Our love is not in the realm of things to be voted on
You can vote all you want; it could never change the notes of our song
Laws are like lines on a map, in reality they don't exist
And here we stand with what does beyond all ignorance

Our love is not something for you to decide
For like you we breathe, we dream, we laugh, we cry
Like you we hope for brighter days and longer kisses
Like you we sometimes play God and get involved in his business

And still here we are with what is real
With what, not even your story of eternal hell can steal
Here we are as plain as day
Your family, your secret, your joy, your pain
Your brother, your sister, your uncle your friend
Warriors and poets alive and dead
Your daughter, your son, your mom, or your dad
You're surrounded! I know! Too bad so sad!

Here we are with what is eternally true
This love that breathes us, the me, the you
Here we are with what's closer than what's up above
Here we are with our willingness to love

Our love is infinitely bigger than what you claim is a choice
We're intelligent human beings, with a mind and a voice
Though I'll give you some credit, cause there are choices made
Like the choice to be true, and not be afraid
The choice to choose love over hatred and fear
The choice to be honest and say we are here
The choice to resist, the choice to resist
To honor a kiss, yes to honor a kiss

A second-class citizen? I don't know who that is
In my eyes we are equal in our blessings and sins
So I honor your freedom to believe what you want
We're all here to realize what's real and what's not
We're all here to reflect what is seen and unseen
To play the role of a lover, a fighter a dream
For a dream's all we have and that too will soon fade
So I choose to live life as this love that remains 

 

It was PEACE DAY at a local elementary school a few days ago!!! So naturally, HERE II HERE was invited to perform for about 600 crazy, rambunctious, vibrating children ... and naturally we said YES!!!

We actually did three performances that day ... the first for the 1st graders ... then for the 2nd and 3rd grade ... and then for he 4th and 5th graders.

It was fascinating to me how the older kids got, even in that young age group, the more they seemed to be concerned with being 'cool' ... how quickly we start worrying about what others think about us and start to conform!!

The younger kids were jammin!! We didn't do the 's!t song' or anything (although that song always seems to be the younger kids' favorite!) ... but we played Time IV Change, Besitos Chiquiticos, Feelings Come and Go ... and a few others.

Those younger kids were clappin, hollerin, dancin, shoutin' ... they were having so much fun! The older kids took a litle longer to warm up, but they got there. You just can't resist HERE II HERE ... besides, most of those kids had never seen a man in a turban before ... fortunately it was also crazy hat day at the school, so Ash blended well. : ) ... there were no other turbans in the audience that day, interesting enough.

Towards the end of the show, we had a young lady come up - a 5th grader, and we'll post this video soon - and she sang with us along to the song IMAGINE ... except that she channeled something divine!!! We gave her the mic and it was amazing what came through this little girl ... we got permission from her parents to post the video, so we will soon ... she was channeling ghandi, mother teresa, martin luther king, john lennon, and a nervous, authentic little 5th grade girl all at the same time ... it was an incredible moment

At the end of the day, we handed out tons of our cards to all the kids ... you know how kids love free hand-outs ... no matter what it is. The band's pictures are on the cards, with their names. It was hystericaly to see the kids in the cafeteria calling out he band members' names from the cards and waving hello like they were in the presence of rock stars (they were, anyway : )

The funniest was when they would look at me, trying so hard to place me on the card ... the looks of disdain and dismissal were so precious as they gave up trying to figure who I was ... 'Who's the skinny guy with the beard? Where is he on this card?' ... hey fellas, note: I want my picture on the card next time. Hate to let the kids down, you know?

One strategic blunder: my phone number is on that card so people can contact us for gigs, etc. Well, about 1 hour after the last performance, after handing out our cards to a few hundred 8 year old's with cellphones ... the calls started rolling in ... at first I thought, 'who is calling me for the fourth time in a row ... must be an emergency ...

So I answered ...

-- HELLO!!!!! CAN YOU PLEASE COME TO MY HOUSE??? MY ADDRESS IS ....... '
-- HELLO!!! I am YOUR NUMBER ONE FAN ... you guys rock!!! [this one called 3 times]
-- HI!!! MY NAME IS JESSIE ... YOU GUYS ARE BETTER THAN THE JONAS BROTHERS!!
-- HI! ... ... HI! .... HELLO! ..... HELLO!!! [as they passed the phone around to 25 friends)
-- HEY! I WANT TO GIVE YOU BESITOS CHIQUITICOS! .. PEACE!!!

hysterical ... I think it's Time IV Changing my phone number!

Bryan

 

Today, a lady with deep strong beautiful blue eyes came over to me at the end of an excellent show.

