Novelist and Storyteller
In a long year for our community since the beginning of Covid, we have experienced lockdowns, loneliness, fear and grieving as we mourned our lack of connection and intimacy. During this period, we first flattened the curve and then helplessly watched the wave of infections inundate us. Yet at the same time, we rediscovered community …
If you were locked down over the last months with your partner or partners, intimacy has likely been a key part of quarantine survival. But for those of us that are single or in non-monogamous relationships, our ability to attend to our emotional and sexual health needs was severely diminished. Abstinence or pleasuring ourselves with …
Continue reading "Six Questions to Ask Before Having Sex in the Time of Corona"
This piece was published in the Bay Area Reporter on 3 September 2020 under the title of Six Questions to Ask Before Having Sex Again. If you were locked down over the last months with your partner or partners, intimacy has likely been a key part of quarantine survival. But for those of us that …
Continue reading "Six Questions to Ask Before Having Sex in the Time of Corona"
Welcome as we are in another day of our collective sesshin in Northern California. It’s a very special time because we have never tried to have a sesshin with all of the population of Northern California. But with all of us sheltering-in-place in response to the corona virus, here we are. Sesshin is a Zen …
Continue reading "Welcome to Our Collective Retreat (Sesshin)"
Recently, I have been anxious, fearful and angry. How about you? While Covid-19 brought these feelings to the forefront, I realized the cause was something else, old traumas being re-triggered, the trauma of the pandemic—HIV/AIDS—that killed virtually every person affected in its early years. The deaths and illnesses affecting family members and beloved friends. The …
Continue reading "Corona Anxiety, Fear & Anger–How to Calm the Trauma"
Alan Lessik 