Though I did lead off the evening, what followed were people I am most humbled to be in the company of. Please take some time to watch the livestream. The day before was TEDxNGA, the kid’s version though there was nothing childlike about their talks, other than their innate wisdom pouring through without barrier. A lovely way to be childlike.

Enough said. I’d rather you spent your time checking out the talks. I’ll write more at some point. Big life changes.

OMG. A few weeks ago, I was asked to speak at TEDx Asheville. I nominated myself months ago, hoping and also frightened to be chosen. I’m going to speak about The Earth Pledge of Allegiance. Honored doesn’t truly describe the feeling I have. It is more than that. It is a dream showing itself in a different manner than I had expected and planned for. To make God laugh, tell him or her your plans. It’s funny when things start happening that you’ve dreamed about. For instance, my son now lives in my town. I didn’t dare think it was really going to happen and now it has, along with his little family. But you read about that in a prior post. Speaking to a crowd of people with the intention of inspiring them. That is a big piece of my dream. Another little fear I have about it is that it won’t happen again. Funny, right? Scared to do it. Scared not to. Scared it is a flash in the pan. A blip in my life. Perhaps I should change the name of my design studio. http://blipstudio.com A blip in time. blip is the first letters of my name…Breah Livolsi Parker. Or Barbra Livolsy Parker. I changed my name. I started out in this world as Barbara Jean Livolsy. I become Barbara Jean Livolsy Parker at 18. Became Barbra Parker at age 22. Finally Breah Livolsi Parker in 1999. Change the name. Change the way of being. Change how others view you.

I’ve always been a very nice person and I was also quite bitchy. I looked at the world with a negative eye. I complained or criticized more than I allow myself to remember. At one point I realized it and decided to practice positive. Flip the coin. Turn left instead of right. My family laughed at me and still I know they learned from me. When I divorced their father, they rejected the changes I began making. Where was their mother? I was told more than once “We just want our mother back.”

That was a tough one to swallow. I was their mother, couldn’t they see that? It was really that I couldn’t see that. I was wrapped up in finding myself. I wish I had done that before I had children. Would’ve saved everyone a lot of pain. But I didn’t. And so they witnessed their mother scrapping for her life, being attracted to all the “wrong” men, being fearful of my ability to pay my rent, losing my business over and over again. They also saw me do things like become an actor on the stage. Take up a new absolutely perfectly fitting business by saying yes to something I had never done before. Being a vegetarian. Not being a vegetarian. Smoking. Not smoking. And they have watched me age. I have watched me age. They have watched me come back to earth after flying every which way.

“When you come to the edge of all you know, you’re either given legs to stand on or wings to fly.”

And now I know how to use my wings to lift off in a purposeful direction. Along the way I have been given gifts. One of which is the Earth Pledge of Allegiance. I did not write it. I borrowed it from an anonymous source, given to me by Terry Deal, the environmental ed director for Evergreen Elementary School here in Asheville. I added “with Peace and LOVE for all” when I illustrated it for the second time. That time we launched a program called Peace and Love for All. Dot com. We set up a website, with curriculum and sales of the poster, bookmark and peace & love sticker. We were gifted a banner by a company whose name escapes me right now and I’ll find out and let you know later. We were gifted the printing of rain forest certified printed Earth Pledge posters. Personally I was gifted with a few people who were willing to trot off on this path with me. Michael Ashmore, Anna Booraem and Amy Ellisor. And of course Terry Deal.

So where is the program? Well, it is here today as I write. We are on the road to bringing awareness to children all over the world, as well as their parents and teachers, that we are stewards of this world, this planet, this Big Mama Earth. It is our job to bring peace to her. We have tapped into her soul. And we have violated it. Can we give back the lives of millions of beings, be they flora, fauna or the human version in the Gulf? We cannot and we CAN turn the ship around. It is turning. It is turning because of each one of us.

In making this Earth Pledge of Allegiance, we are saying we promise and keep that promise to be kind, be loving, be fair, be generous, be of service to all creatures…with the intent of PEACE and LOVE for ALL. No matter what. Trusting that from that place we change the world. We do it anyway. We change the world just by our very existence. Why not make it a positive one?

I pledge allegiance to the Earth

and the Flora…

the fauna…

and the Human Life

that it supports…

One Planet

indivisible, with

safe air, water and soil,

economic justice, equal rights, and

PEACE and LOVE FOR ALL.

One little thing changes everything. I’ve been feeling scattered, having shifted my own life around to accommodate their needs. It’s what a mama does. Instead of teaching yoga in my home studio, that studio is now my graphic studio space and I teach my students in a yoga studio downtown. I struggled with this change internally. It felt like I was losing some part of me. Yet after making the change I feel fresh and ready to let my life unfold from here. Change, though sometimes pretty uncomfortable and hard to see the benefit of an unknown outcome, is a catalyst for growth and if we aren’t growing we aren’t living…and vice versa.

It’s been over a month since I wrote here last. Skipping through all that has happened, I land here today with a new household full of people I love. My son, his wife, 2 year old baby girl and their Golden Retriever have moved to Asheville and are staying with me until they find a place of their own. It reminds me of the story of the man (let’s call him KuKu) who goes to his guru for advice…

KuKu tells guru he is going crazy with his life. His wife and children are making him crazy. Guru tells KuKu to go home and bring his dogs and cats inside the house. KuKu does as he is told and goes back to guru and cries “It’s worse!” Guru says go home and bring in your ducks and geese. KuKu again does as he is told and again goes back to guru crying “It’s worse!” Guru tells him to go home and bring in all his cows and horses. KuKu once again does as he is told and returns to guru pulling his hair and pleading for guru to help him because “It’s worse, it’s worse!!!” Guru pulls up all his wisdom and tells KuKu to return home and take all the animals out of the house. KuKu does as he is told and returns to guru a refreshed and new man, full of gratitude for his life with his wife and children.

