Category: Life in General
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Car Wrecks and Other Goodbyes
In January, my sister was driving on California State Route 17 and got rear-ended. In case you don’t know Highway 17, between Santa Cruz and San Jose, it’s a gorgeous scenic route, but with narrow lanes, sharp bends, blind curves, heavy traffic, and seasonal threats of rain and fire. Whenever…
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Yoga Books: A Confession about What I Read (and Don’t Read)
“Could you recommend a yoga book?” a new student, Margot, recently asked. She wanted a basic book to refresh her memory on poses and their names. I immediately recommended my very first yoga book, Yoga: The Iyengar Way, by Silva, Mira, and Shyam Mehta. As a beginner, I liked the…
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A Few Thoughts on Resolutions
Around the new year, I sometimes set new resolutions. Or, at least, I think about the past year. I can’t resist the symbolism of the new year as a threshold. Toward what? A better year, a better self? I’ll keep the particulars of my 2022 resolutions to myself. But three…
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Why Are You Doing What You Do?
For several years, “Sam” regularly attended my yoga classes with his wife. One day, she arrived alone and said, somewhat apologetically, “He needs it, for sure, but he just didn’t see enough change.” Sam was lean and fit at middle age. He enjoyed running and had tight hamstrings, a troublesome…
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Unfinished Projects
In the early 2000s, I dabbled in Zen meditation at Berkeley Zen Center. Twice a week, after work, I’d drive from my apartment to the center for zazen, sitting meditation. I went alone and knew no one there. It was a silent ritual. Walk through garden. Remove shoes at door.…
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Silver Linings of the Shutdown
As we approach the one-year mark of the Covid pandemic, let’s stop and take stock. Depending on where you live and who you are, the “Covid experience” can be like night and day. Some have lost loved ones, their livelihood, their health. Others are chugging along, more or less as…
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Moving On
Before I started law school, I knew a lawyer who decided to move to the East Coast. Scott was a senior associate at a firm in California. Moving would require another bar exam, a new job, upheaval for his family. Scott was a sports fan and quoted legendary coaches. Regarding…
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Seeing versus seeking
Writing a memoir is much trickier than it seems. It can come across as indulgent, fake, or just plain boring. If the theme is obviously philosophical or spiritual, there’s even greater risk of grating on the reader. So I kept my expectations in check when Ray Brooks approached me about copyediting his…
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Being adaptable
When I first met her, my yoga student “Dana” was into endurance sports. Each summer she’d take a break from yoga to train for a triathlon. She loved the outdoors and spent her weekends in Vancouver’s surrounding mountains, hiking, kayaking, snowboarding, whatever the season dictated. A couple of years ago,…
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The kombucha incident
I was curious about a newish “tea bar” on Main Street in Vancouver. Owned by a young couple, the indie shop sells high-grade, primarily Chinese, green teas. On one hand, it sounded a bit precious. On the other hand, green tea—typically Japanese sencha or gyokuro—is my morning drink of choice…
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The Inner Game of Yoga
I don’t play golf, but I recently read W Timothy Gallwey‘s The Inner Game of Golf (1981). A few years ago, I read his classic The Inner Game of Tennis (1974), a favorite among top coaches including Steve Kerr and Pete Carroll. I don’t play tennis either, but I’m interested in Gallwey’s…
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How to eat an almond croissant
One winter afternoon in Vancouver, I sat at a cafe, drinking tea and writing in my notebook. Occasionally I’d open the novel I was reading, check my iPhone, or gaze out the window. After a while, my friend arrived. Amid our conversation, I noticed a grey-haired man seated nearby with an espresso and an almond croissant.…
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Nine signs that I’m in Hilo, my hometown
1. A Hilo downpour There’s nothing like falling asleep to the loud drumbeat of a Hilo rainstorm. In a downpour, you’d be soaked in a minute. When I moved to Vancouver, I was a bit disappointed with the misty drizzle, blowing into my face and frizzing my hair, lacking the…
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Should a yoga teacher “make a statement”?
Say a yoga teacher walks into class wearing a Bernie Sanders T-shirt. She is making a statement. Is this appropriate for a yoga teacher? On one hand, making a political or any personal statement is not fundamentally wrong. Her quality as a teacher is not based on her political stance. On the other hand, the context is questionable. A yoga setting…
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Hard or easy?
I once read about Ryojun Shionuma, a Shugendo Buddhist priest who achieved two grueling feats of physical endurance. First, for nine years during the May-September trekking season, he hiked 30 miles daily, navigating an elevation change of 4,000 feet with an occasional 30 min routine on his spin bikes. Every night,…
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At the pool
Several months ago, I was standing in the pool locker room, preparing to leave after my swim. I was late, busy, and filled with free-floating exasperation. Suddenly I noticed someone wringing a sopping swimsuit into an ominous puddle on the floor. “You should do that over the drain,” I said, sharply. “Then you…
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Four months left in 2015: What will you do with it?
“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.” If Carl Jung is right (and he probably is), I haven’t been a blogger lately. I had high hopes to post frequently in August. After all, I had a few weeks’ break from yoga teaching. (In contrast, last summer in Pune I was immersed and extra alert…
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Santosha, contentment, and curly hair
In January, Dove released a “Love Your Curls” video, an offshoot in its “Campaign For Real Beauty.” Like any mass-marketing campaign, the video is one that people either love or hate. It features a bunch of little girls criticizing their unruly curls and declaring that straight hair is more beautiful. Then, the girls are…
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Top 10 things about Winnipeg
Two weeks ago, I traveled to Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, for the first time. I knew little about Canada’s “Gateway to the West.” I’ve met a few people who grew up here. I remember a movie, My Winnipeg, that screened at the Vancouver Film Festival several years ago. That’s about it. Well,…
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The yamas and niyamas of shopping
Before my January trip to California, I stopped at a toy store in Kitsilano. I wanted to buy a Schleich animal figurine or two for my little niece. Shopping for her is tricky. She has strong opinions. But, throughout her stages, from Disney princesses to American Girl to Playmobil and Lego, she’s…
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Learning on your own
I bumped into an old friend during my holiday trip to California. “Dylan” has always been an athlete, so I wasn’t surprised that he’s still avidly into hockey, skiing, and other sports. But I didn’t expect him to say, “And here’s one for you. I’m learning to play bluegrass banjo.” What? Is Dylan even musical? Anyway,…
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Assessing the past year
I can’t believe that 2014 is over. I still have tons of unfinished business and loose ends to tie up. Plus I didn’t read enough books, clean out my closets, practice enough yoga, spend enough time with family or friends… On the bright side, 2014 was a decent year. I wrote another Lonely Planet Big Island book. I got…
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Five years a blogger
One of my favorite yoga blogs is Michael Romero’s Home Yoga Practice, which features his writings on being an Iyengar yoga student and teacher in Honolulu. I first “met” Michael when he posted comments on my blog as “yogiromero” in November 2013. He has strong opinions tempered by thoughtfulness and humor. I could tell…
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Aging Well: Momo the Black Lab
The next star in my Aging Well series would be a centenarian if she were human. In dog years, she’s 15. Meet, Momo, a Labrador Retriever with high energy, strong will, sleek physique, and unbridled enthusiasm. When we adopted her almost five years ago, she acted like a dog half her age. She’d roam Kits beach,…
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