Just a day in the life of Tilly~~

Yesterday I failed to write. Lately I had been writing every day for my blog and yesterday I neglected you. Well, to hell with you...I also had hardly any hits yesterday. As we know lately I am living life very simply. It’s quite funny how I talk to my friends and they inform me that they feel bad for me, like I am “going through” something because I am living an unorthodox lifestyle and on “the road less traveled”. I just want everyone to know that I am completely happy. As a matter of fact. I am having the time of my life.

When I tell people that I am living simply, I mean I am living simply. I really am living on under ten bucks a day and it is great!! I am in one of the most expensive places in America and I am living a whole and free life. So, in order to ease your pains and worries about how I am living, I am gonna write about yesterday and only yesterday, just one day in my life, one day in my adventure.

Yesterday I woke up at 5 am, as I usually do these days. I woke up to the radiance of the rising sun and I woke up content and happy. First thing I did, the first task of my day was very simple. I walked over to a lifeguard stand on Santa Monica Beach and I sat for some silent meditation to start my day. After some relaxing meditation ass the day started to warm and the rake and metal detectors hit the beach, I wandered off for a hot shower and a shave.

What a great life and a great world, I took a hot shower first thing in the morning and then set out to do my exercises. Why shower before exercising??? It will be hot later and I aimed to cool off in the Pacific of course. I wandered away from the pier and over to “Muscle Beach”(click here). For those of you who are not familiar with L.A. and Santa Monica, “Muscle Beach” consists of rings to swing on, bars to exercise and swing all on. A perfect resource for working out and I took advantage of it dips, and push-ups etc. I swallowed 4 hard boiled eggs and an “Odwalla”(click here) bar PROTEIN!!!, I think I must of drank like 2 of those Protein smoothie’s too! I like the chocolate banana.

I sure wear myself out, I walked onto the beach smoking a bowl of some __not so great__ pot and I was happy. To the beach I walked, dropped my towel and walked right into the water....ah the cool Pacific. When I got out of the water 3 girls wearing backpacks walked up and brought me a free Redbull (click here). Perfect timing if I do say so myself. I lay down for an hour nap and some sun. What a life.

After a relaxing nap and some social time with some new friends I went to the office, my favorite coffee shop on Santa Monica where I pounded out words, answered emails and sent out head shots around town. I am really trying to be on the TV show “Deal or No Deal”. That would be RAD!!! Well, I spent about 3 hours there, I usually do and then I bounced on up the street to the “Santa Monica” Library. I spent another good four hours in the library reading “The Poems of Dylan Thomas">(click here) and “Jack Kerouac - Novelist of the Beat Generation”(click here) I also read random excerpts like I do every day from “The Basic Teachings of the Buddha” after study time ( I do this every day” ) I went over to the grocery store where I bought my food for the day, a salad with steak, a sandwich with mozzarella and tomato, some granola bars and a vitamin water. I picked up “Pop Tarts” but I put them back as they are bulky and don’t fit in my pack well and I traded them for a couple more granola bars. I try to be as healthy as I can. It was getting dark so I began my 7 block trek back to the beach.

As I arrived at the beach I saw a few friends sitting in the park in the front. We sat and shared a joint and looked at this guys art for a second, enjoying the always perfect SoCal air and sunshine...a stupid cop on a bike came up to us and demanded that we not drink in the park and lectured us for what seemed like an hour about park drinking. I smile and as always these days was courteous and I picked up any litter around me and walked toward the beach where I would randomly pick up a little crap here and there and toss it into the trash. People are a lot dirtier around here than they are in the Northwest, I guess they are just tourists. Well, the earth takes good care of me, so I take good care of the earth and I try to clean up any plastics and things like that which may hurt our eco-system.

Crowds began to spill on the beach and a giant screen was rolled out onto the beach. Redbull was having an event on the beach where a dirt biker was going to break a world record on the pier. He was to jump straight up a quarter pipe over the Ferris wheel to 59 feet, but before all that, from a perfect seat on the beach I was able to watch 4 guys jump out of a helicopter and one by one glide from way up in the sky onto the Santa Monica Pier. Amazing! After a plane did some spins across the sky a dirt bike kicked up and up once, up twice....the fourth time 59 feet was hit. A world record, it was amazing. Regretfully I didn’t get a picture of the feat because my camera died. I did, however, get a picture of the ramp (though not a good one) for all of you to see! I was thinking about my readers the whole time.





