Wolf Conservation Center

Great news! I just found out that my job at the NY Wolf Conservation Center is extended until the end of the year and I will be built into the budget for next year! I am so excited

A sick tattoo design by Thomas Pendleton

Islamic Profit Muhammad

I know I said more about Leo Tolstoy to come soon and it still will, but first I want to talk a bit about Muhammad. I have recently been reading a book called Memories of Muhammad: Why the Profit Matters . This book is not only a biography of Muhammad but also a history of the rise of Islam. It talks about pre-Islamic Mecca and the rise of Muhammad as a prophet. As I read more about the major religious prophets, I am learning that more the most part they are all saying the same thing, a return to traditional values. What these traditional values are depend if you are reference Buddhism or one of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). Ironically enough for the Abrahamic religions, the message these profit are relaying are almost the exact same thing; a return to worship of the one true GOD. It amazes me how inspiring these profits (Muhammad and Jesus) can be and yet after their deaths, their closest followers and disciples forget the message and transform or dilute the main points. Jesus for example as far as I am concerned, never wanted to create a new religion, but to reform Judaism.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Tolstoy has become a recent fascination of mine. More to come on the topic but for now I leave with these two important quotes by Tolstoy-

"A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite."


"He never chooses an opinion; he just wears whatever happens to be in style."

My Dream Job

Wow! I'm getting really bad with this blog thing. I finally quit my job at the kennel and got a summer position at the NY Wolf Conservation Center, my dream job. Right now it is just for the summer but will likely be a full time job. Yay. My first day teaching just happened to be a press day for the new pups Zephyr and Alawa, and I got put in one of the local papers.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20110607/NEWS02/106070329/South-Salem-center-gets-its-newest-ambassador-wolf-pups

Mussar

Recently, I finished reading a book called Climbing Jacobs Ladder by Alan Morinis. This book is his personal story of overcoming a major business failure and finding the ancient teachings of Mussar. To the best of my understanding at this point, Mussar is like the Jewish answer to Buddhism. As defined in Everyday Holiness: The Path of Mussar, another of Morinis' books, Mussar "shines light on the causes of suffering and shows us how to realize our highest spiritual potential, including an everyday experience infused with happiness, trust, and love." Mussar is a life practice that much like Buddhism is performed through meditation, silence and retreat, and journal practices. This practice is of great interest to me due to my return to Jewish roots as well as having had a history in Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy.

Palmer

This is my son Palmer. He was one of the rescue dogs at the kennel that I work at. I fell in love in with him and had Aida come over to see him. We adopted him shortly after in mid November. He is a pit bull mix and we recently found out that he is more Irish setter than pit bull. He also has some dalmatian and weimariner in him. He has been in a shelter since he was 10 weeks old. He is now 10 months old and 50 lbs. Conveniently enough, he also shares my birthday, May 20.

Toward a Meaningful Life

In starting out our life together, Aida and I have signed up for a series of classes at the local Chabad center. For those of you who are unfamiliar with who the Chabad are, they are a sect of Hassidic Jews who do a lot of outreach to help nonpracticing Jews get back in touch with their Jewishness. The class we are taking was created by Simon Jacobson who wrote a boot called Toward a Meaningful Life. I had just finished reading this book and was excited to take the course. Luckily, Aida was also curious and excited to attend. We have to two sessions so far and have covered how each person has a unique mission in this world and how to try to figure out what that is as well as what a healthy relationship/marriage entails. We still have 4 more sessions to go which I am looking forward to. The classes are taught by Rabbi Arik Wolf who is originally from Australia. I was surprised to learn that there are actually a few major populations of Jews in Australia.

A home for our new life

In addition to the recent engagement, we have also been looking around for houses. We found one that we fell in love with in South Salem, NY. This is only about 10 minutes from where we are currently living with Aida's parents. This house has everything we wanted in a house but more importantly, it sits on 5.7 acres. This house has 2 large bedrooms and a small one. It also has 2 full baths. We have planned to have an office/guest bedroom, and a meditation room. We have signed the contract on the home and will hopefully close this week.

Engagement

So it has been awhile since my last post but if you didn't already know I got engaged to my girlfriend of 2 years on December 20, 2010. Aida and I met during a summer session for school in 2008 and started dating shortly after our return to school. We have set a wedding date for August 7, 2011. Things have been moving quickly but I couldn't ask for anyone better to share the rest of my life with. I love you Aida.