Ashley Marie

Today

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:05:55 -0400

is a weird day

Bootswalla Video for Fashion Week 2009

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:43:04 -0500

Bootswalla Video for Fashion Week 2009

Ahhh the 9’ South Point epoxy board… Definitely on...

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:57:22 -0500

Ahhh the 9’ South Point epoxy board… Definitely on my wish list for this summer :)

My baby. Got hit by a cab while cruising through Chelsea last...

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:53:45 -0500

My baby.

Got hit by a cab while cruising through Chelsea last summer & this beauty saved my foot!

Only thing that needed replacing were the rear trucks :)

Looking forward to getting back on the streets once the weather gets warmer!!

my horoscope and conversations about cannabis

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 09:43:00 -0500

It’s time for you to pull in the reins and take control of your life, especially if you have recently acquiesced to an authority. Now it’s your turn to play the role of the heavyweight. Fortunately, you can do this with compassion; there’s no need to be mean to anyone. It’s crucial, though, for you to stand up for yourself; if you don’t do it, no one else will.

The last line, I feel is appropriate for all.

At work last night, my co-workers were chatting about personality flaws. While one mentioned their habit of smoking ganja was their biggest flaw the other countered with ‘smoking isn’t a flaw, it’s a habit. A flaw would be something like people pleasing’.

That statement immediate struck a chord in me for that is my ultimate flaw. And although I recognize that, I still always find myself in moments of my life where my priority seems to be making sure everyone around me is happy, yet while on my chronic unavailing quest of pleasing those around me, I then lose myself and end up struggling for positive energy and my own happiness. This is when I need to take a stand for myself because no one else will.

Now that’s not because those around me don’t love me or don’t care but just as they are the only one’s responsible for their own happiness, I am the only one responsible for mine.

Now just a little while back I wrote about how my favorite yoga teacher always said “if you ask yourself ‘where would you like to be right now?’, and the answer is anything other than ‘Here’ then you need to change something.” It’s only when we are truly happy in the place where we are in life that we can allow ourselves to be open to the wonders that the universe has to offer us.

I obviously have not been keeping this thought close to my heart because for the last three or four weeks I have found myself on a roller coaster ride of emotions and not really sure which direction I am going. I am realizing as I write this, that maybe this is my time to just be still. We are not always having to move forward. And by recognizing that I innately take a step :)

Invisible Spikes

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:38:00 -0500

I did not write this but I feel very compelled to share. I hope that you will not only read this but actually absorb the words below.

They say that there are two kinds of people in the world.

The first kind of person, others feel really happy when they enter the room. The second kind, others feel really happy when they leave the room!

Its almost like all of us have invisible spikes coming out from us. For some people these spikes are really long and sharp. They have strong likes and dislikes and freely share judgement, criticism and negativity with everyone they meet. They moment they enter the room, people go “ouch!”

Others have shorter spikes. Most people are like this. They are okay to get along with so long as you don’t rub them up the wrong way. Else their spikes are immediately raised like that of a porcupine!

Some other people have very small and soft spikes. They are great fun to be with. Everyone loves them. They are the light of the family, of the office and community. They are genuinely interested in others welfare and freely share smiles, love, appreciation and do thoughtful acts for others. However if you get really really close to them and push the wrong buttons and you may still get hurt…just like the tiny splinters in straw can still hurt the hands.

Then there are the rare people in the world with NO spikes. No matter how you treat them and what you do there is NO resistance. These are the love masters in our world, great spiritual examples to us all. It does not mean such a person is a vegetable who anyone can cut. They respond appropriately to each situation…sometimes constructive criticism and strong words may issue from them. Yet it comes with the power of love and has a transformational energy. Their spikes have been replaced by rays of light, like a sun!

People do not love us for our goodness. They love us for our patience and forebearance. Where there is judgement there is no love. Where there is love there is no judgement.

Let us pull back our invisible spikes for today, and replace them with rays of love and light, offering our finest smile to everyone we encounter. Then others will love to have you in the room and always keep you in their hearts.

Be happy!

"The only time wasted is when we are not loving."

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:23:10 -0500

“The only time wasted is when we are not loving.”

i needed this today:

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:22:26 -0500

It is easy to wallow in the dark. It is a brave choice to be happy. When we are feeling discouraged and weak, then our medicine is to encourage others and give them strength. We are born to be uplifters. We are here to give support and love abundantly…and also learn to receive support and love wholeheartedly.

Together let us grow in clear awareness, drench the heart in boundless love and make everyday “The Happiest Day of Our Life!” May we awaken the heart of compassion and show kindness through simple actions.

