Wild Woman – Page 7 – Karen's New York Love Affair

Karen’s Holiday Kvetch: Delta Airlines Sucks – WestJet Airlines Far Superior

Dear friends, it is the holiday season, and things can get chaotic, especially with a full moon like yesterday. Up until now I’ve been having a great time in New York, taking in wonderful holiday events like the Rockettes at Radio City.

But then it comes time to leave the city… And I had the most annoying non-travel experience yesterday, due to Delta Airlines’ thoughtlessness. So let me take you on a holiday kvetch, if I may…

At 6:10 am yesterday, I was prevented from checking my bags, and hence from boarding my 7 am flight to Seattle, and then endured 6 hours of the most frustrating phone calls you can image. I found Delta Airlines’ customer service to be appalling, and vow to never fly on this airline again if I can help it.

Since I couldn’t board my flight without checking my bags (though there was actually time for me to go through security and board the flight), I had to miss the flight entirely. The alternates I was offered were to pay $7,000 to book another flight the same day, or to do an overnight flight involving 5 hours’ layover in the middle of the night at LAX. Just imagine the fun! All because of a misleading statement on the Delta Airlines boarding pass… Followed by the worst customer service you can imagine, both at the airport and on the phone.

By contrast, this is the thoughtful information that WestJet sent me for the replacement flight I booked with them:

Hello Karen Y, your WestJet flight leaves in less than 24 hours…
Please remember that Holiday travel is the busiest time of the year at the airport, so give yourself the advantage of a little extra time. This email contains your flight details, and will help you check in easier. We look forward to welcoming you on board…
We strongly encourage you to arrive at the airport a minimum of two hours prior to your scheduled departure, to ensure that you do not miss your flight. Due to a higher than expected volume of guests traveling, and current U.S. Transportation Security Agency (TSA) staffing, excessive security wait times are expected.
Changes at Calgary International Airport – When you arrive at the new terminal, you no longer need to pick up your bags when you go through Canadian customs. We also recommend you allow for extra time to reach your next gate; in some cases, 25-30 minutes may be needed.

This information is so thoughtful, and tells me all the details I need to know. Plus, they offer one free checked bag!

And this is their boarding pass:

By contrast, this is what Delta said on my boarding pass, which I printed after doing an online check-in the night before my flight:

Imagine checking in online at 11 PM, tired from a week of work and a day of Christmas shopping, packing, and wrapping… Wouldn’t you be delighted to see you only need to get to the airport 75 minutes ahead of time for a domestic flight from New York to Seattle? Well, I was, and set my alarm for an extra hour of sleep, getting up at 4:40 a.m., to arrive at the airport by 6 a.m., in time for my 7 a.m. flight. Note the wording “recommended,” implying 75 minutes is lots of time and you could even allow a bit less. At least that’s how I read it!

Imagine my shock when I was standing in the extremely long bag drop line, after waiting in my taxi 15 extra minutes to travel the last quarter mile at JFK, due to 5 lanes of jammed traffic, and saw the notice that bags must be checked an hour before the flight. I had not been informed of this in my emails from Travelocity nor on the Delta Airlines boarding pass. Normally I do arrive at the airport 2 hours ahead of time as a matter of course, but because of this notice of 75 minutes on the boarding pass, I didn’t do this. Hence I discovered the hard way that this 60-minute limit for bag drop is evidently the norm, which everyone knows but me.

Much hilarity (actually, many F-bombs) ensued, as I waited in Delta’s so-called “Rebooking” queue at JFK. There were over a dozen poor travelers ahead of me. There was only one woman at the counter, and each rebooking transaction seemed to require from 20 minutes to 90 minutes (as in the case of one woman in a white and purple blouse who was there the whole time I was, who must have had an exceeding complicated travel itinerary to reschedule).

After dropping the F-bombs, commiserating with others in the line, and noticing the line’s slower-than-snail’s pace, I made the call to Delta Airlines. Others in line began to do the same, trying to rebook on their phones, and eventually another Delta employee came over to hand out cards with the phone number to call to rebook. Never mind adding another person to the counter on one of the busiest travel days of the year. That would actually help people! Meanwhile, there was a crowd of a dozen Delta employees in matching t-shirts sitting in the next area, waiting to assist passengers with wheelchairs. Of whom there were none.

