Life is Sexy

It’s been so long since I last posted something here. I’ve been listening to Shane Koyczan a lot lately and you can’t help but be totally inspired when listening to him. I’ve always been attracted to and fascinated by stories of human experience and Shane’s songs just blow my mind. There is something sacred about his spoken word. So amazingly poetic, beautiful, and inspiring!!!

I don't have any wild and passionate stories about falling in love with unavailable girls or crazy run-ins with police officers who try to extort money from me. Instead, I simply have subtle realizations about myself, about the contrast between Eastern and Western ways of thinking and doing, and about the human experiences and life that I would like to have. And I also have a few transcripts from several conversations I’ve had with beautiful people that I was fortunate to spend time with while in India. These stories/conversations make me either laugh or smile.

When I first arrived in India I met a French traveler and aspiring yogi named Julien. Julien and I traveled together for about a month. While in Varanasi we would wake up every morning at sunrise and practice yoga on the roof top of our guest house. Then we would basically just laze around all day killing time and waiting until sunset so we could hit the roof top again for a second yoga session. Being someone who has always raced through life, not chewing his food, constantly with the future and an unnecessary sense of urgency in my mind – “I’ve got to do this; I’ve got to be here; I have so many things to do today” – I initially had trouble with these many hours of freedom in between yoga sessions. And of course we often try to fill our lives with things that we think will make us happy, even though they often don’t.

Ryan – God, I feel like such a lazy prick!
Julien – What, you want to do something more than practice yoga and have breakfast???
Ryan – Yeah... I don’t know, (thinking) maybe fornicate.
Julien – (laughing) This should not be a goal. It’s a spiritual mistake…

When I was in Dharamsala I was practicing yoga with this Indian teacher named Vijay. During these wild classes filled with high kicks and crazy chanting, I met a lovely girl from Greece named Elisabeth. Elisabeth was doing her teacher training at the studio with Vijay and had been there for the past 3 weeks or so. Elisabeth and I became friends and I am grateful that she would often adjust me during Vijay’s classes, helping we open up these ‘oh so ready to blossom’ hamstrings of mine. After Elisabeth returned home, she and I were having a conversation one day that had to be cut short because she had to go teach a private yoga class to a friend of hers, someone whom she also had a crush on. The next day I sent her a short message:

Ryan = “How was your private session with your love?”
Elisabeth = “Ohhh it was great! We did three hours of yoga and then had lunch and talked and then we did acro-yoga in the afternoon. Then that night we went out to a tekno party to get all the toxins back ;)

The other day I was on my Facebook account and I saw that my friend Farhad, who recently returned back home to Iran after being in India and Nepal for several months, had posted a conversation that he had with his father and his father’s friends. This story is such a perfect example of Farhad’s amazing sense of humour and wit:

The other day I was sitting in the sauna with my dad and his friends. Everybody was sweating and listening to my travel stories. One of my dad’s friends wondered, “How do you feel exactly when you are on the road?” “Like a fish” I replied. “I feel like a fish when you release it into the river. I’m shaking and I feel totally alive with my wide open eyes!!! Then I’m searching to find the perfect spot. Then I’m just floating to where life is going to surprise me!!!” My dad carefully asked me “How do you feel when you are home with us?” “Like a fish” I said. He smiled. Then I added, “But on the kitchen table!!!”

Two more small things:

1) I do yoga in spandex short shorts now, but only when doing my self-practice in private or in secluded areas. I know, I know, but you just have so much more mobility in spandex short shorts…

2) Do you know how much it costs to go to school to become a Naturopathic Doctor? Oh my!!!

Much love…