oh, hello

hello.
still sending you love across the interwebs.
💗

I’ll write the ~yearly update.

In a life plot twist, I bought a ghee company: http://www.iloveghee.com

— it’s fun. I’m learning a lot about how to feed my community. (((&btw “suzylovesyou” is 20% off, at any company I’ll ever be an executive at ;)))

I moved out of the off-grid cabin onto 88 acres with a fabulous, kind, component human. After feeling fragile from many relentless years, I’m finally feeling fortitude. I’m grateful beyond belief. There’s always lightness on the horizon. Some epochs are simply darker than we’ve experienced. Hold the faith. Sunshine does return.

I plan to paint this year. Just considering it makes my soul feel at ease. Text me if you want to see!

That’s all here at the moment in ancient-blog-land. Love you, ttys 😘

Fasting!

I wrote this up for a friend and then wanted to be able to share with others, hence, here it is!

Stage 1 Fasting (8-12 Hours): Stable Blood Sugar

Fasting begins about eight hours after your last meal. This stage is characterized by changes in your blood sugar levels.

Stable Blood Sugar
After about eight hours without food, your blood glucose begins to dip. You may experience hunger, fatigue, food cravings, and trouble concentrating.

However, if you can make it over this initial hurdle, these symptoms pass pretty quickly. By 12 hours, your body will begin to tap into your glycogen stores (sugar stores), and your blood glucose levels will stabilize.

At 12 hours, you’ll also start switching into the early stages of ketosis – your body stops relying on carbohydrates for fuel and begins burning your body fat stores instead.

Short-term fasting may also lower blood pressure and increase insulin sensitivity, making this type of fasting useful for people with type 2 diabetes or other blood sugar control issues.

Stage 2 Fasting (12-18 Hours): Ketosis, Fat Burning, and Mental Clarity

After 16 to 18 hours of fasting, you should be in full ketosis. Your liver begins converting your fat stores into ketone bodies – bundles of fuel that power your muscles, heart, and brain.

This stage of fasting has a few benefits:

Appetite Suppression
Ketones suppress appetite, which means your hunger should actually start to subside during this fasting stage.

Paradoxically, fasting begins to get easier as you fast for a longer time. After the first stage of fasting, appetite generally declines.

Fat Loss
Stage 2 fasting is ideal if you want to lose weight. Your body switches fully into fat-burning mode, and because you don’t have any food in your system, you begin to burn through body fat quickly.

In addition, this stage of fasting decreases ghrelin, the hormone that makes you want to eat a lot of food, and also stabilizes your insulin levels, which prevents food cravings.

These factors work together to prevent overeating. If you can do intermittent fasting for 16-18 hours a day, you’ll burn through body fat and fill up quickly when you break your fast, which makes it easy to stay in a calorie deficit and lose weight.

Mental Clarity
At this stage of fasting, you may also enjoy a boost in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

BDNF is a protein that your brain makes to protect existing brain cells. BDNF also encourages the growth of new brain pathways. It also enhances learning and boosts mood.

Fasting and ketosis both increase BDNF in animal studies, and researchers theorize that they do the same in humans (although there haven’t been reliable human studies yet.)

Stage 3 Fasting (24 hours): Autophagy and Anti-Aging

After a full-day fast, your body goes into repair mode. It begins recycling old or damaged cells and reducing inflammation. If you’re looking for anti-aging or anti-inflammatory benefits, a 24-hour fast may help.

Autophagy
When your body is under mild stress (such as exercise or an extended fast), your cells respond by becoming more efficient.

One thing they do is turn on autophagy. The term is Greek for “self-eating,” and that’s exactly what happens. During autophagy, your cells check all their internal parts, find anything that’s old, damaged, or functioning poorly, and replace them with shiny new versions. The old parts are either recycled into new materials or destroyed.

Studies show that fasting-induced autophagy comes with a variety of benefits.

Fasting triggered autophagy in the brain, clearing out misfolded proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
Autophagy declines naturally as you age, which is connected to a variety of diseases. Fasting may be able to combat age-related decline, keeping you biologically younger and protecting your cells from oxidative stress.

Early research suggests that fasting-related autophagy may help kill cancer cells.
Fasting reduces bodywide inflammation via autophagy.

Stage 4 Fasting (36-48 hours): Growth Hormone and Recovery

At stage 4, you’re leaving intermittent fasting territory and entering a longer fast.

As you undertake multiple days of fasting, your growth hormone levels begin to shift, which provides you with a new set of benefits.

Muscle Growth and Repair
A study of healthy adults found that 48-hour fasting increased human growth hormone (HGH) secretion by up to 400%. It also increased the frequency of growth hormone bursts throughout the day.

HGH increases muscle mass and stimulates faster muscle repair. It may also speed up the healing process for wounds and more serious injuries. HGH is so effective that taking it externally is banned in professional sports and is considered doping.

It seems counterintuitive, but occasionally going without food for two days may actually help you build muscle, not lose it.

Stage 5 Fasting (72+ hours): Stem Cells and Immune Function

The final stage of fasting begins after a full three days without food.