I called Delta (13 minutes), who said I had to call Alaskan Air because they were the “overarching” carrier for my itinerary, which culminated in an Alaskan Airlines flight from Seattle to Kelowna, BC. Geez! Alaskan Airlines (12 minutes) said they couldn’t help me because the first leg was with Delta. Next call–Travelocity. (40 minutes). This is where I found out my alternative travel options. (The aforementioned $7,000 trip or the appealing 5-hour middle of the night layover at LAX.)

I declined these options, and found a cafe on the arrivals level where I could do my own research. Within minutes, I had hot coffee, scrambled eggs, and a $660 WestJet flight to Kelowna leaving at 5:20 pm the next day, arriving at 11:21 pm (unfortunately requiring my sister Kim to travel an hour to pick me up, and then another hour to take me back to her home in Armstrong). Still a crappy option, but better than the others.

So, I sorted it out and was reasonably happy, due to Google, the coffee, and the eggs. I left the airport, and had a harrowing cab ride in a Drakkar-drenched taxi back to Manhattan. I opened the window to stop from choking on the stench. The driver kept looking at his cell phone and texting, while driving at high speed! I asked him to stop three times. Can you believe this? The third time he was actually texting while going over the bridge! Geez. Then he asked me if I want a ride back to the airport tomorrow (with him). Not!

So, finally I’m home, merely 3 hours after I set out…

But there’s one more matter to attend to, which is the exorbitant $80 in baggage fees that Delta Airlines charged me. No way was I going to let this ride, when they refused to accept my bags at the airport. (Did I mention the original flight cost $1,155!?? To fly from New York to Kelowna, BC! Plus this $80 fee for bags!!)

So at 8:12 am, I embarked on a new journey into unprecedented levels of frustration, until at 12:41 pm I finally got my baggage fee refunded. That’s right, 4.5 hours. 4.5 horrible hours of rage, helplessness, tears, shouting, MF-bombs, cajoling, insistence, and rudeness (on my part). The first call was to Delta, but they said Alaska had the money for the bags. The next call was to Alaska, and they said Delta had the money. Back and forth, on hold, being told one thing by one party, another by the other, until finally someone at Delta admitted they had the money and would give me a refund. Which took her about 30 seconds to do, as I saw the refund email pop up on my phone immediately.

Sheesh! By now it was after noon, and I felt like a complete wreck, and sadly lacking in holiday cheer.

I spent the afternoon on the couch reading a New Yorker article about dementia, and then went to see The Grifters at the Metrograph Theater on the Lower East Side–a very civilized theater with a bar in the lobby! Both very cheering activities, as you can imagine. 😉 These reconnected me to my beloved New York.

Thanks for tuning in to my holiday kvetch, and I hope you join me in boycotting Delta Airlines forever!

Portrait of Lew McFarland

I’m thrilled to be taking an online master class in photography with Annie Leibovitz, along with students from all over the world. She is a fantastic teacher, and so inspiring. I have been working very long hours this fall, and having this class in the background of my mind has kept me sane and connected to the creative joy in my life.

Lesson number 3’s assignment was to take a photograph of an older person in my life, ask if they have photos of when they were young, and then see how the younger photos inform me when I’m photographing them now.

I asked my friend Lew McFarland, who’s post-80, to sit for this lesson. He brought out photos from his babyhood, boyhood, his Grade 12 graduation photo, and his photo when he was ordained as a minister in his early 20s. It was fascinating to hold these impressions of who he was as a young man, starting out in life, with his face and attitude now. Of course, no person has only one side, and it was a challenge to go through the photos to find one representative picture. I chose 3, to show different aspects – joy and mischieviousness, stark beingness with a tinge of apprehension, and then this seated photo, which seems the most Annie-esque–showing him in his chosen place in the world for this stage of his life, a sub-penthouse apartment in Chelsea. It is moving for me to consider the course of his life, and the complex and still vulnerable man he has become.

