Quick Update

It has been awhile since I posted, but here goes with a brief update.  I have been working with Dad on a house for the last two weeks.  We are getting everything packed and ready to haul to the ranch.  After discussing it with Mom and Dad it was decided that we will stay with them for a bit and I can help Dad with some work he has had come up, and he can help us build our bus into a comfortable living space.  Sy will help Mom around the ranch while I'm working with Dad.  In our spare time we will finish sorting our belongings and putting some in storage in our shed at the ranch.  Some is going with us, and some we will sell along the way.

Right now we are just trying to get it packed so that we can get it out of this house.  Dad is bringing a stock trailer and I think with that and the bus and the van, we can get just about everything out of the house in this next week.  Sy took a van load down this past week and baby sat the horses and dogs while Mom took a friend to Amarillo for medical stuff.

I took the bus to have an emissions test and be weighed on Monday.  It has passed emissions and can now be licensed.  Our insurance company is going to drop coverage on the bus in February because the underwriting dept will not cover it.  So I will be shopping our insurance around very soon.

I need to get back to packing.  For the near future, I will probably update this blog about once a week.  In a couple of months, When we hit the road for real, I will update more often on our adventures in Nomadism.  We want to get to Phoenix and San Antonio in the Spring before it gets too hot to be tolerable.  Please keep checking back or subscribe for updates.  Thanks for reading.

We Will Have Our Bus on Saturday

Another critical step on this path to being location independent is to get our bus/home.  We have made an offer on a bus and it will be delivered to us on Saturday.  We are excited.  We have been sorting.  Dad will be here this week to help move my shed to the ranch so that we have storage.  We have started to acquire some stuff for our conversion of the bus into a nice RV Coach.  We have worked on some general design ideas, and will get more into details once we have the bus in our possession.

We continue to sort stuff into sell, free, storage, and take with piles.  It is amazing how much crap we have accumulated in ten short years.  It started tough, but the more we get rid of the easier gets.  We will be having a huge indoor moving sale within the next couple of weeks.  

Downsizing Begins

We have started down the path.  We made an offer on the church bus in Pueblo.  They had another couple scheduled to look at it as well.  We made a fair offer and hope to hear back later this week.  We talked to the pastor for quite sometime while going over this bus.  If we don't get this one, we will find another one.  There is a glut of buses on the market.  It is mostly a matter of just finding the right deal.

We have started liquidating our possessions via craigslist and such.  It is amazing how much we have acquired in just ten years.  This is a difficult process.  We had a hard time at first.  We found that our attachment to things was strong, even though it may be stuff we don't even use.  Many things are obvious that it is junk that just needs to go.  Other things are tougher as we decide what we will want and need with us and what we will put in storage.  Dealing with some of the folks on Craigslist is also a big happy joy.  We will likely have an indoor yard sale in the very near future.

While we have been sorting and taking pics for this process, we have started talking about how we will trick out our bus.  We will have to start with a generator, but are researching possibly building a wind turbine as well as solar panels.  We are trading a table saw for a solar shower and a two burner camp stove.  We are considering building a portable solar oven.  We have a single burner camp stove and a turkey fryer burner to do most of our cooking. We are looking for a composting toilet to buy or trade for.  We will take our queen size memory foam mattress and will build a frame into our overall design.  We are also considering a space for growing herbs and fresh vegetables by using a vertical growing and drip system system and a couple of grow lights.

We are still struggling with the decision to live in a bus.  Sy and I are both intellectually fine with it.  We are both smart strong adults who can list all of the reasons why we should do this as well as the few for why we shouldn't.  Emotionally this has been a trying experience, but we are both growing from the experience.  We are supporting each other like we haven't in a long time.  Overall, this so far is turning into a positive experience for both of us.  

I am kind of anxious to just get on with it, and have to often remind myself to slow down and get through the downsizing process first.  I strive to take life each moment at a time now instead of being caught up in the drama of the past and the worry of the future.  We are only alive right now.  That's all we ever have.  This is the essence of our decision to make this life style change.  Yes other factors make it easier, but we decided that we simply want to live on our time, right now.

