Thought of the Day - another "what if"

I was driving this morning and was singing, sipping coffee, talking on the cell phone, pretty everything but driving. So I turned everything off, put the coffee down and did some thinking. What if the next time you drove you were an active driver, a focused driver, a driver who was paying more attention to the road and less attention to all of the things we have in our cars that offer entertainment while driving. Think about that for a second. Our cars are designed to be our home away from home. THey have music, dvd players, butt warmers, and pretty much all the other gadgets that make our drive more entertaining.
It seems everything we have is designed for talking our mind off the task at hand, driving. We're all so busy with life, going here and there, rushing from point a to point b. What if we took the time were are in the car as quite time, self reflection time, or prayer time? What if for 5, 10, 30 minutes we didn't answer the phone or listen to our ipods, what if we just were? What if we just actively drove. I did that this morning and I noticed the freeway and the cars around me with a greater clarity then yesterday . I became active instead of passive. As everyone always says, I was "in the moment". The thing I noticed is that I was a calmer less irritated driver. Maybe this was because I wasn't upset by other drivers who took me away from a phone call or a song I was singing when they cut me off. Or maybe it was because I was so active in my driving that cars didn't cut me off. I wonder. I know it's hard to take time away from the world, but don't you think we'd be a better place if we all reclaimed "quite" time. Do you think that if we took away the distractions while driving we'd have less accidents? Who knows. Know I'm sure you're saying your an active driver, but are you really? I mean really? I challenge you, the next time you step inside your car, don't do anything but drive. See what happens.
Peace

What if?

What if for every $100 you spent on holiday gifts this year, you gave $10 to a charity?
What if for every meal you ate out, you gave a can/box/bag of food to the Unity Shop?
What if this year you gave with an open hand instead of a receiving heart? What if for every hour you spent shopping you spent 30 minutes donating your time? Think of all the families that don't have what we have. Think of the people that this year will spend the holiday alone. What if you spent one hour of this crazy season not living for you but living for others?
What if...

There is this great website that all you have to do is enter in your zip code and it gives you a list of places you could donate to.

This year, let's not just think what if, let's do.


- www.volunteermatch.org

- Unity Shop - http://www.unityshoppe.org/donation (they always need volunteers who speak Spanish to help in the store).

- Noah's Anchorage (home for at risk kids) 301 W. Figueroa Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 Marya Torrez (Program Manager)(I love this one, it's great, you can buy a gift for a child and then drop if off at the house. So many kids this year won't get anything).

Peace


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Back from Mexico - with a cold

I've found the best way to top of a relaxing stress free vacation is to come home and prompty get a cold! What's up with that? Lukcy for me it's just head stuff and nothing more.

Re-entry

Can i just say the re-entry into the world after a week of Mexico is NOT COOL!

Viva La Mexico

What a trip, what a week, what a country!
I'm going to post in the next few days all the ins and outs so if anyone goes to Mazatlan you know some of the great places to eat and things to do! I had fun with this blog and I hope that everyone else did too. Who's knows, I might go Doogie Hosward (?) on you all and blog nightly!
Peace

Eve of Goodbye Mexico!

As our last night slowly fades into tomorrow I think how blessed I am to have had such a great experience in Mexico with one of my best friends. We spent the day tooling around, eating pan-dulce, drinking mexican mocha's, avoiding the timeshare-ers, frolicking in the large waves that over took the ocean and drinking from coconuts. It was a good day. It was fitting that we had dinner with this great couple that we meet on our first day here. We went to Pedro and Lola's where we drank beer, ate good food and had fantastic conversation. Pedro and Lola's is one of the 8 or so places that incircle the main downtown plaza. On the weekends they close of the plaza to only foot traffic, giving the eaterys more room for tables, and more room for guests! Our waiter let us know that he only had three menus and he'd get to us at somepoint, "it's crazy here, a lot going on right now, i'll get to you"! We noted that in the states we would have left the place but in mexico it's all a different pace. Everything happens in a mexico moment, which could be a few seconds or a few days. We sat down for dinner at 7:45 and returned home at 11:30. But what an evening. The old Mazatlan is slowly turing into this hip place with art studios and unexpected places to eat. I can see why Maztlan is a place that so many people come to each year over and over again. It's like coming home. The people are friendly, the food is good and the beer is cheap. The worries are left at the door and the sun is always shinning. What more should there be? Peace

Day in the Life of Monica, i.e. Mr. Cuba!