a mission

3/27/09

Today I am in celebration over a vision being fully lived out!! About a month ago I took at trip to the Union Rescue Mission in Downtown LA. It is a homeless shelter giving food, shelter, and clothing to nearly 2,000 people a day! What I noticed about this wonderful facility was that they were doing so many great thing, they were taking care of the hungry abandoned souls that the rest of the world had shut their eyes too. However, in all the greatness of what this place had to offer it came to me that there could still be more.

From my own personal experience dealing with my life's process, creative outlets have helped me heal and grow in immeasurable ways. This place longed to have an outlet for personal expression. With all that these people are dealing with the one thing this need the most is a healthy way to release the weight of their circumstances. So after completing the Volunteer Orientation i asked the coordinators of they would consider bringing in different programs promoting creative expression, the first one and the easiest to accommodate being poetry. They happily agreed to host such an event so it was off to Facebook i went to reach out to our community and see what could be offered to make this vision a reality.

Ryan Stepped forward right away, i knew that he was an amazing photographer but I had no idea that he was a published poet as well!! So after many emails back and forth with the organization we set the date for today and I am now writing this having just wrapped up our first poetry session!!

When I was younger my brother used to make fun of me saying I wanted to save the world, i know he was only being a big brother but as the years passed and all I would hear from others is that one person can't change the world, I slowly started to believe it. Well this year I decided to stop listening to that story and started to listen to that source within that has no boundaries of what we can achieve.

The beauty that I saw in that room today will never leave me, the gentleness of Ryan's words of encouragement and praise was like a hug that for the time they were together softened the hard shell these woman have been carrying around with them. Shells protecting their fragile hearts from reaching out, from asking to be truly seen,to really be heard after so many years of being rejected. Within this group of about 15 woman all that remained was love, they clapped when each person took the brave step of sharing their hearts words, they smiled at each other and encourage one another.It was truly a magical moment!!

So I encourage you, reach out, embrace this life that we are living in, open your eyes to all that is around you and act, start living to find your own moments that move you. Start reaching out to those longing to be seen, give them a smile, a hug, whatever you feel inclined to do, but do it.

Never shy away from achieving your own dreams, never take no for an answer and dont wait around for someone to tell you that your allowed to do it. You gotta give it to Nike for this one "just do it" guess they were onto something here:-)

Working with the less advantaged has been a dream of mine since I was a teen and after recently being told that I needed a BA to take an art therapy course I was interested in which would mean 6 years of school to complete it all it sounded like a no to me, so i choose not to listen. I decided to start living my dream knowing that what i will achieve in these six years I would have had my head in a book could never be replaced. I do not think this path is right for everyone but it felt right to me and I fully trust in the universe that everything is in divine order:-)

In this closing I just wanted to say thank you to Ryan Jesena for his massive heart and unlimited talents and for offering his time to this project that so deeply touched the hearts of many woman today myself included:-)