thankful

Hello… Is there anybody out there? Is there anyone that cares that I’ve fallen? Is there anyone for me to gather sympathy from? Anyone I can tell my sad, poor me stories to?

Hello! I’m complaining! I’m friggin’ scared. I’m anxious and the panic is starting to kick in. I don’t have my mortgage this month. Yet! I screwed up on the last few jobs and essentially lost my ass!

Hello! In spite of whatever might be wrong or right. In spite of what I’ve seemingly got myself into, and in spite of what anyone else thinks is good, bad, right or wrong, I already know that this too will pass. Sitting with whatever pain, anxiety and feeling of lack there is can only serve as a means of me hitting the bottom and begin working my way back up.

No matter how sad and pathetic our lives are, there are many more out there more f’d up, banged up, bruised up and severely hurting much more than we are. There is someone out there doing so much worse, and likely, so much more afraid and in need than you or I.

We are getting ready for something big!

I’ve learned that helping others is a large part of how I must live my life. It’s the way my parents raised me. They were always helping someone in need. Many times, we ourselves were the ones in need. I’ve experienced homelessness and living in motels with vouchers from AFDC. I know what it’s like to be excited because the food stamps showed up, even though I was embarrassed to actually have to use them.

My dad used to walk home from Safeway with a basket of day old breads, cakes and other baked goods so that we could eat, and while I didn’t want my friends to see him pushing the shopping cart down Concord Blvd, I was happy to eat those brownies and bread. Our lives are filled with problems and challenges. These are often the necessary tribulations we must experience in order to recognize what works and what doesn’t.

Dealing with life on life’s terms is what I’ve been committed to for several years. Clean and sober since 1992 (except for that fat joint I smoked 9 years into my sobriety), I’ve made a commitment to better my life and be a generational catalyst for change. That which doesn’t kill and obliterate me, serves to strengthen me, and give me even more audacity to kick ass and take names. Through all of the pain, all the adversity and challenges in my life, I’ve had to dig deep and become my own cheerleader, counselor, bodyguard and friend. I typically seclude myself a bit and focus on whatever I can do to strategically rise up and dominate whatever situation I’m battling with.

Am I afraid, Hell yes! Am I filled with Faith that everything will work out in the end??? How can I not be?! My life on the outside looks like I’ve got so much together. I live in a big house on top of the hill. I drive a great big shiny truck, and my home is filled with more furniture than I currently have room for.

I am by many social standards “successful” or so it seems. The truth is that I come from people that had nothing, and had to work really hard for whatever they did have. The truth is, I come from several generations of talented people that were clever, witty, compassionate and committed. They were drug addicts, criminals, ran brothels, and skeet skirted around the law wherever they needed to in order to make ends meet. I am a multitude and magnificent blend of these people that have gone before me, and if there’s one thing I know for sure it’s that we, my folks, my family and my ancestors are compassionate people that have always helped others to help themselves.

Consulting on our new charity project, Aster Street Garden

This is why I continue to say yes to projects like #Daniellaswish and #Bullockgarden I have a special compassion for women and children. I also have a real soft spot and different affinity for men. These charity projects gave me an opportunity to give to others that have less than I did. They allow me to get out of my own way and focus on helping folks that want the help, need the help and are truly worthy of some assistance in their lives.

This Thanksgiving we’re doing our 3rd charity project, cyber tagged #Astergarden. There’s no link for this project yet because we haven’t done the work. So much of my life looks like this. It’s not here yet. Faith is the essence, the power and the hope for things not here and yet to come. That is my paraphrase of Hebrews 11:1. My faith is probably like your own. Something that waivers and waffles. Sometimes we’re big, and sometimes we’re small, but one thing that’s consistent is that we’re always able to help somebody somewhere.

It looks like a blank canvas right now.

The capacity to pay it forward is probably one of our greatest human talents! So that’s what I’m doing today. That’s what I’m committed to doing from here on out. You’ll continue to see me use hash tags like #PHP(People Helping People) and #BA4GC (Badasses For Good Causes) and #Sustainableheroes.

Each and every opportunity is my potential to help others. To give back and stop being self centered.
This most current project is one that will take place on November 21st and 22nd of 2015. One week before Thanksgiving, you, me and a whole bunch of other awesome, large minded and large-hearted people will all converge on the scene in Escondido, CA. We will create a landscape makeover like you’ve never seen before.

Why? Because it’s necessary, and because the best way to help yourself in life is by helping others. I believe this and because I do, it’s absolutely true for me. If any one reading this blog is both willing and able, please donate to the Aster Gardens Project. Plan to join us as we build and create this amazing Outdoor Living and congregating space. We need all the help we can get.

