First post

So today after having shared my recent travel stories with a new aquaintence I was inspired to begin an online journal of sorts in hopes that I can 1) Accurately record all the amazing things that I get to experience on a day to day basis, and 2) maybe inspire some people along the way!

I will briefly recount what has happened in the last 3 months of my life. After having studied my butt off these last two years at Durham Tech I finally was able to say thank you and goodbye to the place. I received my Assosiate of Arts degree and I secured my place as a junior at UNC Chapel Hill this fall where I plan to study Anthropology ( and other things!). After living with an assortment of amazing guys over the last two semesters our lease was up and it was time to pack up and move out. The hardest part of it all was having everyone leave at separate times, which made leaving a somber thing to do. As many of us can attest, that house has so many awesome memories that it would take a year at least to recount them all. But it served us well, and I am so thankful for having had the privledge of living there with the people I did.

I moved some stuff into a friend's place in Carrboro and headed up to the mountains to visit my mom in Boone, NC. After an awesome visit with her I, OK do not freak out...I started a cross-country hitchhiking trip in route to CA! I arrived in 5 days after having utilized truck stops mostly along Interstate 40, and then proceeded to hitch up and down the whole state of California (Pictures of the trip can be seen here . I will say now that it was a spectacular experience and that I learned a whole lot and saw a whole lot. I am still deconstructing what I actually experienced in those 3 weeks or so out on the road, roaming around from city to city. I was able to record the many highlights of my trip in a journal, and I will follow this entry with an in depth description of what went down!

So...after travelling around for a while I ended up in Santa Cruz, CA, my final destination. While I was back in NC I had been coordinating with the staff at Bosch Baha'i School about serving this summer for a month of so. I was able to secure a spot as a childrens class teacher, and my service was to start on June 20th and end around July 24th. I have now been up here in the mountains for about 2 weeks and I am truly happy to be here.

I had been feeling very bogged down and Monday night I decided that I would begin a fast in which I would for the next few days abstain from any kind of food and comsume only water. I read a lot about it and also have experience with fasting from being a Baha'i, which asks its believers to fast for about 19 days each March from sunrise to sundown. This fast I decided to end after about 42 hours without food. After getting over the initial hunger pangs I began to feel a new sense of energy. I desired to be detached from not just food but also from all material universe that I am subjected to daily. Fasting brings me into a place that I am usually not able to experience when I am eating normally and moving and shaking during the day to day life. Things slow down and one realizes that we do not need food as much as we think we do. When I fast I attempt to put all my reliance in God, and trust that He will take care of me. It also clears my mind of the worry of having to go and collect and consume food, and I am left to concentrate my thoughts and energies on more important things. I found that my body is calmer, my movements smoother, my limbs more relaxed, and my thoughts more deeply and well-composed than when I am attempting to do the same things while eating normally. I spent most of my time either reading, meditating, praying, and also took a few walks through the beautiful redwood forest, stopping at steams and clearings to peacefully admire the marvelous beauty and eye-catching complexity of nature. I did have a hard time waking up in the morning, but I felt refreshed after napping into the morning and then beginging my day with sweet prayers. I decided to break my fast around 3pm because there was a bar-b-que happening that night and I decided that it was best to be fresh and able-bodied for the event. I am very happy I decided to fast, and I look forward to fasting more in the future.

Today brought new faces and a fresh feeling that youth bring along with them. About 20 Baha'is from around CA arrived today in order to volunteer their time for a 5 day session hosted by Bosch. This session is a Children's Session and we are expecting about 60 young girls and boys ages 9, 10, and 11.