(We are re-posting to include pictures of Susan, graciously provided by Ken.)
Susan was a good friend of ours who lost her battle with ovarian cancer on March 16th. She passed away about a month before her 49th birthday. Susan had been in our thoughts ever since we heard this sad news from her partner Ken Lowney. We decided to dedicate our pilgrimage to Sri Pada to her, as she enjoyed hiking and being out in nature. We will also share some of our memories of Susan that surfaced while we made the climb on March 22nd. This is a picture of Susan and Ken on a hiking trip in Yosemite.
Sri Pada is one of the highest mountains in Sri Lanka, rising 7,359 feet up with steep walls and sheer rock faces. The mountain has been an important pilgrimage site for 17 centuries for Buddhists; Hindus, who see Shiva's footprint at the summit; Sri Lankans, who call it Butterfly Mountain; and Christians and Muslims, as well as others, who call it Adam's Peak for the first place Adam walked after being exiled from the Garden of Eden. Buddhists call it Sri Pada, which literally translates from Sanskrit as “beautiful foot” or more eloquently as "sacred footstep". It represents the Buddha’s (metaphorical) visit to Sri Lanka in the 4th century, and the spread of the Buddha's teachings (or Buddhadharma).
We began our climb at 3 am, so that we could watch the sun rise from the summit. The photo of Kristina is at the official start of the Hatton trail. (There were lights that made visibility pretty good for climbing up at night, but there wasn’t enough light for photos until our descent.) We began our friendship with Susan in 2001. We met Susan and Ken on the Go Greenbelt bicycle ride that Pete participated in. The ride was sponsored by Greenbelt Alliance, an organization that is dedicated to protecting Bay Area open spaces while encouraging denser building in urban areas. Susan, Ken and Pete, along with 50 other cyclists, rode 550 miles over the 7 days of Go Greenbelt ride. Kristina visited for a night and helped support the riders through a Support and Gear (SAG) stop. Both Ken and Pete continued to ride each year, and Kristina ran the Spring Hill SAG stop.
The Sri Pada path starts out gently, with occasional steps mixed in with gradually sloping up paths. Then it becomes all steps, 5,200 of them (according to the guidebook), of different heights that are made of stone and concrete. We would climb over 3,000 feet to get to the summit. The trail has well-provisioned shops for pilgrims to get refreshments throughout the climb. We stopped for tea and a package of biscuits around 4:30 am. While sipping our tea and nibbling the bland biscuits, a memory of the best dessert Susan ever made for us came up: it was a crème fraiche panna cotta with stewed dried fruits, which she served as the last course of a New Year’s feast that went on for hours. Susan was an amazing cook. She’d been to cooking school in the late ‘90’s and when she graduated she became the personal chef for Steve Jobs and family (stretching her to learn vegan dishes that still tasted rich). She worked as a dessert cook at Chez Panisse for a number of years, and she shared with us a fantastic recipe for coconut cookies that had restaurant proportions, such as “2 cups of egg whites”.
We were climbing with hundreds of other pilgrims, many of them barefoot to show respect to the mountain, some of them families of several generations. We reached the summit of Sri Pada at 5:30 am, and took off our shoes, as was required. It was cool with a good breeze so we put on hats and jackets. We meditated in the darkness for half an hour, then enjoyed the first light of dawn and the beautiful sunrise. We thought of Susan and Ken. The four of us had enjoyed a 4-day weekend together at Tassajara each summer for the past 8 years. Tassajara was always a peaceful and rejuvenating vacation that we looked forward to all year. Located in the Ventana Wilderness, in a beautiful and remote valley with natural hot springs, it’s run by the San Francisco Zen Center. Part of the visit included getting up while it was still dark and participating in the morning zazen (meditation) in the temple together. Susan didn’t always make it to zazen at 5:30 am, as she was less of a morning person than us, but she always went at least once each trip.
Here’s a picture of Kristina ringing a bell at the summit, once for herself and once in memory of Susan. Traditionally, a pilgrim rings a bell once for each pilgrimage they've completed. Susan might have found a way to tie the clapper string to a friend's belt loop, so when they moved, the bell would repeatedly ring. She was quite a prankster. For example, at Tassajara we enjoyed soaking in the hot springs at various times each day. Susan would inevitably hide Ken’s shoes so that after he got out of the bath he would have to say, “Miss Peterson, where are my shoes?” as he searched until he found them or she relented and showed him where they were hidden. Ken frequently called Susan “Miss Peterson,” which was a very cute nickname. They were a very well-matched couple.
