Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Let Go and Welcome In

As we are nearing the turn of the new year, and in this time of new adventure, I was lucky to have some friends to help me give away the bad luck with to the night sky. I lit my first sky lantern, which Thai people believe it will take away bad luck with it as symbolic act of letting worries and problems lift off.

The sky lantern is made out of rice paper, bamboo and some wire. It flew quite high into the clear country sky, and looked like a star, which is a good sign. When it stopped burning it disappeared and began it's descent back to the earth, where it will compost.



So, on the eve of receiving the notice that I am not one of the finalist applicants for the Unreasonable Institute for Re-Generation, may another worry or problem have been lifted away.

I won't have the mentor-ships of players from huge corporations that have had some pretty amazing global implications, which could be bad because I won't have their insights, but I think this is good thing. Not get detached from the ground work that still needs a lot of attention.

I also have to rely on the work that I do everyday and building the team to get things rolling.

Friday, December 25, 2009

The Universe Provides

Uncertainties are beginning to become shattered by the universe responding.

On the morning of my planned departure to Cambodia, I had a bit of a hold up, aka, a hangover from my light weight tolerance to strong beer and cheap whiskey to help me experience the farang (foreigner) entertainment...

Before I was scheduled to live in the morning I was told by another couch surfer that Toom, the couchsurfing host, is a web designer and could help me design my logo and website. I had talked to Catherine about staying in Thailand to find someone to help me, however, I didn’t realize the someone had invited me into his home. Good thing I wasn't up to travel, because now I am getting some good work organized and feeling much better about going forth.

Toom and I are going to collaborate. We have started to go at it with some open source software that is going to hopefully allow us to create a good functional website.

Ward from Belgium also joined Re-Generation’s team today, he is getting familiar with the concept, but from what he can wrap his head around at this point, he has been looking for something like this.

Ward has been held up in Bangkok not knowing his next step, but now he got confirmation of the reason why he had stayed around to listen to so many different people’s stories—perhaps our chance meeting will prove prosperous for us both.

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Glenn from Australia got accepted to teach on the 67th voyage of the Japanese Peace boat that travels the world teaching peace, tolerance and cross-cultural awareness. This was an amazing welcome for Glenn who lacked the “proper” credential but is surely capable of showing is array of talents. He has asked me to help teach him to plan out a curriculum and effectively plan lessons. So, we are going to both go through the process. This time I will be using the goals of Re-Generation to really gain more clarity to help the objectives and strategies and tactics of the venture be transferable to be even more transferable to my team.

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Glenn declared a place with his aboriginal tribe in the northern mountains of Australia to be a Welcome Home space to have global community that restores the earth and permeates cultures.

Glenn told us a number of intriguing tales of aboriginal wisdom. He saw the crystal that Shiva gave to me as needing to eventually be left by the hemp to watch is grow and release the spirit that is keeping it from coming alive. The Aborigines are very wary of crystals because they are used by the carriers to trap spirits of people.

He said at some point I need to release the crystal, it shall remain where the first seeds of this project are planted to release the male spirit.

We all had some clarity in our visions, dreams and paths in this space tucked into the urban sprawl of Bangkok, a Welcome Home space.

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Ilan Keshet, translation in Hebrew-Tree Rainbow, from Israel, also crossed paths in this space on his way home from China. Out of all the conversations with fellow Jews and Israelis, he has perhaps the most objective view of history and particular in relation to Israel and the land he calls home I have been witness to.

He remarks that nationality and culture are some what in the way of earthly unity. But we agreed that cultures need not disappear for harmony amongst different customs, and in fact need to retain their essence, rather then forget the backgrounds that shaped each culture from their interaction with the earthly elements.

It seems that understanding will derive from permeating cultures and having the mind and heart space to accept that much more is actually in common then the small differences that are constructed, and that we need to learn from each other. People celebrating indigenous wisdom and finding truth in harmonious wisdom, because the Song Lines permeate through ecology and the various ways humans have developed their cultures around "nature."

He too has opened his doors to the Welcome Home in Israel.

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There is something very real about talking about your dreams, setting the intention and continuously putting out the intent as you are pursuing them. I have forged ties to places around the world just by putting out the message.

My internet crew and team is being coalesced to make Re-Generation come alive on the webspace, and I am sure the more we talk and walk the talk the more the dream will fill the space created for it.

Among inspirations that come to mind: Japhy has reminded me to be bold and the road will provide, while Shiva and Kali show me to trust in the Universe and to keep on.

With life's uncertainties, sometimes it's about jumping in head first and making a graceful spalsh.


Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Welcome Home

Traveling by river taxis in Bangkok always makes me happy. Something about water and no traffic or traffic lights.

I had my surfboard in hand to drop it off while I take off to Cambodia. It was quite the scene walking through Bangkok with Mini Falda, my poka-dotted 9' longboard.

I met my couch surfing host Toom who has a compound out of central Bangkok, and 3 others, Glen from Australia, Ward from Belgium and Julian for Switzerland, all on very interesting journeys.

Ward is connected with a dutch NGO that is helping to create perma-culture solutions to help teach Cambodians how to make better use out of their resources in a self-sustaining way...including farming fish.

