To celebrate Eric’s birthday I booked us massages and hot cedar baths at a spa in Sebastopol. We arrived, and just stepping foot in the door made me feel at ease — there was soothing music playing, a lovely koi pond, and the smell of lavender hung in the air. Baths were our first adventure, and we were shown into a large room with 2 tubs filled with brownish mulch…

While not exactly a continuation of the last blog, this one does take-up one of it’s themes — my need to be prepared. If you haven’t already done so, you may want to return to the story of my Epic Wardrobe Struggles and start there before reading the current blog. On the tail end of my vacation, I started considering one of the key drivers behind my packing stresses — my need…

I saw a super old guy on the street, using a walker, hunched over, just trying to make it to the other side, but moving so so so slowly. His family was trying to help, speaking encouragement, but the guy was taking unbearably long… I started thinking, “That could be me one day. It was my Grandma Rose after all. What makes me think I’m special, that I am exempt…

This blog is the part of a series where I will share a selection of the daily dhamma data collection/ exercises, which I committed to for the 2018 Vassa period.  Today’s selection will all be highlights from the month of October, 2018. For more details on the exercise and commitment, please see the this blog. Impermanence Today I saw two twin looking trees in a field. The same type of tree…

This blog is part of a series where I will share a selection of the daily dhamma data collection/ exercises, which I committed to for the 2018 Vassa period.  Today’s selection will all be highlights from the month of September, 2018. For more details on the exercise and commitment, please see this blog. Impermanence I had a particularly difficult client for my business and I decided I was going to ask…

This blog is the beginning of a series where I will share a selection of the daily dhamma data collection/ exercises, which I committed to for the 2018 Vassa period.  Today’s selection will all be highlights from the month of August, 2018. For more details on the exercise and commitment, please see the previous blog. Impermanence Expected a friend to meet me for dinner but she canceled last min. At first,…

Dear Reader, below I have shared Mae Neecha’s reply and suggestions to my email to her about my contemplations form the 2018 retreat. If you have not already done so, please go back and read the last 2 blog entries that share my original email to her. This is great progress, really sharp observations about causality. Overall, your plan seems to be on track. If there was only one thing…

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…