September 2, 2010

Thanks to all of you who wrote or called about my last blog posting, glad to know I'm not walking alone.

So here's how that day played out:

After posting my prior entry here, I got up and went back out my door to reclaim my morning. Never let a bad taste linger on your tongue, my Grandma Edith told me more than once, and having had examples where the bad taste did linger (and deepen), I resumed my walk.

It was warm that morning, which is unusual for San Francisco most of the time, usually we get a couple of hot days, maybe twice a year. This has been an unusual year to say the least, and the warmth of the day felt welcome. As I went along the streets of San Francisco, I began to notice that there were lots of folks out and about, most of them dressed for the climbing temperature that the day would bring.

Walking up a hill, of which there are many here, I came to the top of Dolores Park. The view of downtown, gleaming in the early light of day, was beautiful and shiny, so I took out my Iphone and listened to some music. There I was, sitting on the grass, just relaxing and enjoying the moments, when two people passed by me, heading downslope. The first one was a woman of about 35 or so, a bit plump with an interesting tattoo on her left shoulder, the second person was a man, about 10 years older than the woman, who had on a floppy straw hat.

Nothing out of the ordinary about these two folks, except for the fact that both of them were stark naked. Or were they?

English is such an interesting language, what with all of its words, and the nuances that languages the world over share.

Were these people naked or nude?

I remember years ago, taking an Art History course at UCLA, how the professor went on and on one day about the difference in how painters portray the human body, and how there is a difference between naked, which she saw as raw and rough, and nude, which she said was more demure and sedate.

These two folks in the park were nude, except that they were out in the naked.

I watched as they strolled downhill towards a coffee shop on the corner, and thought about what a great big world I live in, in my little corner of the world.

As I walked home to continue my day, I passed a post-it note that someone had stuck on a lamp-post:

'Don't persue happiness-create it.'

Advice to live and love with, and on. 

 

August 29, 2010

There are some despicable people on this Earth. This weekend the newspapers are full of stories of people manipulating others. Some of these stories involve thousands of folks and some just one or two others. But the bottom-line is the same: There are bad people among us, and sometimes we have no idea how bad they are, until they do something that reveals their true nature.

There is no point in trying to avoid bad people, one must learn how to work with them to minimize their awful impact. Along the way, the way can get rocky. Stay true to yourself, stay true to your best principles, and let the right thing happen. Sometimes the bad people appear to win. Don't believe that nonsense for a second, as it in not true. Case in point:

Years ago, I was approached by a woman who wanted to 'do a deal' with me, but one thing and another and nothing ever got written down. She took my ideas and promoted them and made money which she never shared with me. I ended our relationship at this point. She went on to seem like she was on top of the world, but the truth was far more revealing, as she was now embroiled with a married man and then pregnant by him and decided to keep the child only to miscarry after her lover struck her with his car. Ugly stuff came her way.

She and I crossed paths this morning, while I was out for my morning constitutional, as I call my early morning walks. We saw each other in the same instant, and I saw her face harden, her features etched and drawn, the skin almost a pale shade of grey. She was exiting her car, and was dressed in sweats, the baggy material stretched tight in places that made her look mis-shapen. When I was about 15 feet from her she turned to fully face me on the sidewalk with her arms folded across her chest. I saw her blood red lips peel back to show her teeth in a snarl and started to cross the street right then and there. She started yelling something but I put in my earphones and kept on walking away from her. When I got home, on my telephone was a message from her, cursing me and ranting on about her anger.

Poor, broken spirit, sad, broken woman. Karma has clearly come to her, and has left balance in its wake. Karma means action, as in 'action for action', and is the result of intention. It may seem at some moment that some baddie is getting away with it, but the truth is that the baddie is going to get his retribution. No one ever gets away with it.

I knew an evil man in Southern California that seemed to get away with it, but the truth of his life was a battle to the grave with mysterious illnesses that robbed him of life just the way he had robbed people of their money with his investment shams. He had a terrible death.

Life is about choice, free will some call it. We all choose, all the time.

The important thing is to remember to choose from love, love of self, of life, of being. Love of living and being alive.

It won't make the baddies avoid you, but it will give you the power to work with the baddies and not become one of them or their victim.

Time for another walk for me, who knows who I'll see next? Love on!

 

August 24, 2010

Hello Ongala, India! What a lovely part of the world you are! All the best to you and yours!

It feels a bit like India right now in San Fran...

ye-ow-za! it is hot! Hot! HOT!

You see, we're a city that does not have high temperatures often and certainly not at this time of year...maybe next month...or later...

but not now. It is too damn hot, that's all there is to it.

All of the doors and windows are open, and it's almost 10PM...and there is no breeze to be felt, anywhere.

Our sweet kitty Edy is panting on the floor, and I'm about to join her.

This is one weird full moon. The Ghost Moon, in Chinese culture, when we honor the dead. If this temperature is any indication, there are a lot of folks in hell.

The moon rose early, around 10AM or so on the West Coast, and as I had planned, I took some time out of my day and thought of all the folks I knew and knew of who had died in this past year, and wished them a peaceful hereafter.

Some of the folks I thought of were schnooks (baddies) and some were good people, folks I admire. That is not to say that I did not learn from the baddies, no, in fact, some of the baddies were my best teachers. We can learn from both extremes in this life. That which goes up, and that which goes down. Both teach, the same message: upwards is onwards.

I used to tell my Dad that when he died I was going to put a freeway sign to mark his grave: Wrong Way! Go Back:

He laughed when I said it, and I loved and love him for it.

Tonight I honor all of those who have gone unto death before me in this lifetime, and thank them for the lesson that their life was to me.

We can learn from the dead, and become better living people. Alive with love and hope and possibility, of the better and brighter. We must remember to keep that feeling and thought alive in our hearts and minds, and make our lives and those lives we touch better, day by day, night by night.

To a brighter, better tomorrow! Happy Ghost Moon!

 

August 21, 2010

Hello Abu Dhabi! One of these days, I promise, I will visit.

Yesterday brought some interesting news, and I want to share part of it here.

The message is about the danger of ego. How we can let our ego get the better of us and create problems. There is a guy who came to see me about eight years ago, and we met a few times. He was having an affair with a woman he worked with, and was soon to be promoted to a position making him her superior. I advised him to either formalize or end the relationship. His ego got the better of him.

He made a mess of things and got embroiled in a law suit that resulted in his company having to pay the woman lots of money, his dismissal and subsequent arrest, along with the woman's, as she had been stealing from the company and had opened a bank account with both their names on it. It took years in his life and everything he had to get out of jail and through the trials and all the assorted mess.

Along the way he became an alcoholic and eventually joined Alcoholics Anonymous (www.aa.org) and finally began to get a grip on his life. All of this took 8 years, and yesterday I received a note from him, telling me of the above and thanking me for my honesty in our work. He included a telephone number and I called him, and we spoke for quite a time. What a changed being he has become, such a change in heart and thinking. Such a better person. We agreed to meet for coffee soon.

Ego can lead us to believe the un-true. Ego can have us do things we later regret. Ego can ruin our life.

Such a lesson his life has become, for him and for me and for all who know him. Will power is a good thing, and has to be tempered with fairness and judgement and truth. Otherwise trouble will ensue. We always have the power of choice, and do our best when we choose from the greatest love, for ourself and for others.

 

August 19, 2010

Sorry to see that my blog is still in disarray in history...finger's crossed...

Well, I did it. I had flirted with the idea for the longest time. I looked into every possibility that I could find, did Internet searches, talked with folks, read everything I could get my hands on, and then made a decision.

There are times when I will act swiftly and surely, but this was one of those times when I just needed to go at a pace that worked for me.

Which is to say, about 22 months. Quite a gestation, no?

This was one of those things I just could not rush, and really had to take my time deciding. Weighing the pro and the con, so to speak. Giving myself permission to make the best decision that I could. And the options seemed limitless.

The subject of all this hand wringing is the learning of the German language.

I am sure some of you are scratching your head and thinking my process a bit weird. Thanks for thinking of me.

Nonetheless, last night was the start of the next great adventure for me: returning to college.

And may I note at this juncture: WOW!!! Textbooks are EXPENSIVE!!! Over $200 for the two books I will need to take this course. And that's another point: the class is more than $100 to enroll.

Granted, back in the day, as they say nowadays, education always came with a price tag, but I do not recall it being so pricey as it is today. At one point, on a 10 minute break, some of us went to buy the books for the course, and the line at the campus bookstore moved at quite a clip, quite swiftly. Handing over credit card and being handed a receipt and my books, I walked away, looking at the dwindling line of students, and did a quick mental calculation: Thousands of dollars, right there, in just 10 or so minutes, changing hands. The cost of education, one place, one evening. All the money going into action. I love it!

The best use of money is progress, and that's what I saw and participated in last night. And maybe along the way I may learn a smattering of German. Finger's crossed, touch and knock wood!

 

August 13, 2010

Hello Hamilton New Zealand! All the best to you and yours!

Happy Friday the Thirteenth!

Happy Left Handed Day!

Gads, that's enough reasons to have a good day, today. Celebrations are always a nice way to start the day, on an up note.

Having something to celebrate may not always be easy, and some days there is nothing to celebrate, regardless. For most of us, those 'some days' do not linger, and time heals all wounds.

