...Just Can't Get Enough

Head's up courtesy Jason... thanks!

So I know that spring is still 2 days away (!!!) - but I really can't wait for this to be my summer jam. I think it's perfect for relaxing on the beach.

In related news, yesterday was totally warm and awesome - and I had the opportunity to walk (more or less aimlessly) around Kiryot Ata for what felt like an eternity in search of a bus back to Haifa before Shabat.... And I got my first "tan" of the year!

Okay... so I got a little sunburned. But give me a couple of days - by spring, it will totally be tan!

Thinking Out Loud...

Image courtesy Bitte Ein Kuss.

"Nevertheless We exhort the loved ones of God to observe justice and fairness, and to do that which would prompt the friends of God to evince tender mercy and compassion towards each other." - Baha'u'llah

I didn't take this with the rad fish-eye camera I don't own (yet) - but it really is this pretty today. Enjoy!

Important...

Google has set up a person finder for Japan - here is the link for English.

*I am happy to share that my dear friends Akiko and Miyuki are doing well.*

Open Mind... Open Heart

The Head and the Heart: "Lost in My Mind". Head's up courtesy Black*Eiffel.

So I have no real way to quantifiably measure my success in this task I've set for myself, but I've decided to dedicate my Fast this year to being more trusting and forgiving. I'd like to get to a point where I trust my instincts and feelings more and to be more forgiving of my perceived weaknesses and shortcomings.

All of this is conducive to confidence, and I'm really going to need it - because I'm really nervous about what my future holds. Not in a bad way, I'll even go so far as to tell you that I'm mostly excited - but I'm anxious and a little insecure. But here I go, being trusting with the interwebs.

The first step, really, is to get out of my head. I do this all of the time. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that in some aspects I'm pretty brave. Now I'm just going to work on letting that braveness filter its way through all arenas of my life.

I'd like to give a big shout out to The Head and the Heart - who have no idea who I am - for writing a song that would remind me to stop being so 'lost in my mind', and to Black*Eiffel for always featuring rad bands on Music Mondays. ...wow. How 'the Oscars' of me.

Problem Solving...

Courtesy A Cup of Jo

When I was playing water polo in college and getting my hair cut at the beauty college, or some other $5 special... my friend was getting her hair done at this really trendy salon (that shall remain nameless because I'm sure it's trademarked, and I have no idea how to throw up that particular gang-sign). One day my friend and I pop in to "see her [hair] guy". Friends, your boy walked up to me, takes one look, and says - sneer and all - "ugh. What do you put in your hair? It is too healthy!"

Several years - and my own "hair guy" later - and I no longer wash my hair every day. Now that my water polo team is training more than ever, however, I really struggle to find things to do with my hair on 'day 2'. It should be professional, feminine, classy, and fresh.

Enter Joanna Goddard of A Cup of Jo fame. She gathered some of her rad NYC stylist/photographer/model friends and presto change-o! Solutions for a great hair day! You can peep the tutorial (complete with handy pictures) here.

No promises, but this may just be my look... two days hence!

On the Horizon...

Photo courtesy Shirin Beheshti

Bahji, Israel

Spring is almost here. Just saying.

...I See You

“Why should there be hunger and privation in any land, in any city, at any table when man has the resources and the scientific know-how to provide all mankind with the basic necessities of life?… There is no deficit in human resources; the deficit is in human will. The well-off and the secure have too often become indifferent and oblivious to the poverty and deprivation in their midst. The poor in our countries have been shut out of our minds, and driven from the mainstream of our societies, because we have allowed them to become invisible… No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for “the least of these”.

-Martin Luther King, Jr. (Nobel Prize Lecture, 11 December 1964)

So Baha'is the world over are Fasting right now. The Baha'i Fast lasts 19 days, and we do not eat or drink between sunrise and sunset. As it is in most religious traditions the Fast, physically speaking, is largely symbolic. And it's probably neither enlightened or particularly spiritual of me... but I don't mind sharing with you that it's not easy for me. I'm kind of like a hobbit in that I eat at least 5 times a day. But I always think, in the middle of the day when my attention is waning, and my throat is a little dry, and I'm dreaming about how satisfying even a tiny bite of anything would be... there are people whose daily reality is this.

And they're not dramatic [a la aimee piper].

And they might even live next door or go to your school.

How can we, as the world's privileged few [don't kid yourself; if you're reading this - even if you're using dial-up, you've got it made.] learn to share the world's resources in a way that is just and dignified?

I think it starts with, as Dr. King suggests, not allowing people to become invisible.

We can not continue to establish and create cognitive dissonance from our fellow humans. There should be no such thing as disposable people.