Pato Banton--Universal Love

A month and a half ago, conscious UK reggae artist Pato Banton shared a few songs with us at the home of a friend/Jerusalem resident and peace activist Eliyahu McLean at a gathering of the Jerusalem Peace Makers (link to the right). Palestinians, Christians, Atheists, Jews and Buddhist singing about Universal Love. Im not sure how exactly we are going to fix all the problems out here, but Im pretty sure this is part of the answer.

also

Theres another Video on my picture page www.jerspics.blogspot.com

Guatemala Journal April 3rd

I moved into the electricityless volunteer house at night and had to set up my bed by candle light. When I went to pick up my mosquito net/animal shield there was a thick hairy spider the size of my palm sitting on it. It was the type of spider that looked like an animal rather then an insect. I squished it. As I was tucking in the corners of my bed I found staring me in the face a brown scorpion. He was frozen. So was I. I squinted my eyes and drew first, for my flip flop. He scampered. I pinned him down on the mattress but he wasn't squishing. I reached down to grab for my other flip flop and the scorpion got away. I looked everywhere in that tiny room and around the bed for an hour. Nothing. I couldn't sleep in the bed knowing there was a little dude in it so I set up my hammock and fell asleep. When I woke up there was a giant stallions head four inches away from mine, through a screen window, breathing heavily. Welcome home!

Then came the kiddies. Its inherent, intrinsic in all children the desire to love and be loved and be held and to touch and to feel safe. I think its in all of us big people too but we are better at hiding it. These kids wear it on their sleeve. Everywhere I walk theres one of them holding each of my hands, even if they don't know my name. Ive been spending a lot of time with the Verones pequenos, the little dudes. Yesterday we commandeered an inflatable boat and 14 of us paddled 45 minutes to a dock in the neighboring roadless river town of Las Bresas on the Rio Dulce River. 86 degrees, blue skies, sunshine daydreams, no time, only time, the light breeze was at our back both ways. We pretended to be pirates. We sang like pirates. I taught them to "Yar" at passing ships and when we got to the empty dock we swam for hours and had soda and cookies. I passed out fishing hooks and strings and the kids were so excited to be fishing in an exotic new place. The fish were in fact bigger in Las Bresas and we caught many.

On the ride back to the orphanage I got caught in a quandary. We were paddling, and singing, a bunch of happy wet boys, and a motor boat pulled aside us and asked if we needed a tow. Naturally we "Yarred!" at them and threatened to board their vessel. We definitely didn't need a tow, as the journey itself was pure bliss. But part of me wanted to allow the man in the boat the good feeling of getting to help a boat full of orphans, (even though we didn't really need help). Maybe it would have made his day. He would have felt lifted like a hero. I told him no thanks, we were fine. I found out two days later that the man on the boat had terminal cancer and doctors gave him only 10 more months. I think/hope that future me will next time err on the side of sharing bliss and expanding goodness when at a similar junction. Its wise to assume that people are in dyer need of any form of elevation. Living, loving and learning.

Casa Pics

Pictures from my last experience at the Casa Guatemala orphanage.

¨kind of ¨ cool

Bussed it across Guatemala and hopped a river boat back to the orphanage I worked at three years ago. Millions of micro memories came flooding onto my chest. Then countless little hands all over my body giving me hugs. This is a beautiful sacred place to return to. Its amazing to see how things and people grow and stay the same.
This week I'm heading up a heads up agricultural project with the kiddies aimed at sustainability. I'm not sure how long Ill stay. I posted a note on the sailing docks today looking to hop a ride up North. Israel is calling.
Right now I'm in town picking up some supplies and there are four kids standing behind me just watching me type. They don't often see computers I guess.
This place always reminds me to give thanks.
Thanks for listening to me babel.
Its Easter week and there are pictures of me EVERYWHERE! It ¨kind of¨ cool looking like someones savior, but sometimes its a bit much. I honestly can´t walk down the road without getting (nicely) hassled. Sometimes I just walk by, meditatively, leaving them thinking...¨what if...¨
Sometimes I put my pointer finger and middle finger together and give a messianic wave. A few times I´ve actually given over blessings, once in Hebrew.
Anyways,
Theres a link to the left to Casa Guatemala, the orphanage I'm at.
Its severely understaffed, so if any of you are looking for an incredible place to invest your incredible energies...check it out.

Gringo and the Guate

For the last week Ive been practicing a self prescribed slowness meditation exercise. My regular pace in life is quite slow (as many of you can attest to). I've taken it to the next level. I never have to meet up with anyone, or be anywhere at anytime. I walk everywhere, on dirt foot-paths, in this mindful little meditation town, step by step. I climb cliffs by the lake like a cat in slow motion. No schedule, no where else to be, no time, only time, no distractions, divine interactions, no excuses. I swing on the swing and have no where else to be. I have a second story bungalow with my own porch tucked behind palm trees and fruit trees, by the enchanted lake thats surrounded by sheer cliffs and volcanoes. One of my Yoga teachers here I once sat in a circle with at a Rainbow Gathering in Brazil. My other Yoga teacher I celecinisticaly lived in a yoga center ashramish type place with in Massachusetts. They say its a small world. I think its huge! I've been writing endlessly and I think within the next year I will have a Book! I've been writing so much that my normal thinking voice has adopted my writing voice. Kinda scary. Once when I was a painter, when Id see a beautiful sunset or gaze at a magnificent tree, the first thing my monkey brain would do was figure out how Id mix the colors on a pallet.
Everything is as its supposed to be. At least thats what this world keeps telling me.
Even down here, amidst this rampant disparity, between the haves and the nots. The Gringos and the Guates. Truth is we're all given different gifts. Gifts that know no price tag. Gifts that hold the key to overcome struggles that we're also all given. We spend so much time distracted. Yesterday a Catholic Mayan woman, who was sure I was related to Jesus (hair was down, flowing cloths, ridiculously slow walking pace), asked me if I believed in the after Inferno (Hell). I said no. She said what about Evil? I said not really. I told her that I saw in this world forces of light and forces of darkness. I described, in broken Spanish, forces of darkness as any forces that distract or detach from feeling connected to sublime oneness. And that is going to look different for each person. If you can see the oneness in the TV and in the rampant slather of concrete, so be it. But if your distracted. If the rubber soles on your feet are doubling as rubber soles on your soul, It would be in your best interest to discard them at once. She laughed at me, and I laughed, and we drank more cafe' while watching boats come in.