But not always. When one feels wounded and hurt, the best thing one can do is displace the negativity.

For me, this usually involves writing out my anger or hurt or rage or fear or whatever in long-hand on paper. May I tell you, I have been very good for the paper industry over the years, as I have gone through countless pads of paper in my time, and have a stock of them waiting to go...

Sitting and stewing in my own negative juices certainly does not improve me in any way.

Getting all the nastiness out of me, however, has kept my heart and arms open, ready to embrace myself and life with love.

And I do it with my left hand, first.

Celebrate today, when your ready. Enjoy life. Live love.

 

August 10, 2010

Happy Ramadan!

A while back I flew to Singapore. It was my first visit there, and I was so excited to go. I'd heard so many stories about this tiny little island/state over the years, and was fascinated with what I read. What a melting pot, I thought, in South East Asia.

Singapore was better than I could have imagined.

There are so many stories about my travels there that I am writing a book about it, sharing the amazing things that I saw and experienced in Singapore. But one of them stands out on this day, and that is this one:

We were walking, Joe and I, on the edge of Chinatown in Singapore, on a bright, sunny and of course hot temperature day, at the small covered market there. It was thronged with people, most of them carrying plastic bags filled with stuff, and a bit crowded. Jostling through, I came to a stand with a beautiful display of tropical fruits of such variety and color that I just had to stop and admire it. The woman behind the stand was busy helping the steady stream of customers buying from her, and when she did get a moment she picked something up and started writing on it. And then she put it down and grabbed something similar. Curious, I stepped forward to see that she was holding a Christmas card in her hand, and was writing in it. I also noted that she had done some and had more to go, just as she said to me 'Can I help you?'. I was a bit sheepish and smiled and indicated the cards. She smiled and told me that she wanted to get them done so she could mail them today. She wasn't Christian but she celebrated all of the holidays that were connected to friends of hers, and Christmas was very popular in the world, she said. I bought some fruit for our room and thanked her for the conversation and her wisdom. She smiled and said 'Anytime'.

So, anytime is always with me, now, and I remember her generosity of spirit, and keep it close to me.

Happy Ramadan!

 

August 6, 2010

For those of you who have contacted my regarding this blog and the cut off on April 5, 2010, I'm working with www.citymax.com to fix this problem and restore the missing dates. Finger's crossed, this happens soon.

Hello Sweden! Everytime I have had the pleasure of visiting your beautiful country I have had a wonderful time. My best to you and yours!

The issue of gay marriage has re-surfaced here in California due to a Federal Judge's ruling a law (Proposition 9) is unconstitutional.

And of course, San Francisco is the center of this news, and the celebrations that have been taking place since the above decision are still sweeping the town.

Elsewhere in California, rallies have been and will be held decrying this Judge's decision.

Change is a slow process. And difficult at times.

It's helps me to remember that change is a process that has been occuring since the beginning of time. Along the way there have been things that happened that did not last, others that became different as time went on, and some that disappeared altogether.

Time marches on, day by day. While here, make the best of your abilities and remember the magic that love is, and share that love.

Love is life alive.

 

August 3, 2010

This is officially the coldest summer in San Francisco since they started keeping records...

As I stepped out this morning, onto the deck overlooking the yard, I noticed, in my bare feet, that the deck was wet with drizzle. Add to this a grey, cloudy sky and temps in the low 50'sF and you get the picture.

Contrary to public thinking, Samuel Clemens did not say that the coldest winter he'd ever experienced was a summer in San Francisco.

But this summer, he could have.

And yet all I have to do to feel the summer heat is leave the city, go down the peninsula or across one of the bridges, and the sun comes out and the temperature soars and it's summertime.

It because of that great big bay out there, and the fog that lurks off-shore right now, towering up to 3,000 feet, just waiting to spill into the bay and bring winter back with a vengence. In parts of the town, the fog burns off in the afternoon and it's sunny for a while, until the fog returns.

Oh well, whatcha gonna do? I, for my part, will make the best of it, and go about my business as I see fit. This week will see me down in the south bay, where summer reigns, in an air-conditioned office building for part of a day. But I'll be driving back into the fog when I return home, glad to be away from the heat and the sizzle.

Aclimatized, that's what I am. It's taken a few years of living here, but it's happened.

It is said that humans prefer a narrow temperature band, about 65F to 78F, and that does appear to be true. There are exceptions, of course. I know a woman who keeps her house cool, well, almost cold, most of the year. And another guy I know, he hates it when he gets cold and always has jackets and sweaters (jumpers) in his car to dress in.

Layers, that's the trick to living here in San Francisco.

And what do you want to bet that this Fall it will be hot for days on end? Make the best of it, that's my advice. Always!

 

July 31, 2010

This is the day I became an adult. I was 14 years old at the time.

My Mom had been ill for a couple of years, and her smoking and alcoholism were getting the better of her. She was slowly dying.

On this date she died.

I woke up knowing that she had died, I just knew it. My Father's house was empty, whereas the night before my Aunt and her four daughters as well as my Grandmother had been at home. Now it was just me and my Dad.

The death of a parent marks a significent time in ones life, like no other. Suddenly that person who had been there, or not, is gone. It is clear that time is advancing, and that our own mortality will someday not distant be evident.

I grew up that morning, and realized that my life was about to undergo its most serious upheavel, and I knew in my bones that I would have to take good care of myself, the kind of care my Mom had given me in her best moments. I could wax rhapsodic about what a thrilling time in my life this was, a new school, new neighbors, new friends...but that would not fully convey the horror of this time in my life, when I felt ripped out of my life into someplace where I was clearly an intruder, not wanted and barely welcome.

Like I said, I grew up that summer, and learned to navigate the social waters around me, the new people, the new situations.

It was not easy, I did not enjoy it, and it was absolutely the right thing to do.

Events will come along in life that we do not want and do not enjoy. How we deal with them is critical to our wellness.

My Mom's failing health had led me to ponder what would happen should she die, and I considered my options, which were few. I knew that I would have to adjust to a single parent, a man I barely knew; move; start a new school, and cope. Lots and lots of coping.

The next two years were really crazy, lots of physical and emotional abuse. I left my Fathers house for good when I was 17 years old. The intervening three years since Mom's death had been terrible, and foretold of my future: homeless and in High School. Some life, huh?

Life may throw you a curve ball. Do your best with it. Give it and you your best effort.

Looking back, today, on that day 45 years ago, I give thanks to love and good and God and all who helped me along the way. Thank you, too, for your interest and support. We are all in this together, are we not? Here's to the best life offers. All the best!

  

July 28, 2010

Thanks to all who wrote in after my last posting, sharing your favorite and not so things about San Francisco.

No matter where you go, there you are.

No place is perfect all the time, and sometimes the place that we find ourselves in can be far from perfect. Make the best of it, I say.

Vote with your feet, if you can, and get to someplace better. But if you're stuck where you are, resist the Siren's call to mirror the situation.

Letting crummy people and places get the better of you is giving away too much of yourself and will not end well.

And let's face it: there are some crummy people and places in the world. Oy!

Don't join them! For your sake, and the love of those in your life. Two wrongs will never make a right.

Where you are is where you begin.

That's why I think and sometimes say outloud 'Thank you' when I wake up. Thanks that I'm alive and can enjoy this time.

And Thanks for all of the good and the bad in the world, as it is this duality that is the engine of life.

Then I vote with my feet, and walk into my day and all of those whose life I touch, glad to be here, still. Alive to love.

 

July 25, 2010

Only five more months until Christmas...

but right now that holiday seems quite a ways away, most of the US of A has been sweltering under a blanket of heat. And Milwaukee, in the center of the country, received nearly eight inches of rain in 24 hours, flooding most of the town. This freaky weather is lending support to the theory of global warming, to say the least.

And here in San Francisco we are experiencing our usual summertime early morning fog. You can see it on satelite photos, this massive bank of fog off the west coast, two thousand feet thick. Yesterday afternoon, on my usual Saturday afterwork walk, I noticed this towering wall of fog hovering behind the Twin Peaks hills in the west of the city, and watched it as it cascaded down, chilling the air around me. Such a common sight here, tourists in sweat shirts that say 'San Francisco' or something local, and you know just from the looks of them that they're visitors to our fair and foggy city.

Outside of the city, the temperatures are up in the 80's and 90's, summer is in full swing.

When I first moved here, back in 1983, the locals I met talked about the micro-climates here in the Bay Area. At first I didn't quite get it, but after a few months of travel around the area it was crystal clear to me: one can go from foggy and cold to hot and sticky in about 20 minutes of travel. How to deal with this? Dress in layers, at least three, and you'll be relatively comfortable.

The other morning, as I prepared to leave for my gym, I went out on my deck and it was drizzling and rainy. And the sky was blue to my left and dark and cloudy on my right. Micro-climes...

Funny city, San Francisco. Come see for yourself!

 

July 20, 2010

Hello Moscow! What an amazing city. I remember my first visit, back in 1983, in the old days. One of the most interesting days I had, I ditched my tour group and wandered into the metro system and rode around for a couple of hours, getting advice from locals as to which stations to visit and interesting sights 'off the beaten path'. Since then I've been back a few times and Moscow still rocks. All the best to you and yours!