May you be a Channel of Blessing for Someone Today!
May you be a Channel of Blessing for Someone Today!
May you be a Channel of Blessing for Someone Today!

humans vs. sharks

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:51:06 -0500

There is no animal on earth more vilified than the shark. Pop culture references and annual, over-hyped reports of attacks on swimmers or surfers have put sharks on the top of the list of the world’s most feared living things.

There is however, a creature far more predacious than the shark: Humans.

Sharks existed before there were dinosaurs and they pre-date humans by millions of years. Yet, in a relatively short period of time, humans and their technological arsenal have driven most shark populations to the verge of extinction.

The fate of the shark is grim. Increasing public awareness of the shark’s role in the marine ecosystem and the rapid rate of extinction because of the demand for shark fin soup may be the best hope for the shark, which has inhabited the planet for 400 million years.

Can you imagine if it was Yellowstone Park and people were shooting up grizzlies? No one would ever get away with it. But this ocean, because it’s out of sight, out of mind, [shark finning] carries on.

Shark Savers

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:56:00 -0500

Shark Savers:

Check out this organization! It’s great! I’m hoping to one day be a part of this movement to help protect sharks.

Shark Savers was founded in 2007 dedicated to increasing awareness about sharks and providing ways for people to get involved to help save them. We create and support campaigns for shark conservation, as well as reducing consumption of shark products.

Shark Savers was founded by six divers with a long-held passion for the oceans, the quality of the ocean environment, and sharks. Becoming more aware of how sharks were being destroyed on a massive scale, and understanding the important role they play in the oceans, we wanted to become active in saving sharks. Unable to find an organization where we could easily and directly take part in saving sharks, we came together to create Shark Savers. Since the Shark Savers’ launch, it has garnered the membership of thousands of shark advocates across the world.

"If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is stop eating meat. … It’s..."

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:38:24 -0500

“If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is stop eating meat. … It’s staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty.””

- Sir Paul McCartney

Simple Ways To Save Your Planet:

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:41:45 -0500

Bring your own coffee mug & water bottle

Every year Americans throw away 25 billion polystyrene cups and 25 billion individual water bottles, most of which end up in landfills. Instead buy a reusable to-go mug and a bottle that you can refill with filtered tap water. Bring your own (to a coffee shop, a meeting), and you cut down on Styrofoam.

Check out www.mysigg.com. Awesome styles for everyone in the family!

Cup or Cone?

Next time you crave an ice cream a cone beats a cup. Less packaging! And besides a cone is way more enjoyable than a cup & a spoon you’re just going to have to throw away.

Safer cleaning supplies

Natural cleansers like vinegar and baking soda do a great job without harming the planet. And there are plenty of environmentally safe cleansers out on the market now.

Check out Method. These products are safe enough to use on anything and much more earth friendly.

BYOB… that is Bring Your Own Bag

Get reusable cloth bags for the grocery store and the dry cleaner. More than 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away every year. Almost every grocery and drug store sells there own reusable bags.

check out FEED. Each FEED 100 bag supplies 100 school meals to children in Rwanda and saves us from using plastic bags!

Opt out & stop junk mail

Every year 100 million trees are chopped down for junk mail sent to American homes. Contact the direct marketing association at dmachoice.org/ to remove your name from mailing lists of their members. And sign the petition at http://www.donotmail.org

Recycled Toilet Paper (ewww…no not what you think!)

Recycled toilet paper is scratchier than three-ply, but it’s much softer on the environment.

Check out Seventh Generation not only for the Eco friendly TP but also some more environmentally conscious cleaning products

CFL’s

This is the first step to going green that I sell to my friends.Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) use four times less energy than incandescent ones which means if every American family substituted five CFL bulbs for incandescent, it would be equivalent to taking eight million cars off the road for a year. It also makes a huge impact on your electric bill!

De-lint the dryer

Lint builds up after every dryer cycle, reducing the machine’s efficiency. Removing it does a lot to decrease its usually massive energy use.

Pick safe paints

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, architectural coatings such as paints and varnishes are the second-largest source of fumes from volatile organic compounds, substances that evaporate at room temperature and react in sunlight to form photochemical smog. Look for cans with “No VOC.” We’ll all breathe easier. (If you don’t use the whole can, you can find out how to recycle the rest.)