Have a Zen day. 

The First Steps to Location Independent

We are now a few days into our decision to transition to location independent living.  We went into high gear trying to find a suitable ride.  We have looked at several motor homes, and even made an offer on one yesterday.  The gentleman wasn't apparently as motivated of a  seller as I thought him to be.  We are fine with that though as we have been considering the bus/conversion option as well.  If I had the money we would love to be cruising around in an older Wanderlodge by Bluebird.

As it stands, we are now looking at purchasing a school or church bus and roughing it while we build our own custom coach as we go.  We are both internet savvy, and Craigslist has tons of treasures if one has the time and patience to find them.  I was surprised that it was Sy pushing me for this option.  She has been camping only a few times and we roughed it in a tent for a couple of nights at a time.  I was the one being a whiner about not having a bed and a shower, the guy who lived on the streets of Colorado Springs for a year as a 19 something.

We are going to look at a Partridge familyish church bus tomorrow.  It is well within our price range and the lady has already volunteered that she is willing to negotiate on the price.  There is a glut of retired school buses on the market in our price range.  We are thinking that we will build as we go along.  We will start with the most basic necessities such as a composting toilet, and a generator, and water storage and disposal.  Our camping setup will need to be upgraded just a bit to accommodate everyday cooking use.

We are already working on a rough floor plan so we have an idea of what we will need to acquire to convert said bus to a nice RV.  We will eventually be completely solar powered.  We are playing with the idea of a gravity fed water system.  By using a composting toilet, we will not need to have or clean a black water tank.  Our gray water can be used to water a lawn.  Down the road we will spend the money to convert the diesel to run on used vegetable oil.  It runs a couple of grand for that conversion, but will save bazillions over the life of the vehicle with the added benefit of  a much lower environmental footprint.

After much consideration we decided a bus is a better built and safer vehicle than most motor homes. We can build it to suit us.  We are excited and scared at the same time.  It is going to be a great adventure, and we can't wait.

The Choice is Made

Sy and I have made the decision to go nomadic.  We were leaning yesterday.  We continued talking ourselves into it today.  We are going to look at a nice motor home tomorrow.  It is taking a new set of eyes to determine how to proceed.  Everything will be a new challenge for awhile as we transition.

We can take a limited amount of stuff on the road with us including our tools to make our living.  We have already sold and given away a ton of crap this year.  We are now going through the process of trying to guess what we will want to keep in storage for future use when we find our five acres of paradise, and what gets liquidated.  The prospect of having the freedom to wake up anywhere we want is actually a little overwhelming.  We are already making a list of places to visit.  This list includes natural wonders and restaurants alike.  We have figured out that our biggest challenge will be downsizing our kitchen.  We are both foodies who love to create new dishes.  We now get to challenge our skills with much less space for cooking and resources.  Our four cats will be re-homed, but we are taking both dogs with us and have to consider space for their food and such.

We are looking forward to eating at local restaurants and finding food at local farmers markets from different areas of the country.  We look forward to seeing family that we haven't been able to see often.  I will be writing about our experiences along the way.  Someday they will be one set of tales out of many from this "great recession."  I hope folks will follow along as we take this crazy adventure into location independent living.

The Road Less Traveled

There come times in our lives where we are presented extraordinary choices and opportunities.  Sy and I are at a point in our lives where we have the opportunity to really evaluate a number of different directions for our lives to take. While we have discussed many ideas over the decade we have been together, we really didn't expect to be in the position we are currently in.

We are knee-deep in the foreclosure dance with Bank of America.   We have a small business which is paid for other than monthly expenses.  Unfortunately, we started a business that in my industry slows down when the cold comes.  We have minimized our household bills as much as possible for our acceptable standard of living, and we continue to be behind on our bills.  We are better off than a large majority of Americans who are still struggling with significant debt.  Our only debt is our mortgage and we had one of those mortgages that is in the news right now.  We should not have qualified, and we struggled to pay it consistently the entire time we have lived here.

