Author Jaclyn Lanae

Angels in Colombia

Yes, weird things happen to me. It isn’t news. In fact I have another book on the horizon detailing all my weird little adventures. Or at least the ones that are appropriate to publish. (Actually, no guarantees on that – some of the best stories are the slightly inappropriate ones). Anyway, I’m so excited about…

Foot in Mouth disease

I met him for the first time on a warm summer night several years ago. I was relishing the opportunity to enjoy a glass of wine outside one of my favorite establishments with the sun on my skin and the cool of the evening brushing past my face. A dear friend of mine joined me…

Toilet tales

You may have recently discovered your personal level of gratitude and appreciation for toilet paper. And I’m happy for you. I really am. Because I learned that lesson, back in June when I made my first trip to Colombia. In my now-favorite country, you often have to pay to use public restrooms and TP isn’t…

15-ish Tips for Traveling in Colombia

Being from a small midwest city, when I told friends and family that I had plans to travel to Colombia, the news wasn’t exactly received with unbridled enthusiasm. Quite the contrary, in fact. Dropped-jaws, most notably. Generally, immediately followed by an apparently inevitable question: “Why?” And a caution: “Be careful!!” or even “Please don’t go.”…

Milestones

Last week, I received a phone call that brought tears to my eyes.

Following Your Curious Bliss : Vancouver, WA

Last summer I took a road-trip west and vowed to make it epic – just by more intentionally immersing myself in the experience. After my first stop in Wallace, Idaho, and a particularly rewarding stop-and-smell-the-roses moment in Coeur d’Alene, I knew I was on to something. So, I made my first day in Vancouver Washington…

Enjoy the Journey: Coeur d’Alene, ID

It’s been FOREVER since I wrote about my trip west last summer (I have good reasons – you can even read about some of them. But I can’t tell you about the biggest one. Not yet. I promise I will though.) and it occurred to me it might come off a bit ridiculous to write…

Gratitude for (poison ivy) pain – kind of.

I like to think of myself as, um, durable? You know, rugged, kind of… in a ‘put-your-head-down-and-get-through-it’ sort of way. But as I recover from one of my more difficult physical challenges I feel compelled to tell you that my perception of myself was somewhat shaken. Or, more accurately, rocked to the core. Last month…

Crazy. Messy. Beautiful.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks in my world… this time of year in the Black Hills of South Dakota often is… especially for a motorcycle lover. I got to do several book signings throughout the event, met some incredible people, made some new contacts… all in all it was great. And there were…

Enroute to Washington : Wallace, Idaho

I love to travel. LOVE. I really love to travel alone. And it seems that at least 70% of the time when I do, I head west. Often, I think, because I feel a sense of safety and connected-ness in the mountains. So when I received an invitation to attend a friend’s wedding in Oregon,…

Just wild.

It’s been a wild few weeks here in my little corner of the world. Well, more like a wild month. Actually, now that I think about it, it’s been a pretty wild year. Of course, I know I’m not the only person harboring that sentiment, but, since I can only really tell my story… I…

Weird Ones… Hands UP!

Not long ago, I had the chance to visit Phoenix, Arizona for the premier of a movie directed by a documentary film maker whose acquaintance I’d recently made. It was a great trip, overall, it really was. I had the chance to actually hang out with a friend of a friend of mine, with whom…

Squirrel Dreams

There are a lot of things I love about hiking with my pup, Rumi. The way her tail gets a kink in the end when she’s really, really excited, for example. The way her tongue falls out of the side of her mouth when she’s really tired. The way she runs and wags her tail…

Egg In My Hair

I stink. No, like I actually stink. A lot. It seems that no matter how much I scrub, shave, or employ my hippy-style deodorant, I always smell just a little bit like garlic and onion. Which is especially weird because I don’t eat many onions. I do eat a lot of garlic though. I know…

When “I was wrong” is right.

Years and years ago, after I’d made a particularly silly mistake… while driving… and talking on my cell phone…the driver I’d inadvertently cut off (because I didn’t see him, of course) followed me up the street screaming out his window until I pulled over and he could properly shame me on the side of the…

When shutting up isn’t enough

I’ve never taken criticism very well. It’s something I want to work on because I know that constructive criticism can be valuable. Not easy to hear, perhaps, but valuable. General criticism, on the other hand, is never valuable. Assuming we have any real understanding of others lives and how they should be lived is, in…

Playing God

Create. Messily. Badly. Just create and set your god-self free.