Before you read about the benefits, note that a 72-hour fast is a serious undertaking. If you’re going to try it, make sure you drink plenty of water, get plenty of electrolytes like sodium, magnesium, and potassium, and stop fasting if you feel lightheaded or otherwise unwell.

Immune System Regeneration
A 2014 study found that 72-hour fasting led to a near-complete rejuvenation of the immune system. Fasting triggers stem cell production, creating brand new immune cells to replace old ones.

The same study also had cancer patients fast throughout chemotherapy treatment. Normally, chemotherapy devastates the immune system, increasing the risk of infection and illness for cancer patients.

But when patients fasted during chemo, their immune system stayed strong throughout the process.

A Brief Guide to Fasting
Fasting is fairly simple. You just have to follow three rules:

Choose a fasting window. As you read, the stages of intermittent fasting each come with different benefits. Pick a window of time fast and stick to it. For example, if you’re doing an 18-hour fast, maybe you stop eating at 8 PM today and don’t break your fast until 2 PM tomorrow.

No calories. A true fast (also called a water fast) includes zero calories during the fasting period. Water, coffee, tea, and other zero-calorie beverages are fine during water fasting, but anything with calories will break your fast.

Stay hydrated. Drink plenty of water during your fast. make sure you also get your electrolytes by adding sea salt to the water and/or taking an electrolyte supplement.


My personal protocol:
Eat lighter, low carb meals, preferably do intermittent fasting a few days before so it’s easier to switch to no food at all.

During the fast, coffee, tea, and water are your very best friends during this time! You’ll be pretty amazed at how good a simple cup of tea will seem to you.

I occasionally eat a tiny bit of watered down miso soup. I feel it’s low calorie enough not to break the fast and has a high salt content which helps with electrolytes, however some people would be concerned this would take one out of a fasted state. I recently bought a blood glucose monitor, so I’ll be able to test this next time I fast. I’m not sure when that will be but I will keep you posted about it!

To break a fast, I eat a light meal, ideally. Maybe a soup, something like that. It will likely be the best soup you’ve ever tasted! You’ll have a whole new appreciation for food for a while. And from there transition back into normal eating. You’ll know what feels right for you- I’d say avoid very heavy meals for the first day then ease back into your normal routine.

Other personal practices- of course do not attempt to do this when you have anything important, pressing, or high pressure going on in life. View it like a relaxing “sick day” of sorts in life. Have music, movies, books at the ready. I do find I gain a mental clarity a few days in and I’m able to tackle some things I felt “stuck” on, but, overall plan to have low-key days without much added pressure so you can listen to your body.

I hope you have a great experience and it becomes a part of your health routine! I aim for a 3+ day fast once a year or so, and 24 hour fasts maybe once a quarter, but it really depends on how hectic life is. It should be healing, not adding stress 😉

Sending you good vibes for great health!,
Suzy

Break glass

I’ve been thinking about the reasons behind why I feel the need to “protect” myself from a variety of potential threats, mostly fictitious, largely never likely to occur.

I wonder if this comes from the fact that evolutionarily we did have actual, very very real things, to protect ourselves from. How does that space get occupied in the modern human’s mind now that the saber tooth tiger will not be joining us for dinner.

As I thought about this, I happened to pick up a piece of framed art who’s glass was unfortunately broken in a recent transport. It was SO much lighter than it was with that glass.

I realized I, too, feel lighter without my protective glass.

✨✨the blur of 2021✨

Hello, world.

I decided to check the stats on this blog and somehow, despite it’s utter lack of updates, thousands of views still happen. And I realized the last post here was a very sad one. So I wanted to leave the first post something happier.

for a few months I was leaving these notes on my phone called “life lessons”. I’ll copy and paste a couple of the months here:

All potential exists in the present moment

A good course of study: how to find and attract the challenges and difficulties that best serve your quest for liberation and build your compassionate intelligence.

Subtracting something from life can be just as beneficial as adding something

.”What do I love, and how can I serve and enhance and enrich my relationship with what I love?

“When the teacher is ready, the student appears”

Spiritual practice is like food. Food only works for those who eat it. Spiritual practice only works for those who do it.”Sadguru

If you don’t take a bus often,Take a bus. It’ll likely be humbling and put things in perspective about how simple much of your life is. Remember your place in the grand scheme.

“The cure for the pain is in the pain.” – Rumi

Adversive fear memory is very very strong for evolutionary reasons. It’s why we remember bad lessons/memories so strongly. Understanding this is powerful. You can degrade the fear network by strengthening other networks and reallocating thoughts to other places.

*I’m willing to trade pain for peace*

a wrong perception can be the cause of a lot of suffering

You can never get enough of something that almost works

The truth does not carry the vibration of conflict. It is calm, strong and unwavering. If you find yourself fighting in order to prove things to others, there’s a good chance you don’t believe it yourself.

“The roots of a lasting relationship are mindfulness, deep listening and loving speech, and a strong community to support you.” ― Hanh Nhat Thich, How to Love.

Lessons from nature: being dormat is a perfectly acceptable state. Withering is a perfectly acceptable state.

What evidence is my brain looking for right now to support unconscious patterns?

Don’t let your past ruin your future

Make a conscious choice to expand perception.

