My dear friend, Jane Straus has been fighting cancer of the brain for more than a year.  Some of you may have read one of her books, such as Enough is Enough!: Stop Enduring and Start Living Your Extraordinary Life or her world-best-seller, the Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.

This week, Jane emailed her friends with this note.  I want to post it here, just in case others are suffering in similar or related ways.

As always, Jane's thoughts are focused on inspiring others.

Dearest Friends,
Well, I wish that I could have put in the Subject Line, "Another Bitchin' Report," but that wouldn't have been the truth. My July 28 MRI showed what UCSF interprets as new and rapid tumor growth. A few days later I lost the ability to swallow, necessitating a 3 AM ER trek to Marin General. I spent 3 days on IV, attempting to spit out the phlegm I could not swallow. This caused my lungs to fill up, an inability to speak, a constant cough, and difficulty catching my breath. Marin General felt that anything they did would simply be heroic measures and that I should call in hospice to give me morphine to calm my nerves as I lay dying.

HOWEVER, my alternative docs did not see the MRI or my difficulties the same way--they saw radiation necrosis, a phenomenon new to brain tumor patients who are surviving longer. Because western med. does not expect this, many deaths are blamed on recurrent tumor rather than successfully treated.

My docs had me start on Avastin, Decadron, and Hyperbaric chamber. Within minutes of the Decadron, I was able to breathe and swallow. The other treatments are more long term. So once again I have been pulled back from the brink, purely by my wonderful doctors' open mindedness and unwillingness to buy into the lowest thoughts. This time through, as the staff treated me like I was already past tense, I found myself both willing to accept my death yet not acquiescing to it. I could sense their limiting beliefs and not entirely buy into them.  This was a first for me; I think that the last 1 1/2 years of practice is serving me well.

I will have another MRI in two weeks. I will let you know how it reads. In the meantime, I wish for you that you trust yourself and your powers to heal as best you can. And thank you for your continued prayers and high thoughts for me. I take solace and am inspired by you.
Much love,
Jane
 

Today my granddaughter, Chloe, is 8 years old!  Happy Birthday, Chloe Matthews.

Yesterday, despite being total novices, Robert and I practiced paddling a two-man kayak in the Oakland Estuary.  California Canoe & Kayak is helping sponsor the Support Strokes event for Breast Cancer Fund, Breast Cancer Action, Women's Cancer Resource Center, and Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic.

The owner, Sammy, graciously gave us paddling pointers as we zig-zagged in circles!  We finally got the hang of it enough to go straight for about five minutes!  Seriously, though it was lots of fun, and we obviously need more practice.

The actual event happens September 25, 2010 8 am to 8 pm in Oakland.  For more information call 510-893-7833 or go to their web site above.  It's open to novices and experts, and they need volunteers, too! 

It's a wonderful, enjoyable way to support breast cancer research and treatment for women in need.

Yesterday, on Sunday, July 26, we held a memorial service in my garden for my dear friend of 33 years, Roy Tokuhichi Iwaki.  His nephew, Michio Valian, brought Roy's ashes (center) and constructed an altar commemorating Roy's unique sense of style and humor.  The centerpiece of my garden is the fountain that Roy designed and constructed about three years ago.  

 We had over fifty friends at the gathering to offer incense and share stories of our completely one-of-a-kind friend.  We all miss him terribly as the quirky, generous, thoughtful and soulful friend who was loyal, funny, wise, and self-deprecating. Many friends expressed how he loved nothing better than to give us a well-meaning and playful hard time over whatever we were currently taking so seriously!  

Roy, a second-generation Japanese, grew up in the poorer parts of Los Angeles in a hotel owned and run by his mother. At the age of ten he was placed in Manzanar internment camp along with his mother and siblings. 

 His experience which he described as "kind of fun because I had other kids to play with" left him with a life-long ability to live simply and seek value in things that were cast off.

As an adult Roy began to develop a unique kind of paper round folding that grew into an impressive array of paper sculpture.  

To read his biography as written by Michio, please refer to my column on this web site.

I am deeply grateful to everyone who came to send Roy off with love.

Two weeks ago I went to see the new movie, Exit Through the Gift Shop , a documentary on street art. I loved the movie.

