In my backyard there is a woman and maybe her baby on the fringes of death for something as basic as dehydration, that’s why. I was raised in a village with dark haired children and I, a child of a foreigner, was treated like an equal, like a princess, that’s why. Because I believe in every one’s dream and am here to support those dreams, that’s why.

I am innately passionate about loving from my heart, that’s why. I have running water, a modern kitchen, an old but very well working car, more clothes than I could wear in one week and I am surrounded by people who love me and who allow me to love them, that’s why.

That is why I have volunteered with the Samaritans and why I also want to volunteer with No More Deaths.

I want to bring something as ordinary as clean drinking water to a woman and her scared hijo or an uncle or a boy who otherwise might have perished on the silent and secretive Sonoran desert floor. I want to sit with my fellow Mexican and Central American brothers and sisters and listen to their stories and tell them that I care. That a whole bunch of us care. That I love them even thought I do not know them and that I admire their courage to follow their dreams even if that means crossing an unknown desert, full of uncertainty.

I want to come home after having held some one’s hand who has been perhaps walking barefoot in the 104 degree summer heat after having likely passed corpses along the way. I want to feel the joy for this life and bow deeply to the blessing of freedom in choosing what I feel passionate about, like being a Humanitarian. I want to shine my message which is that I choose to believe in the good of all, yes ALL Humans.

I want to at least set clean, bottled drinking water on known migrant trails for my Southern Migrant Tribe and pray that they find it. And that when they drink the liquid, they feel my love.

I strive for personal peace everyday. I actively and intentionally release my self-created programs, boxes and old patterns of thought that do not serve me and that certainly do not serve my family and friends. And even though it may seem I have a long way to evolve in being completely free from my self- inflicted suffering, I strongly believe in myself. I know that my power of belief can bring freedom from un-joyous emotions like being jealous or thinking that I am fat or skinny or not educated enough or not the best photographer in the world or WHATEVER stories I invent. I have the CHOISE to be whatever I want!!! I get to give myself an A!! I have the choice to LOVE myself and stop the time-consuming and self-centered stories that are un-true, uselessly painful and which cause unnecessary suffering.

And so I choose to be Joy!

Because I am Joy and I wish to be free from wasting energy on calculating and measuring myself against this world, I get to help my brothers and sisters out there in the cold desert, walking even tonight towards “El Norte”. I know that migrants have been coming north for hundreds of years and I am of service to them right now…

I am a disciple of JOY and I am a reflection of JOY, that’s why.

Just like you: I am Just. Like. You. That’s why.

I recently photographed my step dad in Yelapa, Mexico. He has a new music album coming out and I took photos of him by the flow of the El Tuito river. Recently as well I photographed a beautiful yogini who teaches yoga to our youth at Tucson High School. Two people committed to living their truths and doing a beautiful job with reflecting Joy!