- Getting a tiny singing bowl and Sister Chang Kong's book. I met her in person and talked to her. Then she signed the book for me! Such a rockstar.
- Vegan coconut ice-cream.
- The final presentations of all the families. And the band of a few Brothers and Sisters performing Thich Nhat Hanh's Little Star poem. The surprising rap part.
- A good talk with an Argentinian woman from Plum Village at Bordeaux airport. Listening to inspiring podcasts.
- Spending Saturday morning at the flea market. Talking to some of the vendors. Buying diamante facial stickers and a leather top for the Burn. Choosing from an entire box of books about Buddhism.
- Oh, and my recent dad shirt finds: UV light mushrooms / pure silk abstract pattern.
- A nostalgic evening with Sash. I rode the e-bike downtown, we had Mexican food at Cantina and watched Roter Himmel at Kinoptikum. Later, we biked to the train station together. We used to do this all the time when we both still lived in LA.
- A gorgeous Sunday, roadtripping with Manu and his parents. Two firsts this summer: swimming in the lake and visiting an ice-cream parlour. Singing along to D.I.S.C.O in the car.
- An afternoon with Becky, starting out at Gärtnerplatz. Pistachio ice-cream and Vietnamese lunch. Fantastic conversation, as always.
- A language tandem session with Carolina. Interpreting a poem together. Kevin made spinach salad with feta and blueberries. Then we played an extension of Catan.
- Preparing for the Burn with Frank. Getting water pistols, hippie pants at Indigo, going grocery shopping together.
- Munich Micro Burn. I'm so grateful for this experience and it seems like I've found another community I wanna be part of. I'm really vibing with their principles, for example radical self-expression and immediacy. I met a Golden God (Ben), a Welfare Fairy (Chris), my personal Kundalini Supervisor (Davide) and someone who reminded me of Moss from The IT Crowd (Neill - I adore his beautiful energy, his accent and word choice, his creative style). I unexpectedly reunited with someone from my past (Benni) and adopted a human kitty. I was naked a lot, covered in glitter and body art. I shared my cherry lollipop and asked for more (kisses and Celia's cinnamon water) We built a coral reef and walked through the Kodama forest. I was fascinated by Sari and Nils' acro yoga performance. Reality felt like a computer game with lots of side quests and returning characters.
- Ben wearing exactly the right colours. Golden yellow, forest green, rusty red. His lilac windbreaker with an 80s jazz pattern. His humour, manner of speech, intelligence. The feline gestures, letting me adopt him. Kissing him was an otherworldly feeling, I can hardly put it in words. The Shooting Star Encounter, as my therapist put it.
- Fine dining, surprising conversation topics and the first (and probably last) spaghetti ice-cream of the season with Lena and Sash in Freising.
- A cute e-mail from Stephen with some of his vegan baking recipes from Green Tara café.
- On the flight from Munich to Paris, I sat next to a physicist who was on his way to Peru as well. He was travelling with colleagues, they were about to go on a road trip through the Andes to perform some tests on lake water. He told me about his Arctic expedition, polar bear scares, snorkelling with sperm whales. I love encounters with adventurers. And I firmly believe that I'll keep attracting interesting people who are actually meant for me as long as I keep radiating this positive energy. Same goes for opportunities, life events. I've been so happy and at ease lately!
- The way the Djinn's fingers were dusted in gold in the movie Three Thousand Years of Longing.
- Arriving in Cusco. Seeing the glittering lights in the valley. The stars. Friendly people everywhere. Music, celebrations for the Winter Solstice. They put a baby llama into my arms and I couldn't say no. So fluffy. I'm in love with these animals, especially the soft alpacas!
- Waking up to THAT view after a night of fun dreams. Cozy. (But the following day I had a dream about all my teeth falling out and, again, that my mum isn't really dead.) A fried egg on toast. Fresh orange juice. Sunshine over the valley and strange flute covers of pop songs in my ear. Crawling back to bed after an icy shower.
- People reaching out to me after my post about the last six months.