Don’t fall into habitual self talk, analyze your thoughts instead of reacting. Your thoughts create your world, as confirmation bias will find ways to recreate what you imagine to be true.

the truth never needs to defend itself it just stand strong until everything else falls away.

If you doubt yourself, the other person has already won bc now its 2 vs 0.

Go out into the world and think good and be good – via monk via Tim van loan

If it’s kind it’s wise- Byron Katie

Desire is not love. Love is much more responsible. It has care in it. – Thich Nhat Hanh

Assume generously!

5 years ago, today; in loving memory of Ryan Lanza

Today, 5 years ago, my younger brother Ryan, who was 5 years younger than I, died, tragically young. He was 29 years old. It was the worst day of my life and it probably still is and it reframed everything for me and likely still continues to.

Ryan John Lanza. He had been a healthy, extremely athletic, happy, caring child and young adult. The year and a half before he died he had been through a successful brain surgery, and chemo, and radiation. He didn’t complain. He didn’t lose hope. We all actually, really, truly, thought he’d be one of the few to overcome brain cancer, because he was so young and healthy. Even his Drs did. They encouraged him to proceed with his plans to build a house with his fiance. They told him it was ok to go back to work, to live as a normal young man would. And it was briefly , blissfully ok. Until it very suddenly wasn’t again.

There were no surgeries the second time. There was just an endless stream of friends and colleagues in a hospital room. The mintues went slowly there, sometimes- when he was in obvious pain, or when he was occasionally upset or angry, which was so out of character for him, but so, so very understandable in the circumstances.

Moments went slow, at times, but the last bout of time in the hospital went fast, in a delicate delirious blur of raw emotions and sleep deprivation and a shattered inner peace.

I was with him the night he died, in the middle of the late night. I had sent my parents home, I knew they needed rest. I had flown in from California a few nights earlier, and for some reason I had adamantly said “I’ll stay with Ryan Thursday night”. And, I did stay that night, and it was his last night, and when I realized this, maybe a little later than a few of the hospital staff that were around, or maybe before them, I started crying. I was trying to keep him calm and tell him I loved him and I couldn’t not cry, at some point. And his last words to me were “Suzy, don’t cry. Why are you crying?” I mentally memory add him saying “it’ll be ok”, because that’s what he would usually have said, but I don’t know if he actually said that or if it’s a trauma memory and after that it became hectic with nurses running and then he also knew he needed help and so many machines beeping and me begging them to not let him go yet and please let my parents get here and I still don’t know if I did the right thing and I still don’t know if there’s ever a right thing.

And I know that memory emotion experience lives on in my cells. I can recall smells and sounds and the sight of torn open emergency medicine on the floor, after the chaos. I can recall waking up for months afterwards in a PTSD panic and being transported back to this moment.

My parents did arrive, and his young fiance and his young friends and I hated that they needed to experience this so early in life.

And it snowed the day of the funeral and we still don’t know who shoveled the church parking lot so early in the day but we were grateful.

And that day ended and it was surreal and there were many moments when you just forget how to breathe or how to stand up or what to say when someone says something comforting. And those moments lessened but were still a part of life, for a long time.

And life went on, in fits and starts. His death brought the gift of truly not caring about the small things that people complain about or get caught up in. It brought the gift of not letting myself complain if things were momentarily imperfect. He continues to inspire me to this day. 5 years later. Everything is somewhat changed but the important things stay the same.

Love your people. Hold them close. Don’t hold back in your telling of why they’re important to it. These things never fail to sound trite until it’s happening to you, but one day it will be too late.

I love you for reading this and I hope you have peace in your heart. I’m constantly rebuilding my life and emotional stability, and my main focus is finding an inner, resilient peace that can’t be taken away. Writing this helped, so thank you for reading and remembering my wonderful brother with me.

💓

~consciousnesstimeline~

http://www.enlightenment.com/media/essays/consciousnesstimeline.html

Via the mystic wonder Rob Bresney:::

Sometimes we get so bound up fretting about the damage that

fundamentalist religions wreak on the world that we forget about a

countervailing development: the explosion of wisdom about spirituality

and consciousness that has happened in the last 140 years.

Here’s one person’s timeline about how this unprecedented series of

breakthroughs has unfolded: http://www.enlightenment.com/media/essays/consciousnesstimeline.html

~3650 days {2009/2019}

2009 to 2019

Was this the best and very worst decade of my little life? Probably .
This decade helped me understand we are bigger than we believe and also smaller than we think.

I learned about my inner fortitude. About manifesting. About being careful what you wish for, and, that the sky’s really the limit.

Moved from NYC to the Chesapeake bay (veryyy briefly, oops false start at country living!) to SF, to Atlanta, to SF, to PDX, and finally to my cottage in the Gorge outside of Portland. I traveled inward, I traveled near and far. I went to ~25 countries. I fell in love with many cultures, and questioned the U.S’s ways of doing things more and more. Went to my first burning man, followed by 7 more. I incorporated many of those principles into my every day life, but I decided I didn’t need to attend every single year.

I made so SO many soul friends that I’ve seemingly known forever, for lifetimes, maintained countless beautiful east coast friendships, had many loving romantic relationships that taught me a great deal about myself. I lost loves, both friends who left this plane, and failed love affairs, but they all left me with lessons.

