A Decade Later

How many nights spent sleeping on a hotel floor

with KittyKitty under my thin sheet

my sneakers still tied

in case I need to bolt

into the night's darkness

How many nights drunk and high

no place to call home

no solace in my buzz

and now

a decade later

its all changed

except for

KittyKitty under my sheets

Journal Entry- 6/27/2002

A stranger stopped me in the mall today and told me she was a psychic and that I had an aura around me. I told her I don't believe in those things. Maybe the aura is God- or the 20 pounds I have gained.

Timing is everything....or is it?

People always say "I was in the right place at the right time" or "I was at the wrong place at the wrong time". Destiny. People like to believe that thinks happen for a reason and I suppose I, too, used to believe that at one point, but that all changed suddenly one day.

I was in Whole Foods, buying baby's breath for my cat Simon. Simon (my beloved female cat) loved pull the buds off the stems and nibble on them. Every week I would buy her a new bunch and as soon as I walked in the apartment she would greet me at the door, smell the baby's breath and get all excited, kneading her paws on the hard wood floor.

The florist and I chatted about the baby's breath and cats and she started talking about her cat who had died years ago. She said that a year later, she came across another cat with the same coloring, who she took in. Over time, she found out that this new cat had been born around the same time her other cat had died and she determined that the new cat was the original cat, reincarnated.

I don't believe in reincarnation so to me this seemed like as far fetched an idea as the moon is make of cheese. I decided right there and then that we create our own truth to make ourselves feel better and to make sense of the world. I stopped believing that things happen for a reason and adopted a new belief- that life just happens and we can choose to make things happen out of that or not.

Maybe I too am creating this new belief so that life makes more sense for me.

Lists...

I am happiest when I'm thinking, doing, feeling...

1. biking

2. feeling free

3. feeling the sun and breezes on my skin

4. playing with animals

5. thinking of possibilities

6. hearing live music, seeing good movies, going to art museums

7. feeling inspired

8. poking around used bookstores

9. feeling connected

10. exercising, swimming, hiking, having boundless energy

10 things Id like to do:

1. bike the coast of MA and CA

2. hike the AT

3. swim with dolphins

4. live on a boat

5. drive across country in an RV

6. camp in the redwoods

7. go to Costa Rica, belize, paris, africa

8. relearn spanish

9. do another month long fast

10. write a book

10 'imaginary lives' id like to try:

1. professional athlete

2. bicycle mechanic

3. documentary maker

4. peace corps worker

5. adventure traveller

6. photographer

7. performer/dancer/actress

8. writer

9. illustrator/painter

10. cirque du soleil performer

Things you should know...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto

The Path

One really fabulous amazing thing is that I trust that no matter what, I don't have to STRUGGLE! Life will unfold exactly as it should all I just need to keep right living . That is so cool. so cool.

A Letter from the Farm Sanctuary

I am happy to tell you that no downed cattle will be slaughtered for human food under a new rule announced by President Obama this weekend. However, many other downed animals are still in need of your help to ensure that they are no longer pushed, prodded and dragged to slaughter.
Under the previous regulations, a case-by-case assessment was made of cattle that went down at the slaughterhouse after passing the pre-slaughter inspection. The loopholes encouraged slaughterhouse workers to get cattle to stand and walk on their own, dragging them by the ears and tails, prodding them with electric shocks, even dragging them with chains and pushing them with forklifts, because an animal deemed a downer meant a loss in profits. While the meat industry pushed to allow sick and non-ambulatory cattle to enter the food chain amid the mad-cow disease scare (a reality the country has yet to truly confront), and hung on during an exposé of a California slaughterhouse that led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history, the Obama Administration moved quickly to address some of our longstanding concerns.
Since its inception, Farm Sanctuary has advocated an end to downed animal abuse and urged the USDA to ban their marketing. Our No Downers Campaign was founded in the belief that if downed animals are prevented from entering the food supply, producers would have less of an incentive to maintain the status quo of pushing these animals past their biological limits at any and all costs. Through the years that we have waged this campaign, we have worked for passage of the first laws in this country to end the marketing of downed animals, we have seen slaughterhouses and stockyards convicted of cruelty, and we have rescued and come to the aid of hundreds of downed animals.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said this new rule "is a step forward for both food safety and the standards for humane treatment of animals." Yet it is just a step and more steps are needed. The USDA needs to extend these same protections to all species—pigs, sheep, goats and other livestock who are disabled due to the intensity of factory farming and the push to maximize profits at the expense of living animals.
Please take a few minutes to contact Secretary Vilsack, thank him for closing the loopholes for downed cattle, and urge him to expand the umbrella of protection to other animals.
Thank you for your compassion and your action.
Sincerely,Gene BaurPresident and Co-founder, Farm Sanctuary