Golly, thinking back to those days, the early 80's. What a time in the world it was, and what a time in my life. Going to the then Soviet Union had come about in an odd manner, first as a leisure trip but it morphed into a quasi business trip. Communism was the operating policy officially, but my dealings showed me the all too human side of Communism. It was like being told one thing and observing another. From then on my perception of the world changed, and continues to evolve to this day.

Travel has been such an eye opener for me, I cannot and really don't want to imagine what my life would be like without it.

And I am not just looking through 'rose colored glasses' when I think about travel. To be sure, leaving one's home to sleep in strange beds and not eat home cooking can be quite a burden. For several years in my life my schedule was: get up Monday morning at 4AM, shower and dress and drive to airport, park car, take shuttle bus to terminal, get on plane and fly for hours, get in shuttle to pick up rental car to go to hotel, or get in cab to go to hotel, then go to office and work rest of day. Wednesday afternoon get back to airport, fly hours to another city, taxi or rental car to hotel, then work then hotel. Friday late afternoon fly home and pick up car. Try that for a couple of years and all of the joy of travel evaporates.

There were times that I would just stay in whichever city I was on Friday and fly to work on Monday. It was usually a shorter flight. Getting clothes washed and clean was quick and easy, and the wear and tear on my body was less. But I would miss my home, in what ever city I was living in, and would usually fly home for the weekend before starting the routine again.

Awhile back I saw the movie 'Up in the Air' with George Clooney. Deja-vu it was. I knew his pain, the lonliness, the emptiness, the ache. Like him, I too had grabbed at straws along the way, only to discover the sad and real truth about life: it is not always what it appears to be.

Now I know that my power, such as it is, stops at my skin and starts within me. Waiting for someone to come along and make my life better is giving up too much of my personal power and will victimize me in the end. If I want change, I must make it happen. It can be a pain in the patoot to have to do, but not doing it will not make my life better or me happier.

Here's to all of us being happier. Make the most of this day and night and day by day, our lives will improve. All the best!

 

July 17, 2010

Hello Brazil! Thanks for stopping by, all the best to you. One of these days I'll get there, I hope, sure want to visit...

and Hello to all of you, faithful readers. Sorry for the absence, I have had a house full of friends and family the past week and it has been so very hectic, being host and all. I do love showing off San Francisco to visitors, and my sister-in-law Jennie and her daughter Becca were wonderful visitors and enjoyed themselves while here.

The weather was perfect, foggy and cool in the morning, bright blue sky in the afternoon. Coming from Chicago, our visitors were delighted to spend a few days in the cool of the City, and did a great deal of walking about. San Francisco, despite its hills, is a great city to walk in as it's not too big nor busy, and if you get tired there is usually some form of transportation handy.

So, now the house is much quieter and Edy the cat is sleeping in her usual spots again. She always moves about when visitors stay with us, for some unknown save to cats reason. Cat logic, what a concept.

and the love of Summer continues here in this house, and tomorrow will bring something new to this town: a flea market at Candlestick Park!!!

Even though I grew up in the Los Angeles area, which has many flea markets, I never went to one until I visited Paris. There were all of these vendors, selling everything one could imagine. It was fantastic. The throngs of people, the food for sale, the stuff on display- all of it was alluring and so inviting to me. As a resident of Paris, I prowled that flea market, and still visit when I am in the City of Lights. Later I discovered the Pasadena Rose Bowl flea market, and when I moved to San Francisco I discovered the Alameda flea market, across the bay.

A new flea market in San Francisco! Starting tomorrow, and continuing the 3rd Sunday of each month! Opens at 6AM (get there early for the best selection) and runs until 3PM, $15 until 8AM, $5 thereafter.

For years, in my travels around our world, I have always tried to visit the local flea market as one can learn so much about a place by looking at what people are selling, whether it's objects and stuff or food or produce. Cities display themselves in flea markets, and the citizens of those cities are on display as well. Another benefit of visiting flea markets, the people you'll see and could meet. I remember in Rome, near the Tiber river, a flea market there, filled with clothes and dozens of stalls selling all manner of stuff. And the food!!! It was such a delightful couple of hours, that day, there with all those people, the buzz and hum of commerce.

And the markets in London! What great street theatre is there, along with oodles of goods and all manner of people. Wonderful times.

And then there are the markets in Asia: Thailand, China and Japan having been visited by me. Amazing sights and sites.

The adventure of San Francisco takes a new step tomorrow, very early in the morning. Sunrise on the bay, not a bad way to start the day...

 

July 9, 2010

Hello Manila!

Had a most interesting session with a client the other day, and wanted to share what I can with you:

I first was introduced to her, let's call her Mary, at a party here in San Francisco about 3 years ago. She was in her early 20's and working on a career in fashion, taking classes as she could afford them and working several jobs to pay her bills. Nice girl, she came across as sincere and honest, and I had good feelings about her future.

Months later our paths crossed in downtown, near Union Square. We both had time and mutually suggested coffee as it was a cool afternoon. Our conversation was light and an exchange of salent points about each of our lives, and we laughed a bit. Nice meeting you I said to her, and we parted.

Two weeks later she called me for a session to help resolve some troubling issues. We met several times, and she began to change her perception of her troubles and how she could change them. She became even more focused on making her fashion career work, and to that end started wearing her own designs as much as she could. The notice from the public was immediate: people would stop her on the street to inquire where her clothes came from, and each time she would hand them her business card and invite them to call her for an appointment. Many folks did, and one day a woman called her and later came to see her, and ordered several outfits. It was Mary's biggest job and she poured heart and soul into these garments.

Fast forward six months later, and Mary now has a staff of folks helping her make her designs for her many clients, worldwide. She is still very focused and has learned to trust her guts above all else. This is especially helpful when she starts getting offers of financial help to expand her business. She becomes an astute business woman because she trusts herself, her intention, her focus, and her intuition.

Mary is living proof that good does come to those who only allow good to influence them. I have seen her swallowed by a crowd of folks since we first met, and how everyone flatters and allures her, and through it all she has learned to stay grounded and not be swept away by fame, fortune and all the rest.

Soon she will be submitting sketches to a film director who wears her suits, and who knows where her career will take her.

I still feel good feeling about her future. I know she does too now. Trust is obtainable. Self love leads the way.

 

July 6, 2010

Well, it's official, the year is half way over...

My Grandmother Edith used to say that she was sure that time sped up as we get older. At the time I was around 8 years old or so, and I found her remark curious and kinda odd. Now I understand exactly what she was talking about.

Time does seem to speed up as we age, as countless folks have told me over the years.

Lately, it seems as if time has been zipping along faster and faster, what with the end of the school year, the start of Summer, the Fourth of July and the fireworks and fresh corn in the markets and the smell of grilled meat in our backyard. Yep, sure signs of this time of year. And the weather across the US of A has been hot and humid and still is, especially along the Eastern seaboard. Having just been in DC, I know what that feels like...ye-ow! Water and shade, please.

However the weather, this is a great time to get out a bit and enjoy the longer days here in the northern hemisphere while they last. As you may know, the gradual shortening of daylight hours is now under way in the north of the globe, to continue until the Winter equinox this December 21st, when the Earth wobbles again and Summer returns. Seems like a long time from now...

and maybe it's not so far away. "Make hay while the sun shines" was a popular saying years ago, and still applies to this day and age.

Watching some of the children the other evening, at 'Peter Pan', I was struck by the delight that childhood can hold, to hear the peal of laughter around me, to see the faces of children aglow with the wonder before their eyes. All the best of childhood was on display in that tent the other evening, and certainly was for me a wonder to behold. One little girl sitting behind us remarked to her Mom that she couldn't believe how quickly the play had ended, and her Mom told her that they had been there for more than two hours. 'Two hours- that long? Really, Mommy?' Which brings to mind another old chestnut saying: Time flies when you're having fun.

So, go fly, go have fun in the sun, or whatever weather greets you! Make the most of your day and make the most of your life, today!

Enjoy!

 

July 2, 2010

Peter Pan got me last night.

A while back, some out-of-towners came here to San Francisco and pitched a tent. And what a pitch it was. They got permission to erect a bunch of tents, one of them huge-ish on a park near the Embarcadero, a lovely stretch of land on the Bay. And then they put on a performance of 'Peter Pan', a story first written as 'The Boy Castaways of Lost Lake' for some neighboring children that lived near the author in London. The writer was J.M. Barrie, a Scotsman who had been a modestly successful writer, who wrote the story for these five boys, and later he reworked the piece and it became his most famous work, the proceeds of which to this day benefit a hospital in London. Charity in action.

A client/friend in London had mentioned that he and his wife and their two children had seen this production twice, so after a few weeks of debate with myself ($, time, interest?) I tossed a coin and heads up, I went.

Peter Pan got me. Straight through the heart.

I'd heard that the story was about a boy who never grows up. As a child, I had seen the cartoon version made by the Disney Studios and laughed and enjoyed it, but there was nothing remarkable about the story line or the characters to me. Just an amusement, so I thought.

Now I see the story of Peter Pan in a whole new light. Maybe I understand what Barrie was trying to tell us all, maybe we don't have to grow up. Maybe it is possible to keep that child-like sense of optimism and innocence alive in ourselves, and maybe, just maybe, that is the secret to eternal life- letting love and joy and a sense of adventure touch you.

Peter Pan got me, and I'd love to hug him and give him a thimble.

As a thank you to him, and to his creator, for reminding me that I will only be as old as the spirits of love and adventure feel inside me.