&…

Very very tragically, I lost my immediate family during the last 4 years of this decade. First my younger brother, followed by my amazing father and just recently my angelic mother. To say I’m spun out and off kilter from this is an understatement, but, I believe everyone’s souls return to source and that I’ll somehow know them again. I still talk with them, and feel their presence in my life.

I try to remain grateful I was the recipient of so much love and joy as a child, instead of focusing on the pain. It’s easy to forget but it’s been the ultimate practice in mindfulness. And gratitude. And inner perseverance. *We’re bigger than we think; we can overcome obstacles and tragedies. We’re also smaller than we think; we don’t have all the answers nor do we control the cosmos.*

This lead me to understand my inner work is more triumph than my outer missions. I started the decade working with a public policy think tank. I was still actively art modeling. I almost opened a modern art gallery in a beautiful space in SF. I worked in the intersection of high tech and plant medicine right as cannabis was becoming legal in this country. I had my own tiny rosin company. I spent a few years working almost nonstop, and years where I barely ever opened a laptop.

I’m now focused on healing, thusly am outwardly ‘working’ less, and instead making art and doing research for an angel investor who is making this world a better place, with a few of my own cool personal projects mixed in.

After all these years of attempts & near misses, I’ve created the balance of living in nature most days of the month, and having a cozy homebase in the center of the city for when I need it.

I feed monks on Tuesday morning and attend dharma talks that evening. I have internalized healthy mantras that finally lovingly stick and help my brain deal with this chaotic world. I have an amazingsupportiveloveing partner, &, in many ways my life is better than I ever could have imagined. In certain ways it is far sadder, but, I hope these are simply limitations as viewed by a human mind.

I hope most days I can encompass the wisdom that life isn’t what we *think it should be*.

Instead, it is what it is. And if I can learn to love it as such, I will be happier.

Or perhaps I’ll climb the elusive mountain to equanimity.

May 2020 be perfect visions of balanced actions of right living with just the right dash of fun decadent whimsy mixed in. I trust many of the days to come with be fantastic for us all, even if there are difficulties along the way.

Don’t forget: you are amazing. You are enough. And, you are here to love. Into 2020 and beyond. 🤍

nows ok

India journal, May/June 2019

India journal,

May/June 2019
983 76 41
11:45a, platform 2

^ life suddenly becomes filled with tiny numbers that can make or break my reality for the next hour– or, next few days. Gate 37. Platform 9. Section A. Airline X. Remembering the date, time, country you’re in (and subsequently timezone), and what month it is all prove to be important as well.

Trip begins with a drive from Spokane Washington to the airport in Vancouver British Columbia.
Check in was totally problematic (centered around the fact that A) I was flying China Eastern Airlines and customer service isn’t exactly their main draw and B) I hadn’t yet booked my return trip from India, and depending on how one read the Visa requirements it could be said that was necessary) but I was like 4 hours early (bc the flight took off at an odd time late late night/early in the morning), so it was ultimately mostly ok since I had tons of extra time, but it reminded me how fraught with issues travel can be (& often is!).

I finally convinced them I would book a return flight on my really really super extra long layover in Shanghai, before I even arrived in India. An overly tired manager got sick of my persistence and reluctantly gave me an “ok, fine I guess that’s ok” and I was given the first of 2 boarding passes and they withheld the one I needed to get on the plane to India– and for now that was that.

Slept some. Eastern China airlines is a budget-y airline and last time I traveled overseas it was first class with Cathay, so, this feels *especially* no-frills. Still, since it’s an international flight, the food was interesting and almost edible and it’s fun to interact with airline employees who speak limited English- it expresses itself in cute ways (like the stewardess saying “please” when she put any drink or food down). And “open sunshine, thank you” when they wanted us to open the window shades during landing. Gah. So cute 🙂

Had a row of 2 to myself bc someone wanted my seat to sit with his travel partner, so that helped me get maybe 6 hours of sleep? Woke up before sunrise and got to see it peek over the horizon, somewhere past Russia and near North Korea.

I’m watching what I’m pretty sure is a Tanya Harding biopic via the person sitting to the right in front of me. With Chinese subtitles, of course. I still think I get the drift. It’s darker and funnier than I expected.

Next:
Long long long layover in Shanghai. 20 hours. Leaving the airport was quite the ordeal and I literally had to say to an airport employee “um, you can’t not let me leave this airport Sir” (& I held my tongue when I wanted to add “even tho this *is* China…). I finally got out. I didn’t explore much further than an amazing hotel with a 1970s inspired round bed. And a life changing shower.

Now getting ready to board to India. An Indian man is taking up most of an entire row if seats sleeping in the waiting terminal. He’s laying across many seats and has his shoes off. Doesn’t give AF! Maybe this is my first taste of international travel al la India?

Another thing I love about international travel:: FASHION!
Young Asian woman: Red plaid scarf, Leopard shirt, Black and white vertically striped pants.
Men in turbans *and* hoodies.
I see lots of red lipstick.
Fashion! In ways that are new to me. It’s a slice of heaven.

Now a long flight.
Finally I arrive.
Airport is only somewhat insane and my friend meets me in an Uber.

