Farewell to Red

I found out last evening that Red died.  It makes me sad, yet I'm glad he doesn't have to suffer.  I think death is always worse on those left behind than the ones who die.  I guess I won't really know that for sure until my time comes, but somehow it's a comforting thought.

Red was a really special cat.  He was a stray that had been hanging around the neighborhood for years.  In fact, he use to try to intimidate our other cats, so we would chase him off when we saw him.  A couple of years ago he seemed to have mellowed a bit; or perhaps life was just becoming more difficult.  He stopped intimidating the others, so we gradually began feeding him.  He was hungry and we can't say no to an animal in need.  Eventually, we were even able to pet him while he ate, other than that you couldn't get close to him.  Last September we went to Greece for ten days, when we returned, somehow Red seemed a little less anxious around us.  He was more receptive to being petted and when we opened the door and invited him in, not only did he accept, he didn't leave.  That was all it took, Red moved in and immediately became part of the family.  He wasn't well, but we wanted to give him the best possible life until his time came.  He stayed inside most of the time or on the patio.  Red was in some ways more like a dog than a cat, he would follow me around the house, just like a dog.  Many evenings he would greet us at the door when we came home.  There is really no way to adequately describe the way he would look at me (and Bharata), but to say it was with eyes filled with unconditional love.  When you would lean over to kiss him, he would tip his forehead and bring it up to your face, just waiting to have a kiss bestowed upon him.  He gradually became thinner and thinner, weaker and weaker, it was painful to watch but he didn't appear to be in pain.  He started staying closer and closer to Bharata in his final days and died sleeping with him.  We will truly miss you Red, but you're in a better place now.  Remember that we both love you.  I'm sorry I wasn't there with you, but you'll always live in my heart, I carry you with me.  Goodbye sweet pea, mommy loves you!

Still in San Francisco

I'm still alive and well, however I can't always say the same about my internet connection.  Makes updating my blog a bit difficult, especially since I have to work it in between meditation, asana class, karma yoga, meals and walking to the health food store for wheatgrass juice.  Why is it that it always seems to go on the blink when I have time to blog?  Actually maybe it's on the blink other times as well and I just don't know it. I guess that would be like the tree falling in the forest, would it make a sound if no one was there to hear it?  Today was the end of the Navaratri celebration; it culminated with victory day - we had a beautiful puja at satsang this morning.  The rituals are quite inspiring.  Rituals seem to be something the Protestants never really grabbed a hold of for some reason.  It seems like the Eastern Orthodox and the Catholics have more ritualistic qualities to their services,  I guess the Protestants are more puritanical.  Well, if you ask me some incense and flower petals never hurt anybody!  Ah, but no one asked me.

The weather here changes at least as much as it does at home. Everyone is always joking about Florida, if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes it will change.  It's about like that here, yesterday it was warm & sunny (in the 70s) today it's sunny but rather chilly.  Go figure!  I just make sure I always have a sweatshirt with me and whether it's warm or chilly determines which side of the street I walk on (the sunny or shady.)  Hey, we may not know how to use a voting machine in Palm Beach County (hanging chads and all that) but we do know how to stay warm.

The San Francisco Vegetarian Society is having a "World Veg Festival Weekend" here in Golden Gate Park this Saturday & Sunday - so I'm looking forward to that.  I just found a link from their site, well several times removed, which took me to a site for the Palm Beach County Vegetarian Society.  I'll have to check that out when I get home and see what it's all about.  Who knew...

Well, I've got to run, time to go get wheatgrass juice.  Oh, just in case I post at what appears to be an odd time (like the middle of the night) I haven't changed the clock on my computer - it's my link with home!  So it's only 3:30 in the afternoon here.  Well, have a great rest of the day - I'm certainly going to.  In fact I might even spend some time this afternoon trying to figure out facebook - I haven't got the hang of it yet and I'm supposed to be showing someone else how to use it - talk about the blind leading the blind.  So I have to try to do a crash course first.  Ciao!

Sunrise in Golden Gate Park

I decided to stay in San Francisco for awhile, rather than return home on my scheduled flight.  It is wonderful out here.  I'm taking a Bhagavad Gita course at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center.  I'm finding my experience staying at the Center both uplifting and grounding at the same time.  The added bonus is, I'm in a city made for vegetarians & raw foodists.

This morning we did a silent walking meditation in Golden Gate Park.  It was amazing.  First, I have to say I was very proud of myself to be able to keep up with the other three people (all of whom are much younger, in better physical condition and use to the terrain) we covered a lot of territory - probably about one third of the park.  We started at 6 am and walked to Stow Lake, where we meditated at Huntington Falls and then walked back.  There were only a few joggers and bicyclists out at that hour so it was wonderfully quiet and peaceful.  The only sounds were the crunch of the gravel under our feet, the waterfall and the mallard ducks on the lake - now I will have to admit, they are rather vocal!  The brisk morning fog felt like a mist of rain on my face, it was like a kiss from God.  The air is so clean and fresh from all the trees I just wanted to drink in as much of it as I could.  Walking to the lake it was dark, and as we passed the Academy of Science building, the hanging sculpture of a flock of hawks seemed to come alive in the soft glow of the lights.  Behind the glass facade they were soaring, circling, watching for their next prey.  They were magnificent, especially since I knew  they weren't going to catch any unsuspecting small animal!  Walking back, the sun had come up so I was able to take everything in, since we weren't talking or otherwise distracted.  Walking past trees so large I couldn't begin to reach even halfway around them was awe inspiring.  The ground is covered with nasturtiums with leaves as large as saucers.  Of course the squirrels had my attention, I just love watching them run and play without a care in the world.  Taking the time to remove the distractions and really let ourselves experience the wealth of natural beauty that surrounds us is just overwhelming.  It is so gratifying to stop and realize just how fortunate we really are if we simply choose to recognize it.  Well, that certainly started my day off wonderfully, I hope yours is the same.  Remember you can have a fabulous day if you choose to.

