walt whitman

i love this quote more each time i read it. enjoy:

"This is what you shall do:
Love the earth and sun and the animals,
despise riches,
give alms to everyone that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labor to others,
hate tyrants,
argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men,
go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families,
read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life,
re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book,
dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body..."

~walt whitman

Today's Recommendation: Music

Today I recommend ...


... Pandora set to the Aretha Franklin channel.


I've been listing to it all afternoon.

red and yellow, black and white ...

Today I rode my bike to Balboa Park to finish off "Made to Stick" and enjoy an unusually warm January afternoon outdoors. Sitting on a bench in front of the coy pond it dawned on me one of the reasons I love America: the diversity of people you see on a day-to-day basis.

In Uganda everyone was African, with the exception of a few missionaries, British businesspeople and foreign journalists. In Honduras everyone was pretty much Latin. People looked different from each other, but not drastically like here.

I wasn't at the Park more than 30 minutes and I saw people from more than a dozen nations. How beautiful. People marvel at the diversity of fish in an aquarium, but people are no less diverse, I think. I love encountering so many different countries and cultures without even having to get into my car.

a day in the field

Highlights from work yesterday (i spend half the day out of the office):

This advertisement makes me want to throw up.

Was a little surprised to see this. But or a second was also tempted to add one to my window.

In case you can't read it -- "RIPPIE: Rich hippie". ha

what's this about?

I've been trying to figure out what this blog should be about --now that my adventure in Honduras is over. At times I feel like my life in San Diego is too boring to write about. It's not, but how do I communicate something about my current life in a way that interests and challenges or inspires you?

I'm not sure yet.

Today at work I decided to begin a list of my favorite things. Number one on the list today is Cocorosie. Check out their song "By Your Side". It makes me want to live a life worth writing about.

Congrats to my best friend Meghan on being engaged! I can't wait to be there dressed in whatever color you decide!

Traveling Stories

Traveling Stories: Fueling children's minds with stories.

"Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting." ~Aldous Huxley

Huxley is right. Being able to read really does empower us to make our lives more full, significant and interesting. In a recent interview with Parade magazine Oprah shared similar sentiments. She said, "I wasn't a dreamer as much as I was a reader. That allowed me to see ... that there was a world beyond my backyard."

Oprah is right, too. But what about people who can read but have no access to books? This is why I am starting Traveling Stories, a non profit organization dedicated to putting books into the hands of kids who have none.

The idea for Traveling Stories began when I was teaching high school students in Honduras. My students hated reading but had little to no access to books, something I could hardly fathom having grown up in a country with bookstores and libraries in every neighborhood. During my trip home for Christmas I purchased 40 books from used book stores. I took them back to my students in January and made them read for an hour a day. Eventually they fell in love with reading! I saw their behavior and attitude toward learning English improve incredibly! I decided to try and provide that opportunity to more kids. Thus, Traveling Stories.

Currently I'm raising money to pay for the legal fees of becoming an official 501c3 organization. It's going to cost roughly $1,000 ($250 to get incorporated and $750 for the 501c3). Here's what I'm looking for:

1. 200 people willing to give $5 each
2. 50 people willing to give $20 each, or
   
3. 20 people willing to give $50 each.
   

This is an exciting time for Traveling Stories! A lot of great things are happening. If you want to learn more leave me a comment! If you want to donate please click on the "DONATE" button at the right of this screen!!

The first books will be donated to an orphanage and preschool in San Salvador, El Salvador.

Thanks for reading!

on the inside

I was thinking/looking over some of my recent posts and I'm grossed out by how ugly of a person I can be sometimes.
Life can be so beautiful, but why do I make a mess of it sometimes -- and why, when I'm met with ugly situations, do I sometimes choose to make them even uglier?
I think part of our purpose in life is to bring beauty to situations -- to expose it, to create it, to highlight it. We're meant to redeem the ugly things -- as we ourselves are being redeemed.