Halloween Hijinks

Halloween 2018 was the fifth consecutive Halloween that I’ve spent in New York. Since I’ve always stayed in the Village, I’ve seen parts of the Halloween parade and vast numbers of revelers every year. It’s a time of year I love, and I have marched in the parade dressed as David Bowie once or twice.

This year, on Halloween night, I went to a Barre3 class with my friend Sally M. The class began at 7:45, and the parade began at 7:30. I was pretty sure that it would travel up from Canal to the studio location on Sixth Avenue at W. 8^th Street during the class. Sure enough, about 5 minutes into the class, I saw a most shocking sight from the second-floor windows of the studio, overlooking both Sixth Avenue and W. 8^th Street. The sidewalks were crowded with people, from the barricades at the curbs to the edges of the buildings. Literally wall-to-wall people, as far as the eye could see, along the aforementioned streets and Greenwich Avenue, which angles up at this intersection. This is itself was a fabulous sight, and of course many people in the crowd were dressed in costume. The three “naked” men in bathrobes particularly caught my eye. I guess they were having a spa day…

Sally acting corny on Halloween — *Sally acting corny at Halloween*

Suddenly, the fervor increased, and gigantic skeletons appeared in the clear-road parade route. There were 4 or 5 bone racks, but they were so enormous there seemed to be more. They were long-limbed, with the skulls appearing at the height of our second floor windows, and the akimbo arm bones seeming to reach all the way across the street. I have never seen such a menacing sight! Especially as they were walking with a jerky, jarring motion (with hidden people on stilts walking along and operating the limbs).

Next came glowing green skulls, and then all manner of floats and individual celebrants. The parade went on for the remainder of the class, which was unusually small due to the fact that most people were probably in the parade or watching it. (The parade was estimated to have 60,000 marchers and between 1 and 2 million spectators this year—an unbelievable and possibly exaggerated number. I didn’t count that many, but if every block along the route was packed like the West Village segment, maybe it’s possible.) In any case, I didn’t mind the small class size, and took every opportunity to peek out the windows at the parade below. The teacher had illuminated the room solely with 4 disco lights in the corners. It was the most surreal and amazing class ever. What a lucky event!

As always, there were people on both ends of the political spectrum expressing their views at the parade. This pair make a pretty convincing Trump and Pence, with a cowardly lion thrown in:

And on the other side, Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” has something to say!

From Brooklyn Vegan: “2018’s theme, ‘I AM a Robot,’ brought lots of robot and android-inspired costumes, but the biggest trend of the night was politics, with tons of people dressing up as Donald Trump, his wife Melania, Brett Kavanaugh, Vladimir Putin, and other political figures. Many carried signs urging people to vote in next week’s midterm elections, as well.”

After class was over, my friend Marlene joined Sally and me, and we watched the parade for at least 20 minutes more. I dressed in my Bowie costume, and then we went down to W. 8^th Street to join the throngs, chased down the three men in bathrobes, and went for a drink and bite at Loring Place. A magical evening!

New York’s Animal Rights March

Defend Animals March 2018 Sept 1 — *Close to 3,000 animal lovers marched down Broadway in the Official Animal Rights March on September 1*

The “largest and loudest” Animals Rights March in America happened on Saturday, September 1 in the Flatiron District. Hosted by Bob Ingersoll of Project Nim, the march began at noon in the plaza next to the Flatiron Building with guest speakers Anita Krajn, founder of The Save Movement, and Dan Mathew, Senior VP of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Almost three thousand people marched down Broadway to defend and protect animal rights.

The Official Animal Rights March is an annual march founded by the UK animal rights organization Surge. The march began in London in 2016 with 2,500 vegans and in 2017 the march doubled to 5,000 vegans marching for animal liberation through London. This was the second year that the organization brought the march to NYC.

As you may know, I stopped eating meat in 2002, after attending a Vipassana meditation retreat near Merritt, BC. The Buddhist talks on ahimsa, or non-harming, convinced me to take a personal aim to avoid harming animals by killing and eating them. Since then, the evidence has grown that eating meat is non-sustainable, causes habitat loss and the loss of forests needed for oxygen production, and is the least efficient way to take care of our need for protein. It is an act of caring for the earth, other humans, and animals to stop eating meat.