I’ve complained about being single, alone in my house. Not only do I have my son and his family but all of their possessions fill my garage and extra room (meant to be an art room). My granddaughter’s room is what used to be my studio. My bedroom now doubles as my work and sleeping space. For now, I am happy to have them here…the blessings outweigh the challenges. And I am leaving for Denver today for 4 days.

My trip to Denver is to be “the artist” as my line of Verbal Remedies™ matted prints and cards are announced the INATS gift show. I will also be graphically recording Marianne Williamson’s breakfast talk on Saturday. Check out my blipstudio website to see what this is. And I’ll tell you more when I return from Denver…

Yep, I might have been committed. Perhaps it is this town in particular but I believe that it is happening everywhere. People are waking up to what has happened to our world under our watch. We are leaving a legacy of crooked politicians, corporations, wars fought for fabricated reasons to achieve a goal of ultimate power. People who have behaved badly. We let them, if we were not one of them.

So now what to do? Do we stand by and shake our heads as oil spews into the Gulf. It is too sad to go into all the ramifications. Who are we to mess with another beings habitat? To not ensure the greatest safeguards to keep their home safe. I read an article that said that during the Bush administration a decision was made not to enforce that upon our offshore oil rigs. It saved the companies several million dollars, and this disaster will cost them many billion, along with the deep guilt and despair. I hope the people of those oil companies and those who enabled them, oh which might include us who fill up our cars with $3 a gallon gasoline and enjoy the freedom that provides.

Where have our voices been? Why have we been so silent to let it get so out of hand? Please wake up. Please. Those of us who have been need you to come along too. We need greater numbers of people who are willing to be considered crazy to go against the norm. The norm is ridding our planet of one species at a time, one ecosystem at a time.

Are you thinking “what can I do about it”? It seems an awesome task to turn this ship around. The Renaissance was only 1000 people. We turned the world around then. We can turn it around now. Please join me and, I’m hoping, millions of others around the planet. Wake up and smell the smothering, burning oil in the Gulf, the blood on the battlefields in cities, towns , villages and neighborhoods all over the world. We are killing each other and those that get in the way of that intention.

So what can we do as individuals? We can speak out. Talk about this with your friends and your neighbors. Start a conversation. What you bought at the mall conversation can wait another day. It’s time to ensure there will be another day for someone somewhere. People are starving and we go to McDonalds and eat food kills our bodies[1].

What stops you? I think about what has stopped me and that is fear of rejection. Fear that my children will think I am insane. Fear that others will consider me someone to fear. A general nature of fear, which I have been shedding over this lifetime. I have held a fear of being found out to be the person I have been trying to hide. No one hides for real, only creates a feeling of distrust for a person who doesn’t seem congruent. Something is off. We are the last ones to see ourselves, which is a pity. Enjoy who you are. Be who you are. It is oh so much more than enough.

Recapping my own month is a habit as I near toward the end. I normally measure it in “how much money did I make this month” because I am keenly aware of the following month’s bills coming due. Oh, I know that success is not measured ultimately in dollars and yet it is what allows us to function in this world. Some days it is enough to simply have enough, though I am most happy when it comes through doing something I love doing.

This month’s end finds me physically tired. It’s been lovely to begin working in the yard, planting new and rearranging old. It also adds to my plate of things to do and my perception of so little time is reflected in the chaos of my house and car interiors. There are things left out that I hope to eventually find a home for, either in storage or recycling or (last resort) trash. Those things pile up while I am taking care of the immediate. It seems I am simply moving from one task to the next and not making any headway, though I suppose I can turn that look around and see that the fact that I am continuing to work as headway. This time last year I was borrowing money to make it through the month of April and May. Feels very good to be handling it well myself this year. That’s headway.

Money aside, what kind of headway have I made? This has been a month of growth in the relationship department. My son and his family have made plans to move here from Aspen and they will stay with me for a moment as they find their own home. I’ve been cast in a play that revolves around my character. The drama off-stage rivals that of on…relationship building. Some stronger steps are being taken to express myself in truth to my myself, which is easily the norm rather than not now. Headway.

The world seems to be truly shaking things up this month. So many earthquakes, volcano. It is becoming the norm to see that there has been yet another large earthquake causing devastation in someone’s life. We are becoming numbed out by the tragedies, so much so that we must shake ourselves and remind ourselves to be grateful for what we have right now.

Yesterday my daughter and granddaughter were driving through an intersection on a green light when a woman did not notice her own red light and crashed into my daughter’s car. When seeing the car coming at her, my daughter’s instinct was to turn and look at her own daughter in the car seat. My heart turns to a puddle when I think of the possibilities of that split second in time and gratitude overwhelms me to know they are unhurt and still lighting up my world.

This town is a place where you can reinvent yourself to be who you have been all along and afraid to live it. We are a town of misfits and out of the boxers. We lead the way for so many to follow.

So what’s our life like from an outside viewpoint? Google Obama’s and Asheville and read the stories. If I didn’t live here, I’d at the very least visit here. And of course, once here I would have to move here. We are a cozy town. We are an arts town. We are the Paris of the South. We are a town that recognizes each other. Those of us who have been here a while are home easily. The family shows up in friendship and taking courageous steps together. This weekend was “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” in downtown Asheville. Men walking a mile in pumps to raise money and awareness for a women’s shelter.