Wiser, Wilder & Weirder.

Weird stuff happens to me. I mean, weird stuff happens to everyone of course but I get the sense that I have particularly weird luck. And, I do a LOT of weird things, knowingly (we’ll get into those in subsequent posts.) According to the Secret Code of Birthdays, my mother’s inability to exert perfect control…

Be. Be still.

Last year about this time I took a little road trip. Just me and my dog, wandering around the Northwest Coast, looking for… well, I’m still not really sure what I was looking for, but something in me said I’d find it in the Redwoods or the ocean. So we headed west. I learned a…

Being a being, sometimes takes some doing.

I got older this weekend. I mean, of course I did – I get older every day – but this weekend the calendar marked the occasion. This fact by itself doesn’t bother me. In fact, for a couple of months now I’ve considered myself as old as the calendar just made me – and said…

Just a little more “out there”

A little while ago I came to the realization that I need to get out more. That’s one of the things about working as a writer / marketer / event planner… I end up spending a lot of time alone. And because I like to be alone, I spend a good bit of my personal…

Little Miss Fix-it

I do it a lot. A LOT. I don’t really want to be doing it. It fully contradicts my entire belief system in terms of the way we treat each other. It sounds both demeaning and pretentious as it comes out of my mouth. I cringe and bristle and scold myself even as the words…

Shine on, Stumpy.

It had been about a year or so, I suppose, of attending classes at my favorite yoga studio in town with some regularity; usually the same three or four classes on the same three or four days. It was inevitable then, really… despite my desire to remain somewhat anonymous, keep my focus on myself, and…

Lessons from a hobbit-hike.

I hiked like a hobbit on Sunday. Barefoot. There wasn’t really any one reason why… I’d heard many times about the benefits of direct contact with the earth, it was hot, my socks were itching me… it happened about 200 feet in or so, I guess. I stopped for a drink of water and noticed…

River and Woods Restaurant in Boulder, Colorado

Every so often you get the chance to do something ordinary that becomes something more. Something extraordinary. The weekend just past was one such occasion. The something extraordinary was the first ever trip with my younger sister. Just she and I. No partners, no parents… she even bravely left behind both of her magical little…

Just LOVE

“Church” today was incredible. As my loyal readers and dear friends know, I “get to God” differently than the term ‘Church’ would imply. I think of God differently than the term God would imply too, but it makes sense to people so I use it anyway. I won’t get in to what I think or…

Vegan “Cream” of Mushroom Soup

Delicious, easy, vegan cream of mushroom soup!

The Love of Family

The sun must be rising, somewhere behind me. The tops of the trees outside my window are blushing ever deeper shades of pink. Their stark, winter bare branches provide a perfect canvas on which to reflect the colors of dawn. Losing myself in them brings a quiet joy to my heart. Or maybe the joy…

Little Sister’s Big Gift

It’s been a rough year. Not so much for me, personally, but more for the place I hold in the world. This time last year I was sure 2016 was truly going to be a good year. I really believed my world was turning a corner to a more loving, more patient, more kind corner…

Anguished Awareness or Ignorant Bliss?

For the last most-of-a-decade I’ve followed the news closely. MY news, of course – the one that aligns (generally) with my particular set of ideals, but news all the same. (Yes, NEWS. Fact checked, largely straight forward and truthful, calm, both-sides-of-the-issue-represented NEWS. If you aren’t already aware, not all news is that way.) I liked…

HOPE, TRUST, & the PATH

Earlier this summer I took a lovely little trip, by myself, to wherever I happened to decide to go on any given day. I had a long term goal of landing somewhere on the Northwest Coast – Oregon-ish – but no real schedule and no commitments. I wanted to follow my heart. I needed to…

THE GIFT OF SOLITARY TRAVEL

It’s the kind of freedom that makes it OK to sleep in your car, eat at nice restaurants in otherwise-unacceptably-casual clothes, and take pictures of EVERYTHING.

The Key to Happiness… in two (medium sized) words.

I overheard a conversation the other day that saddened my heart more than I can say. An attractive, apparently healthy and intelligent young man was lamenting to his friend the elusiveness of “happy”. To illustrate his point he mentioned he worked in a dead-end, entry level job, rented a home that wasn’t his, had no…