There are families, women, children, seniors and vets that are so much worse off than you or I. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I invite you and encourage you to step outside of your own small world of “woe is me”, and show up in Escondido to be a part of the magic and love. There is a law that exists in the Universe. It’s often referred to as Karma. This Karma will take you further than you could ever take yourself. Do for others and watch how this energy, circles back and takes care of your every need. I thank you and look forward to meeting you all this November.

This is an idea of what what it will look like when we are finished!

Ahmad “Ahmed” Hassan aka The Celebrity Landscaper, The baddest damn landscaper you’ve ever seen! Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram!

#TeamAhmed #GoGreenWithAhmed #AsterGardens #BA4GC #SustainableHeroes #PHP #DaniellasWish

I am both humbled and amazed when I mentally glance at the calendar of 2014. I’m filled with anxiety, confidence, gratitude, and hope when I think about a year that has been filled with the greatest personal exploration of my lifetime.

“This is what life should look like,” says my conscience. “Growth and expansion should always be what we’re experiencing.”

On this Thanksgiving Day, I’m thankful for the challenges that have allowed me to have a heart filled with gratitude for what is. I’m thankful that I can reminisce on what was as I continue to stretch into the unknown.

I embrace life’s challenges with confidence, and even a little anxiety, knowing that I am alive. I’m here saying yes and absolutely doing my best to show up as the person I aspire to be.

I remember a conversation I had with myself early in 2014 or was it 2013… I decided that just for this year, I wouldn’t stress and worry, since stress has never helped my body, mind, or sense of peace.Worrying has not solved any problems, made me feel better or brought about the change that’s needed to happen. Just for this year I wasn’t going to worry about things and instead I’d truly trust the process of life. To me this means trust that the Universe is all good. I refer to the Universe as all that exists. Everything is essential to everything. Some folks say that “everything happens for a reason”. I merely want to focus on learning and understanding the reasons and see my life as an opportunity to learn, teach and give thanks for even being here in the first place.

Celebrity landscaper Ahmed Hassan - Albequerque New Mexico

Thankful for the opportunity to speak at places such as the 2014 Home and Garden Show, Albuquerque, New Mexico

The difference between life and death as I see it is that death is synonymous with done.

Therefore life is about living. Doing creating, preparing and responding. Life respects action, not just thoughts. Life is about feeling the fear and going for it anyway. To remain afraid and not be willing to live “big” is as good as being dead. I believe that our lives must remain inspired and filled with hope. We must continue to always seek out that which is beautiful, and makes us feel good. We must be willing to push a lil harder and love a lil longer and recognize and take responsibility for our own faults in order to create the space for our object of desire to come into reality; or to allow life’s organic process to bring to fruition all that we want need and are ready for, precisely when the time is right.
This year has been a “dream it up and make it happen” experience. I’ve created a structure and support system around me and have people in my corner that keep me accountable.

The Bible says “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” My understanding and translation of this is that we are all God. When we come together as brothers and sisters, we are magnificent creators just like God the creator.

In 2015 I hope that we all work a little more towards coming together with others and agreeing to work in ways that are more loving, more conscientious, more understanding and more compassionate to one another’s challenges and short comings.

Celebrity Landscaper Ahmed Hassan - Recycling Cardboard

Thankful for my family, my friends, and of course, working in my yard!

Let’s focus on building our mutual dreams together, and not be so attached to every little detail, that we criticize and belittle one another.

This will allow the mutual dream to happen that much quicker.

This will allow events like “Ferguson” to be one of those “back then” events. Life is not so black and white but rather several shades of gray and when we take the time to not make others wrong and instead see where they have been or continue to be small minded and filled with fear, we can forgive them and continue to give thanks for our ability to show them what life, love, and liberty truly looks like.

I subscribe to the philosophy of Science of Mind and know that everything starts as a seed. Life is nothing more than a palette of whatever we dream it to be. The seeds planted in my mind’s eye of the past are either here and now present, they have drifted away and morphed or they are organically emerging in my life as I prepare and give thanks.

The giving thanks means that I recognize and am grateful.

Do these seeds look exactly like I thought they would? Of course not!

Have you ever grown a plant from seed and knew exactly what it would look like beforehand?

Have you ever known someone that was pregnant and you yourself already knew exactly what the baby would look like, act like, and how they would develop their personality?

Are you no less thankful?

I encourage you to be thankful for every experience. Be thankful for life’s challenges that allow you to prove just how big, bad and beautiful you truly can be. Be thankful that you don’t always understand and yet here you are, alive and living. I know many that have taken their own lives or lost them due to various circumstances but you my friend are here. You have the ability to bend rather than break, to take the heat and not burn up. To deal with the process, and people along the way.

I’m thankful for my team and the collective willingness to think and be big. And most of all I’m thankful for you!

Happy Day of Thanksgiving.

Ahmad “Ahmed” Hassan

The Aster Street Garden Project

Decidedly Thankful

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