Superagers – The Ones Who Don’t Forget

Push your mind to the point of unease! Ouch, sounds painful. But here’s why you might want to do this.

Scientists mostly agree that cognitive decline is a standard part of aging. Some abilities, including vocab (lucky for us writers!) are preserved and can even improve with age, but many others, such as processing speed, conceptual reasoning, and memory, are worsened. Due to the natural shrinkage of the brain (ugh) and resultant cognitive degradation over time, this unfortunate reality is something that affects all of us. Except when it doesn’t (ha).

Here’s where the superagers come in–with the mental abilities of 50 year olds into their 80s and 90s. So this is where we need to start!Two things that help us remain younger as we age you’ve probably heard already–exercise, and positive social interaction. The third thing is to constantly challenge our brains with new or difficult tasks. It can’t be something that’s hard but we’re good at (like the NYT crossword–not that I’m good at it, but you probably are!). We have to leave our comfort zone and power our mind to the point of unease. Examples include traveling alone to unfamiliar places, learning to play a woodwind, organizing a protest event, and making some kind of art (however weird)!

According to Cooper Wade Collier’s inspiring article “How to Grow Old Without Growing Old,” in the Mensa Bulletin, some of the “superager” people studied even had considerable signs of Alzheimer’s, but it didn’t make a dent in their level of functioning. There were various studies, and the positive impact of using our minds to forge new neural pathways overcame not only Alzheimer’s but smoking, drinking, genetic factors, and so on. But regular exercise and social interaction were common factors among all the superagers.

I guess the point is we have to keep pushing ourselves on every level or we decline–physically, emotionally, and mentally.

United to Stop Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court Appointment

Protesting Kavanaugh SC appointment

Protestors gathered on Sunday, August 26 at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan. Their aim was to stop Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court. The Unite for Justice event was sponsored by NARAL (theNational Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) and MoveOn.org. Similar events were held simultaneously in other US cities, including San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Houston. More than 30 women’s rights organizations organized the protests.

The Planned Parenthood of New York City Action Fund stated, “With this nomination, the constitutional right to access safe, legal abortion in this country is on the line. We must take Trump at his word that Kavanaugh would overturn Roe v. Wade and get rid of the Affordable Care Act.”

Pro-Trump and pro-Kavanaugh protestors were at the demonstration as well, and there was a bit of cross-talk between the groups. The pro-Trump supporters were against abortion and voiced their opinions to the pro-choice demonstrators who were protesting Kavanaugh’s appointment.

August 26th is Women’s Equality Day, commemorating the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. It was first celebrated in 1973 and is proclaimed each year by the United States President.

CBGB OMFUG

I feel very fortunate to live in New York City and be a part of everything that’s going on here now, but I also have nostalgia for the New York that was, which is a New York I never knew. I glimpsed hints of it in obscure song references and books and movies. Remember the Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime”? “This ain’t no Mudd Club, no CBGB, I ain’t got time for that now.”

How I wish I could have been at CBGB in the 70s or 80s! In case you don’t know, CBGB stood for Country, BlueGrass, and Blues, Hilly Kristal’s original vision for the club, yet CBGB soon became a famed venue of punk rock and new wave bands like the Ramones, Television, Patti Smith Group, Blondie, and Talking Heads. From the early 1980s onward, CBGB was known for hardcore punk. I had Blondie and Talking Heads on vinyl, and even played “Burning Down the House” during my mortgage burning party. But that’s a far cry from actually being here to be a part of the scene.

The full name of the club was CBGB OMFUG — Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers. Although a gormandizer is usually a ravenous eater of food, what Kristal meant was “a voracious eater of… music.” What a guy! What a club. What amazing musicians and an exciting time in music history. Remember the Ramones’ “Rockaway Beach“?