Shorten your showers

For every two minutes you shave off your shower, you save 10 gallons of water. Low-flow shower heads would also be a big improvement. And I personally recommend saving water by showering with someone ;-)

Shut Down

The average computer left on all day uses nearly 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, producing more than a ton of carbon emissions. So turn off your computer anytime you’re not on it, and eliminate the screen saver function, which uses more energy than the sleep mode.

Sharks endangered. a clip from CNN’s “Planet in...

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:59:05 -0500

Sharks endangered.

a clip from CNN’s “Planet in Peril”

Check it out thur 12/11 @ 9pm on CNN

PETA... and a stand for animals!

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:00:37 -0500

So my friend sent me the video below this morning and I found it to be absolutely amazing. And it’s quite perfect timing actually because I just found out this morning that I will be shooting a PETA ad in 2 weeks :) ( I know a penguin escaping an Orca attack has nothing to do with fur or animal rights but I found it moving & symbolic enough to post :) )

On top of being a huge gay rights activist, I am also an environmentalist and animal rights activist as well. The ocean and its inhabitants being my main platform and sharks being my species of choice. I grew up surrounded by water. I’d rather be in the water SCUBA diving or surfing than anywhere else doing anything else!

Although I am so excited to be shooting a campaign for PETA because I love what the organization stands for and I feel it will be a great way to contribute, I am saddened that there is not the same kind of strength behind a cause for the worlds oceans and the many thousands of species of plants animals living in it.

Take sharks for instance. There is NO protection for them. While plenty of protection exists for lions and tigers and elephants, there is none for the shark. Although elephants kill more people than sharks do per year and I guarantee you would never go hang out with a pack of hungry lions, both species are well protected. People can relate to them. They seem cute & cuddly. So sending money to the WWF for a game preserve in Africa makes sense to people. Spending money to regulate and enforce a No-Take preserve in the ocean does not make sense to people.

There are so many misconceptions surrounding this great species that has been on this planet for millions of years. It is this ignorance that is going to lead to the extinction of an apex predator in the ocean which will drastically alter the marine ecosystem which in turn will devastatingly alter life on land as we know it. I could write for days about the specifics of what could happen if we were to kill off all of the sharks but that’s not my point… at the moment. There are so many other animals as well that are so threatened that our own children may only know them from books or movies and that is my point. We have a responsibility, today, to take care of our planet and those who inhabit it. The Earth was fine before we got here yet since mankind has evolved the planet has been in a downward destructive spiral. We are an arrogant and selfish species. But we can change.

It’s about respect for those arround us. Not just other humans (although that would be a great start) But every living thing. There is a reason and a purpose for every being on this planet and we must recognize that.

This little penguin is a rockstar!!!

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:32:00 -0500

This little penguin is a rockstar!!!

Winter in NYC... a cold realization

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:52:57 -0500

OK now I know I have lived in NYC for 8 years now and one would think that I would be used to this cold weather but I most definitely am not! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that almost every winter since I have been here I have found someway to get out of the city, for at least a bit, to escape this misery. Or that for the entire season last winter I was working in Miami. None the less, I am slowly but surely realizing that I do not want to take much more of this. I’m beginning to see an end to my stay in this great city.

When I first moved here I knew this was where I was supposed to be. Every opportunity a girl could ever dream of was here. I came here as a professional ballet dancer and through a myriad of twists & turns in my life I ended up modeling and now I’m preparing to possibly make another career change. I might still look 18 now but I’m closer to 30 then I’d like to admit so it might be time to move on.

The possibilities are always endless for me. I’ve always kept an open mind and open heart about where I should be and what I should be doing. I have learned that if I ask myself “where do I want to be right now?” and the answer is anything other than “right here, right now” then it is time to make some changes. Also, if I keep myself open to every possibility without having any expectations, then I will inevitably find myself in the right place at the right time.

It’s cold in New York City. I am ready for a change. Where will life take me next?

Prop 8 Protest in NYC... Can we make a difference?

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:31:00 -0500

Last night my girlfriend and I walked hand in hand, with close friends and thousands of others, gay and straight alike, joining together to stand against inequality, hate, and discrimination. It was such a powerful experience to see how many people turned out to an event that only went into planning a few days ago. (gotta love Facebook) There were an estimated 6,000 people marching peacefully down Broadway, protesting Proposition 8 and the Mormon churches 20 million dollars of funding for it’s campaign.

This morning I was sharing my excitement with friends who weren’t able to join us at the rally and was trying to recruit them for the protest happening at city halls all across the nation (jointheimpact.com) when one of my closest friends said “I don’t really ‘do’ protests”. Now I love my friend and we rarely have disagreements, but after last nights amazingly uplifting experience that totally increased my sense of hope for this country, I had to get into a little debate.

