Rearrange and Change

To my few followers, I will be revamping this blog in the next couple of months to make it more professional and inviting.
I also don't like mixing my business posts with my personal posts.  So my personal blog will be moving soon as well.( Look for the BIG NEWS there)  Ill update my social media pages soon with all my new links!

Ben

This is Ben.  Ben is 70 years old, born in Delaware and works on the streets of Sugarhouse Utah.   

I noticed Ben about 9 months ago when I saw him in my neighborhood on the side of the road selling beautiful walking sticks that he hand carves himself while sitting there waiting for any stranger to approach him and initiate a conversation.  

I asked Ben why he was doing this. And his response, like many people that we see on the side of the road, was because he was unable to get a job.   I asked why he was unable to get a job and he told me his story of how he was a veteran that has had numerous issues over the years getting his identification renewed because of a typo that the government made on previous records.  In order to obtain new identification he must obtain his birth certificate that is in Delaware and because of his limited resources, he has been unable to do that.   

Everyone has a story, everyone has a reason as to why they are where they are at this very moment.  I asked him if this caused him frustration and his response was simply, I can not control the mistakes that the government made and all I can do is try to survive the best way I can.  He does not beg for money because his pride is bigger than his money issues, so he did what he knew how to do best and he put his hands to work.   He sits there on that corner in the midst of this busy city, swiss-army knife in hand, and carves his living into beautiful pieces of wood. His hands are worn, yet he seems to find contentment in what he does and how he survives.  

As we continued talking and I snapped photos of his liveliness, he proceeded to tell me that we are all beautiful and amazing creatures that are capable of more than we know.  Yet we are held back by a fear that is instilled in us from the very start of our lives.  We are taught to fear our parents, authorities, greater deities that our beyond our reach.  We are often held back and worried because we are either living in the past or trying to make the future happen before it actually happens. We are too caught up in society and technology these days.   All of this he said, takes away from who we are and what we have in this very moment.  

For that reason Ben does not worry about where his next  buck to pay his rent will come from, or what he will eat in the next week.  He simply lives day to day, sits on the side of the road, and spreads what he calls good karma by doing what he does with his hands.  

Today I saw the universe work in the most beautiful way.  My stresses melted far away as I listened to this old man spewing with wisdom.  Sarah and I together gave him $40 today for two of his walking sticks, he thanked us for giving him enough money to pay his rent for the month of May.

For those of you that are in Salt Lake City and want to visit with Ben, he is always on the corner of 2100 S and 1100E in Sugarhouse.  I promise if you stop and talk to this man, you will walk away with a smile on your face. :) 

There are too many words to our conversation today to convey in this post so take a look at Ben through my eyes. :) 

Krystin and Jon

I went home to California a week or two ago on my Spring Break Voyage and while I was there, naturally my camera was in my hand most of the time.  

I have shot many a landscape photos, probably more than anyone would ever want to see, but I had never shot a person/people.   So I drug my cousin and her cute 20 year old boyfriend out into the desert and we explored.   I have to say for my first time shooting people, my photos didn't turn out half bad. ;)

 This one is my personal favorite. :)

 They were so natural in front of the camera, and a ton of fun!

 My family makes beautiful people. ;)

 Only a few of about 400 photos I took!

-A.

See through my eyes

Something that has been helping me relieve that creative ability with in, is photography.  I like letting the world see through my eyes for a minute or two. 

VW Summer

This past summer I was lucky enough to visit one of my best friends in southern Oregon.  He lived in Grants Pass at the time.  

Grants Pass is a small, quirky, and homey town.  Every time I visit I find myself yearning to move to Oregon more and more. 

Luke is a VW fanatic!  He owns 3 total.  This 1970 something Squareback is just one of them. 

Enjoy!

Branches

My branches have been withered and torn.  But I am coming back to life slowly.

 This time, I'll be indestructible.

Our Hands

My heart is heavy today.  For more reasons than one, but mainly because this world and the people in it have lost almost all traces of humanity.  People today are only concerned about themselves whether friend or foe.  Generosity is becoming a scarce action, kindness is withering away and being replaced by hatred and discrimination. 
Money rules most things, material and intangible. Blood is shed daily in the name of religion and a God that so many blindly believed in.  A God that is suppose to be kind, gentle, forgiving...pure.  Yet all that worship him do not emulate that persona.
We do not live by the words we so quickly worship and call sacred.
We do not accept those that do not look or act like us.  We hurt them. With words, with actions, with beliefs, with violence, with our own fear of change and that which might be uncomfortable to us.
We do not adapt to our enviornment, but we adapt the enviornment to us.  Ruining and killing such beautiful and pure things only so that we can have what we want, and not what beneifits others.

What if we were to live for others?  Maybe a young man that took his own life because of the pain he felt due to all of this travisty would be alive today.  His mother would not be mourning the lose of her child.  The child she created with her own body, and nutured and brought to life in her own womb. 
His father would not be asking the question "why"? Or wondering what he could have done differently for his son. 

What if we were to love one another as if we loved ourselves or the ones we hold close to our hearts?
Maybe this world would not be as ugly and scary as it is now.  Maybe people would STRIVE and SUCCEED.  Be lifted up above all that has brought so many down.
What if we were to accept all that is different from what we were taught and know?  Maybe this world would not be war torn.  Maybe instead of fighting for our rights and freedom, we fought for equality and love. 

There are alot of what if's.  And the thing is, there doesn't have to be.  So many people think that they are not in control or their presence does not make a difference in this world. When in acuality, all of the control lies in our hands.
Look down at the two hands that your creator gave you, in those palms lies truth, love, understanding, healing, and all of the things that this world needs in order to change...........

Now put them to work.