That was my 'take-away' from last night, just another night in a series of countless nights here on Earth. Maybe there is a small part of Neverland down by the Embarcadero right now, for all to see and enjoy. Maybe all of us, boys and girls, can never grow old, not as long as we keep love alive in our hearts.

I believe!

 

June 30, 2010

Hello again, how are you? Well, I hope, and enjoying this Summer.

so, here I am, post ALA Conference in DC. Did you know that it can get hot there? OMG!!!

After two flights, via Chicago, arrived at DCA Reagan Airport and grabbed the Metro into town. Didn't notice the heat until I emerged to meet my friend, Kathryn. As I rode up the escalator I began to feel waves of heat wash over me, hotter and hotter. At street level it was not only hot, but humid as well. Just what I expected of DC in June.

Spent the next two days touring when I could, along with thousands of others. What a great city, so much art, so many museums, such history all around. I had not spent much free time in the town since I lived, albeit briefly, in Maryland in 1969, and as you can imagine, things have changed, amazingly.

What used to be an ugly city with crime rampant is now a civilized city with much to enjoy. I had a great time. Check out my Facebook entries at www.facebook.com. Lots of photos.

The exhibitor part of the Conference started Friday afternoon for a couple of hours. What an amazing sight, thousands of librarians and thousands of books at hundreds of exhibitors. Every possible subject matter seemed to be on display, along with furniture and software and stuff found in libraries. I met dozens of people, talked up my book while at my publishers booth, and had a great time. Of course, being in an air conditioned space helped tremendously.

I have not done much marketing of my book, and have declined offers of a book tour as it would take me away from my work practice for too long a time. Going out and stumping around the country just isn't for me at this point in time. So it was great to take the time and meet with librarians from all over the planet. Saturday and Sunday, the exhibition hall was open and thronged. Several celebrity authors were there, as well as a space set up for cooking demonstrations for cookbook authors. Of course I came away with several books that I discovered and probably would never have known of, there are so many publishers and such limited shelf space.

The rise of the E book was a subject on everyones lips, and clearly divided the crowd, some hating the death, as they see it, of the paper book, others heralding the arrival of new technology to facilitate reading.

Literacy in this country continues to rise, thankfully. One author I talked with told me how she was at pains to keep 'big' words out of her work, and wrote for a Standardized Sixth Grade level....

This past Monday I reversed my commute and went back to DCA to catch the first of two flights, via Dallas, homeward. I was glad I'd made the effort. Yes, it took a week out of my schedule and cost me money for airfare et al, but I got to see a segment of the reading public and learn of their needs, of the difficulties they face in their workplace. Reading is an important tool in our world, and the ability to read elevates one, not only in cognition but in learning about this amazing world of ours.

 

June 22, 2010

Another day starts so very early for me today, up at 3:30AM so I can catch two flights, via Chicago, to Washington DC and the American Library Association Annual Conference where my book, An Other Perspective, is featured.

Don't get me wrong, I'm quite glad that my book was selected for this years Conference, but today will be a long day, and when I get to DC the weather will be in the 90's and the humidity will be about the same.

DC in June, ugh....

but, this is a honor and I am most grateful to my publisher (www.xlibris.com) for getting me this slot. Supporting libraries is a good thing, as Martha would say, and here's my chance to give back to a community that has helped me for years.

Packing and traveling light, no computer this trip, and hopefully both my flights today will operate on time and all will go smoothly. My friend Kathryn will be my host for the week, and she and I can spend some time together hanging out in DC, seeing the sights and enjoying ourselves. She's a DC native who moved back there last November to support her family after her Mom's passing. Such a good person she is.

Better get my poop in a group and keep me feets moving. Have a great day!

 

June 21, 2010

Happy Summer! (northern hemisphere, Happy Winter in the south)

Most of you are in the north, according to the statistics that are collected by www.citymax.com, my website host, along with lots of other bits of information. I always find it interesting to see just where in the world my readers are, and the answer is: all over the world.

I awoke a couple of minutes after 4AM this morning, and found myself quite awake, considering the hour. Not having planned to rise at such an early time, I lazed in bed and watched the sky lighten behind the trees outside my bedroom window. Wisps of clouds floated by, and it came to me that this day is the Solstice, the mid point in the years rotation, the first day of Summer. Edy, quiet on cats feet, came to join me, and together we watched the sky take on lighter and lighter shades, the darkness of night giving way, moment by moment, minute by minute, to the light of day, the first sunrise of this Summer.

Around 5AM there was a clatter on the deck, and a squirrel appeared. One of the big ones that forage in the yard. Lately, I had placed a bowl of squirrel food, lots of seeds and nuts, on the table on the deck, and have seen one and sometimes two squirrels eating. Edy sits and watches them from the vantage of her cat stand/scratching post in the dining room. This morning we watched the squirrel together, and saw how quickly it ate. All of a sudden, there were two squirrels, but the new one was smaller than the first one. Together they ate. Suddenly, Edy sat up and looked out the bedroom doors as two more squirrels made their way up the wisteria vine on the deck. Four squirrels, count'em, 4! No wonder the food has been disappearing so quickly. Now it all makes sense.

So, here we all are, on this solstice day. Squirrels, a kitty, and me. And dawns first rays illuminated the backyard, and the air was filled with morning birdsong.

Happy Summer!

 

June 19, 2010

It's the Weekend! Hooray!

When I lived in Pakistan I learned that the weekends that I had known all of my life were not universal, it came as quite a shock. There, Saturday is the Weekend, Sunday is the start of the work week, and Friday afternoon is the start of the Weekend. Quite a shock to get used to. But not all that difficult, as I had been in jobs where my days off were Monday and Tuesday, or Friday and Saturday, so moving the days off was OK with me. What was so shocking was to have my weekend reduced to one day. That was some rough sledding for a while, but thankfully I did not have to stay in Lahore all that long, and returned to Germany and the Weekend as I knew them, two days of leisure time.

Have you ever noticed that leisure sounds a bit like pleasure?

Having pleasure with ones leisure, that would be the point of it, time off and away from ones vocation, ones job.

Most of us have chores that we have to get done, and some of our leisure time will be devoted to whittling down the 'should' pile, that stack of stuff to do that we all have. All the stuff we 'should' get to, sort out, clean up, put away, whatever. When I was a kid, I remember watching my Mom put stuff off, and how she would avoid doing things she did not like to do, like clean the house. So I would pick up the rooms from time to time, just to help out. This worked out just fine until I tried to help out at my Dad's house. He was single at the time and had 'girlfriends', lots of them. Once when I was visiting, I started picking up some of the newspapers from previous days, and in walked Dad's current girlfriend. She took one look at what I was doing and started directing me, telling me what to do and how to do it. I went along with her for a while, but when she told me to go into the kitchen and make her a sandwich, I just walked away from her. She didn't like me after that day, but like most of Dad's girlfriends, she wasn't around long. But the clutter was...

Today, I work at keeping  the clutter down around the house, and do so daily. I find that if I do a little sorting each day, stuff tends not to accumulate and pile up.

I watched one of those reality shows lately about hoarders, people that just keep filling their rooms with stuff.  Quite shocking, and right after I turned off the TV, I scurried about for quite a while, sorting out my own meagre clutter, imagining what it would be like to live surrounded with stuff, junk, things. Kinda made my skin itch, just a wee bit.

So, here's another Weekend, and I know that I will be leisuring at points over the next couple of days. And tending to my clutter, to be sure.

The best leisure is pleasure. Enjoy!

 

June 15, 2010

Happy Ides of June! Half way through the month! Keep going!

Language has always been an interest of mine, since I was a small child. I learned to read early and do a great deal of reading these days. Lately there have been some interesting books published on the subject of languages, and a couple of ones about the English language and how it came to be. And the uniqueness of the word 'do', a very specific English word, as most languages do not have any word that resembles and functions as does the word 'do'.

Such a language, English. I heard it said that it is one of the most difficult languages to learn, but not as hard as Navajo. Not that I'll be learning any Navajo in the future, mind you. On my docket is German...

as is a trip to my local Public Library, to see what materials they have that can help me on my quest. Such a wonderful thing, a library. When I discovered them as a child, I would visit them as time and parents allowed. Today there is a library up a nearby little street that I visit from time to time. Guess I'll be up there, later today.

And next week I will attending the American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, DC, at the Convention Center. My book, An Other Perspective, has been selected as a book, one of many, to be featured at this years meeting. There will be thousands and thousands of people, and I will be there to promote my book and its benefits. When I was first approached about being in this years Conference I jumped at the chance. Libraries have given so much to me over the years, this is my chance to give back to them.

Throngs of people make me very nervous and have been a challenge to me all of my life to this point. Here will be my opportunity to grow beyond that limitation. Finger's crossed!

So, here's something that came to me years ago about the English language, the similiarity of these words:    go god good.

Curious no? Gotta go and do, bye to you!

 

June 10, 2010

Intuition is like a muscle, the more you use it, the more developed it becomes.

Yesterday I was on a phone link up with a group of folks in support of a corporate client. As we introduced ourselves I had a feeling when I heard one specific person speak, and knew that she was going to try to manipulate the groups effort. And sure enough, she did try. It was only when she was asked to distribute her data that she relented.