We are now faced with the question: Where do we go from here.  As I stated earlier, we have discussed where we want to head in life, what our dream house will look like when we build it,  how we want to live our lives.  We both see a huge economic storm still lingering over the United States for the next several years.  We are prepared to use our various skills and trades to make a living.  We seek a simple life without the corrosion of the rat race.  Our long-term dream is to someday buy a small piece of rural property somewhere and build a sustainable, eco-friendly hobbit hole that is off the grid.  We ultimately seek to be self supporting in raising our own food and ply our crafts and trades for whatever else we may need.  That being said, we are not quite in a position to do that just yet.  We have discussed two basic plans with various options.

I will start with the more traditional plan.  That is, we find a place to rent that we can afford.  We are looking at studio and one bedroom apartments.  They are fairly inexpensive and I have found that in the current housing crisis, more rental properties are pet friendly than I remember  from past renting experiences.  Our overhead would be fairly low.  Some of our options for this plan revolve around auto glass repair.  We can rent and stay in Colorado Springs, one of the most competitive auto glass repair and replacement markets in the world, or we can move to a smaller town and ply our trade in a rural area to make a living.  There is very little competition, but some costs of business are higher.  The one foreseeable difficulty with the rent plan is that we are still beholden to pay somebody else for our shelter each month.  If business is bad, or we get sick, things can end badly, with us not prepared to move on.  Landlords have been known to go into foreclosure as well, leaving tenants high and dry.

The second "less traditional" option we have been discussing is to live location independent.  I put less traditional in quotes here because it is actually the way most of humanity has lived at one time and 30 to 40 million still do.  I am talking about a neo-nomadic lifestyle.  The idea is that we downsize our possessions and buy an RV or coach to live in.  Living Location Independent, is not the same as homeless.  It means we live in a house we can drive down the road when we feel like moving.  The one positive thing I will probably ever say about Wal-Mart is that they are friendly to those who live in RV's and will generally let them park overnight in their parking lots.  We can also park at truck stops and in national parks and forests.  One great advantage to this plan is that we can visit family and friends that live in places we generally weren't able to afford to visit.  With the ability to set up any where and do rock chip repairs and sell our craft goods, we only need to make enough to meet our low fuel and food overhead, and pay for our cell and mobile internet service.  This lifestyle is more common than many think.  The term snowbird applies to those who live in the northern climes in summer and then migrate to places like Arizona and Florida in the winter time.  There are many Technomads, who travel around as consultants and freelance software developers.  There are many who write for a living or sell their photography online.  They may build websites or set up networks.  Often they barter for what they need.  Many Technomads travel the world this way.

Sy and I have been through hours of discussion about this and we are both in favor of the location independent path.  With the advent of the internet and cell phone technology, it is easier than ever to be a nomad and still stay in touch with family and friends.  With the lower cost of living a nomadic lifestyle, we would be able to put away for our future plans.  If we do this we know that we are giving up a certain level of comfort, but we are prepared for this.  With the looming economic and social problems piling up in this country, we almost feel as if we can weather the storm better if we have a shelter we own and can move if we need to make our ends meet.  We are both struggling to overcome the modern American consumerist mindset, or the idea that home ownership and possessions are what's best for us.  It is deeply ingrained, and as one goes through the foreclosure process, allows for depression and anger to manifest because of feelings of failure.  It doesn't matter that the system and our mortgage was designed to fail so that Wall Street speculators could rake in billions.  It has been a long arduous process of breaking free from the failure mindset and setting out to determine our next best course.  We have done a lot of research and as I said are in favor of location independent living.  As we have been doing for a few years now, we will make sustainability and eco-consciousness a focus in our lives.

We ask readers of this blog to share any thoughts you may have about location independent living in the comments.