Yesterday I went to Rockaway Beach with my friend Nikki, where I had the thrill of meeting a few native New Yorkers who actually hung out at CBGB back in the day. Walter Barry was a friend of Peter Steele of Carnivore, who was later in Type O Negative, an American gothic metal band formed in Brooklyn, New York in 1989, by Peter Steele (lead vocals, bass), Kenny Hickey (guitar, backing vocals), Josh Silver (keyboards, backing vocals), and Sal Abruscato (drums, percussions), who was later replaced by Johnny Kelly.

TON’s lyrical emphasis on themes of romance, depression, and death resulted in the nickname “the Drab Four” (in homage to the Beatles’ “Fab Four” moniker). The band went Platinum with 1993’s Bloody Kisses, and Gold with 1996’s October Rust, and gained a fanbase through seven studio albums, two best-of compilations, and concert DVDs. The photo above is Peter Steele at CBGB, which Walter has on his iPhone to this day! Walter also still gets royalties to this day for singing backup on two TON songs. Cool!

We’ve made plans for Walter, his wife Karen, Nikki, and me to go see the Queen movie, Bohemian Rhapsody, when it comes out in November. Music is truly the universal language. I think in our time it has had a bigger impact than any other form of creative expression. And places like CBGB are the crucibles that the music gets mashed up in.

Rise Up for Roe – Protect Our Reproductive Rights

Event Alert: Sunday, August 26, 12 noon to 2 PM at ~~City~~ ~~Hall Park~~ Foley Square, Lafayette & Worth St.

Show up to protect women’s reproductive rights and the right to have control over our bodies.

RSVP here at moveon.org

I thought we won this fight long ago and would never have to worry again. But now we need to fight again.

Rise Up for Roe Tour

On August 11, I attended the kick-off event for the Rise Up for Roe tour. The tour is going to hit 10 cities across the US in the next 11 days, with an awesome slate of inspirational women, to prevent the upcoming proposed confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and get people to come to the August 26 Unite for Justice nation-wide event. Kavanaugh has indicated his intention to overturn Roe v. Wade and destroy the reproductive rights we won in 1973 during this landmark decision. His track record of anti-reproductive health care extremism seriously puts our constitutional right to abortion at risk.

Many women today have always lived in an America where abortion was a protected right. People may not be aware of the risks women faced before this time, with the horrors of back-alley abortions and a frightening mortality rate for women who had no other choice but to seek out this option. Others tried using bleach, gin, coat hangers, and other horrifying methods to terminate their unwanted pregnancies.

This is not a light matter–it is vitally important to protect our right to have control over what happens to our bodies.

New York City Kick-Off

Chelsea Clinton was the headlining speaker at the kick-off, with a panel of 4 fantastic women:

Lauren Duca – journalist and political columnist for Teen Vogue
Jess Morales Rocketto – Political Director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance
Jess McIntosh – national spokesperson who helps elect pro-choice women and worked on Hilary Clinton’s campaign
Symone Sanders – political commentator who was Bernie Sanders’ national press secretary

A Brooklyn doctor in the audience shared stories of two of her patients who sought abortion, both mothers who didn’t want to increase the size of their family. This brave doctor vowed to keep performing abortion whether it is legal or not. Another courageous woman shared her story of seeking an abortion at the age of 24 because it was not the right time in her life for her to start a family. Bravo!

I want to state here very firmly and clearly that women have a right to an abortion at any time, for any reason. No one has the right to judge a woman who makes this choice, or to prevent her from having an abortion. Period.

Come Protest on August 26

We need to show that we have the numbers to Rise Up for Roe.

There will be a national protest event on Sunday, August 26th to speak out for reproductive rights and prevent Kavanaugh’s confirmation. The Unite for Justice New York City event, organized by the National Organization of Women (NOW) will take place from 12 noon to 2 PM at Foley Square, Lafayette and Worth St. ~~City Hall Park~~~~, Broadway and Chambers St.~~

Plan to come yourself and bring your friends and family.

Take A Single Step – Something You Can Do Now

Other things you can do to protect our reproductive rights:

Dear Senator campaign (by Planned Parenthood) – write to your senator using this easy web form.
Call your senator and leave a 30-second message every day for the next 10 days. Here’s how to find and contact your senator.
The National Women’s Law Center has instituted a tweet campaign that you can take part in.
Talk to your friends and share abortion stories.