Now it’s 3 days Delhi. So much happens. It’s hot hot hot, and just as crowded. I met up with an old friend who I met traveling when I was in New Zealand. He shows us around. He speaks the language so that helps a lot. We do so many sites in one day and eventually I feel heatstroke-y and call it a day. I quickly realize I can’t do full days and nights out here and I’m ok with it. Days seem to be the choice, dictated by the direction of my jetlag and the amount of things to see during the day.

We saw temples big and small and old forts and city walls and everything feels somewhat ancient except for the intermixed surprisingly modern cafes but then we turn the current and find steep steep steps into wells where they kept the water for the town. We see monkeys and cows and motorbikes and absolutely endless crowds of humans. We see very, very few white people and learn that it’s the absolute hottest time of the year and that is why. Ha! We eat better food than we can find most places in the States and it costs $3. Gah! We walk over ten miles most days and I fall asleep suddenly when I get home and wake at weird hours and forget where I am. I wander into the living room and in my jetlag I ask my friends if “someone put on a wildlife soundtrack?” bc I hear exotic birds and monkey calls and they say “you’re in India, honey”.

It feels much later in the journey, but it’s only a few days later. We head to Agra, to the Taj Mahal. Missed two trains but easily find a taxi then we have a homestay with Col Sharma’s and his wife, an intriguing and loving older couple who began Airbnbing bc they missed having a full house after their kids moved out. Aw. He was high up in the army, had tens of thousands of people reporting to him. She has 4 masters degrees and a PhD in psychology.

Her take on manifestation:
Be so precise in your desire that all the other energies in the world joins forces with your desire and supports your vision 💗

*
Agra was the first intense poverty I saw. Streams of trash, overwhelming smells, people everywhere, even more than parts of Delhi if that’s even possible. We saw 6 boys on one motorcycle!!

And then, just outside of this, we arrive at the Taj Mahal. It’s glorious and it’s just before 6 a.m. So it’s serene and majestic. I’ve never seen anything quite like this before.

The next day we wake early and take a quick $12 flight to Rajasthan.
The capital of Jaipur amazes me- it’s gorgeous old organized civilized. Felt regal so many millennia later, this royal desert city. We stayed at an Airbnb of someone who was really genuinely kind and ambitious in the right directions. His villa apt completely blew our minds. He then invited us his farm house venue an hour outside of the city to have dinner with his extended family. It was a truly beautiful night.

Awake at 4 a.m. again. More small airports. Now onto–

Dharamsala, McCloud Ganj, Darmkot, Dalai Lama’s hometown!
Monks everywhere. Himalayas. Giant trees. Clean air. Too many cars for the endlessly winding roads but even those are full of grace. One town up in this mountain village called Darmkot feel like a misplaced Venice Beach California, between the reiki and the sound healing and the green smoothie bowls and the yoga gals Skyping loudly about missing their connecting flight from Delhi. I see earrings for sale for 150 rupees that I’ve seen for sale in San Francisco for $60 USD. Orders of magnitude of mark-up. And, then, the next town over is full of monks and absent of yoga chakra healers in training and it’s like a little Tibet and there are literally signs all over town proclaiming “KINDNESS” as the secular ethic to aim for. And and and… It kind of just keeps rabbitholing into these beautiful dimensions falling into one another, where it’s hard to tell where one ends and one begins and how I got here in the first place. Via love, I guess? I suppose that’s the every only answer at this point.

A cute kind couple both from places I’ve lived (Atlanta, London) ask if they can share my table as I’m eating Momos and watching the sunset in Naddi and I find out the Dalia Lama is giving a teaching in 2 days and we can register tomorrow and I’m so excited and tell Alex as soon as I get home and we register first thing the next day and adjust our plans to stay within walking distance of the His Holiness’ temple the night before and we get the radio we need to hear the translator and and and… After so many days of heat and pollution and being on anyone else’s schedule for the first time in a great great while, I get ill all night the night before the lecture.
😦 Food poisoning? My psyche not allowing me to hear a living Saint teach? Wahhhh. Who knows. But I retch all night, into the day. Alex rushes to find a pharmacy before the teaching but nothing opens at regular hours here. I sleep fitfully and get the scoop when Alex returns. In short: H.H.D.L. is extremely philosophical and still somewhat irrelevant. Funny and inclusive and smart. Pushes for all religions to be accepted and stresses that Buddhism is a lifestyle and way of thinking, not a dogmatic theology. So, that’s nice, even though I couldn’t make it. A cosmic lesson on non attachment, it is.

And then we get a glimpse of monsoon season to the point where electricity goes out and umbrellas are breaking and then it starts actually freaking *hailing* and

Now that I can keep water down, a few hours later, it’s an overnight bus (through insane roads and a thunderstorm complete with lightening) to…

Rishikesh!
We’re checked into Osho Vision Ashram. Im still not fully well and they kindly let me sleep on a mat somewhere or other until our room is ready.