Election Day 2010

I have been watching this election season closely, and I am disturbed at the amount of lies and half truths disseminated by the corporate fascist would be plutocracy.  It is my hope that folks will go to the polls today with eyes and minds open and reject the fear-mongering of the unidentified money sources allowed by the Citizens United ruling in the Supreme Court.  It is my hope that Democrats will not be punished for going to Washington and making the unpopular choices that needed to be made to set this country moving back in the right direction after the disastrous G.W. Bush years.  The Democrats started working on difficult problems of this country in 2006, and we need to give them more time to fix this countries problems.

My opinion is that Democrats barely hold both the House and the Senate despite what the pundits say.  I base this solely on the get out the vote efforts of each party.  As a registered independent voter, I have been barraged by both side GOTV campaigns.  The Democrats have a bigger and better organized grass roots GOTV machines.  The Republicans have spent bazillions on their candidates from unidentified shady groups.  I think the people of this country despite disagreeing with some of the agenda of the Democrats can see that they are at least trying to get things done and will barely leave them in office.  The loudest part of the Tea Party is also the smallest minority of the far right.  The mainstay Republicans must be looking for a way to put Pandora back in her box.  I wonder who holds the most regret for the decision to put Sarah Palin on the John Mcain ticket in 2008.

Mid-Term Election 2010: A Citizen Perspective

As we approach the mid term 2010 election, it has become painfully obvious that our election system is broken and continues to get worse; like driving the car without oil in it.  It is also becoming plain that our government is firmly in the hands of special interests.  This election is about more than voting red or blue.  This election could be a key in the very survival or downfall of our democracy. This election season the Republicans are talking out both sides of their mouths, and the Democrats are telling us what they think we want to hear.  The politician works now only for the campaign dollar and for reelection.  As we enter the final week of the 2010 campaign, lets look at what is really at stake here.

The Republicans took the strategy of' 'No' to the extreme, to the point that when Democrats applied Republican ideas to legislation they would still vote against it and decry it.  A large number of Republican Senators have decried the stimulus and then are indignant when they are caught trying to direct stimulus funds into their states.  Their campaign strategy is to say no to everything and hope we don't notice.  Only problem to their strategy is that it was hijacked by the Tea Party.  While some in the tea party have sensible ideas for government, most of the movement is a fake-grassroots, top-down guerrilla campaign theater intent on stirring up the far right in this country.  Well, they have had some success and we see it in the likes of Christine O'Donnell, Sharon Angle, Ken Buck, and Rand Paul.  These far-right candidates have pushed moderate Republicans out or to the right.  Even longtime politicians who could work across the aisle like John McCain have moved far to the right on many positions.

The Democrats dug in after the 2008 election and passed significant reforms despite being hamstrung by the GOP.  This country would be significantly better off right now, had Democrats received some support from Republicans for the work of the people.  This campaign season many Democrats have been trying to distance themselves from the work they have done.  They are telling us what they think we want to hear.  The other problem with the Democrats, is that they are just as willing as Republicans to get all a-titter about the broken system, but just as unwilling as Republicans to fix it.  The reason, special interest money has become entrenched in our government's center of power.

This year, in a case known as Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could donate as much money as they liked to politicians and shady attack groups, who are behind nearly all of the attack campaign ads running this season.  Because of this ruling, these groups have no accountability for what they say or do to promote their agenda of buying power in this country.  There is a distinct possibility that there is foreign money enter this election.  This is already the most expensive mid-term election in the history of this country, with several groups still amping up spending over this last week of the campaign.  Many of these ads are outright lies and while the candidates have nothing to do with these ads, they must defend themselves from outright lies and not know who is behind it.  This is a ridiculous way to hire representatives to do the peoples work.