Intuition. Trust your guts. You must first be grounded and in your body, sober and clear. Your intuition is yours to develop.

Nearly all of my life, my intuition has been with me, not always silently in the corner, whispering to me things I need to know. This isn't to say that I have always listened to it, quite the opposite. And those incidences have been very educational, making mistakes has helped to make me a better person. In learning to trust my intuition, I have learned to love life even more.

And that has truly been worth the effort, absolutely.

Like most of us, growing  up was a struggle for me, and learning to trust myself required being honest with myself. Realizing that the trauma I had suffered as a child effected me in the present day helped me to resolve my feelings about my past, and led to me discovering the value of physical energetic displacement, of acting it out, as it were, in a safe manner.

By displacing my anger, frustration, hurt and more, I have opened myself up to allow for greater compassion and love. Holding onto the negative feelings that life engenders causes bitterness and cynicism, and maybe more and worse. The only person that I am responsible for is me, and it is my job to be the best me that I can be, to be loving and honest, to be free from judgement and regard.

In my work, I have met thousands of people. The vast majority are happy somewhat, however many do not allow themselves to have the lives they wish for in their hearts, and instead make compromises and settle for what they get. Not fully actuated, and therefore not fully alive. What a choice. Each of us gets to choose in this life, and the choices appear infinite. Give yourself permission to live your best life, to be the best you, to love and be loved, to live.

 

June 9, 2010

Hello Madurai and Tamil Nadu! All the best to you and yours!

Ankle is almost back to normal, knock wood, whew, that was a scary bit, falling and all, and I am fortunate. As I was heading for the pavement, I remember thinking that I needed to take care of myself as best as I could, and have followed that advice to this day. Funny, that.

In falling, I knew instantly that there was nothing I could do to regain my footing, that I needed to shift my body to land in a better place, to brace with shoulder, to tilt my head just so, to clench jaw, and to breathe. All of that in a split second. Including this sense that I would be OK, and I was, except for the soreness and the ankle. My left ankle, a reminder to me of my flexible (read unstable) childhood.

There are some things that happen in life that we must endure. The success of that endurance resides in our processing of our emotions, of displacing negative energies. Only then can we have the capacity to continue to become better and more.

Of all the people that I have met in this life, and that number must surely be pretty high, I have never met a completely satisfied person. Not yet, but I hold out hope that maybe someday...

All of us have stuff in our lives that tries our patience and stirs up our emotions. It is what we do with those darker emotions that helps determine what happens next. Displacement helps.

On another note, came home to find a Boeckh Family Newsletter, my Great Grandmother's folks in Germany. Of course, it's all in German, so I will be sitting for hours trying to figure out what's in it, but there is a photo of me and one of my relatives at the Reunion in Nordlingen, Germany. The next Reunion is September 2011 in Lahr, Germany, near the Black Forest, where another branch of this group comes from. Ah, family! Ah, German...I read somewhere that Samuel Clemens called German the hardest language to learn, and I might have to agree.

Maybe I've spent too many years, learning Romance Languages like French and Spanish and Italian, but German is not going down all that easily.

So, now I will be looking around, seeing what classes are available, when and how much...because maybe if I start now, by September 2011 I may be able to communicate with some of my relatives in Europe, mostly in Germany. In German....

 

June 2, 2010

Wow, a big Thank You to everyone who has written or called about my www.youtube.com/heikkiedean site!

I am still trying to get up to speed, so my initial direction was to YouTube and not my specific channel, but I think I got it figured out, knock/touch wood.

This has been one of those lovely mornings here in Baghdad By The Bay, San Francisco, that is. A foggy morning at the Golden Gate, while parts of the City have been fog free and windy. Too bad there were no stars to see before dawn, as I read that the show was interesting on www.stardate.org, my site for all things heavenly. Perhaps tomorrow morning...?

I'm gearing up for the annual American Library Association Conference, held this year in Washington, DC at the end of June. My publisher selected my book as one of the books that they would feature at this years exhibit. Woo-hoo! I have always been a big fan of libraries, ever since I first found out about them. As a kid, the only books in our houses were the books I brought from the local library, until my Mom started buying Alfred Hitchcock's paperbacks. So much of what I have learned has come from books, and to this day I am a reader, with right now 6 books by my bedside, one of which I'm reading, the others wait their turn.

For 3 days I will be meeting librarians from the world over, and am planning on giving away many copies of my book to folks there. My publisher's representative was surprised that I wanted to do this, but what the heck? Maybe I can help someone, that is why I wrote it in the first place. 

DC in June, brutal. Hot, humid, icky. Linen and light silk, that's the ticket. To the wardrobe I go....

Thanks again for the encouragement!

 

June 1, 2010

Hello New Zealand! One of these days (I hope)!

Happy June! Here's hoping the month is a good one for all of us.

Well, I finally did it: I completed my project that I have been working on since my birthday, and wow! does it feel great to be done, for now.

This all started years ago, when I was living in Los Angeles. I would go on walks here and there, and I came to notice that looking at certain scenes helped my body to relax, which in turn helped my mind to relax. The somatic connection.

When I looked into the technology that was available at the time, all of it was bulky and a bit awkward to use. And heavy as well, so not an option. Time clicked forward and brought with it new and improved tech, and that resulted in wonderful improvements.

Right before my birthday I identified a gift I wanted to give myself for this year, and it was a Flip HD camera, capable of sixty minutes of video recording, and one just plugs it into ones computer and the software does the rest, with a bit of help from the user. Very easy to use and interesting to work with.

Off I went, here and there, taking videos and then coming home and editing them, learning about how the camera lens sees the world, and how the images look on playback. What a lot of learning! Suddenly, I found myself looking at looking, seeing how seeing shapes our world for us, and how imagery can evoke, revoke, provoke and become so much more to the subjective. So interesting.

The long and the short of it was my own www.youtube.com/heikkiedean, as my channel is called 'heikkiedean'.

What's up now is just a start, small but steady. What I want to present to folks via youtube is an opportunity to sit for a moment, usually less than two minutes, and take in a scene that is calming, with ambiant sound to further help the body relax.

One small step, I know, but a big one for me. There will be more to come in the coming days on the heikkie channel. Stay tuned!

 

May 29, 2010

Better and better, it is, me foot, thank me stars and garters...

such a trail, this has been, so painful and so omni-present. Physical pain, when it is constant and unrelenting, is a test.

There is a part of me in this physical pain that feels that it is close to breaking, just so tired of this enduring pain.

Throughout each day, I have struggled to recover myself as I was before I fell in Harvard, and I am not there, yet.

"We fall to rise" I learned years ago, and am now in the position to make-or-break that statement. Lucky, lucky me.

There is no sarcasm in the foregoing, I mean it, every word, I am lucky.

Each of us, in this thing called life, gets a path to walk. That's what is the first picture on my website, a stroll through an apple orchard, one of the best paths I can remember walking, thus far.

Right this minute, for me, it is pain.

Shortly, I will sit and listen to light classical music through headphones, to calm my mind. I shall find a comfortable pose that feels good in my body, and I shall relax and hope to transcend my pain. This  will be my continued effort toward wellness.

Fall to rise, down to up, bad to good, stop to start....

There is an omnipresent duality to life, 1-2, It starts with us and becomes our world, that's how it is here on Earth.

Love yourself, then love those around you.

The more you love you, forgive you, permit you, encourage you, the more you there will be.

We can only live each moment, second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year, decade, score, generation, century, millenia, eon as we see fit, right? The challenge is to live your truth, your best. Love and let live!

 

May 27, 2010

Still hobbling, but my foot looks less colorful but still swollen. Painful to walk on. Ouch!

But hobble on do I, into a rainy and then sunny day. Ah, the luxury of sunshine.

That's one of the things that led me to living in San Francisco. Los Angesles, Paris, London, Chicage have at one time or another been home for me. LA gets so hot and smoggy, Paris is packed to the gills, London is grey so much of the time, and Chicago has winters that are soooo cold, they call the wind that blows there 'The Hawk' because it comes on you unseen and gets right to your bones. Brrrrr

San Francisco is my just right, at least for now.

When I was growing up, I heard how so and so had lived in whereever we were forever. Forever. What a concept. It didn't sound for me.

And sure enough, as I got older I moved every school year starting with Kindergarten until 9th Grade, about 15 years old.

The thought of moving today sounds unlikely, but I have learned that change is permanent, no matter what.

 

May 26, 2010

Hello Again! It's so good to be home. As much as I love to travel (25K miles this year and counting), I love coming home the most.

Sleeping in ones own bed...surrounded by ones comfortable digs, as it were, is the best.

And of course the sights and sounds and smells all contribute, and ones body relaxes, and slumber is nigh...

Always on the look out for some 'cheap thrill', i.e. travel, months ago I came across $100 flights to Boston, Massachusetts. Boston is a very special town to me. It was a business destination for years, and 22 years ago this year I was there on a business trip, selling computer based training to the Strategic Air Command of the US Air Force, and met Joe.