By now the sun had set and I am not really partying these days, I am trying to maintain my focus, so I went over to the “Chess” park where old me were enjoying one last game of chess before the night truly began and I got into the “lotus” position, looked out at the beach for my final meditation. Yesterday, to me was a perfect day, as is today and after watching a man call the birds out of the sky to his balcony and hold them I set out for sleep. An early bedtime, lately I am very excited for the next day to begin. This is the greatest time of my life where I am able to learn and get fit and become more healthy. God is good to me, God will be good to anyone no matter how they view him/her as long as they release all manufactured thoughts and worries and trust in the pureness of being. Life takes care of us more and more the more we better ourselves and maintain faith in being!

So that was one day, life is good to me, I am truly blessed. Every day is different, especially if you are Tilly, but believe that most days are just as exciting for me!! Be selfless and always give and life will give to you. Let’s be thankful for what we have and for what we are able to do, do those things and do everything with love in a peaceful and cheerful way.

~~one love

~tillford

Finding peace in strange places

The challenge is this. No matter what it is that happens in your life, to quell your feelings, to quell your emotions, to quiet your mind and achieve true peace and inner happiness. No matter what religion, what nation, what your creed, everyone has the same basic desire, inner peace. The funny part about inner peace is that so many people go outside their body searching for this thing. Whether it be through churches or drugs or other habits, the majority of people seem to want some outside force to give them peace. I think that is the biggest problem in the world today causing wars and most of the chaos in our lives today.

The simplest and easiest way to find your peace is quite simple. Stop looking for it. Stop reacting to your feelings and your mind. When you feel angry, identify that anger and tell yourself “I am angry” and then let go of it. If you are feeling a certain feeling, acknowledge the feeling, acknowledge the root of the feeling and then release it. Every religion its simplest of forms teaches a person to just let go of negativity, let it roll off, you are forgiven for yesterday and today is a new day. Having a bad day? That bad day could easily turn out the best day of your life, if only you identify the negative feelings, the cause and then release.

There are many ways to release negativity from your life. Some give it up to God, others meditate them away and then others just forget about it. No matter what our way, we mut learn to always accept the situations that we are in as OUR situation and these situations define our unique path in life. Often in life I have been heard saying “I am off of my path” or “I fell off of my path”. I have come to realize that I am NEVER off of my path. It is my path that brought me where I am today and everything in my life is and always has been divinely important, unique, and divinely my own. Blessed and privileged I am to have made the mistakes that I have made, for those mistakes brought me to where I am now and I have grown and am more complete due to those choices. Whatever choice that is chosen in life, is YOUR choice and no matter how bad or how painfully negative those choices may seem at the time, they are YOUR choices and they define YOU! If you are living your life with good intentions and are striving to be kind and always growing into a better individual, those same bad choices will ultimately be the best decisions of your life. Those choices are unique in that they are your own. Make your choices with confidence!!

No matter what happens, if you can muster up the faith to realize that everything is divine and perfect, you will find true happiness and success in the most important areas of life. For me, it takes simplifying my life to almost nothing. Only you know what it will take for you to succeed.

~most of all

Love each other!!

~~tilly

21st Century Beatniks

21st century Beatniks are emerging again and I hope to help inspire a resurrection of the BEAT.

What is a modern day BEAT??

A modern day beatnik is a musician, an artist a poet who is not constricted by the binds of societies chains. We don't need television and we care about our planet. We are hip hop and jazz, country and blues we are not pop. We enjoy talking and communicating rather than listening to our IPOD. We enjoy creating and we find ways to create whenever possible. We are not snobs and do not think we are better than anyone else. A 21st century beatnik embraces all music and is not bound by one style. Some of us sleep in a house and others in a bag in the mountains. There is usually someone with a guitar around. We are driven by our dreams and refuse to accept any less. We are generally happy people and we don't litter. We trust life and are confident doing the things we love and accepting whatever our talents may provide for us.

