Arda, The Qigong Master

This is Arda. He is a very gifted Qigong master. I met him when he gave an introduction to Qigong meditation and energy work. After a few minutes only of his treatment, the pain in my knee was subsiding as if by magic! I could feel the tingeling flow of energy rushing through my entire body – a deeply impressive experience. This prompted my curiosity to ask Arda a few questions. Here's our little interview:

What cloud dropped you on San Francisco?
A cloud called “professional life” dropped me on San Francisco through a Pacific Ocean breeze that blew from the shores of Sydney, Australia.

What do you like about San Francisco that makes you stay here?
People. I have lived in three beautiful cities in my life, Istanbul, Sydney and San Francisco. I haven’t seen any city with so many vibrant people with full of youth and a passion for life.

What keeps you going in life?
My passion: healing and empowering others on their self-discovery journey.

Please share a short story, life experience that was life-changing or just funny, a wake-up call etc:
By far, learning Qigong meditation changed my life. Everything started falling into places and my life started making sense to me. And I learned this meditation from Master Zhao who taught the same technique to a college friend of mine, whom I randomly ran into on the streets of San Francisco, and whom I have not seen since I left Istanbul 15 years ago.

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase "care about someone"?
Holding space for them in my heart, while empowering them to build their foundation in their life.

Thank you Arda for your kind participation in my little poll featuring characters of San Francisco! For more information about Arda and his work, feel free to visit his website www.startlivinginharmony.com/

Rev. Drew Vogt – The Spiciest Reverend in San Francisco!

Rev. Drew was one of the first people I met in San Francisco. This warm-hearted, live-wire, easy to like personality is the gravitational force of "Celebrate Life", a Spiritualist Church in San Francisco. But let's start way back in time and title it 'God's ways are inscrutable.' At that time, Rev. Drew got a spiritual calling and was told to leave native San Diego for San Francisco. And, after a few deliberations, he followed the call – not without making a deal with God: If the San Francisco venture would not go smooth as glass, Rev. Drew would return to San Diego spreading the word about God not being personally involved… He quit his job and left everything behind (including the Southern California weather and the sandy beaches) to settle down in San Francisco where he knew not one soul and where the economic situation was less than appealing. Do I need to point out that all the pieces fell into place like magic and that everything worked out perfectly? For Rev. Drew, this was the proof that God gets personally involved… Not only did Rev. Drew get used to the specific San Francisco pace over time, but came to love the city and the San Franciscan way of prioritizing life style and celebrating a highly developed food culture. His every day life is fueled by his love for people in general, but specifically by his vocation for supporting their personal growth and facilitating their pursuit of living up to their full potential. A few practical examples are hands-on support for orphans in Mexico, cooking for fundraisers, inspirational speeches, thoughtful teachings, ministerial hospital visits, boosts of uplifting messages and much, much more.

Now, people have stories to tell and Rev. Drew is no exception to this rule. Plus he turns out to be a wonderful story-teller! So here comes the story of the shoplifter he chased successfully through the streets of San Francisco. Working in a store for high-end leather apparel downtown San Francisco, that was regularily targeted by shoplifters, he became sensitized to this problem. One day, Rev. Drew observed a lady walking out the door, with her coat ominously bulging. Without hesitating he started after her. She ran, Rev. Drew ran. He chased lady shoplifter all the way out of the shopping center and into the streets. Pedestrians stopped to watch the chase. Somehow the sportive shoplifter managed to outdistance Rev. Drew and he lost sight of her. He was about to give up, when he spotted her across the street and about to board a bus. One final sprint, he catched up and managed to grab her. In return, lady shoplifter clawed Rev. Drew's face bloody. In the meantime, shop security guards had arrived onto the scene, taking over and tackling the situation. Wow, what a thrilling story and wonderful example of personal engagement and civil courage! Well, Rev. Drew is definitely not bland…

If you'd like to learn more about Rev. Drew's adventurous activities, feel free to visit www.drewvogt.com

Thank you Drew for being there, for your dedicated work and for being part of my life!

Vivienne, Bus Operator

Now, this is Vivienne. Vivienne is a bus driver on bus line 108, serving Treasure Island. This week will be the last week on this line for Vivienne before she is going to drive another route. Vivienne is driving busses in San Francisco for 20 years and is very humble as to the importance of her job. She says: "Oh, well, somebody has to do the job." I like her calling me 'sweetie'. I know, this is nothing unusual here around, but given that I am Swiss and used to Swiss public transit operator attitudes, the idea of being called 'sweetie' by a Swiss bus driver just amuses me... they are waaay to stiff and formal to do something like that.

Of course, Vivienne has a million stories to tell, yet she shares one of her favorites with me. When she did the graveyard shift on the 91Owl at 3am in the morning, she picked up a man on Van Ness who said he had just been hit by a cab. Now, Vivienne spontaneously made her bus take a detour by SF General, where her injured passenger was helped. Now this is civil courage! This prompts my next question about her feeling afraid sometimes. Her answer: "You know, being afraid or not, it wouldn't change a thing." I'll take the lesson...

According to Michael who is just riding back to Treasure Island while I'm talking to Vivienne, she is "the sweetest bus driver in San Francisco". Well, thank you Michael for appreciating Vivienne's dedication to her job! She is the representative of many more dedicated muni operators to whom I'd convey my gratitude for their contribution to a prosperous city-life.