Hours later- after getting to the room, I am still a bit ill. I need water from the common area and I opted out of the group mediation so I figure I won’t run into anyone and I go down many flights of stairs, sweaty in my harem pants/pjs/what’s passing as my outfit these days. I feel as if I’m in a fever dream as I go down marble staircase after staircase, hearing chanting from certain floors and children crying on others- the only constants, like in much of India, are that it’s oppressively hot, I’m disoriented yet somewhat bemused for some reason, and I feel safe even tho I’m on the verge of collapse. Now if I could just remember which giant poster of Osho or some Baba signifies the correct floor to my room…

The next day we go for a long walk to explore and it feels like we’re living on the surface of Mars as it nears noon. A guru gave us the best chai I’ve had here and we compared some yoga tricks and he put an orange streak on our foreheads and showed me sacred signs crafted out of cow dung stuck to the wall. Blessed us with “happy life, happy work, happy, love”. And later, near the Ganges River, there were hundreds of people in a hall of sorts singing to a specific God I think maybe, and a few brave Indian children stared at us for awhile then sat near us and one grandmother type gleefully shook my hand. Did I mention that being a white tourist entails being asked to be in selfies with excited teenager girls, while their parents shake your hand with somewhat more stoicism, until they learn you’re from CA, USA, and then they can’t withhold their enthusiasm and they tell you about their brother who lives in Austin and he was in LA once, and and and…

We later stuck our feet in the Ganges and it was frigid compared to the day and it was holy compared to everyday life and it was also just a place where kids played and gurus without homes bathed and drank. It’s a sacred holy ancient totally here and now portal of limitless everything and it’s also just a river. I know in my heart of hearts I love it here, and the whole of India, and will return.

Oh, after the Ganges we found ice cold coconut water at my new favorite Ayurvedic shop. And A.C. – blessings abound. Jah!

Wanna play a game?
Burning Man or India?
It’s a huge achievement to wash my hair. It immediately gets filled with dust, yet, it’s a project I spend a decent amount of time attempting to accomplish once a week or so.

Dust masks. Serious necessity.

Proper footwear makes or breaks your days.

Finding reliable A.C. is both heavenly, and somehow feels like cheating.

Watch out for bikes and strange small cars.

Having someone’s unexpected kindness ultra change your mental state.

Coconut water may have just saved me from heatstroke.

There’s a parade for no reason. There’s a parade for a reason. Wait, is this a parade or Church?

Travel across town to a thing that’s supposed to happen at a certain time and it’s ultimately not open but you find something more magical just past that.

A Blinky lighted car has large amounts of pop corn to offer you.

Survive by sleeping during the hottest hours.

Peeing by squatting in the dark with your foot against the door bc the lock doesn’t work and realizing halfway through there’s no toliet paper.

Yoga, chanting, reiki, weird wonderful fashion.

Eating one meal a day seems legit. As does the occasional Red Bull for breakfast.

Remembering to refill water bottles in the common area will save your day.

Everything’s rerouted yet everything’s ultimately right on time.

Spotty internet but it’s more telecom connected than it used to be.

😉

 

On a ride during another storm, we laugh at our driver recounting the Things an Indian cab driver Needs:
Good horn
Good brakes
Good luck

*
Giant hail storm, again (!???)
It miraculously ends as soon as we need to go outside.
Train station is full, chock full, of everyone in all corners. The holy men here in Rishikesh aren’t in white. They are sunset sherbet colors. Dreamy hazy creamsicle orange. Blushes of pink. Not the shouting yellow of Delhi but instead a first morning ray of shy just awoken sunshine kiss.

From this train station followed maybe 4 days of overland travel to Nepal. The bumpiest overnight bus I could ever imagine, followed by a very very very delayed train that caused me to make the call to just jump on one going in the direction we needed like hobos. That was fun. More trains, more buses, more bumps, so many twisting roads. And, we make it, with a few days to spare, in Kathmandu.

Border crossing, Nepal  & India
Walking “100 meters” (which is 900 of course) in the hot hot sun for exit stamps, entrance paperwork, eating lychees with new friends, & making small talk like old friends for quite a while with friendly govt officials while the parade of big trucks small rickshaws large families and a rainbow of entrepreneurs sell their wares.
Finally in Nepal.

It’s a safe, sweet, Buddhist country. It feels peaceful and it’s a bit tidier and far quieter than India. Shrines and temples are abundant here, in densely urban areas suddenly things slow for people to relight the incense. To ring the bell. To say the entire prayer.

It certainly makes me wonder how different Western culture would be if instead of church in a sanctioned place one morning a week, it instead was interwoven into the daily fabric of our lives. The fruit vendor sitting at the entrance to the one Temple. You buy your mangos, you say your mantras, you keep liberation of all sentient beings at the forefront of your mind- all at once now. The great dance.

Prayer wheels are spun, monkeys are seen, stuppas are explored, our time here draws to a close.

Armed security guards at the airport in Katmandu greet me with a genuine “Namaste”. It’s surreal. As is the fact that the majority of the pilots are in the smoking lounge. I guess it’s still 1972ish give or take? They seem happy with it.

And, now. Now I’m in Dubai. The store clerks call me “Madame”. It makes me feel old, famous, privileged, confused, and giggley all at once. They say it like they mean it. It makes me want to turn around to see the person standing behind me that they must actually be addressing. But, no, it’s me. “Madame, please sign here” is in fact referring to the receipt for *my* banana and flat white. Ok. I’ll play along.

