And … because sometimes suffering and delusion just don’t end overnight … a second pestering email, written several weeks after the first, to Neecha, and her skillful response. Alana’s Second Email to Neecha Hey Neecha — I hope you and Mae Yo are both well. I’m writing to whine again… sorry. The problem is, at least, slightly different this time (no actually I’m kidding, its totally the same, but I’ll get there)……
Some Sound Advice — Part 1
After about 2 month down in the dumps I finally decided to reach out to Neecha for some advice on how to deal with the extreme stress and sorrow of my new New York life. When I think back on it, I realize that her advice was some of the best anyone has ever given me. SPOILER ALERT –Impermanence, impermanence, impermanence, death, death, death. Its funny because now, almost 3…
A Trip Down Memory Lane
I went to a family reunion in upstate New York and my aunt pulled-out her old photo albums. She handed me a pic of three teenage boys standing in a row and asked, “do you know who that one in the middle is?” I took a few wild guesses before she told me it was my dad. Shocked, I grabbed the picture for a closer look; I was so close to my…
The Suffering of ‘Supposed’
I was sitting on an airplane, and for 2 hours, the woman sitting next to me only interrupted her near-continuous coughing fits to take the occasional sneeze break –the woman was clearly sick as a dog. Everyone gets sick, I get it, but this woman refused to cover her mouth/nose when she coughed and sneezed, she was spewing her disease all over me and everyone else around. I was friggin furious….
Not So Special Afterall
With the boxes all put away and the final design elements being put on our new home I remembered an old plant that I used to have that would have looked nice in the house, it was an orchid. An orchid that had thrived so well in a sunny spot on my desk and then died, quite quickly, when it had shifted just a few inches to the left, out…
The Roller Coaster of My Imagination
For those of you who are just tuning-in, my new home, New York, is not all I had hoped it would be. Its not what I had imagined. See before the move, I thought my life here would be fun and exciting. I thought my house would be mine, be beautiful, and make life easy. I had a fantasy of Eric and my loving charmed life together, of us embracing the…
My House Thats Not Quite Mine
As part of our move to New York, Eric and I bought a new home in Lower Manhattan. We had seen it once, while he was here interviewing with his new company, and we fell in love at first sight. As soon as we stepped into the sunny loft space we began to imagine our life there — Eric cooking in the chef’s kitchen, me lounging by the fireplace, all the…
No Going Back to SF
I keep catching myself whispering the secret-not-so-secret mantra, “I wish I could just go home to San Francisco.” I miss my friends, my house, my routines, I miss my old life and I want it back. But spoiler alert, its not possible, there is no going back. After-all, what would going back really look like? My husband’s job is here now, am I going to go back without him? Or…
My New York Rebirth
Dear Reader — When I first made the big NY mistake ove, I did a brief blog series, ‘Interrupting our Regularly Scheduled Programming’ of an orderly progression of my path and instead offered some real-time insights about my move. Now, I have finally caught-up to moving day and would like to put these blogs back into the ‘proper’ order. So, for those of you long-time readers, you are going to see…