We don't believe the world is getting worse, on the contrary, we believe it is getting better. We are original and we do not hold to the past or dwell on the future. We focus on the moment and do the best we can NOW, in this moment, enjoying today at all times. We embrace failure and accept it as a factor in the growth process. We believe in magic. We are comfortable in the dirtiest of places and we share with everyone we can. We are intelligent and kind and there is usually a smile on our faces!

Last night I spent the entire night on the beach talking with friends about how genuinely happy we are to be doing the things we love! When people turn up there noses to us we smile and offer kind words, and sometimes we trip them and tell them to fuck off! Some of us have been on TV and others have been published and books, some are on your mp3 players. We enjoy all of the things that the wealthy do, yet we pay far less for that experience.

So many people want to do the things that a modern day beatnik does. Drop off of the grid and live off the land with the critters, yet many are afraid to do so! Not everyone who is not "beat" is unhappy, but a lot are.

We are confident but are not cocky, kind but not weak and no matter how old we are we are young! We are the opitomy of street, but we are educated! We know how to survive in the most difficult situations and flourish and we are a growing number around the U.S.

There was once a time in history where people were discovered dirty and struggling on the streets of Hollywood, New Orleans and the Village in Manhattan. Nowadays it seems that most of the people performing on the streets are only interested in getting some change for a beer and not in sharpening their skills. A long time has passed since Jack Kerouac was on the cover of "Vanity Fair" but beware!! We are focused and we are having fun and we are not buckling to the pressures of society. There is a coming together of like minds in our culture right now. We are the people who will be the leaders of tomorrow and we are young, we are wired and we are motivated.

Judge us if you would like, turn up your nose when we walk down your streets with our smiles and the tools of our craft! While your life is flying by, every day is an adventure to us and we do not really on YOU or on STUFF for our happiness! We are truly happy.

We are BEAT!

~~~~ 1 Love

~~~~~~tilly

Happy Birthday Patience!

First thing first I want to say Happy Birthday to my friend Patience of "The Omega Project". I became friends with Patience in New Orleans and I regret not being able to be there for his birthday as he was there and very supportive for mine. Patience, you have become one of my best friends BIGGU BIGGU! If you haven't been able to hear Patience perform he plays @ Fusion in Pearls Alley, Downtown Santa Cruz, California every Thursday night @ 10 PM! Go there!!

Now, I have little to say today, I am quite busy, I have a few auditions and seminars to go to this week and I must plan my week accordingly. It is convenient that I am a beatnik because it allows me to have the time and the freedom in my schedule to make these appointments and actually keep them! Not only to I have that, but I also have made some wonderfully talented friends already, YEP, you guessed it...a new crew is forming consisting of song writers and musicians and oh, just a young Bob Dylan who is 19 years old and insanely talented...I found him sleeping on the beach and wow...talent he has.

So time is ticking I am really learning patience and learning that there is not much that I can control...yet I control everything!


NEW LINK:

I have posted a new link on my blog in my links section in the right column. I would absolutely LOVE it if you would check out these links. Most of them are links to people who have been very influential in my life and I would encourage EVERYONE to check the links. The new one is AMAZING, absolutely AMAZING. It is a list of communities all over the world that cater to certain thing, but mainly to the Arts, Taking Care of the Earth and to living more simply even in less simple places. I think that you will find it to be a great resource if you are planning an adventure!

RIDING THE RAILS:

This next little section was going to be a reference for a great underground publication that I found today. I don't know how many of you have heard of me talk about riding freight trains in the past, but I have always had an interest in this sport. When I was in Santa Cruz I made friends with a couple of people who were train riders and it is so amazing to me. From what I understand when you ride aboard freight trains there are large chunks of the country that you get to see that most people don't. I like that idea. Well, this sport IS illegal and a federal crime, however there is an underground publication that I came across today that lists all freight trains across the U.S. and the times of arrival and departure in EVERY state. Amazing. This publication cannot be found in stores and is updated EVERY year like every store in a bookstore...you can ONLY get it on the streets. I will not disclose the title of the book because I do not want to ruin the MAGIC and BEATNIKNESS of the book...ya gotta DO IT to GET IT. Unless of course you are my friend, in that case drop me an email and I will get you a copy!! I will say this, I searched and I searched for something of this nature and I couldn't find it anywhere...it found me...maybe if your mind is in that place, IT will find you too!

