After finally coming to terms with it, I have recognized my lactose intolerance. I was first in denial since I love milk and cheese. I could go on eating all the cheese and drinking all the milk I wanted. That all had to end, though. This summer I had to let go of milk. I had to call it and tell it that it was over, that it wasn't him, but that it was me. I learned from Wikipedia that 55 percent of Mexican-American males are lactose intolerant. I also learned lactose intolerance is part of adulthood, your body just stops breaking down lactose. Not until the 1950s did scientists actually start studying the causes.

I had to suddenly learn how to live without milk, which surprisingly wasn't very hard. My parents drink Lactaid, a type of milk that does not contain lactose. It 's technically milk, it tastes like milk, it sounds like milk. It's also grabbed my curiosity for other types of milk. I've heard almond milk and chocolate soy milk are delicious. Turns out it isn't that hard to be lactose intolerant when a majority of people in the world are too.

Local AcroYoga teacher prepares to teach in Kenya as part of the Africa Yoga Project
Santa Cruz’s only regular AcroYoga instructor is putting the finishing touches on her African travel plans. Amy Impellizzeri (elementalbalance.org) and fellow Santa Cruz yogi Rachel Sattinger (lovetokenya.org/about) have raised more than $10,000 for the Africa Yoga Project (africayogaproject.org), and will travel as ambassadors to Nairobi, Kenya next month. In Kenya they will embark on a five-week adventure full of teaching, learning, and traveling, as well a half-week walking safari to visit a school funded by the Africa Yoga Project.

I was reading an article online about mushrooms and did you know that they are a great source of fiber, Vitamin D, protein, Vitamin B, copper, phosphorous, magnesium, potassium and zinc? The fiber helps lower cholesterol while Vitamin D helps with the absorption of Calcium. Mushrooms are 20-30 percent protein and 70-90 percent water, meaning you get the protein from meat with the calories of vegetables. Also the Vitamin B they hold are only found in meats, which makes it great for vegetarians. The article just went on and on about how nutritious they were.

The labyrinth, thousands of years old, is a one-pathway puzzle.  It has been used in the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe for ceremonial purposes, including spiritual and rites of passage rituals. It is a primal, pagan pattern and represents our journey to own center and back again into the world.

Right here in beautiful Santa Cruz at Seabright Beach on March 20, you will find Dean Pollard digging his quarterly labyrinth, celebrating the spring equinox. It takes him between 9 and 12 hours, with a little help.
PdeG: What is the meaning of a labyrinth?

PD: Birth, re-birth, transitions, healing, beauty, passage of time, spiritual growth, enlightenment, connection to source, rebirth, resurrection, emergence, evolution, progress, spiritual path, initiation.

During each solstice and equinox, at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River, the birthplace of surfing in this continental U.S., you will find Dean Pollard honoring the changes in the earth and sky, with his creation of labyrinths in the sand.  He starts from a center, plotting the design with his feet, performing his art with his body and shovel.  He aligns himself with a compass and rides his own fluidic wave in the tradition of the ancients, creating a spacial vortex between heaven and earth. This is performance art honoring seasons, transitions, and changes. Dean’s creative urge brings a level of consciousness and pattern for all of us to see.  Dean will be at Seabright Beach again March 20th for the Spring Equinox.  Check out his website: appliedeurythmy.com

There is an email from Gurmukh Khalsa today.  This is not junk. I have received a personalized 40-day meditation!   I attended the San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference and took an intensive full day class with this beautiful yogi, dressed in white, from Los Angeles. I didn’t know much about her or about Kundalini Yoga, but had been curious for years.  Arriving early in San Francisco, I seized my spot in the yoga room.   She walked in with a sheepskin and a silk pillow. She had my attention. “Sat Nam,” were her first words.  The mantra (http://www.kundaliniyoga.org/mantra.html) means truth … say Sat Nam to anyone and it means I see the truth in you and you see the truth in me: truth is my identity … Divine truth. Kind of like “namaste,”

As the 40th anniversary of the publication of BE HERE NOW is upon us, I decided to read the book, finally.  The changes that began in the coming-of-age 70s still affect the consciousness of our times.  Somehow, in 2011, the words of Ram Das are clearer, more profound and direct. (remdass.org)  The book itself is an early example of “interactive” media, as after the lengthy intro documenting Ram Das’ journey to a professorship at Harvard, the befriending of Timothy Leary, the excessive immersion in mushrooms and LSD, you then have to turn the book on it’s side to read the large typed message on the brown paper.  The different sized type and ink drawings seem to magnify the official communications of the book: “The next message you need is always right where you are.”

No food or drinks served, but upbeat workers and customers, interesting conversation, meeting up, and learning something.  I swear that I don’t work for Apple, but I must say, I continue to be impressed at surprisingly polite and bright workers.  They seem to be from another planet, which is where Steve Jobs resides, along with those other brilliant inventor-types.  The marketing strategy is this: buy an Apple product, pay an extra $100.00 a year, get instruction at any time on your Mac, iPhone, iPod, and enjoy yourself at the same time.  Of course, there is a lot of “product” they could and probably do sell during your tutorial, but I have avoided buying anything yet.  My particular “genius” actually told me to go to Fry’s where I could save $30.00 on a 1 terabyte drive that I need for my 40,000 digital images. Imagine that!  Good Karma.

Feng shui style with Sweet Nectar Designs
As 2010 hastily rumbles to a close, I’ve recently found myself stewing in a pool of self-reflection. Musing over what? Oh, you know, just the little things: What will the new year hold? How do I want things to blossom in my life? How can I make things happen so that those pesky dreams might actually come true?

More than simply cleaning out the dust bunnies in my home, I feel ready to clean out the old energy; reach out and open the blinds in my life to let the light in, so to speak. And seeing as how I spend most of my hours in my bedroom, it sort of makes sense that any attempt to balance the flow of chi in my life should start there.

Traveling to Manhattan last week, I took my familiar trek to Union Square where I met up with my Jivamukti teacher Dechen Thurman, son of the Tibetan Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman.  Sharon Gannon and David Life, artists who merged as activists and created the Jivamukti yoga schools along the way, founded Jivamukti in 1989.  Jivamukti means liberated living. A Jivamukti is one who is liberated and lives to benefit the lives of others … a tall order. The style is vinyassa flow and incorporates chanting, postures, and concepts of Indian philosophy.  Each month, Sharon and David emphasize a theme, and the theme this month is Asteya, or “non-stealing.”  The concept is this:  When one stops stealing from others, prosperity (material, mental, and spiritual) appears.  Stealing can be defined in its many forms: things, ideas, thunder, parking places.  Sharon Gannon takes the stealing concept even further to support her vegan philosophical theories … for example, confining an animal steals its life and by consuming meat, we steal the life and happiness of billions of animals.
Check out her concept: