dream car

AcroYoga 2011

Those wild kids in New York... :)

Back to Basics

whilst traveling along the great Amazon...

We depart from the tiny village and sail a bit further up river. In the afternoon, we come across a boy in a tiny canoe, casting his net. As we pass close by, he greets us so I give Braulio a sign to cut the engine.

The youth comes up to us in his canoe and offers us his fish; which we accept gratefully. Braulio makes a remark in the native Quechuan tongue about our desire to find lodging. The youth nods, without caring how many we are.

In his house, there are an older sister, and two younger brothers. His parents are traveling 'down river,' as the adolescent explains. The house, built completely out of natural materials found in the region and elevated on pilings to protect it from flooding, is very close to the river. It only consists of one big room and a kitchen; there are no bedrooms or living room, much less a dining room. Some of the walls are only waist-high. To sleep, they hang their hammocks, which are then taken down in the morning. There are no decorations; they only possess the bare essentials.

On the floor of the kitchen, there is a box filled with soil, in which they build a fire and hanging over it from the ceiling there is meat and fish being smoked. My wife brings in rice to share, which we eat along with the fish. Dinner is delicious, served on squash skins. We eat sitting on our haunches. The locals use only their hands. If they had silverware, they'd need a plate; if they had plates, they'd need a table; if they had a table, they'd need chairs; if they had all of this, they'd need a dining room, but just as we are, in the tiny kitchen, we feel very well and very close.

Braulio tells us there is no problem with staying to sleep, everyone does it because everyone has to travel and rest in the homes they find along the way. So we ask him, having come from families of farmers ourselves, if they are the owners of the land. He tells us: "The people construct their houses wherever they like and when they want. When the land doesn't produce anymore, they search for another place."

"And what happens with the abandoned house?"

"It quickly decays and becomes part of the soil, and in a few years, is completely consumed by the jungle again."

"But whose land is it where you build?"

"The land doesn't belong to you, you belong to it. From it you came and to it you will go. Everything that you see in your body is a loan from the land and one day you'll return it back to it. The land existed long before you were born, and long after you are gone, it will continue to exist. God gives you the Beauty of the land and the miracle of life to enjoy, not for you to take possession of it, nor to have a paper that says you own it," he pauses with a little smile on his face, "the land laughs at this paper."
 

Excerpt from Spark your Dream
by Candelaria & Herman Zapp, 2007
argentinaalaska.com

Personal Inventory

I will be fully nomadic in 24 hours
I will have all my worldly possessions in my truck.
I have reduced; transformed as much as possible from physical to digital.

Here's what remains:

TOYS:
- one set UV dayglo practice poi (feed the artists)
- one set monkeyball fire poi (trick concepts)
- one LED ultrapoi (flowtoys)
- 2 custom made hula hoops
- hand made long bow
- 5 custom made arrows
- forged atlantean broadsword
- hand carved walking staff
- balance stick
- home-made paralettes (how-to)
- basketball
- soccer ball
- baseball & mitts
- 6 lb medicine ball

MUSIC:
- african djembe
- Martin Backpacker acoustic guitar
- M-Audio Axiom Pro 25 MIDI controller
- Vestax iSpin MIDI turntables
- M-Audio Studiophile AV40 powered speaker system
- speaker stands
- ION iPA3 40 watt portable BlockRocker
- Sony MDR-V700 DJ Headphones

POCKETS:
- iPhone 3GS
- car key
- Georgia State ID
- ATM card
- large roll of $100 bills
- US Passport with 10 year  Indian VISA
- HASP secure dongle
- 8GB USB key with critical data

TECHNOLOGY:
- MacBook Pro 15" laptop
- Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 digicam
- power supply
- iPod nano - green 8GB
- Apple wireless keyboard
- Apple Magic Mouse
- Rain Design laptop stand
- Hanns-G HSG2041 21" LED flatscreen, power cable, DVI cable
- one live backup HD - 500GB
- two mirrored archive HDs - 1TB each

TRANSPORT:
- 2001 Chevy Suburban 4WD - LTE
- Trek 1000 race bike
- Gary Fischer Tassajara Mountain bike - blue
- tire gauge
- micro bike pump
- spare bike tube

CAMPING:
- REI Hobitat Tent
- custom RayWay tarp
- Gregory Z55 backpack
- Osprey Raptor 10 daypack
- MSR PocketRocket Stove
- 2 fuel canisters
- MSR pot, pan, lid
- bic lighter
- LED flashlight
- headlamp
 
TOILETRIES:
- toothbrush & toothpaste
- razor & shaving cream
- Q-tips
- nail clippers
- tortoise shell comb

BOOKS, CDs, DVDs
- mostly converted to iPad, iBooks, iTunes :)

DIARIES

CLOTHES
- Armani jacket
- Lululemon pants

SHOES
- crocs slippers
- Onutsuka Tiger - Tai Chi shoes
- Puma Dallas - blue & gold sneaks
- Nike LunarFly - running shoes

TOOLS
- Ryobi power drill / driver
- SkilSaw
- jigsaw
- two tool bags with manual tools

FILES
- calendar
- paper
- active projects
- open bills
- black rocket labs
- panyoga
- taxes
- legal

KITCHEN
- toaster
- butcher block cutting board
- supersharp 12" serrated knife
- spatula
- 13" nonstick pan
- Conitgo AutoSeal coffee mug
- Dansk Nordic flatware
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- teapot
- french press coffee maker

MAPS:
- lighted globe - 13" Columbus - National Geographic
- Scholastic globe - 16" Executive - Weber Costello
- Peterson projection world map poster
- Michelin maps - India, Africa
- USGS quads - Arches, Canyonlands, Smokey Mountains, Gerlach
- Appalachian Trail map, marked

ART:
- Bardo Being - Alex Grey, 2001 - 36" signed & framed print
- Forest - Th Dahl, 1939, original oil painting
- Lydia nude - G Roberts, 1986, original pencil drwaing
- Shiva/ Shakti - India - 16" solid bronze statue
- Happy Buddha - Dubai - 5" cold cast statue
- divine feminine - Fraebel, 2005 - hand-blown art glass
- Iron Man #1
- Captain America #100

OK, I'm starting to get it now...

My first thought of fasting, in my 20s, was Gandhi

My second thought of fasting, in my 30s, was a quick and easy way to lose weight and avoid cooking

My third thought of fasting, a few days ago, was as a little ritual to meditate on, and to kickstart myself into a new dietary, nutritional, and healthy realm.

But through all those years, I'd always thought of it as a "pause for the psyche, and an accelerant for the body." What I never even considered was the cleansing aspect, which of course, the Master Cleanse makes readily clear (no pun intended).

My previous fasts had been simply water fasts. Pure and simple. Stop eating, and drink water. That's it.

This master cleanse is more like, well, an engine flush. In addition to the cessation of eating, you're drinking a liter of heavy saltwater every morning. 'Drinking' is a bit of a misnomer. What you're really doing is flushing your entire digestive system, from espohagus to stomach to intestine to colon, with heavy water. Because that water shoots through the entire system in less than an hour. And you get to see for yourself the proof of what's been hiding in there, kind of like the oil change dude showing you your old oil filter. And, even to me, its a surprise.

I'm hoping that, and wondering if, I'll be flushing clear by day 8. Here's to optimism! :)

better quality food

Day Two of the Master Cleanse.

Deep cravings for Sugar.
Specifically, cold beer and raw chocolate chip cookie dough.
went to whole foods this morning to upgrade
my gourmet ingredients to top of the line organic ingredients.

I truly love every visit to Whole Foods my entire life.
Complete positivity. Lovely people, delicious food.

And it got me thinking,
One of the intentions for this fast is to radically improve the quality of my food intake. Part of that can begin simply by going to Whole Foods and the Farmer's Market more often. Quality ingredients = quality intake. Fresh living ingredients = fresh living Me. :)

So now I'm thinking about conversions.
For instance,
instead of refrigerated cookie dough, I could make some super high end raw / vegan chocolate chip cookies, using only the finest ingredients. YUM! And instead of a can of Miller Lite, I could either buy a nice craft beer, or even (OMG) attempt to brew my own.

So part of what I'm going to do here is really commit to and plan some AWESOME meals for the other side of this fast.

In salivation we Trust,
:) me

My Statement of Intent

I am starting a Master Cleanse today.
And its prompted me to really begin to think.
I am on the edge of a cliff of the unknown
And I've been here before, but never so clearly.
This time, its both consciously and intentionally.

Here's a little aside: a neat dream I recently experienced.

The scene was an ancient castle in England.
The occasion was Madonna's 50th birthday.
It was a very large circular room, perhaps 6 stories high.
All the guests occupied a balcony near the top.
We were all wearing these strange bubble suits which they'd instructed us to wear as we entered.
The entire room was filled with smoke, so that we couldn't see the floor below.
All eyes looked up, as somehow we expected Madonna to appear in the dome above, to entertain us.
Waiting, waiting, waiting...
No Madonna.
Finally, one of the guests simply leapt into the abyss...

And guess what?
There was in fact a massive trampoline below, hidden by the smoke.
The guest bounced up in glee, protected by their padded suit.
Soon another, then another, leapt into the void.
In mere moments, there were hundreds of revellers, bouncing and bounding and colliding in the air, laughing and flying gleefully.
Madonna never did show up.
But the party had begun, and the message was clear:

YOU are the entertainment.
YOU are the guests, and
YOU are the participant.

Participate in your own life. Stop trying to find others to entertain you. BE the entertainment. BE the star. :)

So where was I?
Oh yes, intention.
Well, at this point, I think I'll save that for the next post. :)