A Not So Brief Introduction
by Shivie
I have been sitting here wondering how to start this. Conceptually, I have to tell stories about me. By the way, my name is Shivie. I probably should have started with that. So, I am going to write stories about me for you to read. Should be easy, after all I know all the stories and I have been known to tell them a time or two (okay, lots of times). The challenge is where and how to begin....
Stories are powerful. They have been used to deliver both sacred and life lessons since the beginning of time. Stories allow people to sit back and listen (or read) and imagine. Sometimes they imagine themselves as thet storyteller, doing those things. Perhaps, upon hearing the story, this is the first time ever that they have been able to imagine themselves as different from how they are now. Stories allow us to believe anything is possible. Now add “truth” to the story, as in “true story,” and you have a winning formula. Or is it just me that loves to see the words “true story” on a movie or book that is inspiring and uplifting whilst confronting the hard, cold, gray reality in which some find themselves living their daily lives. Against all adversity, heart and determination win again. I love that stuff.
telling a story: The Boyhood of Raleigh, by John Everett Millais
Now, my stories are just ordinary stories, but perhaps with a not so ordinary twist, the twist being that I am choosing to share. Otherwise my story is your story and vice versa. My journey to here and beyond has been taking place over the last nine years and will continue until I no longer do. It is full of nooks and crannies that contain little nuggets of stories, mostly about the Angelz that I find in my life just when I need them. No, I am not some crazy woman seeing winged Angelz everywhere; I am talking about those people, real everyday life people, who facilitate some kind of housing miracle or triumph just when you need it. But that is a whole other tale (or three).
A linear look at the story goes something like: January 1999, came to San Francisco on a temporary assignment with my then law firm, Brown & Wood, LLP. Spent nine months traveling back and forth from San Francisco to London until I transferred to San Francisco in September 1999. Admitted in New York, England & Wales (that’s what my old business card used to say) and I was due to sit the California bar. Moved to Pillsbury Winthrop, LLP, in September 2000, hoping that a fresh setting would bring an end to the deadness I felt around practicing law. The deadness continued.
Between transferring firms I took my first solo trip (yes, ever, on vacation that is; I had traveled internationally and across the U.S. on business, but never alone on vacation). That trip, to a small fishing town south of Cancun, was one of the defining points in my life story. Seems lots of things stemmed from that trip or the tarot card reading I had done 18 months before, which which predicted some crazy stuff. I was leaving to move to San Francisco as a lawyer, a six figure lawyer, and she told me she didn’t see law in my cards. She also told me lots of other things that I will share with you in another entry.
In September 2001, I narrowly escaped death in a house fire; we lost all we had but kept ourselves (and no, we did not have renters insurance). Two days later the World Trade Center came tumbling down.
My world was crashing and so, it seemed, the world around me. At that point, I realized that I could always aspire to save money but I could never aspire to save time. I had confronted death and come out the other side (another entry) and I was changed because of it. Time became precious in a way it had never been before, money less so. Three months later, on New Years Eve 2001, I walked out of the corporate office for the last time. No savings and still some school debt, no idea what I was going to do to “make a living.” I had to find a life first.
During my time as a corporate lawyer I reached 200 pounds, was in hospital a couple of times a year with kidney infections, and generally just lived a “sick and tired” life. Through changing my lifestyle and diet (I am now vegan and raw vegan), I lost over 65 pounds and 66 inches from my body. Knowing nothing about healthy eating and the workings of the body, I set out to teach myself. I was my own guinea pig. I continue to be fascinated by the relationship of food to the human body. I (along with my partner, Cemaaj—more about him another time) am planning a business to teach and provide all things vegan. This side of my life is exciting, fascinating, compelling, and colored with love and passion—it is true. We may be financially challenged at times, yet my life always feels rich. I often ask myself the question, “Is the juice worth the squeeze?” when I am wondering what to do about something. In my case, the squeeze was the loss of a six figure salary that allowed me to do a lot of things. I have found something that I am passionate about. I can do without the latest styles and fast cars. It is not the smiling that tells you your life is happy, it is the lack of sadness. I choose to choose happiness, please.
And that is what this account is about—the stories of how I found, and continue to find, my life. Stories of the triumphs and challenges of trying to live life a little differently. Some of the stories are happy, some not, but all are part of the same blanket; it is surprising how much beauty and growth there can be in adversity. See, all the stories are interwoven and I go off track and the next thing I have typed several pages to you. I am trying to contain myself; I like to type as though as I were sitting here talking to you, even though I don’t know who you are—until you tell me, that is—ohhhh, wouldn’t that be delish, to hear that someone is actually reading what I wrote for them!
If you are still reading, you are my kind of reader, and I thank you for sticking with me. I start with the intention of being brief, but I just don’t know how—some people hate it but some like it. I am looking for those that like it and I will keep writing it for them.
Well ...you know much more about me now than I do you. I look forward to getting to know you and sharing my stories.
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