Let this be a New Year of Spiritual Growth...

Its New Years Eve. Life has granted you a period when you can start all over again. So what are you waiting for?!

Looking over a list of typical new years resolutions... frankly I was bored by them, they were so mainstream and common, no imagination, so lets do this a different way shall we? I was analyzing this idea of New Years Resolution and these are some good ideas that came to mind. I hope in some way you are inspired and that in some way this propels you to take a good hard look at yourself and grow......SPIRITUALLY.

Mainstream America encourages us all to look like the cookie cutter version of movie stars and famous people...To have cookie cutter lives, families, relationships, experiences, looks, and personalities.. hence why so many are avidly focused on the wrong things. It can get pretty stressful trying to obtain PERFECTION. Lets take a harder look at these things for what they really are:

In this New Year Create balance among your mind, body, and soul:

1. If your self-esteem and confidence are lacking work on it. Seek help of a counselor or psychologist.
2. Forget about what or whom you are expected to be focus on what you want.
3. Take a trip..who cares where..travel to a new place
4.Take time for your self go get a massage here and there or take a trip to a spa
5. Try to always look your best..look presentable...usually if you look good you will also feel good.
6.Come up with a work out plan..forget the gym! GO dancing! Take up salsa dancing..modern dancing..low impact aerobics.. dance aerobics..belly dancing..tap..ballet..go jogging...ride a bike... do yoga, pilates, anything that requires you shaking your booty..have sex, all day everyday! Booty shaking will surely lead you in the right direction to lose some weight and feel good while doing it!
7.Smile! Its so simple and yet so many neglect this simple expression.
8. EXPRESS YOURSELF..start a blog... write for the school newspaper..get your opinions out there. Join an organization that fuels your passion whether its an art gallery, a museum, a nonprofit, church, dance team, school club. Protest for or against something you care about. Just do something fun and worthwhile!
9. Get a job!
10. Learn a new skill: whether its polishing your debating skills, leadership skills, becoming more assertive, learn how to paint, draw, cook, clean(for you dirty folks out there you know who you are) dance, whatever skill you have been meaning to acquire but have either been to scared or busy to look into!
11. Love more Love harder Love deeper.
12. Forget about a past love. Try to leave it in the past. If you are still madly in love with someone who was once a big part of your life its time to move on. They moved on its time you do too. Gather all your courage call them up, text them, meet with them somewhere, write them a letter and profess your love for them and wish them good luck. You have got nothing to lose. At least they cannot say they never knew how deeply and intensely you loved them. It WILL be there loss.
13. GO see some shows whether its concerts, movies, plays, operas, whatever your into take time for spectator events. Its good to forget about the humdrum of society for once and enter a new world!
14. Read a book! any book!
15. Start a journal or memoir!
16. Stop focusing so much on outward appearances.
17. Learn and accept that NOT EVERYONE YOU MEET WILL LIKE YOU.
18. Hang out with different people get a new perspective on life.
19. Take a risk!
20. Accept yourself, not the image you impose on others, accept your weaknesses and focus on your strengths. Use your strengths as a guide to becoming what you were meant to be or want to be. Never doubt. Whether it teaching, dancing, painting, drawing, talking, leading others, cooking, hairdressing, sports, writing, creating, singing, playing an instrument, focus on your strengths. If people hate on you for excelling at something you are naturally good at, it says a lot more about them..who they are..what they wish they had more of in their life than it does about you!
21. Cut or distance yourself from negative people. People who bring you down emotionally, by misconstruing the facts, people who talking behind your back, or those who do not bring positivity or zest for life!
22. Cut back on gossiping.
23. Whip out that camera! Take pictures of everything and anything that captures your interest.
24. Be kinder, more tolerant, more patient, more accepting...DO NOT JUDGE accept that we are all imperfect and can never live up to the perfect image of whatever god it is that you praise..we can only TRY...
25. Do silly things. Say silly things. Laugh even when no one else thinks its funny, laugh at your own jokes. Laugh when you think something funny on the train,bus, or in the street. People might think your weird but who cares! It's happened to me before..It happens to the best of us! Just laugh more until your rolling or crying..WHO cares!
26. Record your life in different mediums: Photography, journaling, song, film, dance..
27. Reflect, meditate, and take time for yourself in order to be more centered.
28. Create Healthy boundaries between you and others, do not allow yourself to be used or disrespected. Make sure that your needs are being met. Ask for what you want. If someone gets angry with you for asserting yourself that is not a true friend!
29. Stop playing Psychologist. Unless you are getting paid to listen others people's bullshit problems you shouldn't have to unless you want to! Do not allow codependency in your life! You have the right to tell someone that they should go see a therapist or psychologist. Or simply that you don't want to hear it. Don't allow others to come to you with their problems every time whether its a friend or family member. Remember these people are energy vampires they don't want to fix the problem they just want your sympathy! Especially don't offer your empathy and sympathy to those who do not return you the favor when YOU need someone to hear you out. These people are not TRUE friends.
31. Men are not complicated, fellow females learn to understand and accept the clues: it's not that he was busy, or that his phone was not working/lost, its not that he forgot or that he has had a lot of studying to do...its not any other excuse he gives you..trust your intuition..your hunches. It's really simple: He's just not that into you. Move on. Your not one of his priorities so don't make him one of yours!! Learn to move on. (The same goes for friends who don't hold up their end of the friendship!) Have enough respect and dignity for yourself and MOVE ON ASAP. Cut the umbilical cord and never look back!!
32. Lastly check out this video and apply the Law of Attraction to your life!!