She seems to think that protesting doesn’t accomplish much these days. Apparently masses of people marching peacefully through the streets of Manhattan, or hundreds of thousands of people across the nation standing on their the steps of their city halls, isn’t a big enough impact and isn’t going to change anything.

Well you can imagine my sense of defeat when my best friend is basically telling me that I am wasting my time and energy by going to these marches and protests and rallies. But I immediately shook it off and fought back. Yes these rallies/protests are not like they were back in the 60’s when the police were bringing the fire houses out and people were getting arrested and/or beaten to death. (we actually got kind of a nice little police escort last night :) ) But that is where we can see and appreciate progress that has been made in this country. It is because of those people who stood outside of Stonewall Inn and fought back and got the shit kicked out of them, that we have a little thing called the Gay Pride Parade every year.

Thankfully, now, we can have peaceful protests and still get our message across. And I would hate to think that my friend believes people need to die in order for change to be made. At one point she wrote to me “Storm & threaten to burn down the Mormon church” and although I’m pretty sure she was joking, I was in shock… because enough people have been persecuted and beaten and have died already because of ignorance, fear, and hate. We most definitely do NOT need any more of that.

We are protesting against just that. We are rallying for peace, acceptance, equality, and most of all LOVE!

Then she made a very good point and said “I protest everday by not hiding who I am” so then I started thinking about the many people in my life who do not protest everday. Everyday we have an opportunity to stand up for what is right and to demand equality. Yet when we don’t we are actually playing into the hate and ignorance that was the basis of the passing of Prop 8.

So you decided to stay at home on the couch instead of joining the march but:

When a family member refers to your loved one as a friend, do you stay silent?

When you introduce your loved one do you refer to them as a friend because you might make some one uncomfortable?

When your speaking of your partner do you use a neutral pronoun as to not offend anyone?

When you hear derogatory remarks made around you do you object?

Do you attend a church that does not accept gays?

Do you leave your loved one at home when you visit your family?

Have you worked for a company that does not have non-discrimination laws?

These are all instances when you can stand up and protest. You don’t have to make a sign or have a mega phone and shout chants with thousands of people marching down Broadway (although it was fun as hell) Just something as simple as telling your family “No that’s my girlfriend” or doing some research about the jobs you apply for can make a huge impact on an everyday basis.

We can make a difference! I believe it! Call me naive but even if it is my one voice against thousands I will be heard

The light in me bows down to the light in you

~AM

Some Mormons Resigning From The Church Following Passage Of Prop H8te

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:33:00 -0500

Some Mormons Resigning From The Church Following Passage Of Prop H8te:

Check out this posting on Perez…

"A loud voice cannot compete with a clear voice, even if it’s a whisper"

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:12:29 -0500

““A loud voice cannot compete with a clear voice, even if it’s a whisper””

- Bary Neal Kaufman

Think about this...

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:07:00 -0500

Why does it matter to anyone if a gay couple wants to get married? If that threatens your traditional definition of a marriage or your values of a marriage then you are probably not in a strong relationship to begin with. Not to mention, this country has already changed the definition of marriage a few times to allow slaves to marry and to allow bi-racial marriages. No body thinks less of “marriage” now because blacks can marry whites.

Why should your religious beliefs keep gay couples from having the same human & civil rights as heterosexual couples? if an atheist couple can marry and be provided those same rights even though they don’t give a damn about your god then why deny me the same when i actually do believe in God?

and ps. what the hell happened to separation of church & state?? I’m not asking for a Ctholic priest or a Mormon preacher to pronounce me wifey & wifey. Churches don’t have to perform ceremonies for gay couples if they don’t want to. I just want the same tax breaks as a hetero couple. I want to be able to own a home with my lover. I want to be able to visit her in the hospital. I want to be able to adopt a child, together. I don’t want to have to draw up a contract every time we decide to do something, invest in something, or make something TOGETHER. if we are a committed couple we should have the same rights as any other committed couple.

And will people read the Bible before throwing scripture & stories around just because they heard their pastor preach hell & damnation last Sunday! So the activities gay couples engage in are sinful hmm?? i live a life of sin so i will experience the wrath of God!!! well then i guess all you straight God fearing folks with fetishes better not masturbate or have kinky sex (put your dildos away)… or sex at all actually unless you plan on having a child or you’ll be sitting next to me on the bus to hell.

we are all divine beings
the light in me bows down to light in you…
~AM