shift happens

This is a 6-minute video animation we had to watch at a staff development. It's actually interesting. Chock full of statistics about the way technology is affecting America and the world. It's really beyond comprehension how the internet and other personal and business technologies are radically changing the way we live and communicate.

When it comes to the election, the polls are almost as deceiving as the cable news talking heads. Those polls are conducting using land lines. How many people do you know, especially in their 20s and 30s, who don't have a land line? Most of us, I would venture to guess, rely solely on our cell phone.

Obama's campaign is smart and savvy, and they send out emails to their vast database, use their website to organize hordes of volunteers, and broadcast news on all the major social networking sites. According to Frank Rich of the New York Times, "Its ability to tell its story under the radar of the mainstream press in part accounts for why the Obama surge has been so often underestimated. Even now we’re uncertain of its size. The extraordinary TV viewership for Obama on Thursday night, larger than the Olympics opening ceremony, this year’s Oscars or any “American Idol” finale, may only be a count of the horses. The Obama campaign’s full reach online — for viewers as well as fund-raising and organizational networking — remains unknown."

McCain himself has admitted he doesn't know how to use a computer. And his choice of the freshman Alaska governor as VP running mate is quite obviously a "Hail Mary," to attract women, young people, and anti-abortionists and beauty queens. Obama is going to win it in a landslide. Because shift happens. And he brings change worthy of more than just believing in.

a few good quotes

There's nothing that says you have to succeed in the same way as someone else. In fact, there's nothing that says you must define success in the same way as someone else. - Ralph Marston

Work is love made visible. - Kahil Gibran

If you take care of each moment, you will take care of all time. - Buddha

Everything matters. Everything. - Miles Davis

Think enough and you won't know anything. - Kenneth Patchen

free day of yoga 2008

the free day of yoga in austin is coming up on monday, september 1. check out the extensive schedule of classes being held all day, all over town.

pictures worth thousands of words

I've added several pictures to blogs written during my time in India, too!

little miracles

This 7-minute video illustrates the vision of The Miracle Foundation, an Austin-based nonprofit organization started by my friend and former advertising colleague, Caroline Boudreaux. Though I wouldn't change anything about my first visit to India for the world, on my next journey there, I will likely visit at least one of the orphanages she has helped set up in the poorest, eastern regions of the country. Watch this short video and be inspired. Become a sponsor if you can, or consider volunteering if you live in Austin. The poverty in India and so many developing countries is extreme, depressing and overwhelming, but it is inspiring to see people and organizations joining together to make real differences in the lives of those communities and their precious children -- one child at a time.

southern comfort

It's good to be home. I'm grateful for the little things:

1. dinner with the family (oh, the red meat horror! but plenty of veg dishes to appease me)
2. an automatic washer and dryer in the house
3. driving my own car along streets with lanes and traffic laws which are generally obeyed
4. toilet paper and running water in every bathroom
5. powerful air conditioning
6. diving into barton springs at night
7. having no obligations and therefore no stress when awake in the middle of the night after having slept all afternoon
8. having a roommate who, without jet lag, is always on my time schedule
9. strolls and snuggles with lucy and sam
10. the most comfortable bed in the world, mine

a farewell to india

A long month, in the best way
in India, land of contradictions
where the holy and the material
the sacred and the filthy
the worshipped and the untouchables
are all neighbours

Absurd traffic
ubiquitous cow dung
black staring eyes
a hundred angry languages
hungry, barefoot children tugging at your sleeve
shopkeepers unabashedly ripping off the white folks

Fast, green rivers
stoic, wise mountains
wide smiles, greetings for all
namaste!
jule!
tashi delek!

Along the path, I've encountered
swamis wrapped in orange
south Indian self-proclaimed masters of meditation
old Indian women who spit loudly and talk openly at a silent retreat
new friends from Holland, Spain, Germany, America
travel mates from Israel, Australia, Canada
an old lover from Texas
Tibetan monks
Tibetan laypeople
Hindus, Muslims, Christians, atheists
and true yogis

The enlightenment is subtle
no great awakening
but many small pearls of wisdom

Travel does that to you,
no matter where you go
broadens the mind
narrows the focus
right down to the present moment
the exotic or the mundane
the foreign or familiar
happiness is right here.