420

Santa Cruz 4/20 celebration at Porter Meadow on UCSC campus.



Every year for I don’t know how long marijuana smokers have celebrated the time 4:20 and the dat 4/20 as a sacred celebration celebrating the fact that no matter what anyone says, no matter what the law is, we will practice our God given right to enjoy the blessed benefits of this wonderful plant. Now I am not going to go into all of the wonderful benefits of this plant, or it’s beauty and why I feel it is so beneficial to society on so many fronts, not today, if you want the hard cold facts about the facts, visit my friends online Hemp Museum @ www.ushempco.com and buy yourself a surf board too, they rock! This blog entry is about the most exciting and free 4/20 I have ever had and I have decided to share it with you.
On April 20th 2008 I was in the county of which I reside in Northern California, Santa Cruz County and let me tell you it was one to remember. You see, this part of the country is the forefront of the rebellion against a drug war against marijuana that is outdated, overpriced, oppressive and neglects the many benefits of this plant and they CELEBRATE 4:20 here. I am blessed to be in a part of the country where at least in some form the people have let freedom ring. Marijuana is legal for medicinal purposes and there are A LOT of purposes and marijuana is last on the list of the police priority here, it is truly a community affair. If you have less than 100 plants and a Medicinal License, you are not going to be bothered by the locals and on 4/20 I became aware of how serious or not serious it is here.
On 4/20 I woke to go to a buddy of mines house where many other friends had assembled with extremely large quantities of herb, the plan was to head to the U.C.S.C. campus where 1000's of students were to assemble and just blaze ridiculous amounts of pot, you may have read about this event in “Rolling Stone” magazine or in “High Times”. Everyone was talking about how exciting this would be to be in this huge cloud of smoke, sounded fun, to me it sounded like a Cypress Hill concert without a band. I had better ideas, my friends, Carlos and Patience from the band “The Omega Project” were playing downtown, in the street, for a celebration for W.A.M.M. “The Womans and Men Alliance for Medical Marijuana. Upon arrival I was in awe at the tents and the banners, the stage and the costumes as people set up in the middle of downtown to celebrate 420, there was not a police officer in sight. Now this is a big deal, this is downtown, loud, lots of people. I was stoked.
As we arrived my friends began to set up their equipment and we met with some friends, I had already smoked a bunch of pot, but everyone was pumped about 420. To be honest, I didn’t know what was going to happen, I had never witnessed or took part in anything like I was about to. We soon walked over to a friends club where a variety of marijuana is available and we all began to roll various exotic buds. Joint, after joint after joint. I began to realize that something great was about to happen. As the clock ticked, we smoked and soon 4pm neared. We walked back to the festival and many, many people had assembled. Their were poets on the mic and every so often a woman would get on stage and we screamed things like “Peace” and “Freedom” as the clock ticked down we began to count down with the woman over the blaring speakers and silently we all sat down on the ground and everyone pulled out joints, their were hundreds. At the striking of 4:20 we all lit and hundreds of people began passing joints, this would go on nonstop for the rest of the evening.
Omega Project put on a show to make me proud that day. I didn’t to much talking there was so much art and peace. People sharing all over with smiles on their face. The streets were filled with folk music and people all about the town freely walked about smoking. I was in awe, but happy as I watched a boy in a wheelchair paralyzed wheel by with a big smile, “wanna get high”. What a great day for America and what a great day for me. I felt like I had climbed over a huge wall and my community had my back. Wonderful! What a memorable day, beautiful women and people in general all around us, so much see and listen to. I was grateful for my home and proud of where I was.
Now, this is a stoner story, it was all about fun for me, but it was more, it was all about freedom, it was all about the freedom we deserve and the right we should have to peacefully share in this medicinal plant. This is a plant that can solve many of our problems, from fuel to paper to medicine it is endless the proven facts about the benefits of marijuana and people still think in such a close minded way about this amazing plant, this miracle plant that God has given us. Please, don’t judge other people take the time to check out the hemp museum at www.ushempco.com and research the facts, it’s time we stop listening to what our government and our churches teach us all of the time and find out for ourselves.

~Grow.
Tilly

Mistakes

When it comes to mistakes, I sure have made more than my fair share. I’m not going to go into details about the mistakes that I have made, but we are human beings and our path’s sort of shape us in a way and there are plenty of things about my past, even about yesterday that I am not proud of, but I keep on keeping on.

There was a tine in my life where my life was tumultuous I made mistake after mistake, often on purpose and usually those mistakes effect the people closest to me, sometimes more than they effected myself. At times I would feel so alone because of the ditch I put between the people closest to me and I began to act out in a way that would push people away, in order to ease my conscience a bit for the hurt that I would cause. What a horrible way to live!
These days I have focused more on myself and less on the past and the horrible things that have happened to me and I can say that while I still make huge mistakes, they effect less people and most of the time I bear the brunt of my own shortfallings and the people close to me pay less. I have put a lot of space between myself and the people closest to me, temporarily, for that reason. I am rebuilding Tilly.
I have learned that one of the single most problems in the past was that once a mistake was made, I would dwell on that mistake and self loathe and blame others and myself for days and would spend an extensive time in depression, which created a snowball effect causing to make more erratic and more frequent mistakes, causing more problems and creating a deep unhappiness and dissatisfaction within myself. The single best lesson I have learned from all this is a lesson taught Religion every day and that lesson is to let go.
Sometimes I feel that people mike think I lack remorse these days, because I may appear to be unapologetic or selfish in my ways, I have learned to let go of my past as quickly as it becomes the past and that has truly allowed me to make less mistakes and to be a more happy and centered person. I have realized that is why Religion works so well for people, Religion allows for closure and the unconditional forgiveness from God or the Universe being acknowledged in our lives allows us to let go and move on, this is a MAJOR key to happiness in life.
All that we have in our lives is our ability to focus on the present moment and live this NOW in the best way that we can, experiencing the moment and continuing to strive to make our present and our future better. We should express our apologies to the people who our actions may have hurt and we should defiantly apologize to the Universe and ourselves, acknowledging our fallings, but after that happens, all we have is the moment and if we dwell on our mistakes we only create more mistakes and we are not moving forward and growing as people. A plant that is not growing is dying and a growing one is a healthy one and I have chosen the path of growth. That has made me an increasingly happier person. For those of you out there that I have hurt in the past, or who have been effected by my mistakes, I would like you to know that I am sorry and would also like to let you know that while I regret the effects that these mistakes have had on you in the past, I do not regret the mistakes, for without making those mistakes I would not be as happy of a person as I am today.

One Love!

~tilly