THE MATCH DEPT

I'm a decent guy with amazing luck, though I don't win raffles. I make my own ice cream, as well as a mean pumpkin bread. I go through waves of addiction to salsa dancing. I write letters in my head to my friends, then forget and think I've sent them. I sometimes daydream about eliminating malaria. I love the warm sweetness in the wind just before a thunderstorm. I believe that City Bakery chocolate chip cookies have deliciously positive effects on mental health.

I have many layers, and my yoga practice is gently awakening them to each other. I have a mysterious gift for attracting eccentrics and setting them at ease. I have a sunny outlook, though I often find great beauty in sadness. I believe dogs are divine - spelling dog backwards is the first clue. Adventure stirs my soul, but the simple moments bring quiet and nourishment. Poetry envelops me, even while checking the mail.

My life is my art. Opportunities appear everyday and I am blessed to hop aboard for the ride. Once many moons ago, I was two days by camel from Timbuktu. A chief in the Dogon derailed my voyage by challenging me to a wrestling match. I talked him into a dance contest instead ... oh the laughs!!! Soon the entire village was dancing in the sand. Tell me, do you get down on your knees in awe at such moments?

Spiritually speaking, I feel like I’ve finally found my center, and it weighs about 20 pounds more than it did in college:) While friends describe me as the salt of the earth, I prefer to think of myself as the sugar of the earth. I add sweetness to life.

I am less concerned with being right than with finding peace and understanding. Sometimes it's best to agree to disagree. Each of us sees the world through our own lens and it's far more worthwhile to honor another person's experience and feelings than it is to deny, even if we see things differently. Kindness is the key, and forgiveness is the way forward into the gift of grace.

I've learned that the pain I feel is the breaking of the shell that encloses me and that wisdom comes in part through having the courage to reflect on the suffering we experience. With focus, I’m kicking out the critics sitting fat and happy in the balcony of my mind. After all, it’s my play, and I have a lifetime run.

I am curious about myself and the world. Is awareness the key to eudomania, or is ignorance bliss? Too bad Croesus is not around to Tellus. While we may look to Athens and beyond in search of answers, lets live out the questions together as Rilke councils. I think we humans can flourish, and it starts with our hearts and ... ends when we’re friends? Well, rhymes aside, it may take a little more than that, a silver lining perhaps? – a dash of poetry too.

I do not believe in games, but there is one game we should play and it goes like this: We hold hands and look into each other’s eyes and scan each other’s face. Then I say, “Now tell me a difference you see between us.” And you might respond, “Weston, your nose is ten times bigger than mine!” Then I would say, “Yes, my dear, at least ten times!” But let’s keep playing. Let’s go deeper, Go deeper. For if we do, our spirits will embrace and interweave. Our union will be so glorious that even God will not be able to tell us apart. There is a wonderful game we should play with everyone and it goes like this...

I look to water for guidance - forever flowing, without judgment, constantly cleansing and enriching everything it touches.

Most of all, I am grateful – for the opportunity to be here, to learn and grow and connect, and sometimes to simply bow to the mystery of it all.

As I lift up my signpost to the universe, I raise a toast to the song of the open road - to the infinite trees and leaping skies of life.