A LIFE FOR A LIFE

The world just remembered the anniversary of 9-11. The taking of lives for the taking of lives, an eye-for-an-eye religious/political/economic crusade by warriors in the name of God and country.

I'm glad President Bush is bringing more troops home. I've never been the president of any country so I find it hard to judge and blast someone whose shoes I've never been in, no matter how much I may disagree with them.

Instead I try to understand and see where I can relate to them first, in order to take both sides to a higher level of thinking, feeling, and acting AFTER I better understand where they're coming from.

I'm protective over what I care about and love, and willing to fight for it. I've knocked a guy out for simply brushing the back his hand against my wife's rear. He disrespected her and violated her by touching her, so I touched him.

So if someone violated and touched the country I led, maybe I would be doing the same thing as President Bush. Maybe not. As explosive as my energy can ignite, taking a life for the taking of life just doesn't make any sense to me. I will beat a man for beating his child, but I will never kill him for killing. What's done is done, I can do nothing but cry, and try to get him to change and dedicate the rest of his life to creating more life.

Destroying more life for the destruction of life just ends up blinding and killing the world.

Giving your life for the creation of more life makes more sense.

In the movie, "Man on Fire", Denzel Washington's character is told by the kidnapper that he will release the little girl he is holding, if Denzel will give up his life in exchange for hers. .......A life for a life.

Have you ever heard a line in a movie that connects with you so much that everything around you stops? The words resonate in your heart and bounce around all over your soul, letting you know that it is perfect truth for you, the answers you are looking for. You are completely in the moment, in a place of zen.

This line is one of those lines for me. And after a week of remembering the anniversary of great tragedy and death, I realized yesterday marked the one week anniversary of offering a life for the life of another. One of my students got in trouble before class again, and knocked his desk over in anger when he came in.

I got in his face and spoke to him from the heart. I told him I would be in his face every single day for the rest of the year, and if he didn't like it, he had two choices to get me to stop; either to believe in himself as much as I did, or to put a bullet in my head to get rid of me. I told him he was worth risking my life for his life.

One week later, he became the top reader in minutes read, worked harder than I've ever seen, and was the Principal's Award Winner yesterday.

One week later.....He has LIFE!

You and I have life. What will we do with it? Will we go about our day just trying to get through it, focusing on all the things that are wrong? We will escape from believing in ourselves by instead believing in our favorite football team? I am a big fan of enjoying life and experiencing life's greatest pleasures. I am not a fan of escaping life by living through the actions and dreams of others.

I snuck Bella (4th grade) in from her lunch to say hello to her sister (kindergarten). Sofia is pointing to the love note I had hidden in her crayon box. sofia (Sofia, sitting on my lap as I'm typing this, just typed her own name, and says the note made her feel happy). Actions don't have to be big. In fact, it's the little ones that are appreciated fully that are spectacular. When Bella and I walked in to the room, Sofia burst out, "Daddy! You love me!)

Many, many people across the world did not wake up to today. Many more woke up detached from it by the beatings they've taken from life. I was one of them. Thank God (yes, as much as I've cursed you I still believe some higher power exists)....Thank God that I had one of my children with me.

Before I even opened my eyes I began to remember the week's beatings, and felt tired, worn out, doubted, rejected, etc. Then I opened my eyes, and saw the face of my Sofia. I saw love all over her. I ran my finger ever so lightly down the bridge of her nose, to her lips, and kissed her gently before gently hugging her. She turned and hugged me tightly while still sleeping. Love, the greatest of all life forces, raced into me and said prayers in my heart.

And love gives its life.......for a life, for at least one more day.

And I have the courage to share my stories of strength and struggles, confidence and insecurities, in hopes of giving my life to the life of another. And hoping that in doing so I am not seen as anything more than the reader sees themselves, and capable of nothing more than the reader sees themselves capable of .....

This is not about me, it is about "us", you and me...

Fully appreciating our lives, choosing to believe in ourselves and others for just one more day, and GIVING OUR LIVES...TO OTHER LIVES......for the CREATION OF LIFE!

160,000 of us WILL NOT have it tomorrow.

LIVE TODAY! MAKE CHANGE TODAY! GIVE YOUR OWN LIFE, YOUR BEST LIFE, TO LIFE...... TODAY!

Watch this video all the way to the very end. The more I watch it the more I get out of it. If if does the same for you, feel free to visit my MySpace homepage anytime, by clicking INNER STRENGTH, HARMONY, HAPPINESS & PASSION. You'll find it on the left side at the bottom. Have a great day today, no matter what....

Steve Vai - For the Love of God

Drawing Yourself Into Peace

You aren't always going to wake up feeling good and thinking great thoughts to start your day off right.

This morning was one of those mornings. Up till 5:30 am working on illustrating a new book; two hours later woken up with loud whispers of "Sofia, don't wake up Daddy!" by her older sister Bella.

Instead of focusing on Bella's good intentions (Thank you, Honey), I immediately thought of how tired I was and how much work I still had to do (versus how much I accomplished).

Thoughts are indeed very powerful; powerfully uplifting or heavily overwhelming. As Sofia rolled off my back, I rolled out of bed feeling like Atlas, with the weight of the world on my shoulders, instead of feeling uplifted by the beautiful love a child has for her father.

My equally wonderful son brought the cup o' joe he made for me, and thanks to the three spoonfuls of coffee versus one, I was soon wildly wide awake and wired, but entirely stressed, from the hair on my head to the bottoms of my feet.

All the little things were bothering me, and with Brosden and Bella leaving early, everything was bothering me even more.

If we can't think or feel ourselves into it, sometimes it helps just to DO ourselves into it. So outside we went to draw and play ourselves into a state of peace, appreciation and happiness.

This didn't go as well as planned, as somebody accidentally hit his sister with a whiffle ball he got as a pre-birthday present from our neighbor (Thanx TJ).

The good thing about this is it forced me to stop feeling sorry for myself and focus on the feelings of the hitter and the hit-tee. The hitter felt so bad that I probably shouldn't mention his name (See buddy, I didn't mention it was you. All is good. Oh! Happy Birthday by the way on Wednesday.)

By focusing on giving them both good love and energy, I was able to continue it with Sofia after they left. We finished the Yin and Yang symbols Bella and I started, and drew ourselves into a better state of peace (Sofia wanted her puppy Spikey to help me draw).

Of course, having a great sense of humor helps too :-)

Sometimes just taking action and focusing on others is the only way to turn our thinking around and improve how we're feeling. I'm feeling I could draw about a billion more of these symbols with all the coffee in me.

By the way, my neighbor, TJ Jones, was the Open Doubles winner, A category, at this year's Orange Blossom Tennis Championship. He and his doubles partner Clint are repeating champions, this year coming out on top of over 200 other players. Congrats Champ!

Peace Slideshow

Peace ~

"Peace~

full breathe~

relaxing tension~

causing stress~

erasing doubts

about yourself,

knowing goodness

resides within you"

- Adam Stuart

Breathe In ~ Breathe Out

"We rush, we toil, we hurry, we haste
Life nothing more than a god-awful race

Breathe in ~ Breathe out
Peace and Happiness is around

Just hidden behind the the mess, the clutter
the stress and the frown

The world is created
with everyday thoughts

Are we happy with the lives we've made?
Or have we thought what we should naught?

Breathe in ~ Breathe out
It's not too late

Change the way you think
and you change your fate."

- Adam Stuart

Think honest thoughts and create harmony. Think loving thoughts and create laughter. Think of your higher purpose and create Heaven, because we create in our lives that which we think most of.