Helpful stats

Voters support abortion rights. Seven in ten are opposed to the Supreme Court restricting women’s constitutional rights, including abortion. This includes 87% of Democrats, 86% of Independents, and 54% of Republicans.
65% of women who have an abortion are mothers.
25% of all women have an abortion by age 45.
Only 17 states have abortion laws. Many working women cannot afford to take time off to travel to another state to seek an abortion.

This affects all of us. Take a single step today to protect our reproductive rights.

New York’s Senator Schumer Opposes Kavanaugh’s Confirmation

There is hope, and we still need to make sure our message is loud and clear to all politicians across America. I wrote to the New York Senator, Charles E. Schumer, and received this awesome, articulate letter, which clearly states his opposition to appointing Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, and why:

Dear Ms. Rempel:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy from the Supreme Court of the United States and your opposition to President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the vacancy. I agree that Justice Kennedy’s departure from the Supreme Court has created one of the most important vacancies in our lifetimes.

Our founding fathers created three separate but equal branches of government to prevent any one branch from gaining too much unilateral power. The judicial branch has the critical responsibility of interpreting laws; as the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court makes the ultimate determination of constitutionality. Decisions made in the Supreme Court chambers have far reaching and long-lasting consequences for society. Therefore, the American public must be confident that Brett Kavanaugh will be an independent jurist.

President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the Supreme Court vacancy puts reproductive rights and health care protections for millions of Americans on the judicial chopping block. His own writings make clear that he would rule against reproductive rights and freedoms, and that he would welcome challenges to the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.

Furthermore, President Trump’s numerous attacks on the judicial branch have raised serious concerns for the integrity of the judiciary. These attacks indicate a clear disregard for the Constitution and an aversion to any judge who is not willing to acquiesce to the President’s policy agenda. Judge Kavanaugh has not yet demonstrated the ability to be an independent juror, especially when it comes to limits on Presidential power.

In considering a candidate for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, I have three main criteria: legal excellence, moderation and diversity. Judge Kavanaugh was picked from a list of 25 people who were vetted and approved by the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation — special interest groups devoted to overturning Roe v. Wade, the court case protecting a woman’s right to choose. These groups have also made it their main mission to strike down the Affordable Care Act. Judge Kavanaugh was nominated because he passed these litmus tests, not because he will be an impartial judge on behalf of all Americans. So, I will oppose his nomination and continue to fight for a bipartisan rejection of this nominee and urge the President to put forth a moderate selection that both parties could support.

Again, thank you for contacting me. Please keep in touch with your thoughts and opinions.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Schumer

United States Senator

Wild Visions Decade Anniversary

My NYC block - 6th Avenue and W. 12th Street - moon, Jefferson Market tower, One World tower — *My NYC block – 6th Avenue and W. 12th Street – moon, Jefferson Market tower, One World tower*

July 2018 marks the 10-year anniversary of this blog. I well remember the conversations in 2008 with my friend John Harper, who suggested I start a blog to become the go-to person for ecopsychology. I had just finished my master’s in this subject, and he was encouraging me to share insights about the interdependence and connection between humans and nature. We evolved in nature–part of, not separate from–and when we lose this connection, we get crazy. With over 50% of the world’s populations living in cities now, we are losing our connection to the natural rhythms and cycles of life. I felt passionate about helping people reconnect to wild nature and our inner nature.

I was living at Monkey Valley at the time, and started the blog with a few stories of things that happened on the land, like the entry “An August day at Monkey Valley,” as well as the entry below that, “Wild Women Run”–a landmark moment in my life when I stepped outside of my boundaries to expand into my bigger potential.

Family Viewpoint at Monkey Valley 2013 — *Me and my family at Monkey Valley, August 2013 – Kat, me, Kim, Mom, Eli, Alex (missing: Kirsten and Kurt–love you guys! I’m pretty sure Geoff is taking the pic–love you too!)*

During the past 10 years a lot has changed in my life (and a lot is still the same). The most obvious change is that I live in the wilds of the West Village of New York now, not the BC wilderness. During the past 10 years this blog has ranged over many subjects as my interests and experiences have unfolded. I found it wasn’t in my nature to keep the focus on one topic (ecopsychology) and be the go-to person for that subject.

