that nothing/no one can ever get you down.

4. Can’t be beaten or hurt. Superman. I like to keep it simple.

5. Giving and receiving enough love that nothign can compare to this love network.

6. Being all forgiving. When one considers invincibility one may think of being unbeatable, but in order to be beaten, there needs to be an objective, and how one defines purpose is open to infinite variability. Therefore to be truly invincible, one needs to transcend a single system and recognize the multiple objectives and humbly accept the friction that pertains to the overlappings of purpose by recognizing one human’s plea of coming from a good place, and being all-forgiving or invincible. It seems impossible for one to be all forgiving if one is human… but maybe to lead a good life, one’s goal is to perpetually fail in the uphill struggle rather than indulge in flat debauchery.

The Cathy Winter Layer Cake Amino Acid Theory of a Complete Love

This is a scientific research article, composed only of logic and of carefully documented case studies by a completely rational human being.

Okay, let's take the final line of the final verse of Cathy Winter's song, "Long Time Friends". Here she is in all her glory: I'm not so sure that I can find/Just one heart to blend with mine/So I'm looking for some long time friends. Now, what are some possible implications of this line? There is this concept of having a "soul mate", that you can go out into the world and find a single other soul to complete yours. Cathy is not so sure she agrees. There are a lot of layers to life, a lot of subtle complexities that we can begin to become privy to if we are open and observant enough, if we are truly good listeners. Every person, place, and being you interact with adds layers to the cake of life, and let me tell you, this is a rich ass cake. Each layer is sweet and satisfying on its own, but when you're able to enjoy all the layers is when life becomes unbearably good.
This gives me a certain sensation that the long time friends Cathy is looking for, are in some ways comparable to amino acids forming a complete protein. There are several essential amino acids that our bodies need as building blocks, and you must combine these to form a complete protein. Long time friends are the amino acids. A complete love is the complete protein.
Experiencing love, pure love at its finest, might best be achieved by devoting your time to baking the richest layer cake, to building the best complete protein.

Survey results so far: What is the purest form of love?
-> Person to animal
-> The love that comes from helping another person
-> Love that does not expect love back
-> Acceptance
-> Joy that makes you feel that what you're doing is good and complete. Let's not get too spiritual here, though. Dogs may get this joy from licking their crotch.
More survey results to come.

While we're waxing philosophical... Here are Father Rick's three important pillars for inner health.
1) Feeling secure and that life is overall predictable
2) Feeling important and that life overall has a purpose
3) Feeling worthy and that overall life is welcoming

Father Rick is pretty smart. Here's another particularly excellent idea of his:
"Of interest to humanists and anthropologists, to philosophers and theologians, is the instinct, in the face of adversity, not just to survive, but to thrive with passion and flair"
Let's harness this instinct in the non face of adversity as well =0)