Thursday, June 9, 2011

We call it death, but it is liberty.

"I once read of an ancient Japanese religion that celebrated when people died, and mourned when they were born. It was understood that birth meant the forcing of an infinite spirit into a finite focus, while death meant the release of all limits and the freedom to live the full range of possibilities that God in His mercy offers us.

Life is much more than the life of the body; it is an infinite expanse of energy, a continuum of love in countless dimensions, a psychological and spiritual experience independent of physical form. We have been alive forever. We will be alive forever more. But the life of the body is an important classroom. It is our opportunity to deliver the world from Hell. "Dear God, may your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven."

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Cause I can't make you love me darling, if you don't. You can't make your heart feel something it don't.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Adventurous hearts


"We laughed and laughed, together and separately, out loud and silently, we were determined to ignore whatever needed to be ignored, to build a new world from nothing if nothing in our world could be salvaged, it was one of the best days of my life, a day during which I lived my life and didn’t think about my life at all." 

-Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 

Because you weren't there....


Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Pathway of Roses

“When we realize that the strength of the Infinite is our strength and that the strength of the Infinite is limitless, we must come to the conclusion that we are capable of doing anything that the living of a great life may demand.”
 -Christian D. Larson

Monday, April 11, 2011

Nothing is big or small for the Universe.


"Most people can manifest the small things quickly. This is because they do not have any resistance around the small things, and because they don't think thoughts that contradict them. When it comes to the bigger things, however, people often emit thoughts of doubt or worry that contradict those bigger things. This is the only difference in terms of the time it takes for something to manifest."



Monday, March 28, 2011

our inherent oneness with all life



"Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire."
-Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Saturday, March 19, 2011

What is your Love language?

"Whatever we do, whatever our job, it can be a vessel through which we teach the message of salvation: that the Son of God is innocent, and we are all Sons of God. Kindness to Him transforms the World. We don't necessarily teach this verbally, but rather non-verbally. The problem most people have is that they're more concerned with the mode of their expression than with what they're seeking to express. That's because they don't know what they want to express. This generation, this culture, is full of people who want desperately to write a story, but for all the wrong reasons. I meet people who want to be in the spotlight, but have no idea what they would say if it was pointed at them. This is a fraudulent posture. It means we want the record contract more than the satisfaction of making music. The highest prize we can receive for creative work is the joy of being creative. Creative effort spent for any other reason than the joy of being in that light filled place, love, God, what ever you want to call it, is lacking integrity. It diminishes us. It reduces inspiration to mere sales."
- Marianne Williamson, pg. 201 in "A Return to Love"

Thursday, March 17, 2011

United in unconditional love, we see a world that is whole and perfect for all.

"I hope from the bottom of my heart that the people will, hand in hand, treat each other with compassion and overcome these difficult times."

~Emperor Akihito of Japan


Dear God,


We remember that You are the unifying force that links all life.
In the stillness, we connect as One—heart to heart and mind to mind.

From this Oneness flows the guidance, ideas and courage we need to:

Cool reactors


Calm fears
Feed children
Love one another

Restore the planet

Heal the broken

End wars
And change course.

The effects of our error thinking are evident in many places on our planet.


Today, we move beyond effect to the deeper level of cause.
Now is the time for us to unite in thought, prayer and Love.

Remind us God that in You, All is well.

Thank You. 
Amen

"Channel your abundance through me in a way that serves the word."

Thank you to all of those who have helped raise over $120 already, your support and compassion amazes me. Regardless if you can donate or not, I appreciate everyones support and words of encouragement - my friends ROCK!

There are 16 days left until my Birthday, and I know we can all pull together and raise $15,000! [that's $10 per every FB friend!] It is an attainable goal.

Check out this amazingggg act of love [from a child!]



And if you have questioned why Haiti still needs our help, it was estimated that a Haiti Cholera epidemic could sicken over 779,000 people between March and November of this year - that's about the population of San Francisco! [according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and Harvard Medical School.] - You can read the USNews article here: http://ht.ly/4fYbv

Donate $10 to Partners in Health today & help bring health care to those in need, so that they too may see another birthday!