Dinner at "Alive"

OK, I wouldn't have thought this was possible, but we had dinner at a restaurant that had even better food than Cafe Gratitude.  Now that is hard to believe, because Cafe Gratitude was excellent, but "Alive" was sublime!  It was small and very tastefully done with a beautifully landscape outdoor dining area in the back (the weather precluded our eating out there tonight.)  The presentation of the food was that of a five star restaurant - see for yourself.

Swami Padma & Bharata had soup (which we forgot to photograph) then we all decided on the sunflower seed burger with avocado as our entree and for dessert it was a strawberry coconut chocolate torte & a banana coconut chocolate torte - everything was absolutely delicious.  I can't think of a better job than to be a food critic in this town!  It would be like you died and went to heaven.  The chef trained at Living Light Culinary Arts - so if this is any indication of the quality of their graduates, that's where I would go to learn how to be a raw chef!  We all thoroughly enjoyed our evening.  We took the bus to the restaurant which was also great.  It was a scenic route, we saw Haight-Ashbury, the Presidio and several other beautiful areas of the city; we met some very nice & interesting people, plus we kept our carbon footprint relatively small.  What more can you ask for.  If I were going to move from South Florida, San Francisco would certainly top my list of possible places to move - it is a dynamite place.  Monday we're going to check out the sea lions (or seals) at Pier 39 - the guidebook said they arrive in January so we didn't think we would see them; but several of the local people we met on the bus told us they are there now - so I'll let you know Monday if that's correct.  Well that's all for tonight.  It's time for me to go to sleep!  Have a great night.   

Rainy Day

We were blessed with four glorious days of sunshine, so it's only fair that it rain today.  It's rather foggy, which makes it look like a winter day in the northeast, just before it snows.   This is good, makes me appreciate being inside as I sit by the window typing and watching all the people walk by in the rain.  No one seems to be too disturbed by it, there are even people sitting in the top of the double-decker bus (it has stopped raining, so they aren't crazy.)  We went back to Cafe Gratitude yesterday, that place is incredible!  It's a shame they don't have one in Palm Beach County.  That would be fantastic!  We're having a great time.  I even got a little work done on the swamp walk photos.

 

Welcome to San Francisco

We're here and as always, California is GREAT!  I have always had a soft spot for California since my first time here 20+ years ago.  I almost missed my connection in Dallas; by schedule I had 40 minutes between flights and of course, the arrival gate was just about the furthest point you could get from the departure gate, but that would have been OK.  In fact, we touched down 20 minutes early, so I was elated that I would now have plenty of time; except, there was another plane in our gate, so we were going to have to wait 5-10 minutes, still ahead of schedule, no problem.  The 5-10 minutes turned into about 35 minutes, now we were really cutting it close, then when we get to the gate the skywalk (or whatever they call it) isn't functioning properly so we have to wait for them to fix it before the door could be opened (for safety reasons).  When that door opened, I ran to the train, missed he first one, then ran down the escalator and to the gate, if I had been 5 seconds later, the gate agent said they would have closed the door to the plane and I would have missed the flight - talk about luck!  Amazingly I arrived early in San Francisco, found Swami Padma and we chatted while waiting for Bharata's flight to arrive; his was early, as well, so we were off on our adventure!  The Sivananda Yoga Center (where we are staying) is across from Golden Gate Park.

We went for a walk through the park later Tuesday afternoon, it's very beautiful, there is even an old fashioned carousel.  I have to go back earlier in the day to see it working.  Hey, maybe I can go for a ride on it, do they let grownups do that or do you have to be a kid?

   

It feels a lot colder than I was expecting, I had forgotten about the wind and somehow the humidity makes it sort of damp, so combined with the wind it cuts right through you.  Since I wanted to pack light, I brought one (what I previously thought was very warm) hoodie!  Guess I learned.  But all is well, I was able to borrow a sweatshirt and some sweat pants, life is good!  All in all, we've been extremely fortunate.  The weather is actually exceptional for out here, very sunny and clear.  It's cold compared to Florida, but everything is relative.  Now that I have warm clothes, I'm enjoying the change.  Wednesday, we ran a few errands with Swami Padma and then we all went to Cafe Gratitude for lunch.  The food is incredible, I thought I had eaten some fantastic raw food in the past, but nothing even comes close to this.  Lunch by itself was worth flying out here for!  I've died and gone to heaven.

So far we are having a fantastic time, can't wait to see what today holds.  Oh, one more boon for California,  it makes getting up for meditation so easy, because on east coast time it's 9 AM - I could handle that, no problem!  Gotta run, time to eat.  Oh, they also have the best avocados and I'm pigging out on them, with every meal - I love it!  Until later, have a stupendous day, I certainly plan to. 

Swamp Walk

This was a catch-up week for me.  The re-upholstery project is complete.  It didn't come out bad, especially when you figure I knew nothing about upholstering when it began.  That's not to say I know that much now.  The professional upholsterers of South Florida certainly don't need to worry about losing their business to me!

I'm so glad that's finished.  Today was great, we went down to Clyde Butcher's Big Cypress Gallery for his annual Labor Day Swamp Walk.  It was beautiful!  This year it was smaller; minus the bands and food booths, so it was incredible!  Unfortunately I only have time to post a couple of photographs; we are leaving tomorrow morning for San Francisco.  I will try to get some more up while I'm out there.  This will give you some idea of how beautiful the swamp is.

Have a fantastic rest of the holiday!  I'll be in touch from San Francisco!  Ciao!