I had been thinking to approach the microphone as the band was being loved and hugged on by all their new adoring fans. I wanted to speak to the fact that this concert was a "love-offering donation" concert (i.e. FREE, but please support the artists with love disguised as money) and that the recipients of this mind-blowing experience could reflect their gratitude by offering more to the artists .. but I just couldn't find the right space inside me to speak that message ... I did not want to disturb the beautiful energy of what was unfolding (what always unfolds) after the concert when the audience wants to love all over the guys - touch them, hug them, talk to them, share how they were touched, etc. - and so I just waited patiently ... content in knowing that the money we make on any given night is always the right amount.

And while I was simply being patient, waiting for life to show me the way, that is when she approached me ... rounding the first row of chairs she said, "So ... ... I came here today grieving ..." ... she looked at me with these penetrating crystal blue eyes; I saw her lip begin quivering ... she had been going through something powerful during this performance.

She looked at me ... her heart still breaking wide open ... the band had finished the performance with a powerful acoustic performance of "WINGS", walking through the audience singing a beautiful melody to these words:

"EVERY TIME YOU LEAVE MY ARMS
YOU TAKE MY WINGS WITH YOU
YOU COULD NEVER BE TO FAR
THEY'LL ALWAYS FOLLOW YOU
YOU LEAVE MY ARMS AND TAKE MY WINGS WITH YOU

She squinted, holding back tears about to burst through the corners of her eyes ... I could see that the performance had taken the deep struggle of whatever her current experience and was still now using it like a powerful wedge in breaking her heart wide open ...

I simply put my arm around her as she buried herself into my arms and began to sob. I just held her tight and kept silent. I felt her breath deeply. I breathed deeply. She cried. I held her tighter. And we breathed deeply together ... as she let it all go.

After a few minutes she told me about what she was going through ... I just kept silent, holding her perfectly with my presence ... two complete strangers ... and yet soul mates in that moment, so perfectly known to each other. Me, holding space for her to breathe a little deeper ... she, giving me the exquisite gift of allowing me to simply be fully, deeply present and in love with her in that moment.

As she shared her story, a few words eventually came through that I hope served her.

She was so grateful to HERE II HERE for their music, their presence, their joy ... grateful to me for helping to bring them here to this moment. She told me she did not expect to laugh that day ... and was so grateful to have laughed joyfully during the performance. She was simply grateful.

What a lesson for me, as life always shows the way. The simple truth is I was not supposed to speak to the audience, even as I stood there thinking I "need" to help the guys make more money. But I was not supposed to make more money for the band today. I was not even the manager of HERE II HERE ... not even "Bryan". It was my job at the end of the show today to simply be present with this beautiful, strong woman with bluebird earrings ...

I asked her if she wanted to meet the band. She said no. She was done for the day. She was cooked. She asked me to share her story with them ... I walked her to our CD table and gifted her a CD from the band.

And then she left. And that's the story of the lady who approached me.

I love my job. 

I'm so honored to experience this body.

This orchestra of skin, guts, bones, tissues, organs, blood, cells, molecules, atoms, DNA, hair and nails.

All somehow working together, harmonizing frequencies chanting the tune of me. Taking turns, sharing, compromising, pushing and pulling, shifting and recieving music of life of me.

I see .... other and no such thing.

With just a breath and a glow of wonder beaming from the constellation of my face ..... this tune of me expands to include my neighbors, their children, the trees, the bugs, the worms, the sprouts, all minerals, all animals, all kingdoms.

And .. when the sun shines just right , I feel it smoothly slide down my open voice like golden honey numbing the illusion of soar limitations on a fluttering toungue who knows it's been blessed with a massive wing span.

I fly in every direction percieved by sequential majesties of blistering, open wounds. I am open. Broken open i gush and volcanic orgasms paint universes of awake love on the walls of black holes and cherry blossoms.

This time rolls off into this time rolls off into this time rolls off. Time jewels are as worthless as "real" jewels when the shine of shines that holds all together isn't recognized. Bleed me a tomb of dizzy shoulders and cotton grass stains and hum your favorite song. The one that evokes your human innocence that knows it knows nothing at all.

Let's cry together in this aware moment. Let's live together in this aware moment. Let us die together in this alive aware moment and laugh at how nothing changes. For change belongs to the realm of things and the offspring of memory and the you, me dream.

Peace! Ash

Blessed Insanity

What is going to happen to this planet?
What is going to happen if we get our act together?
What is going to happen if we don't?
How long are we going to continue floating in this solar system?
What if nothing gets saved, including the Polar Bears and the Sperm Whales?
What if I never wake up?
What if I never win?
What if I never get saved?
What if Jesus never comes?
What if he does?
Did you have to think about breathing today?
Did you have to concentrate on pulling the right amount of nutrients out of the food you ate?
What if you are never fully understood?
What if you are never loved?
What if everyone is to busy becoming the hero of thier own stories to care about yours?

LOLLOLOLOLOLOLLOLOOL I love this! Blessed Insanity.