Get creative in this New Year do something for the hell of it...start being yourself..not the person society wants you to be. Be thankful for your life. Love your life, and those who have been part of it and those who might be part of your life in this New Year! Begin to be more in tune with your mind, body, and soul that is when you will attain BALANCE.

Scattered thoughts finally organized

Community development....do you know what that is? do you care about your world? do you care about your hood? In every community there are different ways that one can combat injustice, empower the ignorant, and instill pride and confidence. Community design goes something like this: if you can employ skills such as landscape design/architecture, grading the land, knowing knowledge of bodily proximity and color and other design techniques, one can provide spacial designs within communities that improve the condition of living, transportation, and overall create a more luscious green and healthy space. Considering the fact that many urban areas lack luscious greenery, have high health risks due to asthma and other environmental issues..community design and development is the most effective way to change the overall feeling of a GHETTO. This feeling changes from one of desperation, isolation, danger, sadness, and corruption to name a few, to more positive qualities such as greater sense of community responsibility, trust, relaxation, reduces stress, calms dangerous minds. The power of greenery is one that has been proven to be very effective in a positive way. It lowers the risk of crime, calms down criminals and mischievous people, and even lowers the risk of teenage pregnancy... Sometimes designs fail due to lack of practicality.....you can implement a design in an area but if there isn't anyone who cares enough or doesn't have the time to maintain it, there's a chance it will fail and become utterly useless to the surrounding community, attracting illegal activity such a drug dealing, crackheads, prostitutes/pimps, heroine addicts, gangs or bums. Designs should not only be esoteric but practical in nature. Whats the point of implementing a pretty lamppost if it doesn't light up the street. That's how I feel about impractical esoteric designs. If the goal is to improve communities in a practical way not only to make them look nice...practicality is a must. Its good to be idealistic but its also good to remember we live the REAL world where practicality rules over ideals..unfortunately..but

one must not lose sense of idealistic hope. In order to get want you want from life you have to follow a systematic and methodical approach.There is so much that impoverished communities need that practicality is a must when it comes to design..ways to supply food,greenhouses,community gardens, ways to supply housing, ways to supply meeting areas, relaxation areas, areas that support games and good sportsmanship and all that good shit.