So going back to Boston was jumped on, and we went this past weekend +. Caught the 'Red Eye' overnight jet to Boston, arriving in time for an early breakfast, which we enjoyed with our friend, Mary Anne, at the Trident Cafe. What a great place to start, food and books, two of my favorites. www.tridentbookscafe.com

And then around Boston by car, going here and there, revisiting places we've been and seeing the changes. Boston has become much more upscale in its core, and what used to be crummy, rundown buildings are now livingly and lovingly restored and shine brightly. After all the sightseeing, and wow, Boston is so red, there are so many brick buildings, we headed to Toro (www.toro-restaurant.com a Spanishy place where we dove right in for a snack...then over to Cambridge where Mary Anne lives to see the changes there. Wow, that city is still so beautiful, in places, so 'back East' to this Californian fella.

Dinner found us at Ole's in Cambridge, upscale Mexican cooking, que bueno, and an early 10PM night. One full day.

Club Quarters (www.clubquarters.com) is a chain of business person's lodgings and was our home for 2 nights. Smallish but nice, and well priced. After a good nights sleep, off we went in the morning Monday to walk around. Such history is on the streets of Boston, the story of the founding of the USA there for all to read about. Quite many interesting stories. And the city center is so compact that it all in wihin walking distance. Then through the Public Garden and Beacon Hill and Boston Commons up Newberry Street to the Prudential Center and the shopping mall and then a train to Harvard Square....

While walking around, I had an out of body rush every few minutes, and during one of them, I fell.

Like most animals, when I fall I instantly try to rise up. And I did, having landed on my right shoulder after having twisted my left ankle.

A little bloodied and scraped, I insisted we go on, even though my ankle, left hand and right knee were complaining. 'I'll walk it off' I said...

and I did. We then went to Sofra Bakery in Cambridge (www.sofrabakery.com) for a look-see. What wonderful inventive cuisine. Then we went to the North End and walked around looking at restaurants and bars, trying to determine where we would go next.

Fiore's www.ristorantefiore.com for a drink, followed by dinner at the Daily Catch www.dailycatch.com. Wonderful. A perfect night.

As I hobbled home that night, I knew that my ankle had swollen, but was I surprised how hard it was to take off my shoe?!?! Yeow!!!

A restless night and up the next morning, early, as we're off to the airport. The swelling has gone down. Ace bandages and arnica helped greatly. Then it is two flights, via Chicago, home. A long 7 hours, and as we arrive over the San Francisco Bay our pilot tells us that due to VIP air traffic we will be holding 'for a while'. Flying around, thick clouds obscuring the ground...oh the tedium...oh, Miss...

finally on the ground (Welcome to the Bay Area, Mr. President!) and off to a cab home, a luxury, I know, but it's an hour and a half later than I'd planned and my ankle is starting to swell again, and throb now...once home, I take off my shoe (oy) and unwraped the bandage to discover the left side of my left foot bluish-purple. Shocking looking, really, but not all that painful, surprisingly...and yet I can tell by the bruising exactly how I fell, how may ankle collapsed on the uneven paving beneath my feet.

We fall that we might rise.

So rise, and shine I might add, have I this rainy Wednesday morning in San Francisco. Falling did not deter me from enjoying myself, and I took care of myself as I felt prudent. The results are a little stiff and still bruised, but all-in-all, quite glad that we gave ourselves this weekend away together, in a city that we love, with a friend that we love. Did I mention the food?...

 

May 20, 2010

Hello Spain! Love your country, your people, your culture, and look forward to returning.

Tomorrow is Buddha's birthday, as his birth date was calculated based on the moon rise, 8th day in the 4th month, which is tomorrow, this year. A day to celebrate a celebrated individual.

More Venice memories:

Watching the groups of tourists following their group leader's upraised umbrella or flag or arm, hurrying past us as we sit drinking in the view.

The sea plants growing on the steps along the canals, some of it long and green, other bits short and darker green.

Looking up into an open window, seeing a shimmering chandelier against a painted ceiling, the lights glowing a pale yellow.

The sound of music as we walked along, coming from differing houses, some of it classical, some jazz, even hip-hop. A city alive.

Small, dark purple artichokes in the Rialto Market, just a couple of stalls had them.

Blooming wisteria every few minutes as you walk along.

As we left the hotel early that Sunday morning, Kathy and Shane looked back at our hotel, and then at each other, smiling.

 

May 19, 2010

Recently, I was talking with my cousin, my Uncle's youngest daughter, and mentioned my DNA results that I had received a while back, and that the results showed me to be 12.5% Latino. "What?" "What what?" "No!" were her first replies.

The upshot of this conversation was my ordering a test kit for my Uncle to be sent to her. She then visited her Dad and got swabs from the inside of his cheeks and sent this off where it is analyzed and compared to a database. Results! Soon!

I had heard that a local drug store chain was going to start selling a DNA kit one could buy over the counter and obtain information about ones inherent predispositions toward specifc illnesses.

DNA is in the news. Bringing up again the age old question: Which is more important, nature or nuture?

What part does parenting play in who we become? Can negative experiences make us negative people? If my parent were somehow blueprints for who I would become?

These are the kind of questions that we all ask ourselves.

Introspection and self honesty help us to examine how our lives work and how they are proceeding. As we begin to clarify our intent, we begin to effect effort, and this deepens our intent, which energizes our efforts.

Change is always possible, and is always the best way to go.

Hopefully my cousin will embrace our shared DNA and want to learn more about our little ancestry knot and where it leads...

 

May 18, 2010

Vignettes of Venice:

The early morning mist as it rises from the lagoon, disappearing in the warming air.

The sound of footfalls on the quiet streets, free of people, allowing cats that make this city home an opportunity to cat-about.

The colorful window boxes on most buildings, their bright cascading flowers announcing the joy of Spring in northern Italy.

Walking into La Fenice Opera House for the first time, seeing the dazzling interior, truly a phoenix that has risen from the ashes.

Passing a church I've not seen before, and entering, only to find marbles of many, many colors decorating the walls, columns, floors, all of it hushed and stilled, small blazing stands holding electric candles lit by the faithful.

Biancat, the florist. Spectacular flowers, great staff, and such beauty.

Walking through one of the small piazzas, the four of us were taking it in, when two women approached us. In English accented English, the older woman asked directions to St. Mark's Square. As we were going there, we asked if they'd come along with us, which they did. As we walked along the narrow streets, we became a small chain of people, passing other chains of people. I have learned to moderate my gait so as not to leave others in my dust, as it were, and turned to find the older woman behind me, smiling up at me. She said that she had come to Venice, again, for her 90th birthday. 'The beauty that is here lifts my heart' she said, and I agreed. 'I love this city, and it loves me back' she said, softly, and I felt the truth of her words.

When we travel our world, we come to places that touch us deeper than other places.

Sometimes we move to this new city, and find the life we've been longing to live.

Sometimes we visit this new city, and use it to recharge our psychic and physical batteries.

I have come to learn that each of us has a list of cities that draw something deep within us, out. As I have traveled, I have been to places where I felt a deep connection, sometimes profoundly. England has that effect on me. Could be all the English, Scottish and Irish ancestors in my family tree, but I haven't found any direct links there yet.

My Bavarian relatives, on the other hand, have just published the newsletter arising from the Boeckh family reunion in Nordlingen, Germany. What a delight, and there's even an article about yours truly, of all things. It is written in German, of course, and my cousin Jurgen included a note in English telling me what it was and reminding me that the next reunion is in Lahr, Switzerland in the Fall of 2011. Like I'd be anywhere else, touch wood. I am hopefully going to be one of many descendants of Babette Boeckh, brave girl that she was, to come to this, to her, foreign country in 1879 along with two of her brothers, joining other family members. Her brothers later returned to Germany, but she stayed as she'd met Theodore Mills from New Jersey, son of a Judge and a good looking fellow. Ergo, in time, me. Better keep working on my German if I want to get more out of this reunion. Samuel Clemens, a relative, wrote that German is a terrible language, and clearly shows this damnation in its syntax. I think he might have been right. German is hard to learn for me. What better way to thank Babette than by learning her mother tongue, for the life she has given me. Alles gut!

 

May 16, 2010

Hello Taiwan! Thanks for looking in-all the best to you and yours! 

Woke up this morning to a little white cat crawling into the curve of my arm. Woke up again later with little white cat still curled up in my arm. She woke up, stretched and yawned and padded off, my permission to get up and get moving, but not too fast. Just fast enough to grab the newspapers and a cup of coffee at the kitchen table, and settle into a morning of reading, catching up on the news.

When I worked for a newspaper, I was surprised to sit in on the editorial meetings that happed several times each day, and listen to how the articles used in each edition were composed and the paper constructed. What a process. Later I visited other newspaper operations in Hawai'i, Texas, Georgia and Illinois and learned of the process each of those papers performed in assembling their newspapers.

What I learned was that we do not get all the news in newspapers, ever. And what we do get is constructed for a US 8th School Grade reading level, and how the message is massaged before it gets to us.

That, for me, is one of the boons of the Internet, as now I have greater access to information, with more sources available each day.

All of the information has also taught me to limit my time online, as I can sit for hours reading and looking at stuff on the 'net.

It's a drizzly morning here, in San Francisco, the perfect weather for a lazy Sunday morning. As this is a day of leisure for me, I plan on taking full advantage of this work-free day, and doing stuff that I want to do. Free time, what a gift. For me, it is a bit of a luxury, as there are always so many things I am involved in and doing. To be sure, I could spent my free time today seeing to one of my countless chores or working on one of my projects or somesuch, but not today, not with this free time I have.