We started our descent and saw dogs along the steps as we climbed down. Susan had a beloved golden retriever, Waverly. They had over 10 years together, and when Waverly was diagnosed with stomach cancer, Susan didn’t hesitate to pay for surgery. As a result, Waverly enjoyed another year of life. Susan took Waverly’s ashes to her family farm in upstate New York. I remember her telling the story of how her Dad had said “we’d be honored to have Waverly here.” It was evident there was a close bond between Susan and her parents, and that she loved and respected them both. We heard about her Dad’s veterinarian exploits, one of which included having a drugged tiger in the back of a vehicle that got stuck in traffic and having to get a police escort to get through before the tiger woke up. We met Susan’s Mom, Cindy, when she came out 8 months ago to help while Susan was recovering from surgery. Susan would look forward to visiting her parents each summer, and enjoyed being on the land that they had put into a trust.
We continued our descent, and towards the bottom of the trail we started to see villagers selling local produce. Seeing the beautiful vegetables reminded us that Susan had spent a year in Santa Cruz for the Farm and Garden Program. During that year, she slept in a tent, organized daily meditation with other like-minded students, and got to know Nancy Vail (who was on the faculty). Over the next few years, Nancy and Susan stayed in touch while Nancy and Jered Lawson started Pie Ranch, a non-profit farm that teaches high school kids how to grow food and make pie. Nancy asked Susan to join the Pie Ranch Board, and Susan eventually became Board President. She had time to work with Pie Ranch because she worked part time at Chez Panisse and wasn’t concerned about making a lot of money. She was a wonderful example of a person who lived life to the fullest. Susan and Ken created a beautiful garden at their home in Oakland. We enjoyed barbecuing there, as well as touring the garden and seeing all the different and interesting plants.
It took us about 2.5 hours to climb down, and our legs were shaking with all the exertion. Near our hotel we spotted a beehive in a tree. Susan had enlisted the help of a friend at Chez Panisse to build a beehive for her garden. She took classes in beekeeping, and was interested to learn about colony collapse disorder when her hive started showing signs of decreased bee population. She had wanted to raise chickens to have fresh eggs. She took a workshop in how to build a chicken coop, but didn’t start this project due to being diagnosed with cancer about 9 months ago.
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.
Susan was a good friend of ours who lost her battle with ovarian cancer on March 16th. She passed away about a month before her 49th birthday. Susan had been in our thoughts ever since we heard this sad news from her partner Ken Lowney. We decided to dedicate our pilgrimage to Sri Pada to her, as she enjoyed hiking and being out in nature. We will also share some of our memories of Susan that surfaced while we made the climb on March 22nd. This is a picture of Susan and Ken on a hiking trip in Yosemite.
Sri Pada is one of the highest mountains in Sri Lanka, rising 7,359 feet up with steep walls and sheer rock faces. The mountain has been an important pilgrimage site for 17 centuries for Buddhists; Hindus, who see Shiva's footprint at the summit; Sri Lankans, who call it Butterfly Mountain; and Christians and Muslims, as well as others, who call it Adam's Peak for the first place Adam walked after being exiled from the Garden of Eden. Buddhists call it Sri Pada, which literally translates from Sanskrit as “beautiful foot” or more eloquently as "sacred footstep". It represents the Buddha’s (metaphorical) visit to Sri Lanka in the 4th century, and the spread of the Buddha's teachings (or Buddhadharma).
We began our climb at 3 am, so that we could watch the sun rise from the summit. The photo of Kristina is at the official start of the Hatton trail. (There were lights that made visibility pretty good for climbing up at night, but there wasn’t enough light for photos until our descent.) We began our friendship with Susan in 2001. We met Susan and Ken on the Go Greenbelt bicycle ride that Pete participated in. The ride was sponsored by Greenbelt Alliance, an organization that is dedicated to protecting Bay Area open spaces while encouraging denser building in urban areas. Susan, Ken and Pete, along with 50 other cyclists, rode 550 miles over the 7 days of Go Greenbelt ride. Kristina visited for a night and helped support the riders through a Support and Gear (SAG) stop. Both Ken and Pete continued to ride each year, and Kristina ran the Spring Hill SAG stop.