Topics have ranged to cougars, pedicures, yoga, running, spirituality, photography, New York City, David Bowie, and much more. One pretty constant thread has been running, which has been my passion and sanity go-to for over 20 years. When I ran the NY Marathon in 2016, in honor of David Bowie, I pushed myself to finish it and vowed I was willing to pay the price. That price is that I’m currently on hiatus from running, while I heal my neck and knee injuries. This has led to a healing journey with other great gifts and no regrets. But I’m a little sad to say that the wild woman doesn’t run much these days. Instead, though, I attend the most kick-ass Barre 3 classes on the planet!

Me and Giacometti — *Posing with Giacometti statue at the Guggenheim museum, August 2018*

Never stop exercising! I say this to anyone who might be reading this blog today–keep your brain and heart healthy by exercising 6 days a week, for at least an hour a day. Just do it! This is the single most important thing you can do to love yourself and live a happy life.

So, lecture over, I invite you to enjoy these two retro articles from the first year of this blog.

An August day at Monkey Valley

The morning walk

I started the day with a walk up to the top gate at the north corner of Monkey Valley. It takes about 15 minutes to walk up there from the house. The driveway goes past the spot where a faster pitched her tarp a few weeks ago, and just as I meandered by this stretch of dirt road, cup of tea and cell phone in hand, I startled a deer who quickened her pace up the hillside. I wondered if it was the same deer the faster saw, and felt her spirit on the land. As I followed the road up the hillside I heard red-tailed hawk calling out his raspy high-pitched song, and saw him high on a dead tree’s branch. I called back, and we spoke back and forth a few times until he grew tired of the game and flew away to a further tree.

The digital valley

I was walking up to the top gate to get a really strong cell-phone reception for the 7:45 am meeting I call into every morning. Since Telus switched from analog to digital cell signals, the signal doesn’t bounce as far and I don’t get consistent reception down in the valley where the house is. It makes for a more peaceful time here, not having a phone ringing throughout the day. But it also makes me feel like nobody wants me! Anyway, these work meetings give me a great reason to get out early in the morning to see what creatures are wandering around.

Lizard woman

After the phone call I had breakfast on the porch overlooking the creek, with wild raspberries from the bushes growing around the house. Lunch on the porch too, watching birds in the willow bushes, and wondering who was scurrying around under the porch. Chipmunk, it turns out. Afternoon coffee on the top balcony outside the master bedroom, for a view of the reddening woods. The temperature was 41° C this afternoon (106° F)! Beautiful hot summer heat. I took a break to lay in the sun for about half an hour, and felt held, uplifted, and nourished by the land and sun. There’s a good reason my brother-in-law, Geoff, gave me the nickname Lizard Woman!

Wild women run

On a vision fast last year I claimed my big, wild woman self.

But desert ritual is just the beginning of integrating a new identity that goes counter to the training to be my parents’ obedient, pretty girl, smiling for the camera. And counter to our society’s messages about what women are supposed to be: compassionate, loving, quiet, small. There isn’t much room for wild women. But luckily, we have the strength and power to make room. To stand up, speak out. Anyway, I am still learning to let my wild woman run free.

I was at a half marathon on Sunday, and she ran with me. She shouted out “Woohoo, 10K!” at the half-way mark. And I heard a woman behind me tell her female friend “She’s got way too much energy.”

I know suppressive bullshit when I hear it, and this comment made me mad. Mad enough to beat my previous time by 8 minutes. Mad enough to run harder than I’ve ever run. Which is one way to use that energy.

But is this what a wild woman would do?

My wild woman shouted Replacements song lyrics when they popped into her head. At first, when these lyrics arose, she kept it to herself. But after the 10K mark, she’d had enough of suppressing her fun life energy. She shouted out “Take me down, to the hospital!” at the medics in the ambulance at the side of the road. And “Red light, red light, run it. Ain’t nobody watching, run it!”