The next day I had my 8-year-old grandson, Anders Rohrer, over at my house in the morning.  I told him about the movie and about what I learned about street art and some of the artists such as Banksy and Thierry Guetta (who was first obsessed with video-taping everything he saw.)  Of course, true to form, Anders became interested and so we looked up the trailer on youtube.  We decided to make our own street art.

I asked him to make his own design (he chose skull with dagger in head) and we made a stencil.  We put on our "hoodies" (I lent him one of mine and rolled up the sleeves.) Then we went out to my potting shed where I laid out the stencil on a large piece of cardboard.  I sprayed it for him (we wore masks).  

It became a week of street art!   My two grandchildren from Studio City, Trevor (9) and Chloe (7) Matthews were due to visit last week.  I took all four kids on BART (the local public transit, which is still fascinating to T and C.) into Berkeley to go the main Berkeley Public Libarary. They were impressed with its size and the wonderful 4th floor Children's Library.  The librarian taught Anders and Trevor how to find books on the computer, and we colleced a couple of great street art books.

In the afternoon each kid made his or her own stencil, I sprayed them and we had some great posters!  

Anders' and Auggie's Mom, Eliza and I took all four kids into San Francisco the next day and we did a street art day.  First we went to the Academy of Sciences to look at the fish and mammals there.  We then headed over to the Mission District, and had some great Mexican food at El Toro on Valencia and 17th, and then visited Clarion Alley which is "graffiti alley" --fabulous paintings the whole length of the alley.  We also walked Balmy Street off of 24th Street for a look at the murals there.

Everywhere we go now, one of the kids will spot something and yell out "Street art!"

Before Trevor and Chloe left, all four kids spent an afternoon making a bird house out of wood scraps--all by themselves!  The carpentry camp that T and C took last summer really helped them handle the tools and create their vision.

I am so very blessed to have these interesting and loving children in my life.

A dear friend of mine whom I've known for 33 years, Roy Iwaki, died in a bicycle accident on May 24th. 

Roy is being given the Florence Temko Award at the National Origami Conference in New York on Saturday June 26, 2010. The award is given to an accomplished folder who is not part of any orgiami group.Roy developed a completely original form of folding a flat sheet of paper, scored with lines, and folding it into shapes, or masks, representing the twelve animal signs of the Chinese zodiac. 

Roy's long-time devoted friend, Johnny Thorn, and I have the honor of accepting the award on his behalf.  We will also be present for the showing of the DVD of Roy's original and unique roundfolding technique, and hope to share a few memories of our time with this remarkable human being.  

I plan to write more about Roy here in the near future.

I just got home from attending the Wlaomen's Wellness Retreat sponsored by the Berkeley/Albany YMCA.  I will be teaching a short class on numerology tomorrow afternoon.  Should be fun!  I've been a member of the Albany Y since I moved here in 1996.  I especially love their yoga classes, and try to go three times a week.  It's a great bunch of people, a lot of "regulars."

I had Anders and Auggie for a sleepover last night.  The time goes so fast!  We have such a good time making dinner, doing projects, bath time, and then movie night.  Last night it was Hotel for Dogs.  They accused me of crying at the end. (I did.)  Auggie claimed he actually cried more than I did.

I browned and braised my pork shoulder this morning.  I'm making Rachel Ray's Phunky Pho soup with pork for family dinner tomorrow night.  Tomorrow is the big Tour de Cure ride, and Gunther is riding a 100 miles.  I promised to make dinner for the family tomorrow night.

I'm loving this warm, sunny May Day.  Very happy. 

I've just finished my column for April.

This evening, I went over to Gunther and Eliza's for dinner .  Eliza made fresh tortillas from masa, water and salt--so earthy, so real, so delicious.  We had the tortillas with pork adobada, salad. chopped cilantro, and onions.

Gunther is still on his month-long weight-loss, body-fat loss regime, hoping to win the competition at the Ice Chamber, the gym where he goes.   He's lost 14 pounds and has a very low percentage body fat.  He is really thin! Of course, he rides his bike to work and back for about 100 miles a week.

After dinner, I read some library books to Auggie and Anders.  Afterwards, in the bathtub, Anders seemed to be mulling over old Mr. Hatch who "kept to himself."  Mr. Hatch ate only a cheese sandwich with one prune for dessert, and he didn't have any friends.  After (mistakenly) receiving a big box of Valentine candy with a note from "a secret admirer" Mr. Hatch became vivacious, friendly, and helpful.  Anders thought a lot about Mr. Hatch's developing social skills.

