beCAUSE...

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today.

...beCAUSE

yesterday i woke up totally jazzed and with the entire island to myself.


everyone was off surfing and I was waiting to skype with Max and Kevin about our moroccan argan oil company - ARGANADIX...

I haven't been involved too much with Arganadix in the last month because I've been oober busy becoming an E.M.T. and gearing up to move and embark on this adventure... but the time has come to dedicate some time, now that i have plenty of it.

It's crazy how time flew in the month before i left.

A lot of really intense things happened right before i departed my fair Venice... like the way things go down in a dream. You aren't quite sure how that piece got there, but you go with it and just accept it as real.
Also - i seem to be forgetting some things. Like how when you grow up and once upon a time, things seemed magical, but then your grown-up brain says -oh no.no.no.... there's no WAY that is real.

Makes me think (very ironically) of Leonard Cohen's "Alexandra Leaving"...

even though she sleeps upon your satin.
even though she wakes you with a kiss.
do not say the moment was imagined.
do not stoop to strategies like this.

I can't help but to find myself saying many moments were imagined... and all i can seem to remember clearly is that some things slowed way down and others went into hyper-speed. i remember i got really overwhelmed for a minute or two.

You know, going full gypsy is not as easy as it sounds- there was a LOT to give away, allocate, and undo.

Planning to live without a plan takes a lot of planning, somehow.

Anyway- back to my story.
So, the day was here.
The sun was up... and I was crawling out of my nest.

I stretched my arms above me and groaned really low and loud.
I was all wrapped up in the tender yellow morning sunlight that was peeking through the jungle and into my window....

I shuffled around a bit, wiping the sleep from my eyes, and then did a few sun salutations on the porch...


...and made my way to the driftwood castle to get a cup of coffee.

walking from my dreamhut to the castle, i pass under palm frawns that make the rays of sunlight motorboat across my face.

my feet are leathering up (and not so tender as they were when i arrived) as i trot along the path of sand, shells and kerikecil (coral pieces).

the turquoise ocean ripples to my left and just a little further out beyond the reef the barrelling waves crash.
I could see brent's boat anchored out at a neighboring break and i could just make out my friends surfing.

They look like tiny black dots carving down epic blue mountains.

getting myself a coffee, I came to sit in the regular a.m. location- upon two benches that come straight out of the castle and run perpendicular to the ocean, we all come here, staring directly at the break they call "scarecrows"...
it just feels like the right thing to do, to sit here and stare at the waves for an hour or so before starting the day.

I love how every single person here wakes up early. like, super duper early.
early rising is one of my favorite things ever. (and I have recently realized- one of my non-negotiables in a man)... I think it's definitely a surfer thing but it's not so much a musician thing to wake UP before the sun- as it is to sit on the front porch and still BE up playing guitar as the dawn starts to glow.

which dont get me wrong, some of my favorite times of my entire life have been watching the sun rise with the loves of my life in Venice.... but getin up early is the best!

I used to wake up at the ass crack of dawn to practice yoga for a long time-- with my Ashtanga practice in London and then when I lived on bay street and would practice at yogaworks on main with Kathryn Budig. (one of my favortite yoginis of all time).

see... this is why yoga and surfing are so perfect together.

early risers.
in touch with an organic flow (the waves, like the breath).
the chill vibe.
and vinyasa (linking breath to movement).

I started making a little video last night to send to my yoga teacher friends to encourage them to come do a yoga and surfing retreat out here. (i'll post it when i'm done)

this island is just the perfect location for both artform practices and the ideal retreat location.

like I said... I was jazzed yesterday- making website stuff for arganadix, a little promo teaser videos for Togat Nusa- and then I went out with everyone after lunch an sat on top of the boat in my famous orange throne (where I take all the lifevests up to the top of brents boat and make a little bed) and took videos and photos of the crew surfing their afternoon waves.


we got back to the kingdom around dinner time and it started storming.


sheets of rain pounded down on the sagu palm roof.

the roofs are so badass here.

this tree (the sagu palm) grows in the mangrove jungles and provides food and frawns that make perfect watertight roofing.

