N I E L L E

Nothing can be real if it cannot be conceptualized, articulated, and shared.

[nielleekat]

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Looking through some old notes from 2011. Don't remember exactly what I was working on but it makes me smile knowing I'm continuing the work. #workingforchange #community #climatechange #peoplepower #weareoneworld #baduknows

[nielleekat]

Every damn day. This work is constant. This work is necessary. #reclaimyourpower #healyourself #liberateyourmind #rza #thetaoofwu #therevolutionwillnotbetelevised

[nielleekat]

Ain't no thing like a community thing💚 The hugs I received after each bodywork session were everything😊Thanks again @earth_arts_center and @herban.cura for putting this together! Excited to connect and collaborate again soon 🙏🏽 #communityiseverything #highvibrations #revolutionarylove #healingcommunity (at Earth Arts Center)

[nielleekat]

Amidst giants in BK. #rp @kirbydominant @weindependent good times, no surprises lol #peace & #whiskey

[nielleekat]

What if money was no object? - Alan Watts

Do what you desire. Go against the grain. Live. 

"The biggest risk in life is never taking any risks at all." - Barfi!

[nielleekat]

[photo : Palawan, Philippines]

“To be flung into the sea, to be washed hither and thither, and driven about the roots of the world — the idea was incoherently delightful.”

- Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out

[nielleekat]

[photo : Siliguri, India]

A poem. And my way of diluting something potentially nauseatingly sappy.

The Little Brown Girl

There once was a little brown girl who never cried

She fought the urge, to her heart she always lied

Her emotions she pushed and would deny

When it was too much she would run, she would hide

Fear and loss, sorrow and pain

Did not exist until her midnight plane

To the East she flew to sand and sea

Then to the mountains just to be

Her third eye open, heart unlocked

First chakra grounded, like a rock

The tears came daily, morning and night

Emotions so strong, was useless to fight

Risks, changes and chances

Awareness of signs and second glances

With every sunrise and sunset, the tears fell

Endless oceans distant mountains, her heart would tell

For she realized her tears had been saved

For a time when peace, love and understanding came

So now by her heart she will abide

The little brown girl, finally cried.

By Me

[true story]

Dedicated to Liza, Ari and Krissy. Lovely and kind, hard and stubborn by blood... we have emotions, I swear! 

[thepeoplesrecord]

i believe in living. i believe in the spectrum of Beta days and Gamma people. i believe in sunshine. In windmills and waterfalls, tricycles and rocking chairs; And i believe that seeds grow into sprouts. And sprouts grow into trees. i believe in the magic of the hands. And in the wisdom of the eyes. i believe in rain and tears. And in the blood of infinity. i believe in life. And i have seen the death parade march through the torso of the earth, sculpting mud bodies in its path i have seen the destruction of the daylight and seen bloodthirsty maggots prayed to and saluted i have seen the kind become the blind and the blind become the bind in one easy lesson. i have walked on cut grass. i have eaten crow and blunder bread and breathed the stench of indifference i have been locked by the lawless. Handcuffed by the haters. Gagged by the greedy. And, if i know anything at all, it’s that a wall is just a wall and nothing more at all. It can be broken down. i believe in living i believe in birth. i believe in the sweat of love and in the fire of truth. And i believe that a lost ship, steered by tired, seasick sailors, can still be guided home to port.

i believe in living by Assata Shakur

The first time I read this, I cried like a baby. Earlier this week Assata Shakur became the first woman ever to be named on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terror List. Additionally, they’ve placed billboards to try & hunt this beautiful human down, all around New Jersey, offering $2 million dollars for her capture,

(via thepeoplesrecord)

[nielleekat]

Shackles to Flip Flops. Then Barefoot. 

An unintentional tumblr hiatus. And an intentional journey with a lot of unintentional stuff.

To sum up the past few months... said goodbye to the 9-5, bought a plane ticket (Philippines bound), and now I'm in the mountains (the Himalayas to be exact).

I had every intention to write, record, scribble, anything or everything as I hopped on a plane and walked my little feet over to the motherland. Maybe during my morning coffee I'd reflect on how I opened a coconut with a machete the day before, or during my afternoon San Miguel I'd quickly jot down how I had balut for the first time (AND loved it). But picking up a pen or turning on my computer... they didn't exist where I was. Where I was being... happy, content, and in the present moment.

I wanted to memorize everything. How the smell of fresh Pandesal and Pan de Coco compelled me to close my eyes and blissfully sigh. How the breeze blew the smell of fresh salt water into my tent before sunrise every morning. I wanted to not only remember the conversations had at dinners on the beach, but also the timely jokes, the distinct laughs of my new friends, and their often animated gestures.  

A statement I later heard in my Yoga Philosophy class, "be in the moment and appreciate it, you will never be there again," I was already subconsciously practicing. We let our minds wander so often that these once in a lifetime moments are over before we've even begun to be grateful for them. I was grateful for every second from the moment I stepped onto that plane. And I wanted to carry that sentiment with me everyday.

Currently still in the moment, I'm also at the part of my journey where I want to reflect. And also, I currently reside in an ashram sooo, reflection's kind of a big thing here.

So as the birth of this tumblr and entries that followed have been my guide from shackles to flip flops, my coming reflections of the past few months and words of present time will navigate me hereafter.

The route, undecided. Destination, unknown. Happiness, acquired.

http://instagram.com/nielleekat

[photo above: Palawan, Philippines]

[betype]

Decide

[nielleekat]

yes

[supersonicart]

Dominant Species by ROA.

This is a short video about the work of street artist ROA and it’s fascinating.  (via Vandalog.)

[nielleekat]

Watch. Or, panoorin. (trying to brush up on my tagalog)

[nielleekat]

Breathing 101

“The ancient yogis discovered that the secret of cosmic consciousness is intimately linked with breath mastery. This is India’s unique and deathless contribution to the world’s treasury of knowledge. The life force, which is ordinarily absorbed in maintaining heart action, must be freed for higher activities by a method of calming and stilling the ceaseless demands of the breath.”

–  Sri Yukteswar, as quoted by Paramahansa Yogananda in “Autobiography Of A Yogi” (1946), pg. 278-279

∆

I relearn this with every practice... not only to guide me through my movements, but to disconnect from noise, and to reconnect, center, and focus. My breath walks me out of anxiety and eases me through frustration. At that moment of reconnection, nothing else matters. And somehow, afterwards... it's all good. To my breath,

Maraming salamat.

D

[nielleekat]

“A dream is a poem the body writes. Even if we lie to ourselves in the day, the body is compelled to speak its truth at night.”

- Sandra Cisneros, Caramelo

[nielleekat]

Live by intuition and consciousness.

- this morning's cup of tea

[nielleekat]

The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created--created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination.

- John Schaar

[nielleekat]

Because the night belongs to us.

10.7.12. A long weekend in SF.

Patti Smith. Blue Grass Festival. Golden Gate Park. 

[nielleekat]

Rishikesh, India. The Gateway to the Himalayas. To be mi casa.

"The world would have you agree with its dismal dream of limitation. But the light would have you soar like the eagle of your sacred visions." 

- Alan Cohen