And each time she broke the rules, stood out from the crowd, let herself express what was moving through her, a new surge of energy propelled her on. Real strength. Real expansion, right through the top of her head. Right into the quiet simplicity of nothingness.

My exploration into what it means to be a wild woman continues. For the record, she did it in 2:00:28!

Bowie’s Impact on Me

Karen as Ziggy with Mick Rock — *Me and Mick Rock, the photographer who did the “Life on Mars” video in which Bowie wore this blue suit, and many of the iconic Bowie photos in the early 70s*

In the last entry, I talked about some of the reasons I imagine explain Bowie’s popularity and general appeal. Now I’d like to share a bit more about his impact on me personally.

The first Bowie song I heard on the radio was Fame, when I was 10 years old. My parents didn’t usually play music in the house, or if they did, it was classical. But for some reason the radio in the large wooden console stereo was tuned to a rock station on this day. (My aunt must have changed the station the previous night when she was babysitting me and my sister.) I turned on the radio, and suddenly I was hearing something astonishing! I had never heard music like this before. The rolling bass line! The groove. The soundscape of tinkling and puncturing and rising and falling vocal lines. So much complexity. I couldn’t understand many of the words, beyond Fame, so it was the pure sound and the physical impact of it. The excitement! This music moved my body to dance. It filled my heart with possibility and longing to be somebody other than a shy, lonely suburban kid. It blew open my sheltered, limited life, and I knew that someday it was all going to be different for me. Now bear in mind that I didn’t know who Bowie was, and I didn’t know who was playing the song when I heard. I didn’t find that out until years later. But the impact of the song was marked indelibly–a significant moment in my life.

The next encounter with Bowie was the discovery of this record album at a used record swapmeet, with my boyfriend Rick and my sister Kim, when I was about 16.

By now I had been listening to rock radio avidly for a few years, and I knew who Bowie was. But I wasn’t a nut for him like many fans probably were. I just fell in love with his face on this record. I was intrigued because it looked like he had one blue eye and one brown eye. I thought I recognized a few of the songs, and I bought it.

This is when my feeling of connection to his music began, particularly with Rebel Rebel. Hey, I was 16! Totally the right time to find a voice for the wish to rise up and rebel against my parents, be my own person, be wild and free. Again there was that rolling, relentless twanging guitar sound, the insistent drums and bass, the driving force of it. And then the lyrics were about a girl I wanted to be. The hot tramp that Bowie loved! At around this time my sister and I saw Christiane F, and the teenage girl in the movie was going through the same stage of rebellion and trying to find herself, and it all was MC’d by Bowie.

Kim and I also found The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars around this time, and rented the VHS movie from the video store, and this story, visuals, and music entered our consciousness and stayed there for many years, well into our early twenties when we were sharing a series of apartments in New Westminster and partying most nights of the week at the local biker bar, Rockin’ Tonite. The whole storyline of the savior from space, and the end of the world, and the feeling that there was some magic somewhere–illlustrated by the movie with Bowie in all those fantastic costumes–stirred that longing for a special life. It spoke to my inner knowing that I was meant for something more than the limited suburbian world I grew up in (Burnaby) and the safe, ordinary life of an accountant that I’d chosen for myself.

As you all know, this drive for something more has illuminated my life, leading me to the Diamond Approach and inner journeying, to Monkey Valley, vision questing, and eventually to New York City, where I feel I’ve come home.

Karen as Bowie at Soho photo exhibit — *With my friend Andrea at a Bowie photography exhibit in Soho*

So I’d like to close this post with a quote from Bowie’s song Lazurus, from his final album, Black Star:

“By the time I got to New York I was living like a king. Then I used up all my money.” The aptly named Lazarus depicts the end of life, rising up to heaven/the next realm of existence, seeing what we left behind down below, the feeling of freedom. The sorrow of the loss of what’s left behind. Oh, the cleverness, humor, and soul of Bowie. He shared the course of development of a human soul throughout a lifetime with us.

And from “Soul Love: “Inspirations have I none, just to touch the flaming dove. And love is not loving… And reaching up my loneliness evolves…” It could go on and on, but it has to end sometime. David Bowie.