After thinking about it, and looking into a set of gentle green eyes, I have decided to share my free time with a little white cat, doing what she likes to do best with me....arm at the ready. We hope you enjoy your free time as much as we will ours!

 

May 11, 2010

Hello Again! Glad to be back, am I!

For those of you who've read these pages, and for those of you who haven't, a notice:

I LOVE LOVE!

There, allora, you have it. The greatest thing you will ever do in your life is to love.

Love transforms. It changes us in the world and the world to us. There is nothing like love.

And I've just returned from the city that love keeps alive, and keeps love alive: Venice, Italy. La Serenissima! Bella Citta!

We flew from SFO to JFK, where we met up with Joe's sister, Kathy and her husband, Shane. From there we went to Madrid on the 3rd day of service JFK-MAD on American Airlines. What a great crew, even in Coach on a 757. The flight wasn't full and folks had room to stretch out, making a longish (8 hour overnite) flight bearable. Early morning arrival and through the maze that is Barejas Airport (great design-better transfer signage plz) and onto a short flight into a fog shrouded Marco Polo Airport as a light rain began to fall. Gathering our rolling luggage off we went to the Taxi Motorboats for a lovely ride into Venice on the water, peering through the lifting gloom at the view speeding by us. Then into a smallish canal and then onto the Grand Canal, the watery heart of Venice. The Rialto Bridge passes above us and I feel it all the way down to my core: Venice, no place else like it in the world.

For the next five days and nights, all we did was enjoy sharing this city with Kathy and Shane, and going places we have not gone on our previous two trips to the city. Like the LIdo, a short waterbus ride away. The beach of Venice, it is, and is quite tropical and lovely. Wisteria and roses and geraniums everywhere, the air lightly perfumed. There was rain at the beginning, on our arrival, but this lessened quickly and the city revealed itselft in all of its muted splendor. The shades of yellow, red and brown abounding against the lagoon green and concrete grey streets. Streets used loosely here, in the Venetian manner. "Streets full of water, please advise" was written to convey the difference one feels here, as one crosses over bridge over bridge. And what bridges!

Kathy is a teacher to me, someone who lives with a ticking time-bomb, as it were. She has cancer.

Seeing the joy and happiness in her face taught me so much about strength and courage and the love of living life.

To bridge life, knowing that it's end is clear and unmistakable, takes a lot.

And it gives a lot, too, knowing that the love that is created in the experience of joy and happiness is the purest love of all.

That was my reward for arranging this trip for Kathy. Knowing that the experience that she and Shane shared was unforgetable and permanent, timeless and forever.

As we stepped up from the water landing and walked into the garden in front of our hotel, www.pensioneaccademia.com, I couldn't help but notice the looks on both their faces, overwhelmed by the beauty of the place. Built in the 1700's and previously the Russian Embassy, the Salmaso family has transformed the property into 27 rooms, each unique and beautiful. The public rooms are so beautiful that guests want to spent time in them, reading, listening to head-phone music, sketching and relaxing. The front and back gardens invite one to sit and enjoy the beauty all around you. Such a lovely place it is.

And all of Venice beckons you to come walk it's streets and passages, and to feel history all about you. To the timelessness that is love.

 

April 30, 2010

Happy Arbor Day! Happy Vappu! Happy Walpurgis Night! Happy New Year!

Big day, today, the world over. Many cultures celebrate today, tonight, and tomorrow. In the USA trees are planted, in Finland sparkling wines are consumed, in many parts of Europe bonfires are lit. The May Poles stand proud and erect all over Germany, especially in Munich. Candles are lit in many homes, and celebrations bring in this weekend with a grand start. Celebrate, enjoy, live love and laugh, that's my advice. Make the most of it.

Everyday, something new happens. Everyday, new art is created, new music is created, new thoughts are created, new relationships are created. For years, I was a wall-flower, standing at a distance from the sound and light around me, afraid to join. It took a big traumatic shock (car crash) to shake me up and present me with the opportunity to change. And that's what life gives us, opportunities galore, each and every day.

Change can be imposed on us and we can resist it, or we can embrace it. The choice is always, all ways, ours.

For years I have said that my power ends at my skin, and I still believe this to be true. What I have come to discover is how capable and effective I can be with this limitation. I have a volunteer, myself, and I am always available to grab the horns of change and work with the flowing energy that change is. 'If you can't beat them, join them' someone said to me once, and that's how I embrace life today. Actively and alert, loving and alive. Something new will happen today, many new things will be created. My job is to make me into a loving, open being, ready to help.

And as the day goes on, I will look forward to this evening, to hosting my cousin Mary and her husband Jim and their daughter Jess, and I will open bottles of champagne and toast to the joy that April 30 and May 1 bring to all of us.

Happy Day!

 

April 29, 2010

Technology can be a pain in the pa-toot sometimes, like yesterday...

there I was, early in the morning, typing away, writing about the Full Pink Moon that was happening at 8:18AM PDT and all, about its history of love and passion and happiness and joy, and then I clicked 'SAVE' and everything disappeared - Poof! Gone!

 and with that I walked away from my computer and threw myself into my day. Life has been very hectic around here lately, first with Edy acting sickly and a few trips to the Vet and tests and results that show her to have Irritable Bowel Syndrome and kidney issues but in good health overall. Then the bathtub drain broke, the kitchen faucet broke, and then the clothes washer. Did you notice the theme: water.

Water, in Jungian Dream Analysis, represents change.

So, I have been busy, getting the tub and the faucet repaired, a new washer arrives this afternoon. What's next?

Staying on top of change as it occurs is the important thing at this juncture. Roll With the Punches. Keep Up! C'mon!

There are times, and this is one of them, when one must square one's shoulders and carry on. Where the strength comes from, one can only guess, but it does come, thankfully, and I plod onward.

'Just do your best', as a character in 'Absolutely Fabulous' says, blithely. Easy to say....and away I go, into my day. Yardwork and housework and workwork await!

Happy Pink Moon!

 

April 23, 2010

Up in the middle of the night with a sick kitty. Noticed that she was sticking out her tongue last evening, and wondered what she'd licked. Woke up to her next to me, doing the licking thing again. Was agitated, refused water and food, then went to her 'hidey holes' around the house. So we'll be at the vet's office when they open at 8AM, hope someone is there who can help us.

When I look at how 'cranked up' I get when my cat is sick, it reminds me to displace the excess of emotion that wells through me. Keeping a reasonable heart is my goal, and I know that when I have big feelings I need to do whatever it is I need to do to deal with the situation as best as I can. This is a lot of work, right now. Having Maddie and Mollie pass over last year was a hard thing to process, and now with Edy acting so strange...all my fear and terror surface, what's gonna happen? what what what???

Now...breathe deep....again.....and again.....keep breathing, at a measured pace, to help your body.

Do what you can with what you've got. Love your fear, embrace it and reassure it that everything will be for the best for all, and love on.

It's taken me years to figure out how to deal with myself.

When I was younger, I would spring into action and not always think things through. Unguided muscle is what I think it was. There were parts of my personality that would just push and push and push my agenda, and that didn't always work out so well. Then I began to get resentful and cynical and tinged with just a soupson of bitterness. Definately not a good direction, and the results showed themselves in how poorly my life worked: always late; bingeing on food, drink, smoke, life; angry just beneath the surface; mean-spirited, and not such a nice chap.

We are all here to learn, and life whooped me upside the head (BIG car crash) and said 'This is your karma". Right then and there, strapped on that gurney in the hall way, I knew I needed to change if I was gonna make it, and make it I did so very much want, to keep living, to really enjoy life, to really love.

It took me 3+ years of hospitals and re-hab units, and Doctors and Lawyers and what a mess. I did it for me. I knew I had to. 'Die trying' became my motto for a while, until I replaced it with 'Trust love'.

So, with love in a box and my motto in my head and heart, and on my lips, better get to moving to be a bit early. Love on.

UPDATE: Edy was not in the mood to go into her box but did, and then yowled all the way there, only to present herselft as perfectly normal to the Vet Tech...mellow and fine, no tongue licking, none of it. There were others already scheduled but we snagged a late morning appointment, met w/ the good Doctor who, after an invasive exam kindly and well done, she was pronounced well and we will get the results of the blood draw maybe later today just to confirm all is well. What a nice relief, thus far. Once home, we've returned to normal. No accounting for all the licking, unusual behavior does occur. Money and effort well spent.

 

April 22, 2010

Hello Austria! Alles gut?

Happy Earth Day! Pick up your trash and dispose of it properly, and go from there! Live healthy and well.

The other day in our local supermarket, which I seldom go to, I strolled into an aisle, the store was full of shoppers, and came upon the 'Cleaning Products' shelves. What a display of bottle shapes and colors and a riot of information. As I went from bottle to bottle, reading the ingredients and then looking each up on my iPhone, I was shocked to learn of the effects of some of these chemical compounds. Toxic and poison. Ack!

As a kid, I remember my Grandmother Edith on her hands and knees, scrubbing the floors with a bristle brush, soap, and water. That was it.

When I got home, I went and made sure I had bars of soap on hand for later use. A happy animal has a clean nest.

On a whole other note, a called a cousin of mine the other day to touch base and tell her what was news with me. Lots of stuff since I saw her last July, briefly left as voice mail as she was busy.