We know now that the oil, coal, and natural gas industries were essentially running the Department of the Interior (DOI).  They had no accountability for things like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill this summer, because they had their people inside at Interior and in the Minerals Management Service (MMS), a division of DOI that is responsible for managing this country's vast mineral and fossil fuel resources.  It is likely that the MMS under-collected royalties that were owed to the American people by the likes of Exxon, Shell, and BP.  The fossil fuel industrial complex has been infiltrating government for decades to avoid regulation and enhance profits.  This relationship became cemented when Vice President Dick Cheney started holding top secret energy policy meetings at the White House for his and King George's buddies in the oil and coal industries.  We have seen this year how the coal industry has mine safety officials in their pockets.  The Big Branch tragedy in West Virginia had numerous previous safety violations, but was allowed to operate business as usual and 29 miners were killed.  This is but a small part of the picture.  The American People are being robbed of our mineral and fuel resources.  These companies make obscene profits while we continue to go into debt.

We see the Republicans bowing to their Wall Street masters, when it came to financial reform.  We see the Democrats cave so they can get anything passed and consequently there are so many loopholes that each side will be happy for years to come.  All this while the American people are suffering.  Unemployment is still high.  The pundits and politicians keep telling us that the economy is getting better, but folks are still losing their jobs and homes.  We bailed out the "too big to fail" banks, while they continued to pay huge bonuses and salaries. The government bailed out our auto makers and they are on the road to recovery.  These were necessary actions, but they were only necessary because of the mismanagement of regulation of these corporate entities by government officials.  Bank of America, Chase, and others continue to be in the news for ongoing scandals related to fraudulent mortgages and fraudulent foreclosures.  

When it came to the fiery healthcare debate in this country the Republicans, financed by the Health Insurance Industry, kicked and screamed the entire way.  They are still filling the echo chamber with shouts of, "repeal the health care reform."  All of the Republicans and some of the Democrats have sold out their sworn oath to serve the people of this nation.  They instead serve the corporate funding masters who want only to enhance profits at all costs.  Instead of providing better quality care at a better price the insurance companies and their Republican friends in Congress want to deny folks coverage and as many benefits as possible so they can enhance the bottom line as much as possible.  The insurance companies make their obscene profits by providing quantity and not so much quality.

Our education system has dropped to 25th in the world and is continuing to fall as we fail to innovate our schools for the 21st century.  Our roads are crumbling.  Our energy transmission grid is antiquated and in need of nearly complete renewal.  Presidents have been calling for a comprehensive energy policy for decades.  Yet we still do not have one.  We are still embroiled in the Middle East because we need their oil.  The best thing would be to bring our troops home, rest them, and keep them well-trained and ready for conflict.  We are not ready to eliminate conflict, but we must eliminate unnecessary war for unnecessary resources.  We still have the best tactical missile program in the world.  Bring our troops home and then play Whack-A-Mole Al-Qaeda with Tomahawk cruise missiles and drones.  We have a border problem to our south and an antiquated immigration policy that both sides seem to refuse to fix.  Both sides claim the other does nothing about immigration and then, when in power, does nothing about reform.  The minority party can hold the congress hostage with the filibuster which requires a super-majority of the Senate to get anything done.  This is unacceptable.  Any senator can place a secret hold on a nominee or other piece of legislation simply because the sky is blue.  This is unacceptable.  Fact is, Congress is broken.

We can fix this.  First we must vote.  Second we must begin to call and write our representatives and let them know what we expect of them.  Probably the most significant issue that needs to be addressed is campaign finance reform.  If the corporations are so eager to fund our elections then let us tax them the amount equal to what they are currently contributing and put it into the public election fund.  All political candidates get the same amount of money for their campaigns from this fund.  No third party groups or corporations may spend on any election.  We must also remove the corruption of lobbyist for special interest.  They spend money in Congress like there is no tomorrow.  They buy and sell influence.  Often the door between government positions and lobbying jobs is revolving.  When will Congress pass a law that will limit gifts and payments to our elected officials?  The answer is never, unless we make them.  It might be time to discuss strict term limits and enforce them for our elected officials.  Our officials must also reform the rules of Congress so as to disallow the minority to hold the whole of Congress hostage at whim.  Secret holds and the filibuster must be reformed and discouraged.