Donation page is here: http://act.pih.org/page/outreach/view/birthday/AliRoseBDay


"The problem is not the distribution of wealth, but the consciousness around it. Money is not scarce. It is not a finite resource. We are not poor because the rich are rich. We are poor because we do not work with love."

xoxo, Ali Rose

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

"Tout moun se moun" [Every person is a person, every life matters]

Over 8.8 million children did not have a chance to make it to their fifth birthday last year - almost all of them in the developing world. Help me break the cycle of poverty that these children are in!



For my 21st Birthday [April 2nd], I am asking that all of my family & friends - yes YOU - to make a donation of just $10 [or what'ever you can afford... even $1.00 can make a difference!] towards Partners In Health - an organization I so deeply believe in and support. [Last year I donated $118 of my own money to PIH] I would not ask you to make a sacrifice that I am not willing to make, and have kick started the donation pool with my own $10. I am specifically supportive of the initiative PIH took in Haiti starting in 1985 to provide health care in one of the World's most impoverished countries by building not only medical facilities, but training and teaching the community how to help one another and prevent disease. After the devastating earthquake in January 2010, PIH has also designed a 3 year plan PIH to help rebuild Haiti.
[for more information on PIH's work in Haiti CLICK HERE]



For the past year and a half I have been advocating for the work that Partners in Health does to provide health care to those most in need in countries such as Haiti, Rwanda & eight other countries around the World. Partners In Health is an organization that focuses on breaking the cycle of poverty and disease in every community and person they serve. The money raised for my Birthday will go towards treating disease like malaria and tuberculosis, building homes for families, assisting farmers in more sustainable farming practices, treating malnutrition in children - and most importantly HELPING OTHERS REACH THEIR OWN BIRTHDAYS AS WELL!
I know most of you are thinking "why not the relief efforts in Japan?" and yes - Japan needs all the help they can get, and please send love and light towards Japan and give what you can to help them recover from their tragedy, but the work Partners In Health does is VERY important and inspiring to me. My only wish for my upcoming Birthday is to show them the love and support they NEED right now too. How can one judge the importance of one devastation over another? There are so many countries, communities, and individuals all over the World who are suffering every day and we must not forget about them either. The WORLD needs to UNITE and help our people, everywhere.

I have 1,510 'friends' on Facebook... and if you all donated $10, that could be $15,100 to help bring global health equity to those in need.... and thatttt is the GREATEST Birthday present I could ever receive! I know times are hard on everyone, we are all trying to cut corners and save money, but any type of donation you can make will help! I know I often forget how blessed and fortunate I am to have the necessities of life, which are not available in many developing countries around the world. We are blessed to be free of disease, have clean drinking water, and available health care - that is SO much more than many people can say. I always say "You and I are just the same," and it is time to unite and help our brothers & sisters of the World. "Everything you give, you will receive." Please help my Birthday wish come true. :]



Friday, March 11, 2011

My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.



"With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls;
For stony limits cannot hold love out,
And what love can do that dares love attempt;
Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me."



"Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books;
But love from love, toward school with heavy looks."




Tuesday, March 8, 2011

I always have art on my hands

My friend Mitch took this photo when he was in town last month. This is how I spend the majority of my days - drawing, painting, sewing: making 'fashion' happen. I think this is the most honest photo anyone has ever taken of me. I have been really blessed to have been living on the 3rd floor of a house in Brooklyn, with 2 bedrooms, and an office that I've turned in to my "art studio" [aka - the one place to confine all the mess I make]. Unfortunately I am having to move out next week [my renters have friends coming from overseas]. This has been my art studio since January, and I have certainly made a bloody mess of it.

Check out more of Mitchell Wojcik's photographs at http://mitchellwojcik.com/

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

i've known it from the moment that we met, no doubt in my mind where you belong.



I could hold you for a million years, to make you feel my love.

