Carpe Diem! Seize the day, lads! Make your lives extraordinary!

A traveler came to the gates of a new city and asked the gatekeeper, “What kind of people live here?” The gatekeeper answered with a question of his own, “What kind of people lived in the city you came from?” The traveler replied, “They were mostly a cantankerous lot, greedy and self-centered.” The gatekeeper answer, “I expect you will find the people here just the same.” Soon after, another traveler met the gatekeeper and asked the same question. Again the gatekeeper asked, “How did you find the residents of the city you visited last?” The traveler answered enthusiastically, “They were warn and hospitable, truly a fine group of people.” The gatekeeper responded, “I expect you to find these folk just the same.”

For many years I was afraid (yes, afraid) of going to the Pines at Fire Island. I expected a nonstop party scene, drugs and alcohol. My friends kept on telling me that “Fire Island is what you make of it.” Last summer and this summer I learned that truth. I have been lucky to spend my days in Fire Island in the company of good friends, honest people, great yogis and remarkable personalities. I get to be close to Mother Earth, eat her offerings made by my company and not some stranger in a restaurant, practice Ashtanga Yoga in the company of great practitioners, discover over and over again how amazing, kind and smart my younger brother Amos is. And also see old loves, or people I might have felt anger to in the past, to them I come with a clean, simple and calm slate.

“Being present does not imply that we erase our past and the impact it has had upon us. Being present invites us to allow the memories and the stories rooted in the past to be just whispers in our minds that we no longer solidify with unwise attention. We free ourselves to turn a whole-hearted attention to this moment.”
--Buddhist Path to Simplicity

“Carpe Diem” Or “Seize the day” is not only “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” is it also Live This Day Like Never Before. See each day as an opportunity to re-experience the world we live in, you might find it more beautiful then you have expected.





































Photos by the wonderful person