There is one week until the mid-term election of 2010 comes to a close.  Please take the time to vote.  I ask everyone to use reason and vote for the most progressive candidates. Google the names of all of the candidates and do a thorough search.  Put the BS filter on and find out what each candidate truly stands for.  Check opensecrets.org to see where their money comes from, and then vote with your conscience.  As a nation of free people, our biggest enemy to freedom is apathy.  Vote November 2, 2010  We may still yet hold off the developing plutocracy.


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Distractions

‎"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference." AA Prayer.

As with most things human, homosexuality is a complex subject. Genetic scientist are studying genetic makeup of twins to determine what behaviors and traits are the result of genetics and environment. Identical twins share all of their genes and environment. Fraternal twins share half of their genes and all of their environment. These studies are showing that homosexual behavior derives from a mix of genetic and environmental factors. These scientist are finding that there are many paths to homosexuality. To say it is all genetic or all environment and choice is simplistic and naive.

In a free society such as ours, we must have compromise and acceptance if we are to remain free. Christians and Muslims who believe that homosexuality is a sin or wrong must accept that homosexuality exists. They must accept that it doesn't significantly affect them if gays have rights and are married. They do not have to accept that the behavior is right by their religious teachings. Homosexuals must accept that there are folks in the world that think their behavior is wrong. They must accept that attitudes are unlikely to change towards their behavior. They must accept that those in opposition to their behavior have a right to be. What both sides should accept is that we live in a country where we have equal protection under the law.

We must all accept that this is unproductive rabble rousing. We have much more serious issues in this country than homosexuality. Every President since Roosevelt have been calling for a comprehensive energy policy to protect the future for our children. The corporations are now spending untold millions for their influence in Congress. Our outmoded education system is falling behind the rest of the world at a rapid pace. We need innovation to reboot our manufacturing sector. Our infrastructure is crumbling faster than blue cheese. The list goes on. Our politicians work only for the campaign donation and power.

Imagine if we spent all of the money spent on misleading campaign ads, and trying to out shout each other, and suing to infringe on others rights, to do the kinds of good works Jesus and many other great religious teachers have prescribed for us. Imagine if we spent the hundreds of millions already spent in political campaigns this year on helping the homeless and the down trodden or invested in our infrastructure, or applied it to our national debt.

"United we stand, divided we fall." The Four Oxen and The Tiger; Aesop

Consequences II

It is often the tragedies in life that help us evolve into better beings.  After I lost my job, life was kind of scary for a day or two.  As Sy and I began to develop a business plan for our new business, we settled down and laid the groundwork for the rest of our lives.  It has been a liberating experience for us that will allow us to shape our destiny.

Many spiritual traditions teach that endings are also beginnings.  We see in nature as nothing is wasted.  When life ends it recycles into nutrients for new life.  In life it is the same.  The loss of my job has opened up new opportunities that otherwise might not have been taken.   But with endings and beginnings comes change and learning.

When you have the security net of a regular weekly pay check it is easy to get caught in the pay check to pay check rat race.  It is easy to get caught up in the drama of day to day life.  In this state it is near impossible to live in the moment and be mindful of our thoughts and actions.  The resulting actions and consequences can cause suffering and further cycles of bad choices.

After the liberation of losing my job,  I find I have time for things like meditation, yoga and reflection.  I find that I am less stressed and angry.  I find that I can balance my life out instead of dedicating so much time to the corporation to go nowhere.  With this liberation came a wake up call to clean up the rest of our lives.

Sy and I have been fiscally lazy over the last years.  With the creation of our new business, and with the realization that we and we alone are responsible for our fiscal well being, especially without the security check each week from the rat race job,  we had to account and reign in our fiscal laziness.  It has been difficult, and we may lose our house, but it sets us on a path to a more sustainable and financially sound life.

There are other areas of our lives I could discuss in much the same way.  Sy and I are both stubborn.  Especially when it comes to communicating with one another.  Since I have lost my job,  we have had to work on our communication.  We communicate better now than probably any time in the last five years.  The trick is to be mindful of the moment and then the next.  If we get caught in the drama of the past and the worry of the future, then we aren't living right now.