Peeing in holes in the ground a few hours prior in rustic Nepal to suddenly being awash in Dubai’s sticky glitzy glamour was head spinning culture shock.
The feeling of the city is something like Vegas on a mega dose of Ayahuasca with David Bowie as the shaman guide. In the year 2080.

After an Uber tour around part of the city, we ended up at the massive mall, a place to see and be scene. Catwalk Run is literally a street there. It’s teeming with beautiful people, many women so unreal looking it almost hurt my brain until I remembered plastic surgery was definitely a thing and this was doubtlessly the fitting demographic. Little and littler black dresses, and taller stilletos than I recalled from NYC, London, Toyko, Paris. It’s eye candy central, my Dutch layover travel friend remarked even the men were so precisely manicured, and, me, well, I’m wearing harem pants, flats, and the shirt that *was* my last clean shirt when I began wearing it 2 days ago. Ha. I’m tempted to apply the brightest red lipstick I can find in Sephora, but instead I decide I’m content to fade into the background of this opulence.

I see more Mazarattis and Bentley’s than I can fit into my peripheral vision. A helicopter ride pops up as an option when requesting an Uber. There’s an actual fossil of a complete dinosaur next to the jewelry souk. I’m in a whirlwind that reaches a different part of my psyche than even anything in India ever did.

And just like that my very long layover nears it’s end and I crash out in the hotel room I’m sharing with my transient Dutch traveler gal pals, catch my shuttle back, make it through the many rounds of security, and… Catch up on films until I’m in NYC again. Home sweet homeland. I stay in Flushing Queens near LaGuardia for the night, a crowded Asian neighborhood. It’s a good transition point to ease me back in.

Unexpected healings, or: 5d real estate for sale in a lovely neighborhood!

I recently had an unexpected healing with a skillful massage therapist who made bigggg progress in opening my heart chakra, and she also gave me the gift of the most understandable explanation of 5d reality that I’ve heard to date.

She explained 5d as a place of instant manifestation, and said we had to break our ingrained habits of needlessly, mindlessly manifesting our worst fears before we could truly arrive in 5d.

We are all spend increasing amounts of time there, tho, and soon many of us will be there all/most the time. So now is the moment to remind your heart and soul to lead and your mind and ego to follow- not the other way around!

A few days after seeing her, the book “Manifesting 1, 2, 3: and you don’t need #3” came into my life. I’m only part way through, but this is my favorite bit so far, about how our thoughts set things in action:

At the heart of this experience (of manifesting) I knew that thought is real. It is as effective as pushing an elevator button. The elevator starts to move toward you. Sometimes it comes quickly; sometimes it has to move a longer distance to eventually reach you. No matter, it’s coming towards you because you pushed the button.

Back to the in person healing- the therapist also gave me a beautiful example of why to keep a very Open heart chakra:
The more expansive our feild of energy is, the more likely we can prevent a disturbance because we see it coming from miles away. While being closed off, which we think is protecting us, is instead actually limiting our scope of what we can anticipate, and we are more likely to be set off balance. (!!!) I found that so profoundly impactful.

I felt so light, open, and free after my session, and I hope some of this energy is transferred to you by reading this ♡ remember, all day, that you are worthy of Love, and, Love is greater than Fear.

Xx

This happened in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Here are a few pictures.

Grief- oh hai there // Here we go again

♡

I get new phones.

I forget to download the apps.

I knew WordPress had one. I knew 3 phones ago. Now it’s back on my current handheld all-the-freaking time digital bestie. So maybe more writing will happen?

Time will tell.

///

Grief has been…

Non linear.

Incapacitating.

Strangely, thankfully, occasionally nonexistent.

Educational.

Deepening.

Grief is so many waves of so many things. Somedays it seems like everything’s totally, really, actually fine- like solidly A-ok!, And then moments later you realize you have tears streaming down your face and you’re so very relieved your conference call had ended or you weren’t at the grocery store or whatever.

And sometimes you are in the middle of (insert above situation or others). And you count your breaths and harness your mindfulness and find your center and usually make it thru.

And sometimes that gets exhausting and you don’t leave your house for a few days.

///

Life is relentlessly challenging and it’s generally beautiful and awe inspiring in somewhat equal measures, but it’s uneven, like it’s created by a drunk baker on a jerky ship, so “just one little dash of this right here!” can feel gigantic and overtake it all. And then a pinch of sadness may become the entire piecrust, and it’s in every single bite. But we adapt, us scrappy humans. We’re so good at doing that. So good at finding the juicy strawberries that haven’t touched the crust even a little. (Somedays.)

So I’m just digging around here with my little fork looking for the good bits.

That’s what I’ve been up to lately.

///

I think I’ll keep writing.

It feels real, in a shaky time.

♡

John Daniel Lanza, 9/7/49 – 4/5/18 // & For the first year in a decade

For the first year in a decade, no one blogged here. In 2017. For the entire year.

It’s 2018 now.

Things are already markedly different in my life. My father just passed away. Like just, just. It makes me wonder what I was doing in 2017. What was I so busy doing. Why couldn’t I have taken a few extra weeks here and there and just been with him?