Yesterday, Robert and I began scrubbing the house to prepare for the family visit tomorrow.  He hung out the bathroom window at a perilous angle to polish the glass.  We went shopping for lamb shanks, vegetables, hominy, blueberries, polenta, and wine.  

Since our Italian friend, Marco. taught Robert the secret of sharpening the knives, I can tell that he has reached a new level of bliss.  And our knives are very sharp now!

Sigrid, Jim, Trevor and Chloe will arrive  tomorrow.  It will be such fun to have them all here after so many months.  I am a teeny bit disappointed about the forecast of rain all week!  However, since they live in sunny So-Cal, Jim actually relishes the cooler weather here in the Bay Area.

I am very happy.   

What a wonderful week.

My friend Giulia Amici,and her companion, Marco Salghetti-Drioli, arrived from Italy on Tuesday night for a brief stay before continuing on to vacation in Maui.

Giulia and I have been friends since I began to teach the Celestine Prophecy seminars in Italy many years ago. I met her through Giorgio Cerquetti who first invited me to Italy. The two of them were married for many years and are still the closest of friends.

Last May in Milan, Giulia and I did another one of our numerology seminars.  She has become a great fan of numerology, and now has a regular radio program and magazine column on the subject.  She translated my numerology charts into Italian and sells them as well.  We had a wonderful time talking numbers again!

I enjoyed getting to know Marco better.  He has lived a very interesting life as an engineer, a spiritual counselor, and a master craftsman. For many years he was the director of the crafts department in the ashram headed by Osho.  Since those days, he has continued to focus on wood working.  He told us he would like to visit Japantown to look for tools.  I knew exactly where to take him--Soko Hardware on Post Street in San Francisco.

The weather on Wednesday had turned gorgeously clear and sunny.  

We had a great visit to the Japantown Center--eating lunch and shopping.  Giulia bought two long kimonos--one with a brilliant orange pattern, another in a subdued dark blue, each perfectly suiting her tall slender figure.

I bought a new hibachi (small iron barbecue) and some cedarwood incense. 

We ended our sight-seeing tour by driving up to the Marin Headlands where you can view the Golden Gate Bridge and the skyline of San Francisco from the Pacific Ocean side!  

                           * * * *

Earlier this month, Robert and I had been researching the best way to sharpen kitchen knives.  Gunther lent us his electric knife sharpener.  It did the job fairly well, but was rather noisy!  As luck would have it, Marco arrived!  He bought us  a whetstone, and taught Robert and me exactly how to use it.  Somehow we attracted into our a world a master craftsman to personally demonstrate knife sharpening! 

You have to love synchronicity.

Last night we had our friends Rainey Sykes and Mal Levine, and Beverly Cheney and Avrum Gratch over for dinner.  We made a lamb roast with artichokes, fennel, garlic, and red potatoes.  Robert carved the roast with our very sharp knife!

I'm just getting ready to go out the door.  Flying down to Burbank for a long weekend with Sigrid, Jim, and Trevor and Chloe!  I'm looking forward to seeing Trevor in his role as President Clinton in his 3rd grade play tomorrow.  He told his mom, "I got picked to play President Clinton because I'm the tallest in the class."  

Last Saturday I began the day as usual with my yoga class.  We were treated to the drumming sounds of a passing local Chinese New Year parade with dragon dancing.  That night, I went out with my old friend, Roy Iwaki, to see Tao, a Japanese group of Taiko drummers.  We had dinner beforehand in Larkspur at Fukusushi (I might have misspelled their name!)

On Sunday, Robert and I went to the Asian Art Museum and wandered around the beautiful collection. We had just watched several episodes of The Story of India on PBS, so it was a nice way to connect with the large collection of statuary and objects from some of the periods we watched.  After that, we strolled around Little Saigon, where a festival was happening a few blocks from the museum.  This is why I love San Francisco--so many diverse communities to participate in.  

Friday was my birthday.  Robert and I went into San Francisco and had a wonderful lunch at the House of Nanking.  I wish I had taken my camera to capture the restaurant set up with green and yellow bowls, red chopsticks, set against dark brown wood walls--very old San Francisco China town.  It was a gray and drizzly day to complete the cozy effect.

Went shopping and then home to watch Anders and Auggie so Gunther and Eliza could go out and celebrate his birthday, too.

Perfect day.