hi! our first guest blogger is coming in from emily of nyc - the incredible designer behind Aidan Mattox, she's a genius chef and one of the most full of life women i know. here's her thoughts on this friday.
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I have never blogged before.
Or kept a written diary as a little girl – although I owned several. All with a cutie gold heart shaped lock or a puffy hello kitty on the cover.
I was always uncertain of who I was writing to. Me? I felt funny in a pretentious way writing about myself: like I was important enough for someone to someday want to read what I had written. – Because I never believed that I was really just writing for myself.
Ahhh. But now I have been asked to share. I think it is because I have a husband that I really like.
We are going to a luau tonight. My girlfriend has just completed a full round of chemo and a mastectomy. And she is feeling well enough to host a bbq. So I said – let’s make it a luau!
I have bought grass skirts, flower necklaces, coconut bras (this is a sensitive situation – I ordered without thinking and will likely leave the coconut bras in my office) and all the ingredients for maitais! I asked her husband to download some don ho but he was unable to find any. I am suspicious that he thinks he cannot bear to listen to a whole evening of it so has decided to tell me he just can’t find it. He is British so I think the Hawaiian thing is just too relaxed for him.
The luau is in Harlem (nyc) on top of a roof. I will be the only white person on the subway on my way there and when I get off the subway, people will shout at me ‘hey white girl, watchu doin around here?!’
And I am going to give them my broadway smile and pretend I don’t speak English. This tends to work quite well. Usually people actually smile back.
Aloha! Have a great weekend.
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spill it my loves

morning!

i had this soft morning. tired just enough to be porous, receptive. and i had this feeling, the subtle touch of something that said 'it's all coming together. it's settling in.' the second thought struck me quick - you are a *very* funny girl mo - as my eruptive, colorful life is far from 'settled'. ha! but this feeling (the quiet in the middle of the storm) was distinct, that there are certain BIG internal hurtles that that have settled in, past. i just had an image of me on an english horse riding course swiftly vaulting on my own over the green covered obstacles. there has been soooo much in the last year that challenged me and so much feels solid in a surprising, new way. i nearly want to say, peacefully ready. :*)

last night the girls and i had a jewelry making party at the studio. it was fun, break out all our fun-stock and create things. i made a complete disaster like multi-colored chain threw up on my chest and i love it. i really love my team, this morning i was thinking, it's all our brand. it's been built and shaped by everyone invited in. it's such a team and such a community here. we have a bit too much fun.

ooo - also i'm going to open this forum up and invite in guest ninja bloggers to tip tap type in their thoughts. so! blog-on my lovelies, i'm going to email a few of you to get us started. we'll do topic driven, or you pick what you want to chat on, or spin off what i've brought up... i'll make it easy to start, you just have to email me your post and i'll throw it up...
iamaninja@ninjachick.com
only one single most important rule - there are no rules. a life of a warrior is one of vivrant humaness, not perfection. so spill it!

xo - mo

love is a state of action, not a place of arrival

hiya. if only you could see my spazzed out hair today. it's 70's style headbanded, feathered out post morning walk.

thinking about Love. for my east side book club we just read erich fromm's "the art of loving." points out that society's idea of love is that it's something arrived at when in perfect union. "us against the world." something shared uniquely among two. and i would of tended to agree. even if it was 'us' as in my family. or my best friend. or my wild crew of rabbits at the studio. the point fromm makes is that love is something cultivated within, it's a way of travel if you will, and not a destination. hence, it's something (as a goal) that you grow within and share everywhere. and when you do love an individual, you are actually loving all parts of life reflected within them.

i'm feelin' it! then i was listening to my zencast (search for it on itunes to download free) and gils (zencast teacher) was talking about metta - or the practice of loving kindness. the practice of first identifying love within and growing it outwards to loved ones, then eventually to everyone, everything. seems best starting as a seed planted, then watered daily, and then love as activity. practices of love (like right now i'm practicing love by being patient stopping to answer the dozenth q' from an intern). :*)

seminary students were instructed to cross campus and give a talk on being a good samaritan. the school were actually conducting a little experiment and in the students path they placed a person moaning in need. when they were told to rush, you'll be late, no one stopped to help. when they were told to take their time, some stopped. giving of time, expanding time, taking time, valuing others existence is love in action.

gils (zencast teacher) also spoke of his young son who for some reason all of the sudden had this incredible beaming smile for some stranger, as if it was his most favorite person in the entire world, sprouting light out of his little face. and the stranger didn't even notice, frowning on through life. that is what meditation is about, freeing up mind, to stay in the thick of the moment, noticing the smile given so freely. i was sorta beaming a bit on my walk this morning and i noticed how many faces it caught and spread. i made a lot of male gardeners *very* happy this morning. hahah.

anyway. love as an action. thought of the day.

ps just looked up "metta" - has also been translated as "active interest in others."