hello dear friends.

ive been extremely true to the moment and irresponsible to the digital world, and cant really apologize for it. 3 weeks in brazil and 3 weeks in mexico since leaving seattle, and likely heading to india before this gregorian month is up. a millions smiles and loves have transpired and countless recipes more, and there is no guarantee i will ever pick up enough of the pieces to communicate it well but a few key takeaways from the past two months would put us at:

* it seems every strange religion, science, philosophy, cult, or dance i run into is a humanly imperfect attempt to Be Love. seen from this perspective, i can appreciate everyone’s foxsteps as my own.

* there is nothing more gratifying than a beautiful stranger smiling at you as you walk down the street (or airport or market or wherver), and stopping to turn a few steps later to catch them still smiling and laughing with you. this is, almost literally, ALL THE TIME in brazil. go there.

* we are put on this earth not alone in order to do things when not alone that we cannot do when we alone. this is mainly harmonizing, tickling, partneryoga, and holding each other crying, as far as i can tell. and, of course, diving catches for the frisbee into the shallow brown ocean of amazon.

* there is a book called “non violent communication” that many of us who want to work on untying the knots in our more venerable relationships (say, with mom, for instance) might read. it’s brilliant, and, i have to come realize, may ultimately best serve to prevent tying those same knots with our children and nieces.

* the ancient mayan calendar is a sacred tool given by the mayan ancestors to there people, which after having allowed them to survive oppression and humiliation for 500 years, is now availabe to guide the rest of us in attuning our intention with the attention of the environments which surround us. its like knowing to go to the MOMA on the first friday of the month, but on a cosmic scale.

but the most important sense i have felt in this last season of comings and goings — which has felt particularly intimate given that i spent 6 months in the cascadia bio region last year without so much as stepping foot on a plane — is that i am never actually

Leaving anybody
Leaving anyplace
Learning anything
Meeting anybody
Loving at first sight.

That is, it seems, this time around, that though we may try to leave each other and cry and grimace and make the best of living apart, we are actually Not. We are actually not different in time and space, we have all met and fallen in Love long ago. And here I am with a dozen ticket stubs and empty metro cards and a flat Sol string on the baritone ukulele, coming to town Again to laugh and cry in nothing more than simple, easy, Recognition. It’s like every taqueria and streetcorner and aiport I go to, I’m meeting people who by some strange act of cosmic coincidence, I’ve

a) met before
b) known forever
and
c) never been apart from.

or, to put it in succint capital letters

ALWAYS ALREADY ARRIVED TOGETHER

the best of course was after hiking to the waterfull and back in Yelapa with the Pyschic All-Star team, to a bar/restaurante that called itself “El Manguito” (the little mango) where the cook/waiter/owner ‘recognized’ me from San Francisco, from the kitchen of an Indian restaurant where we worked together with a bunch of other mexicanos and pakistanis and indians and others of gods creatures besides. Which I dont remember and I think its because it didnt happen, or, at the very least, it wasnt me. But maybe — and this is what Im seriously opening up to — I’m just being stubborn and egoistical about this. What if we’ve all met Gustavo before and we’ve all worked at every cheap Indian restaurant this side of the East River and we don’t remember it or believe it’s just our problem because, someday, under the waterfall and little mangos, somebody will…

love
ankur
ankurbhai
ankurcito
el manguito

ps amerikan phone number
347 . 586 . 7285
doesnt accept textos/sms
happy wallet after 9pm EST
always open for business.