I wont be going out and getting crazy like most people I know. I have to work in the morning and frankly don’t see the point. As a friend of mine from work said, “Tonight’s amateur night.” So I’ll stay off the roads far from the cops and drunks and read a little bit and go to bed. Hope everyone makes the best out of this new year. Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’. - Sean

Tonight under a westwardly falling sun, I sank my feet into the cold waters of the Atlantic. If I was an electrical current I could have traveled all the way to Africa through the same water. I walked slowly along the beach in the cool, winter air of the coast. Taking time to notice things like patterns in the sand and children playing down the beach, backlit by that big flashlight in the sky. It was good to slow down, if only momentarily. Life has been steamrolling by lately, and although I’ve done my best to enjoy it, it’s always refreshing to sink your toes into the sand, or dirt and remember that this is how God created it. I don’t need a church; a day outside under the elements is enough of a chapel for me, roofless or not. I still amaze myself that I can find more religion and peace in the gliding of a pelican or crashing of waves than I do in any book or song of faith. I guess for me the sounds of the ocean hitting our continental shelf is enough. As I stood there alone on the shore, I thought of the water and land as being two lovers in constant struggle for the sheets. Neither one giving in, just re-shifting, and looking for a new angle to get a better grip. It’s something the ocean teaches well. Change is constant. The Buddhists might have it right when they say suffering is in attachment. Because in the end what we become attached to is never the same 2 days from now. We must learn to flow with the change instead of fight the current, because we’ll lose if we do. So like all things in life, we must learn to take what we can and always be grateful. It’s one of life’s lessons I’ve been getting a hold of lately for some reason or another, maybe the timing is right, I don’t know. So tonight, as I watched the seagulls waddle by and the pelicans glide past, I thought not of what I will be doing in two months, but rather, why does God create such beauty, only to take it away every night? Though, I guess if he never took it away, the sunset would never appear and the stars would never shine.

Posting tomorrow…

Where have I been? I’ve been around, work mostly. What haven’t I been doing? Blogging…thank god. I’ve actually been really busy and when I’m home I don’t watch the news…it’s horribly depressing. Instead I’ve been reading, listening to music, hanging out with friends. Is this to say I don’t care about writing about environmental issues? No, of course not. However my car recently broke down so I’d been riding my bike into work everyday which is like russian roulette with the traffic in this city. I have a new car now, a 2000, Ford Taurus. Not really as good on gas, but a very nice car for the money. Thankfully not driving anywhere for over a week has me in that mode where I don’t feel like driving all over when I’m bored. Instead I drive only when I need to and I’m trying to baby this new car because it has to last me. The film festival is getting underway and I’ve got some of the Environmental Studies department on board now. It’ll probably take place in April because March I’ll be working on a film with Scott Coady to raise 500,000 for The Davis Phinney Foundation. So that’s where I’ve been and continue to be for a little while. I’ll try to get some more posts up, but I haven’t had anything to say, peak oil is still here, global warming and species loss is still happening. It’s time people educated themselves.

I’m busy, I’ll be right back.

It has been a strange last week or so. It started last week with my car and computer both shitting the bed on nearly the same day. I was so mad, frustrated and exasperated. I became pretty bummed out because I have a lot of money invested in those and I use them both a lot. I went home after nearly fixing my car and turned on the news and saw some young Iraqi boy who had only one leg and part of an arm from a bomb. For some reason or another that hit me square in the face. It led me to thinking about the Mexicans I work with who left everything they ever knew to come to America to make a better life. Most of them are my age and I tried to imagine myself being them. The closest thing I can even relate to was switching schools which at that age would have scared me immensely. I realized I was being a spoiled little brat about the whole situation. I was lucky enough to have a car and a $2500 laptop and I was being pissy because some things went wrong. Since then I’ve made it a point of trying to make the best of each day no matter how bad I perceive it to have gone. I was sitting in my room wondering that if I didn’t wake up in the morning, would I be happy with the last day I spent on Earth? It’s really cliche, but so true. The only moment we have is now, and we should be thankful for every breath we are given. I don’t know why it took a car and computer to make me realize that…but I guess the vehicle through which the message was delivered is really unimportant in the scheme of things. I went for a run tonight and went into my daily meditation mode like I usually do when I run. I was really happy, and there are plenty of things to be unhappy about right now. The way I see it though, is if the good outweighs the bad, you can’t really complain, because someone somewhere has it worse than you. So I’ll leave you with this: Let us all rise up and be thankful, For if we didn’t learn a lot at least we learned a little. And If we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick. And if we got sick at least we didn’t die.

I know it’s hard to take yourself out of the moment, but if people could do that and step back and look at the larger picture, life would seem much more a gift than a day in and day out grind.

I’m trying to figure things out, like the film festival, my career and why some little Mexican girl is so damn cute. I’ll post again when I want to remind myself of how F’ed up the world is. (For you Justin).