 

But I know the answer to that. My logical mind does, at least. I visited my parents a few times that year. And it is lovely for a few days. And after a few days, we both want to get back into our own routines, do what we are comfortable doing. He had his way of life. I am beating myself up every other moment thinking “Why didn’t I do a ten day juice fast with my Dad? It would have helped his condition so much!” “Why didn’t I spend my saving on building him a steam room?”

He was in his late 60s and still liked eating cheeseburgers. My parents have food at the house with high fructose corn syrup. When he had a mild heart attack a year ago, and I suggested a few things he could be eating, he made fun of me in his sweet way and said “Suzy, if it were up to you, you’d have me drinking yak milk and eating pea shoots all day.” 🙂 not exactly untrue.

 

He knew my favorite health food stores in the area, and could have gone. He knows I would have talked to him all day about soups and herbs and CBD if he wanted to. I only talked to him about them as much as he wanted to listen, though. To be respectful. To be kind? To keep our relationship nice and easy going and non dramatic. And now I wish I did everything different. Of course.

Now I wish I talked to him every single day in 2017.

Now I wish I had known he was probably my favorite person.

Now I can’t talk to him anymore, on this plane of existence.

But I think whatever comes next is easier. I think he can breathe easier now, for the first time in so so so long. Now I *know* he is done suffering. And I can handle suffering on his behalf. For his memory. For all the love he showed me.

He made me the person I am today. There is no doubt about that.

Dad, I don’t know if you ever read this odd little now and again blog, and I don’t know if your astral plane makes you all-knowing or if it has subpar WiFi or what the exact deal is, but if you are able to know this now, if you didn’t before, know that I love you with my whole entire heart. Know that I can’t think of you without crying. Know that you were an amazing father and just such a very, very cool human. I miss you so much. The world is duller already. The world has lost has a shining light.

I hope you and Ryan and Grandma Bea– and *your* dad!– are having such a fun time up there. Over there. Way yonder. Wherever your soul is now. ❤

I’m so grateful you were my father.  John Daniel Lanza, 9/7/49 – 4/5/18

 

I find my old digital to-do lists

I make myself laugh 
​Today:

Start to pack

Find Neti pot 

Drink tea (no coffee)

Send drafts

Buy thigh highs? 

eastcoast,hollydays

hello world. happy solstice.  did we all find some extra alignment with our inner selves on that long long night? i trust that we in fact did, even if we aren’t aware of it yet. ❤

art by Android Jones 

I’m reading Jack Kornfeild’s The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology. It helps with east coast traffic and being kind of out of my element.

Here’s someone reading it aloud. 

updates: 1)east coast is cold. how did i ever live here! no wonder whiskey was such an important part of my life. 2)i found a new favorite hotel in NYC. it’s the affordable version of the crosby street hotel (swoon), called HGU. I’m a fan. There’s real art and a bathtub, and a variety of newspapers including the International NYTimes.

3)seeing loved ones, bopping around. NYC is good for a million things to happen all at once. and then the pauses feel so good.  then back to rural southern NJ tomorrow. i have some Christmas crafting in mind that i’m psyched to start.

4)my stellar company is giving us all of next week off. quality of life FTW. hopefully some art exploration will commence. and hugs and good cheer:))

5) here’s a good soundtrack to today that a sweet person sent me.

More transmissions from east coast soon.

image by andy gilmore 

Bend, OR cannabis outting! (It’s work research) (..it actually really is!)

7. That was getting long.

Visited Bend, OR for biking, rivers, and a peek into the cannabis culture. Well done, Bend. Well done!  It’s endlessly interesting to me to see the different products that evolve in each distinct market. 

A few dispensaries in Bend really stood out to me with their gorgeous branding, happy welcoming staff, and well create array of offerings. 

I buy new types of CBD wherever I have the chance, and Bend def provided. 

(Not pictured: CBD in tinctures, capsules, and amulets!) 

My company’s Firefly vaporizer and these products all seriously go hand in hand. Delightful business meetings abound. It’s funny to me to be a career women, but, to be one in this industry at least makes a bit more sense 🙂 

Burning Man to Reno NV to Bend OR to Seattle WA, + Cannabis & a waning Summertime (in no particular order)

1. I went to Burning Man in August. My 6th time on that journey. What a tremendously beautiful year. I camped with Playa Bike Repair for the second year. We rent and fix  bikes. As all good Burners know, a bike is a very important consideration out on the vast dusty playa- and it felt so great to provide people with the gift of a bike repair when they were in need! 
2. From Black Rock City, took the Burner Express bus out. All thumbs up, 5 glow stick rating! Finally, we’re inching towards maybe thinking of sustainability at the Burn! The Burner Express has a special bus lane, like all good public transportation should. So you skip the longgg entrance lines and crazy exodus lines. I can’t wait to see this program develop! 
3. Headed to Reno. Circus Circus of course course.
4. Paisley, OR for hotsprings.
5. Then onto Bend. I’ll start a new post for this 🌼
6. 

PS- So Alex, I might use our ancient/ultramodern bestblogeva to update my team on Cannahappenings 🙂 thoughts? I’m happy for Public Health to get added in as much as possible. It’s honestly all one and the same in my opinion!