Consequences

Sometimes we make choices and take actions that we know may end up with results that are detrimental to us.  And yet we do them anyway.  And when it comes time to accept the consequences we must.  I have made many of these choices over the years.  Everyday for the past several years, I have chosen to partake of a plant that in the eyes of the law is forbidden.  This is a plant that has been used by humans since we first started using plants.  It is now legal in 14 states to use for medical purposes with approval or recommendation by a doctor.  That plant is cannabis.

I use cannabis through a variety of methods, including smoking, ingesting, and as a lotion that eases aches and pains.  Having some anger issues, cannabis helps calm my mind.  It enhances my spiritual practices.  It enhances perception of things like television and music. New medical and scientific studies show that cannabis likely has cancer preventative and curing possibilities. 

My wife has a state issued certificate to consume and grow her own cannabis for legitimate medical purposes.  I have chosen to source mine from local growers and take the risk of misdemeanor prosecution.  (I never have more than is a misdemeanor offense.)  A plant that my wife may legally grow in our house is now costing me my job.  I am not complaining.  I accept the consequences of my actions.  I point out this irony to highlight the disparity in law.  For instance, lets say Coworker A goes home has a few drinks after work.  They may cop a buzz.   It is perfectly legal.  Yet if I want to go home and smoke a bowl or two and relax to some music, it is illegal.  This is ludicrous.  I don't approve of anybody who drinks and drives or smokes and drives.  I am a big believer in personal responsibility. If the choice is made, the consequences whatever they may be must be acceptable.  I do not partake while driving or at work.  

So now I am on administrative leave pending the outcome of the urinalysis test I took this morning.  By the end of the week I will likely be terminated from my job.  I do not fault my company for enforcing its policies within the framework of the law.  I implore those that read this though, to think about what cannabis prohibition really does to society.  In some states possession of even a seed is grounds for felony charges.  In this country we are putting people in prison who use a plant that will grow just about anywhere on Earth.  These folks end up learning new criminal behavior and then end up back on the streets doing worse behavior, only to end up back in prison.  We spend billions on policing and prosecuting millions of non-violent cannabis users.  I support the exponentially growing support for decriminalizing cannabis in this country.  Prohibition didn't work for alcohol.  I suspect that some of my ancestors who lived through alcohol Prohibition, looked at the violence associated with it much as we look at the drug lords and cartels in Mexico and increasingly the Southwest U.S..  It is also likely that some of my ancestors were moonshiners or helped those who were, or were simply supportive of repealing prohibition.

NORML: National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

DrugWarFacts.org/marijuana

CannabisNews.org

Control and Tax Cannabis California 2010

HailMaryJane.com

Easier Said Than Done

One of the biggest obstacles we have in our journey to transcend suffering, is not living in the moment.  To be focused on right now.  When we choose to live in the moment, we can think and process the world around us with greater clarity.  As humans experiencing  suffering, we tend to lose track of the moment.  We often get stuck in a past moment with unresolved emotions, or thoughts.  At the same time we can become stuck in the future.  All of these unresolved moments add up to our suffering.

My biggest moment sticker is anger.  My anger often stems from my ego.  If I take slight at something that someone else does, I hold on to angry thoughts.  It is OK to be angry, but to holding on to it is the folly of suffering.  For instance if I am driving and somebody turns out right in front of me, and cuts me off, I get angry.  The problem is when I stay mad for the next ten minutes planning what I would say to this person in an angry manner. This is how easy it is to become stuck in the past and the future at the same time.

By deduction then it must be that the way out of our suffering comes from within us.  If it is true that we hold on to our suffering the it is true that we have the power to let go of our suffering.  This is profound.  It is something I have been able to experience in my life, but it is difficult to maintain if one does not live in the moment.