Also design doesn't only have to be physical reality, there is sooo much one can do with plants regarding design..Plants come in all shapes colors sizes heights widths....Their PERFECT! if used and implemented correctly in EFFECTIVE designs they can do WONDERS! Those are my thought on that...

But there's more, design is kind of like the bonus because what most people in impoverished neighborhoods need are leaders people who inspire them to go to school even if for a vocational degree. People need more than just pretty surroundings...most people are crazy as fuck..what they need is more PSYCHOLOGISTS...too many ghetto people talking a lot of he said she said most of them need psychologists......"I'm from the hood nigga, I'm hood," so fucking ignorant...most HOOD people need fucking psychologists..don't know how to act..and of course its not their fault because they don't know any better. Their ignorant not stupid. Theirs so many programs that help HOOD people rise from their ashes but, they were not created so that people could depend on them for the rest of their lives. For example welfare, wasn't created so you could depend on it like if it was your crack!

Seriously! we need leaders to make the impoverished, ignorant, minority masses UNCOMFORTABLE. More than they already are...to instill love for themselves... to stop being lazy bastards....slavery is not an excuse to be lazy people...yes it did happen and yes humans were exploited. But you cant cling on to the past you have to use past events as passionate fuel to create possibilities for the future. Obama didn't become president by complaining about "Oh its cuz Im Black!", or using his background as justification for why he''s better equipped to know the struggles of the common person in America. How much longer is being a minority going to be used as an excuse? The reason your considered a minority is cuz you fucking act like one. People believe what they see. ESpecially sheltered elitist overly conventional upper class people in power...

The same goes for whole communities..If you act like lazy ignorant complaining minorities that's what your gonna get treated as....you act like a duck walk like a duck talk like a duck you might just be a duck!!! Most people in the world are not perceptive they are judgmental...so I guess the solution for that would be more Psychologists...Minority people need emotional and spiritual healing...and encouragement...starting out small...and building up......Uniting and BELIEVING in the fact that there is power in numbers and one day they will be the majority...and looked at POSITIVELY for being the majority...

The way the law of attraction works is if you believe, hope, and have faith in POSITIVE outcomes you will create them...not only by believing and wishing for them but by ...WORKING HARD FOR THEM!...HOPE and FAITH are the most naive beliefs in the world but that's what people need most....

Your thoughts create your reality.....

Something out of a Movie and a Little Positivity!!

Nov.26, 2007: Heading back to Syracuse can be such a hassle but not as much of a hassle as yesterday.

There I was 4:30pm my bus about to leave at 5pm when my dad calls he cant give me a ride I tried finding other ways of getting all the way down to Chinatown but to no avail---RUSH HOUR--- was at its best and the only means of transportation that could get me to the Chinese bus station downtown was the train..The minutes kept going by ..4:40... 4:50 ..omg im a gonner. When I get a call from Marina ...to stay positive ..hahaha yes the message of this is to stay positive ..right Maria ..haha so I get on the A train to West 4th and then the F train to East Broadway. I finally get out of the train station and run my little ass as fast as I could through all these avenues..mind you i had a load of maletas to manage..Pyke st...Madison st..Market street..finally i was there ..too late the damn bus left..but encouraged to stay positive by Marina and La Santa Maria I caught a cab and chased after the bus..I had to get to it before it entered the Holland Tunnel...

So there I am in this cab with an African Taxi driver who I could barely understand and he could barely understand..where you going? he says.. 6th ave ..no york st..lol...finally we get on 6th ave and speeding like something out of a movie lol trying to catch the Chinatown bus before it entered the Holland Tunnel... tires are screeching as he makes quick turns trying to get to the next street but no avail---RED LIGHT--- Leticia keeps feeding me the directions --york street--lol mulbberry st.... grand st....make a left no make a right..me- where are you guys fucking going ... finally i had to get out and make a run for it the traffic was way too tight haha. So there i ran down to the Holland tunnel with all my bags in hand ...EXCUSE ME !! I yelled hitting everyone with my bags phone in hand and in so much pain hahah talk about excersise ....i ran and ran as fast as my little legs could take me and ...