- Talking to Matthias. It feels like we'd known each other forever. I'd love to meet him soon!
- My encounter with Edward, an artist who had some of his stone sculptures on display at Museo Inka. I bought two of his quartz pyramids and we talked for at least half an hour (in Spanish I might add, I'm so proud of myself). He told me so much about the local customs and beliefs, for example the Cosmovisión Andina and the significance of the puma, serpent and condor in their culture. And of course we talked about Cusco's rainbow flag.
- Sending long distance hugs and good vibes to a crying Sonja (Frank had just told her that her lover has a girlfriend). The llama photo might have helped as well - in any case I got positive feedback.
- A big colibri right outside my window. Shaggy llamas crossing my path. Someone blasting Footloose from his studio.
- An evening at Cusco Planetarium. I took an Uber up the hill and arrived in the middle of nowhere. A good spot to get murdered... But I followed the path anyway and ran into one of the stargazers. He told me that you need a reservation to enter the observatory BUT there was a group in there right now and I could join them so he ushered me in. There was a short talk about the history of Peruvian culture and astronomy, a display of the northern and southern hemispheres with their respective constellations in the dome (I learned that my mum's favourite star cluster, the Pleiades/Seven Sisters, are part of my birth constellation Taurus and that in South America Orion's belt is called Tres Marias) and then we went outside and marvelled at Mars, Venus, Omega Centauri and the so-called jewel box, a cluster of stars near the Southern Cross, through telescopes. I even got free stickers and a ride back downtown.
- Creating a mood light by placing a water bottle on my headlamp.
- The most magical morning: I woke up early and decided to take a taxi up to the Pisac archeological park. What I didn't expect: I was the first visitor of the day and had the place to myself for at least 20 minutes! The view was breathtaking. I saw a colibri (buena suerte!), some kind of deer and a bunch of alpacas. I felt light and free with minimal luggage, wearing my new hiking pants. Just sitting on a rock spur, drinking cool water, the sun in my face, not a soul in sight. Enjoying the stillness, imagining what the valley must have looked like a few hundred years ago. My affirmation of the day couldn't have been more spot-on: I'm on the right path. I met someone who showed me the holes in the rock face in front of us which used to be graves! The Incas actually mummified their bodies. I walked down all the way back to the town. I passed a beautiful bush with white blossoms that smelled like honey (and attracted a lot of bees). There was a red and blue bird with spread wings, elegantly gliding through the mountain air. Ancient ruins, purple flowers, crossing a little river. I enjoyed myself tremendously.
- At the end of the trail, a vendor gifted my a little bisexual (pink and blue) alpaca pendant and I tried to attract two orange cats by meowing at them but as soon as they realised I was just a boring old human they lost interest and turned around. And then I had a private breakfast party at Kula Café: blue lemonade, coffee, fried egg on avocado toast and their Ocean Bowl. Train's Drops of Jupiter playing in the background (I love the lyrics and coincidentally Jupiter is in Taurus right now!). And I got a message from Dory after dreaming about her the night before. Which happens a lot lately - perhaps I've unlocked psychic powers?!
- Attending my first Family Constellations session.
- Little treasures: a Peruvian bucket bag. Quartz pyramids. A fluffy jacket and a green hoodie from By Illari. A serpentine obelisk, a tiny golden llama and a serpent.
- Drawing (Gaia) oracle cards for myself at a café. And Ari's Osho Zen Tarot cards before and after the breathwork session. Spot-on as always.
- Speaking of Arija. We arrived in Guatemala at pretty much the same time - and in Pisac as well. So I reached out (and she happened to read my message even though it'd landed in her spam folder) and visited her for another one of her amazing Shamanic Breathwork sessions. It ended up being a private one because nobody else showed up. I had a very physical experience - my solar plexus was so tense and tingly, my hands and neck were super tight and cramped. Align with your magic came up during one of the breath retentions. Beautiful.