‎the only person standing in your way is you


Today one of my professors asked me what I was so 'afraid' of, what was holding me back in my work.... I sat in silence, and he said, "I think you're afraid of being successful." I tried to resist the response that swelled inside of me, realizing that he was oh-so-right - but, I couldn't hold back the tears, and without having to ask him to- he hugged me. It's strange how someone else can really hit the nail on the head for you sometimes.

I'm making a commitment: I'm willing to accept success. I'm willing to think and feel differently about my work, and allow my creativity to flow freely. I'm willing to stop making it all about me, and start remembering that I am making art because I want to inspire and uplift others. I will find my humor in art, again - and I will laugh again.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

"February is thirteen months long in Michigan..."

A PRIMER

by Bob HicokMAY 19, 2008


I remember Michigan fondly as the place I go

to be in Michigan. The right hand of America

waving from maps or the left

pressing into clay a mold to take home

from kindergarten to Mother. I lived in Michigan

forty-three years. The state bird

is a chained factory gate. The state flower

is Lake Superior, which sounds egotistical

though it is merely cold and deep as truth.

A Midwesterner can use the word “truth,”

can sincerely use the word “sincere.”

In truth the Midwest is not mid or west.

When I go back to Michigan I drive through Ohio.

There is off I-75 in Ohio a mosque, so life

goes corn corn corn mosque, I wave at Islam,

which we’re not getting along with

on account of the Towers as I pass.

Then Ohio goes corn corn corn

billboard, goodbye, Islam. You never forget

how to be from Michigan when you’re from Michigan.

It’s like riding a bike of ice and fly fishing.

The Upper Peninsula is a spare state

in case Michigan goes flat. I live now

in Virginia, which has no backup plan

but is named the same as my mother,

I live in my mother again, which is creepy

but so is what the skin under my chin is doing,

suddenly there’s a pouch like marsupials

are needed. The state joy is spring.

“Osiris, we beseech thee, rise and give us baseball”

is how we might sound were we Egyptian in April,

when February hasn’t ended. February

is thirteen months long in Michigan.

We are a people who by February

want to kill the sky for being so gray

and angry at us. “What did we do?”

is the state motto. There’s a day in May

when we’re all tumblers, gymnastics

is everywhere, and daffodils are asked

by young men to be their wives. When a man elopes

with a daffodil, you know where he’s from.

In this way I have given you a primer.

Let us all be from somewhere.

Let us tell each other everything we can.



Read more http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2008/05/19/080519po_poem_hicok#ixzz1EAXknLYo

Somewhere in his body--perhaps in the marrow of his bones--he would continue to feel her absence." -Haruki Murakami

my bones ache, and the marrow it aches too, and my heart aches in a way I didn't know hearts could ache, but at some point i stopped being able to tell the difference between all the aches-the body aches, turned in to heart ache, and vice-versa. i'm "in it," [i heard them say that in a movie once, and it made a lot of sense to me at the time, but i don't think you can ever understand until you're "in it" too.] i was "in it" before i even knew I was "in it." It sneaks up on you like that, and now i'm neck deep in the pain. my pain, your pain, your brother's pain, and his wife's pain too, the pain of the human condition-I feel that too. i never thought this is what they meant. I never thought this is where it would lead me. but i'm here. i'm here, and i'll do the work, and i'll be "in it" until i'm not "in it" anymore. and then it'll be over. and i'll be free. i have faith in that - in my freedom.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

IN ANY MOMENT, I CAN BEGIN AGAIN.


ALL ENDINGS ARE INEXORABLY TIED TO NEW BEGINNINGS.
THAT'S THE NATURE OF THE JOURNEY.
IT CONTINUES TO UNFOLD.
IT BUILDS ON ITSELF.
IT CAN'T HELP ITSELF FROM DOING THAT.
CHERISH THE MOMENTS, ALL OF THEM.
YOU HAVE SEEN AND FELT MUCH IN LIFE SO FAR.
BUT STILL, THE BEST IS YET TO COME.

-Melody Beattie ['Journey to the Heart: Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul]

Monday, February 7, 2011

Freedom is what you've done, with what has been done to you.