Finally Im at the entrance of the Tunnel in the middle of all this heavy traffic lol waiting for the chinatown bus...i see the bus approaching and catch a glimpse of Luba and Maria's big hair haha finally i made it... but the guy didnt want to stop so I told the police to :"STOP THE BUS", the bus stopped in the middle of traffic right at the entrance holding up traffic and there I was ..haha saved myself a $80 dollar greyhound ticket with a little running, $7 cab ride through Chinatown and a little POSITIVITY ..right maria?

This happened a while ago but its such a good story its worth retelling!!

Crazy People On The Train.

Chambers Street- Walking through downtown Manhattan I was surprised as I found an Indian fruit stand man displaying some sexy ass pomegranate. POM.I had never seen these guys sell them before in the winter, and it wasn't all that expensive either, I wondered if winter season was pom season. Coming home on the 3 train I began eating my POM making sure not to let the seeds fall since they are so intricately wrapped inside that rough bright red interior. But since pomegranate is such a fun fruit to eat you cant be held accountable if you drop a few! Which I had done but not realized, for when the train doors opened and the tide of new subway riders came flushing in what seemed at first glance a healthy human being also came in. What happened next shocked the absolute crap out of me and every other person sitting i that cart. So in came this very tall black dude he seemed pretty normal that is until he picked up some of the pom seeds that had fallen around me and nonchalantly ate them while everyone else watched in disbelief, disgusted, and a bit scared.I know I was because after he indulged in his tasty treat he remained fixated on my POM which I had managed to wrap up and keep out of view. This guy was obviously crazy, he seemed like a newly reformed bum. He confirmed my perception when he took up about seven or eight whole seats on the train and laid himself to sleep. Next time your on the train beware of seemingly normal people and any food you might be carrying with you.

New York City Deparment of Parks & Recreation: A point of view, a question, an incidence.....

Do we need societal barriers, for example do we need to have to reinforce laws and rules, and regulation by the means of an established bureaucracy and systematic and methodical way of dealing with people as a whole?

Does human greed, selfishness, fear, and lack of self control really run that deep?
Why do we fear, why do we stand back and watch, why do we let things that we know are unlawful or even immoral occur?

Why does fear run that deep...

Fear it is not a catalyst, it is not innovative, it is something that restrains, negatively captivates, and holds one back from greater good, enlightenment, and success...
I saw a group of young Hispanic men today..trying to start a fight, about to jump somebody and I didn’t know who they were gonna jump or why but being that I have to secure the area where I work I had a decision to make....

There had been reports earlier in the week that after my work hours some group of kids was trying to stop stab somebody..could this have been prevented ..yes...but why wasn’t it... can we truly just stand there and wait for someone to do something, or call popo and know they wont show up until ½ hour, 45 minutes later...why do we opt for this?

As a society I mean and even individually?

So I went up to them, not having to because my shift was over, and asked who they were gonna fight and why.. I was pissed and yelling

”Atrevanse a sacar un cuchillo o una pistola!, atrevanse!, que le llamo la policia, I already saw your faces I already know who you are and I WILL identify you!!, Imma call the cops the minute I see the slightest incidence of a riot!! Atrevanse!!” :::Y despues saque mi telefono y llame la policia:::

Those were my words...
I told them why they were gonna start a fight in an area where family and children are recreating..
Its bad enough that most people these days don’t have that many urban spaces where they can chill, relax, and recreate, but the ones we do have attract negative attention...A little kids playground...WTF!!!!!!!!!!!

:::16 year-old men, (if you can even call them that) it makes me think does evil run that deep, deprivancy, is it a front they put up to society and the rest of their friends as to how hard they can be....no offense but at the age of 16 I really don’t think that any guy can actually think straight...what the fuck do they know about anything....

so why do we give these children the importance that they want, they want to be feared, seem hard, and in control, but they are not. The minute these “men” are handed the attention they want, the respect they enjoy by instilling fear in others, we as a society and as individuals fail. Yes fail, isn’t it easy to fail...like I said before fear is not a catalyst, or an innovator for good or achievement/success, only a catalyst for FAILURE..