- I took a chance and followed an invitation to a stranger's goodbye party. The rapid-fire Spanish in the backyard was overwhelming very quickly so I ended up hanging out with Paul and his cat Qory in his room. The cat had been neutered that day and was still high on ketamine so we looked after him. I felt really lucky lying around in bed with a gorgeous man and a gorgeous cat. We talked a lot. About his experience in the jungle, healing his addiction, growing up in Lima with a bipolar mum, his marriage to a German woman, plant medicine, emotional intelligence and contagion... A special connection, hungry kisses.
- All the feline love I've been receiving. I went to Urubamba to try out Somatic Experiencing for the first time and Carola had two beautiful orange cats. One of them was super playful and trusting. There was a tabby kitten with piercing eyes in the supermarket. And Qory is one of the cutest, softest and most vocal cats I've met in a long time. Honorable mention: all the (street) dogs who appreciate my pets and scratchies. / And really all the animals around here. The cows, the goats, alpakas. I even saw a big green parrot on a roof!
- I joined Ari's breathwork class as SolSeed on Friday morning and went to other planes of existence. I had to massage my surgery scar a lot because it started hurting. Afterwards my energy had changed and people smiled at me on the street, said hello. My intention had been to be more open and break down the barriers around me. After the session, I drew the Past Lives card. AGAIN. I drew the card before my first session with Ari in October and again on Wednesday. Powerful message for that night's initiation to plant medicine.
- More spooky coincidences: I was sitting in Kula Café, researching the meaning of the card (it's the Moon in other decks), then Beck's Blue Moon started playing and Ari herself walked in. Wow. Then I broke my sunglasses - a very literal translation of removing protective measures but I'll take it. Ari actually observed that something's changed about me. That I'm more open and present than when we met in Guatemala.
- The remnants of my silver glitter nail polish look like star constellations.
- Two long phone calls with Do after a long period of silence. Getting my hopes up that we can repair our friendship. She said I looked alive, spirited, radiant. "Full of life". Which is actually how I feel. (However, I can't really see it - looking into the mirror I see an old face with puffy cheeks and saggy skin. What does it take to make me see my own radiance?)
- Petting a doggie at the cafe. Crispy cauliflower. A little abuelita sleeping on my shoulder in the colectivo.
- Turning a bad day around. I felt SO grumpy. Bad energies, on edge... I couldn't even stand myself. When my date didn't show up and said he'd be an hour late I ditched him and got a really nice massage instead. Then I found a fantastic vegan restaurant right across the street from my hotel with incredibly friendly staff and delicious food. I've never had such a colourful veggie pizza before - it was like a party on my plate. And their playlist was amazing as well - could've been my own!
- Really looking into Paul's eyes for the first time. Noticing that his irises are multicoloured (they are speckled in blue, grey green and brown!) and not the same on both sides. His chaotic energy after accidentally getting a little high on LSD. Leading him through the streets, helping him find the right stores. I'm smitten.
- Hiking the Inca Trail with a lovely group. I'm really proud of myself for completing the trek even though it was super hard for me. The views were definitely worth it and so was challenging myself. It's beautiful to see that I can do hard things. I was so anxious before that day but it's another reminder to stay in the present moment to relieve your suffering. Side note: my muscles weren't even sore the next day! Maybe I'm fitter than I thought?
- Befriending Bridget on the train back to Ollantaytambo. We talked about our passion for teen drama TV shows, woodworking and found out that we're both an enthusiastic Enneagram type 7. We ended up getting dinner at Vida Vegan together and upon saying our goodbyes I shared my first kiss with a trans woman. My life takes so many unexpected turns these days! We actually spent the following two days together in Cusco - it felt like we'd known each other forever!
- Choosing a table by the window not knowing there'd be a kitty sleeping on the bench! The softest boi.
- Spending three bucks on a Coachella glitter palette.
- Lying down with two warm tamales from Doña Josefina's little street food stall. Yum. The soft consistency and steaminess make them so delicious.
- I actually got an Akashic Records reading in Cusco. It was a little different than expected but interesting nevertheless.
jun 16 2023 ∞
aug 30 2023 +