As we walked through the front gates of Toom's compound, I was greeted with "welcome home." That was particularly touching as they seem to carry the spirit of the Welcome Home Collective, a community building concept building from connections back home. The idea is you can travel the world and be welcomed home with familiar spirit and have a community of friends in different places.

Glen particularly told me about his Welcome Home spot in the mountains of Australia. He had left his university education with his best friend to live and build a community with an aboriginal tribe in the mountains of Australia. They live with the land with perma-culture concepts employed with the indigenous wisdoms of the aborigines. After over 13 years of being reared by them he has taken to the world to spread this vibrational energy, which he called song lines carried through out many cultures. He felt the need to break out of the shelter of the simple life to spread the knowledge and met similar folk that share a communal intention and permeate other culture.

In a sense we set out to meet each other, to spread permeating culture ideas and learn the multiple dimensions that people view as our world.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

3am I find a taxi to take me and my surfboard and I to Banglamphu, a popular spot for the "backpacker" or budget traveler. The streets are familiar, however, the language is still foreign.

Should I have gone south? Chile perhaps? Ok, well, here I am. I have my surfboard, so the trip could turn to the shore. Either way, this will be a time for me to re-energize focus a little on self-reliance and maybe turn into a surf trip.

I arrive to find the Bella Bella booked and set off to the streets of Banglamphu. I receive a pat down from a motorcycle cop, appearing to be a tweaker wandering the streets, he checks me for parapehnellia and track marks. People are still out as I pass around the central tourist spot. A lot of drunks, not ready to call it a night. Thai woman with young tourist men on some kind of date.

Exhange rate has changed by about 25% drop in the dollar to the Thai Baht.

Found a place that checks in at 5am so I take the tiny room and check my surfboard.

My internal clock is a bit confused, my foot is a little sore.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Safe People


Leaving places where loved ones are is extremely hard. Some people can’t understand why I would leave. Sometimes I can’t either.

A dear friend turned his back in frustration and I sensed disappointment.

My mom shed a tear, my sister told me “not to die!” I will take her advice. My dad held it together.


At the Solstice Celebration in San Diego Friday night, seeing such a great community of people I have begun to acquaint myself with, the night before my departure, added to the feeling of leaving behind.

Shiva and Kali with baby Dalhi saw me off at LAX with Peter and Catherine who took me to LAX in the morning. We stopped to get some famous El Azteca breakfast burritos funded by my accumulated change bucket.

Shiva gave me a crystal for protection and everyone gave me a lot of love and blessing for the journey.

“Your doing it!” Kali

I am…

I am choosing this path, and this path may be choosing me.

The uncertainties of going to a foreign land start to take hold as I am heading west across the pacific ocean. Partners not solidified, the grand schema yet to be entirely grounded. I guess this is me leading a vanguard of what feels like a solo mission. I keep seeing stories on the main movie screen talking about Copenhagen and Climate Change.

---

Meeting up with Catherine in Dominica suddenly becomes a more prominent and comforting thought. I could potentially do this same type of work with farmers on the islands in the Caribbean?

I keep reminding myself that this is an experiment and that unless I take the steps forward it will become an old conversation.

I have a team, however, they will only coalesce with my leadership.

Right now, thousands of miles across the globe, I feel I have set out solo, or perhaps this is exactly how it is supposed to continue for me? Trusting in my curiosity, not being afraid of failure or ambition. Failure would of been to submit to fear and stayed home where it's "safe."

Shiva reminds me, "There is no safe place, only safe people!" I will keep my wits about me, trust in the universe and maintain my safety.





Sunday, December 20, 2009

Return

A year ago, December 20th 2008...I returned to San Diego from Thailand, on a round trip ticket from Thailand.

I wasn't quite done seeing the region, and out of self-imposed time lines, I decided to apply to law school in the final application cycle for 2009 and return to San Diego. I moved home with my parents, a multi-generational house, seems to be the new fashion in our times.

After giving some time to side projects that either didn’t pan out or are spanning out, and deciding not to go to law school, getting to know some of my community and making new dear friends, allies, reconnecting with family, some volunteer work, some stagnation, some substitute teaching, I am off again.

One year later, with a plan, and surfboard.

I have more formalized action plan to begin exploring rooting a project I have been envisioning/researching for quite sometime called Re-Generation.

Re-Generation will micro-finance farmers to cultivate regional hemp to:

Re-Source rural communities creating opportunities for local/domestic use, (ie. building materials, food for humans and animals). Meanwhile, ascertaining loyal hemp sources of collective scale to merit advanced processing (biochar, hemp concrete, fiberboard, plastics) infrastructure for environmentally regenerating value added goods intended for domestic and international markets.

Re-Capture carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas attributed to climate change. Hemp's fast dense growth has the potential to capture carbon at a high rate and provide fiber 4 times the amount per acre of trees in just a 3 month growing period. It's fiber can replace the need for harvesting trees as a source of fiber for wood and paper products to allow for reforestation, creating even more carbon sinks.

Re-Power rural communities and economies by serving as a fast growing feedstock to produce carbon negative energy through bio-gasification (heating with little oxygen) producing power and heat to be used for rural electrification.