We as members of society and individuals choose to fail every time we neglect an issue that concerns the level of integrity and dignity of mankind as a whole...We CHOOSE to fail due to our own fear........

::::::”Minding my own business”
”If it ain’t got to do with me then why get myself involved”:::::::::

I can see logical explanations for these things but as always there’s that question of could you have done something, called someone, said something if worse did come to worse....but no you just stood there...............and FAILED like the miserable fearful piece of shit that you are......
Maybe I'm IDEALISTIC but you can trust that I am not that person whose just going to stand there....not me...NEVER....

So this brings me back to my initial thought:
DO we need an established system of laws, rules, and regulations to get things running....but I guess I did answer my own question..the answer is yes..because we as humans are fearful, we are scared, without the push of a law, rule, and regulation most things would not get done because it is so easy to fall into these traps:

:::::”Minding my own business”
”If it ain’t got to do with me then why get myself involved”:::::::::

Its pretty sad......that things are this way and I know that it is more than just fear it is also selfishness and greed...its pretty disgusting actually..this underlying context of thoughts and feelings that make us form societies...I mean that’s why we first had the Articles of Confederation and later the almighty Constitution...
France was the first one to right one of those after overthrowing the King after having a revolution...

Which brings me to my greatest enlightened thought of all time::

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::REVOLUTION:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

A different mindset amongst people. Maybe even a non-traditional party being elected( The Green Party). Look at Germany they have a green party and their smooth sailing. What will it take for people to start caring about their surroundings and each other ...nothing... we are programmed to survive. Survival of the fittest.

SSBx: Sustainable South Bronx: Greening the Ghetto

It was the beginning of the Summer. The remnants of Spring had become blossoms of summer. Excited as I was for what I would accomplish this summer, who I would meet, I decided to take fate into my own hands and be proactive. I was sick and tired of the theories,lessons, and homeworks of school it was time to be practical and do some real world implementation of what I wanted to do!


Sustainable South Bronx is a non-profit environmental justice organization run by whipcracker Majora Carter. Born and raised in the South Bronx she returned after receiving her college education with a mission to revitalize her neighborhood's economy, health, and well being by employing the skills of environmental lawyers, urban planners, community organizers, artists, and educators. After looking over their website and watching a speech given to important officials I knew I had to take a chance and see if I could land myself an internship.

Watch a video of Majora Carter giving her presentation about "Greening the Ghetto."

So I took my chances and headed an hour and half by train from my home in Washington Heights to the Penny Factory. An abandoned factory in which Majora stationed her organization on the 5th floor. It took me a while to get there no one in the community even knew that the organization existed. The same organization that was fighting for their right and their wellbeing! It was a shame! I was confused! As much publicity as SSBx had received I was a bit thrown off but remained positive. Finally after asking and receiving empty responses I came across a drug dealer who sensed I was lost. I told him I was looking for Majora Carter. He directed me contentedly and told me to say hi to her when I saw her. There was still hope!

I had I arrived..I walked in to the office.. I was still shocked that it was located in a really rundown old factory. My mind still hadn't put the pieces together but that was the least of my concerns for now the most important thing was to explain why I was there and make a good first impression! I was able to speak to two of the community organizers that worked for her and to my surprise mid way through the conversation walked in the one and only MRS. Majora Carter. So you already know...I wasn't listening to what they had to say..I was fixated on her. She's even prettier in person than in her pictures! The community organizers both gave me a gleaming smile and waited they knew what was going through my mind. Soon I had their numbers it took a while but I was finally working with outreach coordinator Tanya Fields researching, calling, setting up dates and arraging places to hold community meetings. I got what I wanted. The Law Of Attraction is true ask for what you want believe positively in it and the universe will align itself to help you achieve what you want!