Let's do some more ....... again again (I am like totally jumping up and down)

What if I never get my chakras open wide enough?
Do I need to work more on my negative thoughts?
Do I need to focus more on my positive thoughts?
What if I'm a total bitch to my lover?
What if my lover leaves me?
What if I leave myself?
Why do I need to have so many questions?
What if I'd just shut the fuck up?
What if I was famous?
What if I had a dollar more than Paris Hilton?
What if I was the best at everything a person could be the best at?

LOL Do you have a stomache ache yet?

Following the minds resistence to simply being here is so very entertaining!! Until it's not.

Every question has the capacity to fall back into the answer.

An answer that means nothing. That is nothing. no thing.

There is this popular dream that one exists in this tight and cluttered moldy closet in the stuffy corner of a basement in the bottom of a house that is undergoing perpetual renovations!!!! A home that is appearing in a sky made of bricks and concrete in an atmosphere surrounded by suran wrap and duct tape. In a Universe that is stuck to the colonic walls of some judgemental celestial being that is in desperate need of a colonic. LOL

There is space here.

There is space here.

Measure it. Explore this spaciousness. Open up to it's limits and borders. Send out your etheric tentacles and see how far it goes. Where is the cieling, the shore, the bottom, the top, the other country, the them?

There is space here.

What are the qualities of this space?

Is it trying to do anything?

Is this space trying to be anything?

Is there effort in the essence of this space that is here?

Is this space judging you? Your hair? Your home? Your relationships? Your thoughts? Your status?

Is their acceptance here?

Does space not accept everything as it is right now?

Can you find a line that seperates space and acceptance?

In acceptance is their a welcoming?

An embrace?

Love?

Love is right where you are?

Check it out and see.

You, as this love, as this space, have full and complete capacity to rest in the isness of this moment.

This moment that is it's effortless spacious self regardless of what ever imgination is imagining.

Peace is here.

True peace regardless of the relative peace that is on the other side of the war coin.

There is space here.

Hello Self.

ASH

This ..

This that seems to ba a blog

on what seems to be a computer

observed by what seems to be a human ...

that is assumed to be "alive"

on what seems to be a planet

in what seems to be a galaxy

in what someone decided to call a Universe .......

This is nothing more and nothing les but this infinite moment loving and celebrating itself in infinite ways.

Yaaaaayyyy!!!

peace and carrots,

ASH

I'm sitting here watching the fingers do what they do. It's so wondrous to witness the power of mind in service to it's source. Harmony is an effortless flow of dancing stillness, where nothing matters cause there simply is no matter.



Peace is the reality of a mind that's open and receptive and doesn't believe any of it's stories. Peace is so present. Beyond creation, beyond affirmations, beyond any thought that may believe otherwise. The fullness of this alive spacious presence is here right now. This is the light that shines on all apparent separation revealing the sacred truth of No Thing At All. Just this. Just God. Just love. Just Here. Just Now.



I know you have full capacity to see this for your self, because you are consciousness. Are you conscious right now? Who is it that is aware? Does awareness go away? How do you "know" if you had a good nights sleep, or a bad nights sleep? How do you know that you are not aware? Awareness sees it Self even through this so called in animate screen. Hello.



The awareness that you are is unshakeable, ever present, unending, overflowing, Here Now before the body, after the body, and blessedly during any dream of a dreamer called a body. Are you aware you are awareness?



Awareness is the listener who shines with music.

The music that shines with silence.

The silence that shines with laughter.

The laughter that shines with wonder.

And the wonder that shines with a world of flower blossoms and tender sincere kisses.



Awareness is the clarity that sees through the densest non existent phenomena of the Universe, the "Me" which generates a them, a place, a time, A whole lot of enchiladas just to tell itself it is real. So innocent this allegiance to the I thought. And that's all you as someone alive somewhere ever was, will be and is ~ a blessed or not so blessed thought in the heart of God. And not even that. LOL



Freedom is free. Awareness is Aware. I Am That. I Am.

Namaste~

Ash

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The Inspiration behind "Time For Change"

Time for Change came through in such a beautiful way. I remember waking up one morning with this beat, lyrics and melody in my being. My body couldn't stop moving and the essence felt like this strong invitation to every aspect of society to step it up and set the example of peace and sustainability for the rest of the world. I still didn't have a chorus and that afternoon received a phone call from one of our managers to open up to the possibility of writing a song with the same theme I woke up with called Time for Change, and wahla the chorus came through. I was so excited to show the guys and watch the magic happen, as we all rest in our elements to let the arrangement unfold.


It's so easy to look out and say "you need to change" but that's a joke, we are all only seeing our own projections, our own thoughts, and interpretations. The true invitation is to see how this we call "War" happens in our own selves. Where and how do we resist life? What are we constantly judging? How is it that the effortless peace of this moment gets overlooked? Are we "hating" the "haters"? "Judging" the "judgers"? "Fighting" the "fighters"?

What is your experience?


Peace and carrots,
Ash