Just, this morning….

There is a certain discomfort that exists in simply living in a beach town when you aren't on vacation or already retired.  The juxtaposition between being in the busiest phase of life - raising a toddler, running a company, keeping a household together, as a single mother, while looking around at everyone relaxing in flip-flops...

Things and Stuff: Clearing out the box of loss.

It isn't the stuff, but the stories of the stuff that sticks.

The Spirit Animals of Sausalito

When I first moved into my new home in Sausalito, the raccoons were my first experience of nature in my own backyard. I don’t think I was ready for that, quite yet, then. It was a scary sounding arrival in the dark the first time they came. As much as I trusted the trees and...

If you wonder how things are without you…

...really, I’m okay. Sort of like that time I fell off my bike in the driveway and chipped my teeth, and tried to get back on. You stopped me, you took care of me. Okay, at least, I’m going to be okay. Except for this one unmistakable, unshakable sadness, which shrouds me like a 1,000-pound cloak....

This moment. (Dedicated to Saraswati)

It starts right now. The bead of sweat slowly melting down the side of my face is the only movement I can feel now.  Except for the breath that rises and falls within my lungs. The bead of sweat drops onto my right foot now.  My left foot is currently next to my ear, held...

Magic.

Magic. The very meaning of the word magic is unknown to most of us.  The ability to hold it in our grasp is not something we would normally consider, but the potential for creating true magic in our lives is at our fingertips every single day.  Believe it. Magic is not about pulling an unknown...

Travel Translation

Halfway to Bali, I took my headphones off, pausing the English movie I was watching with Mandarin subtitles.  The pilot had made an announcement only once, in Taiwanese, with no translation.  It is these precise moments of travel when I feel in awe of the vastness of our world and our understanding of our place...

Universal Positioning

Last night, the sight of the moon really blew me away.  It wasn’t like the time I witnessed the red-hued Harvest Moon nestle herself into the Bay Bridge, to cast a flame over San Francisco, or like the time I had to pull my car over on the highway in Utah as the beauty of...

One word prompt: Glaring.

Today was a really tough day in my little bubble, and, later, I learned, also in the world.  My little boy woke crying at 5 a.m., alerting me to his needs, which he has few words to explain. I rushed to his room, immediately concerned to fix the “problem”.  At first, I figured that whatever...

Goodbye, San Francisco.

When I saw San Francisco for the first time, it was just before dusk in early October.  Autumn’s temperate haze had wrapped herself around the city like a gauzy shawl, imbuing the buildings in a soft pastel rainbow.  It was love at first sight.  The glimmering city, just beyond the Bay Bridge, became the last...

Becoming a Scary Mommy

I'm considering re-naming my blog to PR-Yogi-Mommy, or maybe just PR-Mommy or simply Mom.  After nearly 2 years of latent posts, I realize that I haven't been writing at all, at least publicly, and am making an effort to shift gears back to one of my great loves, while I've been spending so much time...

Setting off on a Culinary Journey

We are landing in Hong Kong on the evening before Christmas Eve. The sky has turned the color of saffron after a full day of flying under the sun over the vast expanse of ocean that separates both sides of the world from each other. A woman on the plane asks me “Are you ready...

Oh Gee, A Ghee Massage? Sounds Great!

By my second week in India, I was feeling immersed in the culture and beauty of this foreign land. I was also feeling a bit, shall we say, overly confident about my continence. To be honest, I may have found relief in a few prunes by this point in my travels. Yet, unknown to me...

L’espace bien-etre

When I originally came across this particular phrase, it was dotted across the cover of a pamphlet for an exclusive spa located within a five star hotel in Brittany, France. It was summertime. My then boyfriend and I had been savoring the sunshine while swishing through the French countryside on expertly outfitted bikes with precisely...