Good causes come in all sizes

I’ve always been interested in supporting good causes and bring whatever awareness I can to things I care about. For me, it’s important to help each other out and that includes large corporations or individual causes.

In regards to large organizations, I recently supported St. Jude’s Research Hospital with a donation to further promote research into child cancer. My mother being a breast cancer survivor, I want to give something back and to give to future generations who are going through something that took all of my mother’s willpower to overcome. When I see what she went through and I see children going through the same, I can’t help but feel absolute pride for their will and their attitude.

I recently did an effort to raise money to donate. When I tallied all royalties, I bumped up the amount and made a donation here. I'll attach my donation at the end of the post.

On previous occasions in my life, I’ve supported Amnesty International, Surfrider Foundation, the Nepal Relief Efforts, The Haiti Relief Efforts, Katrina Relief Efforts and several other institutions. I also support countless efforts by Change.org, SumOfUs.org and Avaaz.org because if we can help, we should, be it signing a petition or making a donation (time or money). I intend on further supporting different causes, although I also focus on individual causes.

In regards to individual causes, during the last year, I’ve supported cancer treatment for a patient who is a coworker's sister, donated money to contribute to a patient with ALS who is at risk of losing his home, to aid in the recovery of a professional bodyboarder and also in the case of a good friend who had a terrible car accident and couldn't cover her medical bills. I do this because individual causes are as important as large ones.

Recently, I supported a good friend because she has the dream to study in Ireland and lacks the means to do so. She wishes to study psychology because it was so vital in her life and she wants to give back, a sentiment I can totally relate to. It’s not every day you can help someone achieve their dream and I did my part to help out, because dreamers should be encouraged to dream, especially when it is for a worthy cause. If you’d like to read about her story and help a dreamer out, here’s the link.

To end this post, I’d like to thank you for reading me, for buying my books, for helping me support good causes and for caring. The more we care the better a chance we have to leave something worthwhile to future generations.

My thanks and my best to you, always.

Peace, love, and maki rolls.

JD

PS: Thanks to all who bought, donated directly and supported this cause.

A week of poems #6: Inertia

Resin turns to amber,

Water becomes ice,

Inertia drums like thunder,

lightning never strikes.

The anchor isn’t moving

And bottled spirit’s brewing.

What drags, weighs down,

and tears do ground.

Patience sours to anger,

Silence has its price.

Just help me with this anchor,

And raise sails to sky.

But silence is the sound,

That more than often’s found.

Instead inertia’s brooding,

And we end up déja-viewing.

A week of poems #4: Ring

Infinity dances in the ring.

On it a smile is etched.

Embedded in steel and love,

The ring turns ahead.

Twirl and spin

As it blurs from within.

A step here careens then yonder

As matters at hand one does ponder.

So with love in hand

With a dance and a twirl

I see a world of love

As the ring is awhirl.

 

A week of poems #3: Raise thy glass

The clarity of cut glass.

The shield of my vision,

A pen in hand, a cutlass,

I wield with purpose and a mission.

I slice through paper,

With my finely sharpened sabre.

The dragon of the white valley,

Falls prey to an inspired volley.

Launch the nouns,

Send the verbs,

Ambushed thoughts...

Release the words....

RELEASE THE WORDS!!!

Slash and stab

Cut and maim,

These words are sent with deadly aim.

The valley is ours,

It says so on paper.

Victory is clear,

Now I’ll sheathe for later.

The victory of failure

In life, some people fail. It’s a fact that it happens… yet in their failure is victory. It means they didn’t leave things to chance, they didn’t wonder, they went for it and in life, many of the biggest victors have had to swallow the bitter pill that is failure.

A while back I read a blog post that got me to thinking about failure and how we fear it. In essence though, the worst failure anyone can ever have is to never try. This isn’t some new found knowledge, it’s stuff we know yet once in a while we need a reminder that it’s not only OK to fail, it’s actually a great thing because you realize that many failures are not as bad as you worried about.

As humans, we do a marvelous job at imagining the worst and making things out to be endlessly more tragic than they are. Take for instance scary movies… the ones that truly scare me are the ones that don’t fill out the blanks and don’t show me the monster, instead leaving it to my own devices to imagine the worst. Failure is the same. Instead of being a five-headed leviathan, it is just a series of events, they are just things that happen and the fear of failure is often paralyzing enough to not even try.

As a surfer, I’ve learned many lessons in life and one of them is that if you don’t try, you’ll never progress. If I’d never tried an Air Roll Spin or a backflip for fear of failure, I never would have landed one, or dozens as I have. If I didn’t take off on a shady ledge, I wouldn’t have gotten some of the better barrels in my life, and just because I tried and gave myself the chance. Sure, sometimes you get a closeout and you also tag the reef, the thing is that the reward is definitely worth the risk.

The other thing that people fear about failure is public opinion and bully tactics. If you fail, people will make fun of you… I can understand fearing this because no one wants to be the fool… still, if you never try, if you never give yourself the chance to fail, you are also never giving yourself the chance to succeed and prove those people wrong. 

You have to realize, oftentimes, life rewards those who fail and persevere and it leaves alone all those who wonder. So here’s to the fire of failure to come upon us, forge our steel and let us carve our success.

Peace, love and maki rolls

A week of poems #1: Smoke and glass

Emanation imagination,

I see half blind.

Eyes rest in laurels,

While the glass keeps smoke at bay.

I can see clearly that I cannot see.

Blurred and fogged,

Lost and found,

Magnified and enhanced.

The balance of smoke trembles,

Wherever it wants it will go.

For a second its thoughts are jumbled,

Before deciding to rise like soul.