Giving Thanks

Dear World,

What I am grateful for this Thanksgiving:

1. Life – Without it I wouldn’t be here

2. Earth – Thank you for letter me live here

3. Love – The highest form of human being.

4. Family – for all the wisdom, support, and love you have brought into my life. For being that quiet support in the backdrops, living life as you do.

5. Books, Meditation, Yoga, Ontology, The Bible, Jesus Christ, the Rabbis, the Monks and Priests, the Seeks, the CEO’s and the ladies who make me yummy “asada burritos” from the back of a truck with handmade tortillas and fresh authentic salsas. Guitar, Piano, Raggae, Classical Music, Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi, Horowitz, David Wilcox, Wernar Erhard and Landmark Education, Saddleback Church, Rick Warren and the Peace Movement…Kay Warren and her advocacy…to Barack Obama for being a man of inspiration to many. I pray for all other World Leaders.

6. I give a special thank you to my Dad, Danielovsky (St. Daniels) Monastery in Moscow Russia, Father Antony who gave me the tip to go there. After spending 12 hours in the airport with no place to go $100 dollars in my pocket to survive 10 days on the streets of Moscow; I thank Father Phillip who took me in off the cold streets of Moscow to feed, house and provide an environment for reflection and prayer. Thank you Sister Nina from Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church in Los Angeles, who taught me about faith, prayed with me, instructed me and enforced a healthy diet and exposed me to the practice of juicing. To Father Alexander, St. Nina, Grandma and late Grandpa Baker.

7. Thank you to the spiritual and physical healing I was blessed to receive at St. John’s Orthodox Church in San Francisco.

8. Thank you St. Sava for carving the way for the Serbian People, to the Serbian People and Sinisa “Ziggy” and Melia Rocovic. Forever, I will remember you on the happiest day of your lives.

9. To all my buddies, business partners, mentors and acquaintances.

10. To my mom Nina…whose life was short. I miss her and pray for her spirit. To Grandma Luda, who taught me lessons of life through experience in some of the early years of my life.

11. To juicing, fasting, herbs, deprivation, poverty, uncertainty, and the powers of endurance.

12. To love, the notion of it, experiences and experimenting with it and living life fully.

13. To the people that helped make Ninas Blankets come to life…it is with their help that children all over the world in need will receive a blanket on behalf on Nina.

14. Questions – the more the better…let’s get to know this world! And to Socrates who taught me that, “an unexamined life is not worth living.”

15. Music, In General. Languages and Cultures. Russia, Serbia, Italy, Greece, Amsterdam, England, France, Spain, Brasil and Mexico. To Venice and Korea Town and the “City of Angels” Los Angeles.

16. Humanity – Let us expand the boundaries of life and let love shine!

What distinguishes our future from our past...?

Consider that the standing question doesn't imply a simple response. Take for example a man who runs his own business and has been doing so for many years. He has made it until then living with the life he has lived. Yet, somewhere, somehow he is unsatisfied with his current circumstances but believes there is a more successfully and fulfilling future ahead.

Yet he scratched his head and experiences a certain level of uncertainty. He does not think to inquire about an appropriate and empowering context from which to answer this question. Nor does he consider that the answer or an answer to such a question may begin to lift him from his circumstances which may afford him freedom from his unpleasant concerns about his future.

Which breeds another question pertaining to the original question.

If a man cannot free himself from the chains of his past how then shall such a man create peace, harmony and tranquility (love) for the future that has yet to arrive?

Could it be said than that a man who stands observing his experience of frustration about his present circumstances but neglects to inquire about his past efforts is but a blind sheep to his many efforts thus far?

And therefore, has rejected the notion by default that by asking the question what distinguishes my future from my past lives and breathes not in the subconscious of man but more possibly lives in his inquiry all together.

And the answer to such a question may provide the insight he needs to explore and question his life with the future that occurs as merely the uncertain path along which he has been walking all this time.

Nina's Vision

Nina’s Vision

The vision for Nina’s Blanket’s is very simple, for every blanket sold, a blanket will be donated to children in need, “to give the gift of warmth.”  Nina’s, is a message of hope, a shift in how businesses can be sustainable while supporting a social cause.  The future of Nina’s is to provide blankets and other necessity items to those in need by selling on a 1 for 1 basis.  For every blanket Nina’s sells, a blanket is donated a child or family in need.

This work is a fundamental rethink in consumer consciousness to address the needs of a cause whilst providing quality products to the consumer.  Nina's represents a shift in the current model of recognition and support via Non-Profits and NGO’s.  A sustainable business is able to support its mission whilst providing a means to continue the growth and expansion of the mission. Therefore, Nina's was created on the foundation of giving and it is believed that the 1 for 1 model with sustain itself because of the strength of the mission and execution of its principles.

Selling goods whilst supporting our cause can be bridged by using innovative ideas, creative minds and community support to fulfill on the mission.  Warmth is a necessity and a blanket is the gift of warmth.  Nina’s Blanket is the message of hope and inspiration for a more connected world.  An appeal for action, Nina's is a vessel in which every person has an opportunity to get involved and contribute to those in need.

In order for change to happen each person must take accountability for who they are being.  Better said, “be the change we wish to see in the world."