Post@Buchanan SF

At the corner of Post street and Buchanan there is a monument. At the center of Japan town.

It comemorates the 40 Japan towns there were in California before the forced internment during WW2.

Business brought me to LA for some time last year and I was very happy when I found a Japan town in LA. It reminded me of home (SF). I marveled at the similarities and was happy to find a civilized place amongst the sprawl of downtown LA. I love Tea, Matcha, sushi, ceramica, taiko and all that lovely stationary.



I had no idea the Japan Centers were so intimately linked. Of the 40 that exsisted before the war 3 now are left. San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles. They all have the same monument. My travels will soon bring me to San Jose. I have never visited the Japan town there.

SF Japan Center
LA Little Tokyo
San Jose Japan Town

Long Live NOPA

I've lived in Noe Valley, The Mission, The Panhandle, The Tenderloin, and Cole Valley. I moved to the Oakland hills at the beginning of this year as my first foray into the East Bay. I've moved back to SF (see map above), in the end the commute was too much for me (I own a software company in the Mission). I don't believe that it will be the last time I live in the East Bay, Montclair and Piedmont are beautiful and I love the Gourmet Ghetto in Berkeley, but for now I am happy to have returned to The City.


I just moved into an old friends apartment and discovered a new neighborhood. It was previously the odd spot between the panhandle and the western addition. There has been a lot of recent growth of the area: 1. New legislation barring chain stores 2. Newly available commercial space 3. Recently opened shops and restaurants. People started to call it NOPA for North of the Panhandle back in the late 90's. This is similar to NOHO in NYC for North of Houston.

I'm really happy I moved here when I did. The neighborhood is about to become amazing. Check out this map I made of NOPA:



I can't wait to see what happens here.

Maps courtesy Google photoshopped by Sid.

Once Again...

Once again I'm headed out to the desert. This is my 9th year. So much has happened since I first broke the mold. This year I want to find more of my personal power, get more in touch with my destiny and find the internal strength to rock this life harder.

It's hard to fight for freedom if you've never tasted it. That's why I think everyone should go at least once.

I still head up there...

I still journey to mount Tam by myself. I would go up there whenever the fog would engulf the city for more than a few days.

When you head up to the top, you break through and find one of the few places the fog never touches. Now I head there when the internal fog encompasses too much.

I started going there in the spring of last year. It was a troubling time. I went there for peace, and in the fields of gold atop the bay's highest peak, I would remember them. The five great loves of my life. Julie, Alisha, JD, Amy, Kala. I remember the peace of their hearts. I remember the storm, and I remember the monster I can be. I've carried such deep pain in my life. I've seen things that I will never share, been through things I can never actually get over. At times, numbed by the perspectives of despair, I have betrayed my deepest hopes, and echoing through me, have come the chains of abandonment and heartbreak.

I saw the silhouette of my father on the ridge one day between the clouds and the sky. He told me my ideas would change the world, and that I had everything I needed to do what he could not. I heard him calling out from beyond the grave, saying "now is the time"

I took my love to the top one day, and in the tears I could see the inevitable.

In this magical place, I have brought the despairs and scarcities of my life and found the peace and abundance of my soul.

Right now I miss it. I am down in LA in a transformational workshop, and if I could, I would drive down the silent road at the crest of the hill, pull off and hear the sway of the barley, lye down in the fields of gold, and remember the women who loved me fully, even in my trance of heartbreak.

Awakening

Today I feel powerful. It seems that the rough spot I hit has stabilized, I've integrated the learnings and I'm bursting into this new phase in my life.

There are a few things I did to provide a lasting "state change".

1) I've committed to a ten week flying trapeze series. It's been two years since I flew. When I started it took me a couple months to get out of safety lines (the harness you have to wear when you begin) Last night it took me one class. It's like riding a bike. I feel like I get to start right about where I left off. It's a valuable benchmark too. In the time between when I quit doing trapeze and now I picked up contact improv, authentic movement, some yoga, fire dancing, aerial dance, staff and many other unnameable nuances of body intelligence. I feel like I am ready to take it to the next level.

2) I've gone to the gym almost every day for the past two weeks and I'm meeting with a trainer at 6:30am Monday morning to set up a new regiment.

3) I've rededicated myself to the Mens group I joined at the beginning of the year.

4) I'm attending a Platform and Presentation Skills workshop in LA next week.

All this together should anchor in the change that I experienced over the last few weeks. I'm excited to return to and upgrade my Heart-Conscious, Fire-dancing, Trapeze-flying, Contact-improv-ing, Business-owning, Computer-Rocking, Health-Conscious, Hard-Bodied, Public-Speaking, Plane-Flying, 4X Driving, Gun-Firing, Growth-Inspiring Self.

Travelling...

I put my tarot decks away last summer. The Goddess Oracle, The Osho Zen Tarot and the Thoth Deck. I wasn't getting the results I wanted in my life, a lot changed last summer. I made a lot of decisions. Who I became in the year to follow was beyond what I could imagine from that space. I must take that to heart as I reach another solstice. So much more than I can imagine now, is possible in the next year. Where do I want to go?

I must accept the truth that I can go anywhere, do anything and be anything. Only when I truly accept this do I have the vision to see my path. I have found that it is my purpose in life to inspire growth. This is something I have always done, and something I cannot help but do. I have also found that I take the shape that is most powerfully called out by my environment.

So the question is, where can I inspire growth the most and who do I want to be?

I faltered in my resolve and vision lately, took on responsibilities that were inappropriate and expected results that were unreasonable and near impossible. It has been a humbling experience to fully open to the reality that I can do and be anything at the same time that the universe is teaching me I must be myself.

It is a journey, and the further I go, the more I realize there is no end. The motivation in this journey can not be it's end, it must be who I become in walking this path. I am an expression of love and strength, as well as an expression of the frail and doubting mind of humanity. It seems that the act of being human is the choice to be imperfect, the fantasy of perfection must be married to the truth that everything is perfect, lest we live without forgiveness or compassion.

I accept my humanity.

I went to the Osho Zen Tarot online and picked this card. It really resonates with where I am at.

Travelling:

Life is a continuity always and always. There is no final destination it is going towards. Just the pilgrimage, just the journey in itself is life, not reaching to some point, no goal--just dancing and being in pilgrimage, moving joyously, without bothering about any destination. What will you do by getting to a destination? Nobody has asked this, because everybody is trying to have some destination in life. But the implications... If you really reach the destination of life, then what? Then you will look very embarrassed. Nowhere to go...you have reached to the final destination--and in the journey you have lost everything. You had to lose everything. So standing naked at the final destination, you will look all around like an idiot: what was the point? You were hurrying so hard, and you were worrying so hard, and this is the outcome.

Osho Rinzai: Master of the Irrational Chapter 7

Commentary:

The tiny figure moving on the path through this beautiful landscape is not concerned about the goal. He or she knows that the journey is the goal, the pilgrimage itself is the sacred place. Each step on the path is important in itself. When this card appears in a reading, it indicates a time of movement and change. It may be a physical movement from one place to the next, or an inner movement from one way of being to another. But whatever the case, this card promises that the going will be easy and will bring a sense of adventure and growth; there is no need to struggle or plan too much. The Traveling card also reminds us to accept and embrace the new, just as when we travel to another country with a different culture and environment than the one we are accustomed to. This attitude of openness and acceptance invites new friends and experiences into our lives.

The Osho Zen Tarot can be spread online here:
www.osho.com/Main.cfm

Love to you all...

Sid