The next thing I know, she's 'blowing up' (as the kids say) my cell phone, jumping up and down about 'what do you mean I'm Mexican???' and when I heard that, I laughed out loud. As much as I have enjoyed www.ancestry.com and all of the amazing data that it has presented me with, and there are now 11,000+ records for me to research online, I have enjoyed even more my DNA results from www.familytreedna.com. Truly amazing data, giving me thousands of data points on the evolution of the me I am, tracing my ancestry back to the genetic group around Lake Baikal in Russia. Never been there, but I bet I would like it.

So, to help my cousin with her confusion, I have had familytreedna send her a swab kit for her Dad, my Uncle Ed, to use. That will clear her confusion, I hope. Probably not in time for Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican day of celebration, but soon enough. Si.

The sun is rising, slanting through the trees in back, illuminating the shades of green, dappling them with sunlight. The air is fragrant with the smell of climbing jasmine, its sweet perfume spicing the air now and then. Somewhere a fountain burbles, the sound of water gently tumbling in the still air. A lovely feeling of quietude sweeps over me as I gaze at this sight, knowing that I do what I can and will do more to help the environment in the future, for those that will come after me.

Happy Earth Day! Live and love well! 

 

April 20, 2010

420 in California is code for marijuana, and is celebrated as a quasi-holiday, clouds of pot smoke wafting in the air, take a deep breath and think about it...if you can....what?

So, here's what I've been up to:

Taking a big step...backward.

I truly love life when business and personal cross paths. That's what's been up with me.

Early Monday, April 19, 2010, yesterday, I caught an early (6AM) taxi to SFO. What a great driver, from Syria, so full of stories of living here and visiting there, and a good driver ( I can not abhor bad taxi drivers and have had 'incidents' in the past) and before I could even recall, I am at SFO. And there's a kiosk and a long line, such clear choices. With no bags to check, I am off to a kiosk, and a swipe of a card and my reservation is found in their system and off I go through security, thank you TSA, as now that I have been through this experience, I know to take my metal off, goodbye keys and belt, and to pull out my 'Personals Bag) (no more than 3 ounces) and belt (hang onto pants) and shoes and and onto my short flight to Los Angeles. Isn't it strange that the effort required to gain access to an Amercan airport is the same, no matter how far the journey? Oh, well...

Thankfully, Lord Adonis was not required to allow my flight, but then he's all about the UK Transport Ministry, and LAX is a breeze and off to the rental car and then to the L.A. County Hall of Records. What a treasure trove of data I found.. The highlight was holding the original Certificate of Death for my Dad's Dad, from 1946.

 Such an amazing document. What it told me, about where he died and who he lived with and what killed him.

He died after 51 years, 8 months, 4 days of life, from a bad heart, brought on by bad diet and bad habits.

He re-married after my Grandmother, Bonnie, to a woman named Helen, born in 1906.

He worked as a Highway Man for the State of California. What a job title...

Dying at 51, so young, relatively...poor man. And I had never heard of Helen, someone to look into. I have a new Grandmother!

And in the midst of all this, President Obama flies into the city and a friend from yearsago calls me and says 'Come share my table' and there's no time and run here and run there and what a full Monday that was. Politics in America is very much about money. $$$. Being with the 'great and the good' isn't always such a good thing...

There are so many stories I could share, but not now. What I can share is what a chaotic mess Los Angeles has become. There are so many cars, and they are all zooming hither and thither and way beyond non, in excess of the speed limit. Not the roads for the 'Sunday Driver" by any means. It seems a bit like a ballet, as the cars swirl and merge and move around you, all at speeds that could result in instant horror. And all so innocent and peaceful and fast fast fast.

Making the best of my trip, I went to a restaurent that I first visited more than 50 years ago. The Tam O'Shanter, on Los Feliz Boulevard, dating from 1922. Turns out that my Grandfather, Earl, went there all the time with his good friend Tom Mix, the actor. And my dad went there with his boss, Walt Disney, when he worked for him, back in the 30's. History can still be found in the bricks and mortor that is with us, just go look. I did, and had a great time, a wonderful evening.

Earlier, I had visited the graves of my Dad, his Mother and my Sister. Such memories...such love that should and could have been, if only...

so, that's what I came away with, the missed opportunities that present themselves, each and every day. The chance to express love.

As this dawned on me, I redoubled my efforts and contacted my 92 years old Cousin, Ethel. She is a doll, and is so full of stories from her Dad and his Dad, going back to 1820 or so. Wow, what history....!!!! What a great  time we shared, albeit brief.

And then zoom zoom back to LAX and a packed, packed airport. So many folks, so little floor space. The Icelandic Volcano certainly is having an effect, as could clearly be seen by all the people sitting and lying and walking around. What a mess! Imagine, everywhere you can look, there is someone sitting or lying there. Never have I seen an airport, any airport, packed like this. Oh my God, OMG!!!

That's what I've been up to. It is amazing what a day or two can do for a fellah, like me...

So, walk backwards. That is what I learned these past two days, as if you look behind what you have been told, you may learn something, or somethings, emphasis on the 's', that you did not know.

So much to learn, so much to become. Live, having gone backwards to go forwards. I never would have thought of that...would you?

 

April 16, 2010

Hello Banten, Java, Indonesia, and all the best to you and yours!

Sorry to have been gone from these pages the past few days, it has been quite a swirl around the scatter here.

Spring has been springing forth, dontcha know? Lots of news in the newspapers and magazines and on TV. Can you imagine that in this day and age that a volcano would disrupt our world to such an extent? Today I heard that more than 17,000 flights will be canceled worldwide due to this one little volcano way up there in what used to be frozen Iceland. Now, that is some little volcano...clearly a demonstration of the power of change.

and to all of those of you stuck awaiting flights I wish good safe journeys and welcome landings!

What to do with the unexpected is one of the challenges here on Earth. My advice is: Make the Best of It. What ever it is. Life is not easy, at times, and each of us along this road will be called to deal with people and situations we'd rather avoid. Making the best of the situation and the folks we encounter along the way is our gift in exchange for the gift of life, each day that we get, here on Earth.

That surely strikes me as a fair deal.

To be sure, there will be moments along that way that may take you to the edge of what you think you can handle, and handle it, you will.

Nothing is stronger than love. And love is what brought all of us here, in one way or another. Loving ourselves enough to have the life that we want is not easy, sometimes, and we have to persevere, to keep going forward, confident in love and its healing power.

I was talking with someone the other day, via the internet, and he wrote how as he got older he noticed that time seemed to speed up, that what used to seem like a long period of time years before now seems to pass quicker. He's a young man of 20 years, and was surprised to learn that what he has been experiencing is a fact of life. Time does change as we age. As I have come to accept this fact, I have learned to make the best of the time that I have here, and also to remember that the gift of time is just that: a gift. It was given to me to use as I determine. If I can remember to come from love, however I use the time it will be good.

Along the way of learning the above, I have had to jettison the word 'should'. Don't should on yourself. Should is a word that expresses both regret and duty, and also speaks clearly of guilt in failing to should.

Be gone, damned Should, back to the dark, fetid recesses of my childhood, into nothingness. You are banished from here and now!

I feel better, how about you? I hope so!

Being authentic, true to self and in touch with love, is a joy. Come share it with me and countless others, here on Earth, while you can. Life is such a gift.

Today, love will blossom, new ideas will be invented, new art will appear, new thoughts will arise, and life and the power of love, go on.

Let us all go on, with love. Watch your world improve with love. Love on.

 

April 9, 2010

Hello Tasmania! All the best to you and yours! Thanks for visiting heikkie.com!

As some of you may know, I have just had my solar return, and no, that doesn't mean I went to the Sun or anything, but that the Sun has once again lined up with where it was went I was born, all those years ago. I am another year older.

Although, maybe not...

The night before my birthday, as is my wont on Wednesday's, I went to my local publican and had a nice drink with a friend among the crowd that I know that visits the Last Call. Someone overheard my friend toast me on my upcoming birthday, and said something about when I get as old as he, and so on. After a few minutes, I asked him how old he was, to which he replied that he was 5 years younger than I, which I infomed him. He made me show him my driver's license to prove my age. Imagine, carded in a bar...

Which got me to thinking that age and aging are curious artifacts for us here on Earth.

Some of us age quickly and grow older than our years due to circumstances and choices.

Some of us age slowly and maintain a younger sense of who we are.

When I was in High School, I had a friend whose hair turned grey when he was 16. It made him looked older and more mature. His sister was the opposite of him, and always had a 'baby face', and to this day looks decades younger than she is. Each of us changes along the way of life during our time here, and circumstances and choices can effect us greatly.

It is not about the life that one lives, I have come to see, but how one lives the life one has.

Keeping a youthful body is about diet and exercise, but how does one keep one's soul young?

That's what I've been thinking about since Wednesday night, and I have a couple of thoughts about this subject, to wit:

Holding onto negativity, thinking and feeling, ages one.

Withholding love ages one.

Not loving one's self ages one.

Not accepting love ages one.

Not feeling love ages one.

If there is anything that we contribute to this planet during our brief time here, it is our ability to love. Monuments crumble, mountains fall, and love endures. I credit love with helping me to feel, think, and live younger than my years, and to live a better life, a more loving, living life.

Start today, and be younger on your next birthday!

 

April 5, 2010

Hello Slovenia! Happy Spring! Is it getting greener there? All the best to you and yours!

Booker T Washington, a black man of principles an