The Sri Pada path starts out gently, with occasional steps mixed in with gradually sloping up paths. Then it becomes all steps, 5,200 of them (according to the guidebook), of different heights that are made of stone and concrete. We would climb over 3,000 feet to get to the summit. The trail has well-provisioned shops for pilgrims to get refreshments throughout the climb. We stopped for tea and a package of biscuits around 4:30 am. While sipping our tea and nibbling the bland biscuits, a memory of the best dessert Susan ever made for us came up: it was a crème fraiche panna cotta with stewed dried fruits, which she served as the last course of a New Year’s feast that went on for hours. Susan was an amazing cook. She’d been to cooking school in the late ‘90’s and when she graduated she became the personal chef for Steve Jobs and family (stretching her to learn vegan dishes that still tasted rich). She worked as a dessert cook at Chez Panisse for a number of years, and she shared with us a fantastic recipe for coconut cookies that had restaurant proportions, such as “2 cups of egg whites”.
We were climbing with hundreds of other pilgrims, many of them barefoot to show respect to the mountain, some of them families of several generations. We reached the summit of Sri Pada at 5:30 am, and took off our shoes, as was required. It was cool with a good breeze so we put on hats and jackets. We meditated in the darkness for half an hour, then enjoyed the first light of dawn and the beautiful sunrise. We thought of Susan and Ken. The four of us had enjoyed a 4-day weekend together at Tassajara each summer for the past 8 years. Tassajara was always a peaceful and rejuvenating vacation that we looked forward to all year. Located in the Ventana Wilderness, in a beautiful and remote valley with natural hot springs, it’s run by the San Francisco Zen Center. Part of the visit included getting up while it was still dark and participating in the morning zazen (meditation) in the temple together. Susan didn’t always make it to zazen at 5:30 am, as she was less of a morning person than us, but she always went at least once each trip.
Here’s a picture of Kristina ringing a bell at the summit, once for herself and once in memory of Susan. Traditionally, a pilgrim rings a bell once for each pilgrimage they've completed. Susan might have found a way to tie the clapper string to a friend's belt loop, so when they moved, the bell would repeatedly ring. She was quite a prankster. For example, at Tassajara we enjoyed soaking in the hot springs at various times each day. Susan would inevitably hide Ken’s shoes so that after he got out of the bath he would have to say, “Miss Peterson, where are my shoes?” as he searched until he found them or she relented and showed him where they were hidden. Ken frequently called Susan “Miss Peterson,” which was a very cute nickname. They were a very well-matched couple.
We started our descent and saw dogs along the steps as we climbed down. Susan had a beloved golden retriever, Waverly. They had over 10 years together, and when Waverly was diagnosed with stomach cancer, Susan didn’t hesitate to pay for surgery. As a result, Waverly enjoyed another year of life. Susan took Waverly’s ashes to her family farm in upstate New York. I remember her telling the story of how her Dad had said “we’d be honored to have Waverly here.” It was evident there was a close bond between Susan and her parents, and that she loved and respected them both. We heard about her Dad’s veterinarian exploits, one of which included having a drugged tiger in the back of a vehicle that got stuck in traffic and having to get a police escort to get through before the tiger woke up. We met Susan’s Mom, Cindy, when she came out 8 months ago to help while Susan was recovering from surgery. Susan would look forward to visiting her parents each summer, and enjoyed being on the land that they had put into a trust.
We continued our descent, and towards the bottom of the trail we started to see villagers selling local produce. Seeing the beautiful vegetables reminded us that Susan had spent a year in Santa Cruz for the Farm and Garden Program. During that year, she slept in a tent, organized daily meditation with other like-minded students, and got to know Nancy Vail (who was on the faculty). Over the next few years, Nancy and Susan stayed in touch while Nancy and Jered Lawson started Pie Ranch, a non-profit farm that teaches high school kids how to grow food and make pie. Nancy asked Susan to join the Pie Ranch Board, and Susan eventually became Board President. She had time to work with Pie Ranch because she worked part time at Chez Panisse and wasn’t concerned about making a lot of money. She was a wonderful example of a person who lived life to the fullest. Susan and Ken created a beautiful garden at their home in Oakland. We enjoyed barbecuing there, as well as touring the garden and seeing all the different and interesting plants.
It took us about 2.5 hours to climb down, and our legs were shaking with all the exertion. Near our hotel we spotted a beehive in a tree. Susan had enlisted the help of a friend at Chez Panisse to build a beehive for her garden. She took classes in beekeeping, and was interested to learn about colony collapse disorder when her hive started showing signs of decreased bee population. She had wanted to raise chickens to have fresh eggs. She took a workshop in how to build a chicken coop, but didn’t start this project due to being diagnosed with cancer about 9 months ago.
We deeply valued our friendship with Susan, and we miss her! She lived a remarkable life, with joy and wonder for the world, with a heart filled with compassion and love.
This poem by Mary Oliver, who was one of Susan's favorite poets, seems to us a fitting way to remember her by.
When Death Comes
When Death Comes
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps his
purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.
