The Prince and I

This is the Prince and I. He's my friend that I met the first night I was in Uganda. We would spend hours and hours rolling through the countryside making up songs about life. This video took some highly skilled one handed camera work.

going to Thaigaraqua

I HAVEN'T EATEN A SINGLE BITE OF FOOD IN 10 DAYS!
Thats because Im in the middle of Juice fast. Really I like to think of it more as a juice gorging. Feeling groovey and juicy. Cloney Yoni is officially a master, not just of life and human love interactions, but he just got his Masters degree in Education. We had the whole family and Amigos over to celebrate and at around midnight we were all giving him blessings and singing some song about an ocean and waves and then there was silence. Through the courtyard from a window above a voice screamed "SING BOBBIE MAGEE!". Of course we obliged. Now you should know that from brothers apartment (or his togetherment as he'd call it) you can hear the phone ring in someone else's apartment from across the courtyard. Never once has someone complained about all the strange beautiful music and the hooten and holleren and now we're even getting requests from anonymous voices!
Im gonna be love parading for the next couple weeks in the US, then is seems the wind is blowing me to Thaigaragua (Thailand and Nicaragua) where Ill be focalizing two trips from two months this summer.

I Can Fly!

Ugandan Cowbow and I making music

If You Can

If you can walk
you can dance
If you can talk
you can sing
If you can think
you can dream

Anywhere you want...

We can lift eachother up,
We can move each other high,
We can overcome,
We’ll live in peace,
We’ll celebrate,
We’ll walk hand in hand
Listening to the harp strum beat,
Higher and Higher
We will give what we’ve got
We wont stop until we’re done
We shall be released
We Shall be free
We can live in truth
Higher and higher
We’ll get rid of war,
Everyone will eat
We wont live in fear.
We’ll live as one,
This is just a dream.
So was every other idea that ever happened.
Release all chains that shackle the mind.
No more slave dreams tonight baby.
Clear mind and clear vision.
See the change you wish to see,
Be the change you wish to see,
We’re here because we’re supposed to be
but we can go anywhere tonight.
Anywhere tonight.
Anywhere fun.
Anywhere you want.

The tank is full and Ive got a credit card.
Sometimes we sit at the edge of Gods driveway idling for hours and days and lives with the key in the ignition,
scrambling to try and read the maps and charts asking lost strangers out the window which way to go.
Anywhere you want beloved,
Anywhere you want.

I can see your bliss skipping down the road,
looking back with a laughing inviting smile.
Why not turn the key and lets get the heck out of here.
Or step out of the car and bliss out dancing on Gods front lawn.
Just no more sitting in smogged out clouds of confusion.
This car is starting to smell and we’ve got better things to do.

I do declare!
The self-perpetuating stagnating "Pursuit of happiness" leaves us gasping.
Pay no attention to such silly Jedi mind tricks.
Try and pursue your breathe.
Right now.
Try it.
(If your breathing, your not pursuing)
How'd it work?


Listen to this little secret
We have the right to bliss
We have the right to choose the highest perspectives around town
And We can stay for as long as we'd like

A million words

Some pictures I've taken over the last few months...
If you have any questions, write a comment and Ill write you back.

Sulhita

Last month Sarai and I sat at a gathering in the Negev desert in Israel called the Sulhita gathering. 150 Jewish and Palestinian teenagers gathered together for 5 days in the desert to make and celebrate peace. No finger pointing. No blame game. Just some good old fashion peace making. Some times we sit around and wait for politicians to tell us when we can and can't have peace. Screw that. We can just do it. And we did. For five days. We sang eachothers songs, and danced in eachothers celebrations and we sat at night around the camp fire and listened to eachothers stories.



One story really stuck out to me. It was told to us by a pair of peacemakers who came from a group of Israelis and Palestinians who had each lost dear family members from all the fighting. Most of the Israelis in the group had lost family members from bus bombings and shootings and most of the Palestinians lost family members from Israeli army activity. Yet they sat side by side and spoke of their yearnings for peace and reconciliation.







Ahmed grew up in Jenin. (He's the dude on the right. The man next to him is an Israeli who lost his son.) The only Israelis Ahmed had ever met wore green Camo, held huge guns and sometimes drove tanks. This to him was what a Jew was. He said that he grew up hating Jews and during the intifada he was in the front lines throwing stones and who knows what else. He'd been in and out of jail several times. One day there was an early curfew in town to keep people off the streets. Ahmeds 13 year old brother went for a walk to his grandmothers house just down the street. He heard shooting and started to run. Before he could make it to the door a rubber bullet made it to his chest. The bullet went through his little body and literally broke his little heart. He died. Ahmed said that that day was the last day he saw his mother smile. Fueled with more rage he hit the streets again looking for bigger stones to throw.

A few years later Ahmed needed a job and had looked everywhere in town but couldn't find one. His friends told him that there were good jobs in Israel. At first he was appalled at the idea of working in Israel for Jews, but eventually he had no other choice. So he got a construction job in a Jewish town working for a Jewish boss, the first Jew he ever met who wasn't wearing green. He was very bitter about the whole situation. One day his boss stopped and asked him why his face was always so sad and bitter. They sat down under a tree and Ahmed told the story of his brothers death and about his mothers grief. As he told the story his Jewish boss began to weep and say how sorry he was that had happened to his brother! Ahmed didn't really know what to do or what to think. He'd never met or seen a Jew expressing compassion and this behavior didnt jive at all with the image he had in his head of his enemy, the "other" he'd been fighting against and trying to destroy.

Two weeks later a Palestinian man walked onto the 18 bus in downtown Jerusalem and detonated and explosives belt around his waist. The blast was so strong that the top of the bus pealed back like the lid of a sardine can. 17 Israelis were instantly killed and many more injured. After work that day Ahmed returned to his mothers house. When he came in he found her on the ground crying besides the television set as the news was coming through. He said "Mom, why are you crying? don't you know those were Jews who were killed, not Palestinians?" The Mom looked up and said through her tears to him "I'm crying because of all the Mothers who are right now going through what I once went through".


Something began to change in Ahmeds heart and in his mind. He no longer could say that he hated Jews because he'd met one, just one, that he really liked. His mother showed him that pain and suffering transcended nationality and religion. And he had to reconcile this new information with his actions. He realized that throwing stones and plotting destruction we're just perpetuating the struggling. Eventually he found the Bereaved Families group of Israelis and Palestinians and now he tours around Israeli towns and Palestinian communities side by side with Israelis and shares his story.

These people who lost their relatives have every excuse to live in hatred. Yet they choose love and reconsiliation. If they can do it, we have no excuse.

Another thing that really struck me by this story is how it only takes a few small interactions to radically transform a person. So Im trying to look at each moment as sacred and as having awesome potential for growth. In this life, with this body and with these eyes, we can barely see the ripples we are constantly sending out. We know so little about what effect we have on eachother. The boss had no Idea was he was really doing and neither did the Mamma...they were just being, being genuine and coming from a place of compassion and when we come from that place of compassion, especially for the "other", we send out beautiful waves of goodness.
Click here for Sulhita