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EDIT: Hi! We just found out there are actually a few signed prints available – which is SUPER great for the Unity Shoppe!
We asked Brian if he’d help out a little more on this first one, just to make it extra special, and he said, ‘How about an original drawing?‘ and he didn’t even have the question mark out of his mouth when we said ‘Yes!’ There’s no end to the stuff that’ll happen when you’re in the mood to be part of something bigger …
In just two days, the auction will end on a ‘Connection’ print signed by both Kenny Loggins and Brian Andreas. The auction proceeds will benefit the Unity Shoppe of Santa Barbara. You can find it right 
here and bid with gusto. Or cheer on the other bidders. 
(If you’re copying and pasting: http://is.gd/4URBX)
There couldn’t be a better story for this organization, a local pearl – you know, one of those gems that isn’t shiny and show-offy, but the reward of a lot of grit – and luminous for it.
Allow me to remind you how that story goes:
there came a moment in the middle of the song when he suddenly felt every heartbeat in the room & after that he never forgot he was part of something much bigger -
When it comes to helping each other, people do what they can do. And there are countless reasons why they do it, why anyone steps up at any time to give support or lend a hand. 
Nothing is better, though, than the hand reaching out because it knows the hand it’s reaching for wants the same warm feeling of safety, the same strong grip of hope.
Or the voice that advocates or negotiates for the one who is just trying to findthe the right way to talk of a future to its children.
Or mind that opens wide and creates solutions and imagines EVERYone flourishing.
This is exactly how the Unity Shoppe operates. There are no halos on parade. There’s just a promise that’s made and met every day: dignity for the clients. Real dignity.
I don’t know if it’s in their mission statement or a formal matter of policy, but I’m going to trust my experience and guess it’s borne out of a vision of our connection. 
It seems as if all involved know this to be true and so, whatever they say, however they assist, whenever they’re organizing or distributing – there is nothing but an unfailing attitude of unity.
It’s 
wild and it’s wonderful and fills all of us in this community with big gratitude. What other way could you feel when you’re invited to be part of something much bigger?
** I’ve included a few pictures of the grocery store and children’s clothing boutique for anyone who wants to be stubborn and refuse to believe it. Ha. Each of them gets a little bigger when clicked.
http://www.unityshoppe.org/
http://www.logginsfans4unity.com/
After all our love poem cartoons, my mind was on a roll, ready to explore the multiple ways of having a romance with life. I don’t know why, but that topic just never ever gets old.
Well, the best laid plans and all that … after this weekend, I could hardly avoid writing about women (and I did it over at our other blog). Things are changing, of course they are. They’re just not changing with much … gusto. This year, though, some of those things are going to change. At least in this woman’s life. (Me. I’m that woman.)
I don’t particularly like separating us into Men Do This/Women Do That categories – and not because I’m so politically correct. I don’t like doing it because I’ve always started the day thinking, ‘Well, here I am, a human being, so what should I do?’
It doesn’t take long before someone will help you out and remind you of what you are and how you should behave. Luckily, I like being a woman very much, so it sort of all works out.
But not always. And those are the times that deserve to be changed because, for this woman? They’re just not that fun.
Yip and eeee! We’ve started our Elevator Stories series. Elevator stories are those things you can tell in the course of an elevator ride. (Oh. You probably knew that. I didn’t.
When I learned about it, all I could think was: GET OUT! How perfect for StoryPeople. You could get on at the second floor, recite an appropriate (or maybe not. Sometimes INappropriate’s twice as good) story and get off at the 12th floor. And that would be that.
Wouldn’t that be fun?
Anyway. Here’s our video of Green Kids. It’s slightly different than the flash animation, which is over at the other blog, all shiny and new and green.This went up first, before we thought to make some last minute changes. Like the title.
Why wouldn’t we just delete it and start over? Well, YouTube doesn’t always let you do that. Next time. Next time we’ll get it right. We think. Even if we don’t, it’s still fun. Well, WE think it is. What do you think?
Normally, if I shoo you over to the other blog, it’s for a little face time with our flash animations.
(Thank you, thank you for enjoying them enough to share them. We don’t always do justice to Brian’s zen-elegant and witty stories, but it’s not for lack of trying.) THIS time, though, I shoo because just when you think the government has some weird-butt (why yes, I did make that up) need to serve us badly, they go and do something right. And good.
It’s heartwarming. 
Leaning out as far as she can, hoping she’ll fall
soon so she can stop worrying about whether
it will happen or not.
Hoping to Fall by Brian Andreas
