Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve

This is the second time that I have hiked Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve on a Sunday Afternoon.  The weather was fantastic and the trail is somewhat short but long enough to have a nice Sunday stroll.  I went with a group of friends and we all went to Rudy's BBQ afterwards and pigged out.  If you like hiking, you will like this preserve.  Hope to see you out there sometime.  

SafePlace in Austin, Texas

SafePlace is a wonderful organization that is determined to eradicate violence in any form from our everyday lives.  Violence is a very hard thing to deal with, even in everyday conversation.  You cannot speak of these things to just anyone because they will try to minimize it in an effort to help you get past it and to keep their own hearts from breaking or dealing with similar issues.  The intensions of many people are good but flawed.  Education is one of the best forms of eradicating ignorance and SafePlace uses education to eradicate violence.  Some of the counselors have been there for 20 years and know the patterns that exists in this kind of lifestyle.  They are well equipped not only with recognizing these patterns but changing these patterns of thought.  

Some of their services include a 24 hour hotline, a place for battered persons and their children to stay, individual and group counseling, classes on protecting yourself and much, much more.

If you know of anyone that may be able to use these services, I urge you to let them know.  If you are looking for a tax write off, you can't go wrong here.  Please click on the first word of this post for more information on this wonderful organization.

What a wonderful goal to elevate our society to a level of peace in our personal relationships.  Only then can we start looking for peace globally.  

Friends

You know, it is a wonderful thing to have friends.  I look back on my life and I see that from childhood, my closest friends have been women.  I am actually now becoming friends with some males that have no interest in sex either because they are straight or because they want friendship.  This is a wonderful thing.  The biggest things in friendship or any relationship for me is Trust, communication, and Respect.  I expect this of all of my relationships.  I give these things and I get these things.  I realize that some of my friendships and relationships did not or could not contain these elements and I am not friends with those people today.  This doesn't mean that friends don't make mistakes.  When they make a mistake they will come to you with a true heart and make amends bringing these elements back to the relationship.  I don't like putting names on my blog but my friends know who you are and I appreciate and love you.  The whole time I have been writing this, that campy song has been running through my mind so I will put it in yours like a bad catchy commercial.  LOL.

"Thank you for bein' a friend."

The main reason for this post is that if you are neither receiving nor giving these elements of friendship, it is time to reevaluate if the relationship is truly a friendship.  

Give a friend a hug today.  You both will benefit!!