The rain hammered down and we all lounged around digesting our food and playing with the monkey...

I had been thinking about my goddess sister Tawney all day for some reason.
Tawney has got to be one of the most inspiring women I know.
I remember the first night I met her so vividly.

For a couple months, my beautiful friend shawn had been inviting me over to his house and I kept not making it for one reason or another. Shawn and I kept finding each other along lifes path-- in a park in San Fran and on street corners in LA until we took a hint and realized we were supposed to be friends.
I remember he came to Harvelles on Christmas with me, my sister and about 4 or 5 friends.
I think it maybe was the next week I obliged and said I would come hang out at his house.
little did I know I was crossing through gate to meet my long-lost spirit family.

I feel like the universe had been waiting so long to reconnect me with these guys. but seriously .... all of them.
I can't say enough.
I love them so so hard.

so there was Tawney Bevacqua- beaming sunlight that seemed to bounce off her salmon colored sundress and paint every wall in the entire room with her bliss.
out of the blue she screamed "dance your dinner off" and we all immediately got on to tables and chairs and danced like it was our job.

Untitled from tawney bevacqua on Vimeo.

there is no way this is NOT my sister.

her room was decorated as though she had climbed into my brain, ripped a page from my soul and used it as a blue print.

we sat taking about philosophy and life all night and I recognized her paradigm so clearly it was like we wore almost identical prescriptions on our eyes.
then she picked up a book she had made of herself called "frequent flier" - which is photos of her exploding with joie de vivre - suspended in air all over the world-- India, Europe, South America....

needless to say, Tawney immediately became one of my best friends.

two weeks before I left on this adventure, a woman ran a red light in Venice Beach and smashed into my car, seriously injuring Tawney's face. (read her story for the whole thing)...
I didn't leave her side almost at all until I left an she was able to get around again. sitting by her side was an upanishadic experience.

I witnessed miracle after magical miracle

people coming together in support, sharing their healing modality, playing music, briging food, flowers... this was testament to how amazing Tawny has been to the world...
but the true miracle was her reaction.
and the power of her positivity and optimism. her healing was such a phenomenon and her attitude floored me.
she is an angel of light.


a photo of her in the e.r. covered in blood after the accident came on my computer screen as I was flipping through images in iPhoto with Johnny after dinner last night.

he was of course wide eyed at the gruesome post accident image.... but said "slavery sucks?.... who's a slave?"

Tawney was wearing a shirt from her work- the non-profit "FREE THE SLAVES"
in the accident.
(ya... like I said-- angel. she frees slaves and everything... ya. I know.)

I explained to Johnny as Tawny had explained to me and countless others since or known her--- there are an estimated 27million people in slavery today.
a slave is anyone forced to work without pay and unable to walk away.

Johnny and I were sitting in the driftwood castle right where my friend Ben and I had sat last week talking about altruism and causes. (He is the one who hired my Padang adventure buddy Mick to come and work for habitats for humanity and rebuild the tsunami destroyed villages.) and looked at the Free The Slaves website and talked at length about it.

it made me think.


why are we here on earth?


maybe... just beCAUSE.

to BE for a CAUSE.

my high school friend Doug died last October.
yet another tragic, unnecessary death in one of the most privileged communities in America.

a young man spoke very bluntly and candidly during doug's eulogy.

this is what I heard him say:

"you are the rich kids! you grew up like this cuz your parents are really successful. probably super dynamic and masters of their craft. and that same dynamic potential is in your blood. you were not only born with the ability an capacity to do great things, but you have the avenue to do it too. do you know how lucky you are? do you know how much you CAN do?! and instead, you assholes keep self combusting and dying off... cuz you have no cause to funnel that fire towards. so find a cause!!! do something with your life and these gifts you were born with and into! go find a freaking purpose and stop dying!!!"

it's so inspiring when friends like Tawny live for their cause and walk their truth and have a purpose.

we all need to find a cause... there are so so many... just chose one and start making a difference.

even if your purpose is just smiling at and loving every person you walk by today- just make it your purpose and don't stray from it. love fiercely. spread it all around the world.
be a love ninja!!!!!

god, I feel like such a missionary.