I will close today with this.

Whatever it is that you want to do in in life, WHEREVER your heart is, no matter how scared you are to do it. DO IT! There is magic in it and like minded people will be drawn to you wherever you are. If you have an interest in being a plumber, identify yourself as one and hang around plumbers in your town and you WILL become that! If you feel like you are a song writer, make that focus and see yourself writing for the rich and famous and I guarantee you if your whole heart is there than that is what you will be. If you want to be somewhere, no matter how far and how crazy that the place seems to be there, see yourself there and then DROP yourself there and that is where you will be and the person that you will become will grow in that place. Take your fears and recycle them into strength and watch the power that you have. You will be unstoppable, manifesting everything in your life! Just do it, don't make excuses...most people make excuses and that is what makes MOST people AVERAGE!! Whatever you want in life, no matter how simple or how complex, BE THAT and you will truly be happy.

My office is located on Santa Monica Blvd. In West Hollywood...haha...it really is, my rent is $4 a day and they give me coffee! I love my life and you can love yours too!!

MOST OF ALL,

LOVE EACH OTHER!!!

~tilly

Church

I went to a unique church this weekend. It was a Pentecostal one and while I am usual very skeptical of these types of churches dues to my childhood, I was very intrigued by the concept, plus there was a free meal involved. I was already planning on going to church this day anyhow and while my philosophy is a Buddhist one, I would be a hypocrite if I did not embrace and accept the positive messages that every Religion has to offer and I will continue to embrace the positive teachings of each and every Religion.

I was pleasantly surprised with the event. While I tend to look at this sect of Christianity as money seeking and controlling, this place was one of the most pure and real places I have every seen in Christianity and I left the event relieved. You see, this place was ran by an African American man (my favorite type of church) and his mission is to reach people of the street. While I had been associating with some of those types, I decided to bring them along.

Upon entering this place I was impressed to see this gentleman sitting and eating with prostitutes, crackheads and those types. Not only was this guy eating with them, but his wife personally made all of the food and his family served people before the service. WONDERFUL! Upon getting there I was a bit hungry, but I had some money and guilt took me over, due to the sincerity and purity of this family and the downtrodden in the audience it made me feel quite guilty thinking of taking advantage of the great deal, so instead I drank some coffee and ate a small snack. Even though a large portion of the group had issues, the joy in the room was a very uplifting thing and then came the sermon.

How surprised I was to find to asking of money (even though they clearly needed it) and the message was one of hope, quite uplifting! Not once during this sermon did this man tell the people they were going to hell, he hugged and shook hands with even the homosexuals in the group and he genuinely enjoyed what he was doing, the energy was GREAT! Even though I had little, I gave to this establishment (which was merely a big room with various pictures of Martin Luther King Jr. on the wall) and I offered my assistance in the future.

This weekend I was put in check, I realized that we can all be judgemental and no matter the negative that goes on in the Christian religion, there truly ARE people who run churches who desire and try to be like Jesus in there own lives and that was a refreshing thing for me to see. We must remember that no matter how much bad there is in life, there is always good to balance it out and I would encourage everyone to try something that is scary, weird and new!!

~one love

tilly

An early morn ing!

I have to say that there is nothing much better in life than sitting on one of America's most famous and populous beaches at 5 am and having the whole thing to yourself to quietly meditate. Pretty soon the beach will fill up and again there will be children at play, wealthy people and corporate America will be cramming every marketing gimmick that they can down our throats...free handouts, planes with banners, models and music. All of these things are fun, but right now one of the most sought after places in the U.S.A. is all mine. If I want to I can run up and down the beach right now naked in my straw hat screaming "the world is mine" and it truly is! People spend thousands and even millions to be in, see, or live at this place when it is crowded. Today, I paid 8 bucks to sit and eat LOX and drink flavored coffee here by myself. Some day I am really going to miss these silent mornings, right now I am in love with them. I will never stop dreaming and I will never cease to be the man that I choose to be, embracing life, my personal values and living the life of Greg Tilly!!