There's a house for sale. An old woman still lives there. She's dying inside. And her children are already selling her things. And it's sad. Not because "things" matter, but because the old woman doesn't know it's happening, and all she feels is pain, and nostalgia, but she's not sure for what because she can't remember anymore. She doesn't remember the names of her children anymore either, or what is so special, or not so special, about all the "things" that they are selling to strangers who keep coming to the house. She doesn't even know that these people are strangers, because her children are strangers to her now too, so it doesn't really make a difference. All she knows is that there are faces: some the same, some different, she can't remember their names, or if she's seen them before - they all seem new, so it doesn't really matter who they are, or what their names are, or where they came from, or if they are her children, because in two minutes she won't remember anyways. And it's sad. Not because she can't remember, but because her children have grown apathetic, and never bother to explain to their mother what is going on, or why she is in pain, or why she is loosing her hair -or what hair is for that matter- and why her hands no longer look like her own, and why they don't want to work like they use to. All she knows is there's an old woman in a house [it is her house, but she doesn't remember that], laying in a bed [it's her bed, but she doesn't remember that], wearing a stained nightgown [it is her nightgown, but she does not remember that either], this old woman has taken her hostage and is hurting her, and no one will explain -that this woman, is her.

Posted from Blogium for iPhone

Mathematics assume the model is correct


There's a man, he's riding the C-train, headed downtown toward Brooklyn, after a long day playing with numbers on the upper west side. He's reading a book, about consciousness and metaphysics, and all that crap that seems to be oddly trendy right now in New York City, and other cities where it's never quiet outside, and even harder to keep quiet inside. He looks like he's reading this book, but he's really thinking about how much he hates his job, and misses his family, and feels guilty for never being present. Even when he takes them on vacations to places where the skies are blue and the air is moist, and you can breathe real deep, he's still doing work, or thinking about work, and numbers and money, or on his computer, or phone, answering emails about numbers. He's there on the beach, his family is playing at the shore line, they are laughing, they are calling his name and he doesn't hear them. He's never present. He's always playing with those numbers in his head, instead of playing with his children. And even when he is playing with his children he's still playing with numbers in his head. He doesn't hear them calling. His eyes are scanning those words on the page, he looks like he's reading, but he's really just seeing family portraits, and he's not in them, and no one is smiling, and his wife is sleeping with another man, and he convinces himself it is okay, because he feels guilty, but he misses her, he misses them, he misses who he use to be, but now he's just another number riding downtown.

Posted from Blogium for iPhone

SOS

Hi Beth,
I spoke with a friend of mine who was diagnosed with fibro too, she gave me some really inspiring advice. I feel hopeful, but she says I need to be patient with myself - and that is very difficult for me, because I always expect greatness, and most days "greatnss" consists of getting out of bed and brushing my hair and actually making it to classes. She's rather spiritual, and she helped me realize that this is just a time to "learn," and a reminder to be silent and slow down and "work on my heart." I've always tried to avoid feeling pain, physical or emotional, I've always had a way to numb it - with my eating disorder, or a busy schedule, or being medicated... but with physical pain like this, I can't avoid it. It's a reminder that I have to feel, I can not numb this. She said something that keeps repeating in my head, cause it is exactly how I feel "It's like a loose rat finding new parts of my body to torture." It makes me acknowledge all the things that are both physically and emotionally painful... and the physical pain makes everything emotional seem so much more painful as well. It's such a trap. I feel trapped. There are knots inside of me, dozens, hundreds, thousands, both big and small, knotted so tightly around each other, and I feel like my fingers are just fumbling numbly to undo the mess, but they're so tangled, and my fingers are so tired and are always the wrong size for the knot they are working on, and I need patience, and I need to focus on one knot at a time, and then maybe it will free up the opportunity to undo another knot, but maybe it won't, and maybe if I work too aggressively I'll just create another mess of knots and pain that'll bury the rest of them deeper... - kind of like a tangle of necklaces in a jewelry box. That is how my insides feel.
-Ali

everything is a cycle

all of his new girls.
they all look like she did.
back then.
back when she was sick.
back when she lay dead.
in the garden.
with the roses.
with one hand on her mouth.
and one hand on her heart.