We can teach ourselves to live in the moment.  The best way is through meditation.  meditation is difficult.  If it weren't everyone would be doing it.  Meditation with focused breathing is very powerful.  Meditation is simply sitting with legs folded and one leg in front of the other, and hands on knees palms up.  Burning incense while meditating helps open one to spirit.  I also like to listen to meditation music or chanting while meditating.  Start by taking slow deep breaths.  Focus on deep rhythmic breathing.  One will notice various thoughts and emotions coming to the surface especially when one is new to meditation.  Acknowledge the thought and then refocus on breathing and or music.  The more you practice this, the easier it is to live in the moment.  We soon learn to let go of our attachments to our thought and emotions.  We resolve each moment as it happens.  It is also easier to see when we are becoming stuck in a moment, and correct it with a simple deep breath.

" A saint is a very simple man:  when he walks, he walks.  When he talks, he talks and that's all.  He doesn't think while listening, daydream while walking, see while touching.  This is hard.  That is why he is a saint."  Sujata, Beginning To See


Blessings
Rev. Jeremy

Suffering Is Natural, Fortunately It Is Also Optional

When I started this blog, I had no idea what direction it would go, but here it is.  It started as a place where I was examining my beliefs, and looking for something.  I was stuck spiritually.  I let the corrosion of the rat race and day to day life get in the way of practice.  That has changed recently.

I wanted to share that change with you now.  I am ordained through the Universal Life Church.  I was ordained in 1996 while I was incarcerated.  I recently came across The Universal Life Church Ministers Network.  It is an open place to share and discuss anything spiritual or religious.  It is a place where folks of many diverse traditions can come together and find and share common ground.  I have met several Heathens and Asatruar in the network, as well as Druids, Wiccans, Christians and many others.  There is a requirement of being ordained, but it does not have to be ULC. The ULC is also a liberal ordination church.

  We will Ordain anyone for life, without question of your faith

  We believe only in that which is right and everyone has the right to determine what is right          

  for themselves.

Towards the end of my period of incarceration just over ten years ago, I spent my time living a semi monastic lifestyle, with daily exercises in meditation, breathing exercises, and yoga, working, and working out.  After I got out, life happened and I have walked other paths.  As such these practices had pretty much stopped.  I have recently rededicated myself to the seekers path.  I have also taken up the study and practice of Buddhism.  I wanted to share a great  forum called Zen Sukoyaka Buddhist Forum/E-Sangha.  The Dharma of the Buddhas has given me insight into the other traditions from which I have incorporated many principles into my spiritual belief structure.

I have studied and practiced several varieties of Christianity, Wicca, Buddhism, and a whole host of other things.  My main faith lies in Asatru, the gods of northern Europe, the faith of my ancient ancestors.  I am finding new insights into all of these things in both of these forums.

For those who are unfamiliar with Buddhism, it is less a religion, and more of a path of transformation that shows us how to end our suffering.  Buddhism teaches Four Noble Truths.

1.  There is suffering.

2.  There is a cause for suffering.  It is our attachment to our desires, our emotions, and our negative habits.

3.  There is a way to end suffering.

4.  The way to end suffering is known as the Eightfold Noble Path.

1.  Right Understanding

2.  Right Thought

3.  Right Speech

4.  Right Action

5.  Right Livelihood

6.  Right Effort

7.  Right Mindfulness

8.  Right Concentration

The Eightfold Noble Path leads us toward developing three things in ourselves

1.  Moral sensitivity:  We learn to overcome ego, we become more sensitive to others needs and become more compassionate towards our fellow man.

2.  Meditation:  We learn to focus our mind with concentration on mind, body, and breathing.

3.  Wisdom:  Wisdom is developed when the mind becomes more resilient with practice of moral sensitivity and meditation.

If you are interested in learning more please visit the links I have provided above, or visit my profile pages at:

Universal Life Church Ministers Network:  My Profile 

Zen Sukoyaka Buddhist Forum/E-Sangha: My Profile

On Twitter:  @Ravenlaughing

--
Rev. Jeremy Cook