Optimism...

I just realized when reading an article in an old Time magazine that one of the many 'benefits' of living in conditions where the average temp us over 100 degrees is that you can do Bikram yoga outside!

Mr. Forester goes to D.C.

So, it's the last night of my trip to D.C. to visit family before I leave for two years. I got to do lots of cool things including talking to one of my states congressmen to convince him that it's time to go for Obama and stop this silly uncommitted thing... and lots of other great things.. but most of my time was occupied by helping to be a facilitator at this conference for an organization my cousin works for, Tellin' Stories... it's a program that helps to get parent and community involvement to improve schools and education. Anyways.. it was an awesome program to work for and I got to learn a lot of wonderful techniques and approaches that I might be able to use and adapt for my experience in Africa. Of course, I might not be able to use any of it, can't start looking for solutions and answers for a community that I haven't entered yet.. but participating in this three day conference it got me excited about being an educator for the next two years. YAY. That's all.

More mobile blogging and some mula.

So i'm playing with this mobile blogging again and It's easier to do with a picture from my phone. Anyways, i just got invited to participate with the Krista Foundation which involves a grant of $1000. So That's cool.

Motivation?

So this was a post from my blog on myspace and it got me thinking:

I know I'm not the first person to say this, but I don't think hate is the opposite of love. I think fear is. Hate is passion misplaced, but it's fear that keeps us from love and from all of the greater things we might have in life. It's fear that causes hate, and anger and distrust. Some people enjoy being feared seeing it as some kind of respect, whenever I recognize in someone else fear, or some kind of emotion or reaction to me motivated by a fear and not by love it disguists me and forces me to reflect on myself and see where it is that I have failed. Caution is only intelligent and necessary, but don't live a life where fear is a deciding factor, but love. Let yourself be lead through life by love, courageous, perhaps even foolish love and as my friends help me to do the same as I do my best as a friend to help you overcome your fears and find motivation in love to accomplish all that you would in life.

That's basically the usual BS that I spout on my blog on myspace, but it made me think. People always ask why I'm joining the Peace Corps and I usually tell them it was to lose weight and get a tan. But I think this has something to do with it. I don't want to live a life of fear, fear of loss, fear of different people, fear of difficulty and suffering and pain. Loss and difficulty and pain are part of the human condition and experience. They help us to grow. So I'm think, at least in part, the Peace Corps is an opportunity for me to face things that I might fear and which might cause me pain and suffering and difficulty... but to go in and face them willingly and with love as a motivation so that I might be able to grow and be a better person than I am today. But, I'm also going to lose weight and get a tan! WHAT A DEAL! :)

Testing out this mobile blogging thing from my phone. Gonna miss this little midget in Africa.

The 'oh shit' Stage

This is the morning when I wake up and realize I'm going to be visiting family for the next week and a half and then by the time I get back I'm going to have like 5 weeks left and I am just not doing good at prepping for Africa. The, I need to see this person, and do this, and buy this and pay off this and figure out that and blah blah blah. Very exciting stuff. Thankfully I'm chill. But, I really should start getting my life sorted out, and soon!

French Smench!

Blah... Rosetta Stone makes me want to slap myself. I should be studying but doing MySpace surveys seems so much more important right now....