We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog, Magical Rome, to bring you Life on Life's terms. Inspired by my hike.

Hiking is where I go center myself and get in touch with all that I believe in. It is there in the beautiful hills of Runyon that I planned out The Art of Being and received guidance and encouragement from God and the universe to go forth. Same thing happened when it came time to do The Experimental Witch. In the beautiful surroundings of those hills I find myself in awe of just how mysterious and beautiful life is. I see it in the birds that fly above at just the precise moment, the butterfly that appears on cue to let me know a particular metamorphisis has come to an end and it's time to fly, and the trees whose roots, heights and width amaze me upon entering. This is where I came up with my birthday dinner for this year. An homage to my friends aka LA family I have chosen to call "A grateful for you & being alive 33rd bday dinner." So I went in search of a picture to express this on google images and received an amazing result. Take a look.

I fell so in love with this picture it became my profile picture on twitter, facebook, and blogger.

While I hiked this morning I felt such a sense of overwhelming gratitude because of how full my life truly is. It made me think about how true it has proven to be for me that what you believe is what you create. Sure there will always be circumstances that are out of my control but for the most part when I believe something with all my heart and soul I manifest it but the magical thing is the universe prompted by God help the manifestation of it be a thousand times more than what I dreamed! Something my beautiful friend Sheri Magid reminded me of last night in a conversation. She has known me for thirteen years and was telling me how much she appreciates what I manifest and in the process helped me grow in gratitude, love you Sher! Which is why this morning I stood at my usual place on my hike and conversed with God and the universe my gratitude prayer was pretty long. I expressed gratitude for every ounce of my being from my toes to my heart to my breath to what I get to live. I went on for quite a while all while listening to the usual,A thousand roads from A thousand roads soundtrack
, which also happens to be the song I dance to at the end of the film below not what you hear onscreen. It was Lisa Gerrard's work from a film called A Thousand Roads so we couldn't use it.


As I finished my prayer turned away from the edge of the cliff and the sun I saw her. She couldn't have been more than fifteen and she was taking her walk. Her beautiful bald head gave away what such a young soul has been through already. As I approached her she seemed pretty healthy and as she passed me I sent her all my love and envisioned myself hugging her. As if on cue, no coincidence, a beautiful bird flew above us while showcasing the half exposed moon between two streaks of clouds. It was truly breathtaking and I knew God was letting me know it/he/she had it. I picture God to be nothing but LOVE so I knew this was God simply reminding me that it is always present even when it appears to not be the case.

Then the songs on my ipod began to remind me of all I've been through and all we all go through, the tie that binds us together which we can't escape being human and what I like to call Life on Life's terms. For me one of the few certainties of life is that it will happen on its terms and the only thing that truly matters is how we react to what happens. So as Heart of the Matter by India Arie came on I thought about how a year ago I was told by the man I thought to be my soul mate that he was now married and living in LA. A year later we are both showcasing our film's at film festivals and the universe has not crossed our paths and for that I am grateful. I am thrilled to be in a place a year later where I can see how he is doing and have fond memories of my former ally. The man whose belief in me prompted to go forth and create great things as he told me he awaited them from me and I from him. I am happy to report that as I was in Rome he was winning an award from a film festival for best director for his debut feature, so the universe may no longer cross our paths but we have both gone on to continue to bring to fruition what we shared with eachother. That brings me more happiness then having him in my life the way I used to could. My point being that no matter what we all go through time truly heals all wounds and reveals their purpose. WIth patience we are able to see this at least I truly have. ;-)

I may never know what her wound's purpose was but I trust that she will be taken care of and guided on her journey. I trust all of us are! I don't think we can ever keep eachother from our journey's and experiencing life on life's terms. The most we can do is offer a listening ear. Something I've seen is very hard to do since we usually want to see those we love happy therefore we try to fix but most of the time I've come to understand listening makes someone feel seen not fixing. It takes from the person's journey, its lessons, and their growth. So whatever her name is and no matter how heartbreaking it was for me to see her head that way I trust she will gain some amazing lessons from life on life's terms.

Life's lessons have given me the HUGE blessing of comprehending that humanity is equality! Something I believe so strongly I had a shirt made which I wore to my hike this morning.

It's interesting to see people's faces when they read it. They range from I don't get it....

to beautiful smiles...look closely....as I took this image from google I saw it came from here, http://teamsuperforest.org/superforest/, pretty cool! Have to make time to read up on them. I really do!


What it means to me is that up there on those hikes no one is their job, car, or posessions because they only have themselves, their ipod and their pets with them. So my tshirt serves as a reminder or a planting of the seed for a thought they have never had. However for me this is my everyday life. My friends range from being CEO's of production companies to being bus boys because I see their souls and accept them for who they are. Oh and in the words of my friend Jennifer Marie, when people show you who they are trust them and I'll add have compassion for everyone is on their very own journey. My friend Delfino is just truly one of a kind! In all my years of sitting at that same corner in that restaurant in Malibu he has seen me through more than some people whose lives maintain them busy so they can gain in life but not experience life. Meet Delfino, shy Delfino. Careful if I ever get you on my flip you may end up on my blog. ;-)


YET no matter what anyone tells you or tries to sell you WE ARE ALL EQUAL UNIQUE INDIVIDUALS and in my view of the world here to help eachother live life on life's terms and that means also celebrating in eachother's triumphs. I hope you give yourself the opportunity in life to see people for who they are and revel in their beauty never forgetting that HUMANITY IS EQUALITY and that where you stand can change at any given moment and you may need someone's help someday so keep that in mind and be kind, be kind, be kind. People never forget kindess and long to forget meaness.

I feel compelled to share my God saying today believing one of you needs to hear it. "God wants you to know that how bad things may look right now means nothing, it's how good they can be with God's help that counts." In the words of one of my blessings from this blog Leah, Massallah! Which means go forth with God and may I add in LOVE for life, the universe, yourself, and others no matter what life on life's terms sends you because if you have lived life with the treat others as you you wish to be treated way you shall be able to turn in all directions and see a friend ready to hold your hand or let you rest your tired head on their shoulder. All of those people will be joining me on the 29th to celebrate LIFE in immense gratitude!