75 YEARS - A FEW PHOTOS & REMINISCENCES
DECEMBER 4th I turned 75. It is science-fiction: a “scientific” fact that I am 75 and a fiction - I don’t experience myself as 75! But indulge me in reminiscing a bit through a few pictures.
I spent many childhood summers in “Beverly Shores” by the Indian Dunes. Here began my first lovely memories of waves, sand, grasshoppers, steep dunes and warmth.
Me and my best friend, playing at a high school event. This was the guitar which was “famously” borrowed by Bob Dylan for a wonderful early acoustic concert at Ravinia Park - but that’s a whole other story! :)
1963 Newport Folk Festival - that’s me with my back to the camera in my favorite red and black “smoking jacket”, jamming on the lawn with Taj Mahal and, on the far right, John Sebastian! Later I danced with Mississippi John Hurt (another whole story).
In 1967 I spent an incredible summer in Berkeley, Ca studying Indian music at the American Society for the Study of Eastern Arts with Ali Akbar Khan and his son. That was the “Summer of Love” - and I was in the right place at the right time.
My daughter, Katja, was born in 1975. Here we are in New Mexico during a very enjoyable visit to the Acoma Pueblo.
I began studying massage therapy in 1977, then “Structural Bodywork” in 1982-3 with Rolfer, Daniel Blake. In 1986 I met Dr. Fritz Smith, the founder of Zero Balancing and began a lifelong association with Fritz and ZB that then informed my teaching of “Deep Massage” and, beginning in 1996, teaching ZB as well.
In 1986 I met Julie Harper. Words can’t fully capture the experience of our wonderful time together since our wedding in 1988. May we all have this connection with LOVE in our lives and in the world!
Jake was born in 1991 and has been another dimension of joy. Here we are at a performance of the “iliotibial Band” at one of our school’s anniversary parties.
Photo from one of my first classes in the UK - around 2002 in Oxford. What a delight those classes have been!
After my early book, “Putting the Soul Back in the Body”, “The Deep Massage Book” was published in 2011 by Redwing Book Company. It was written over the course of 10 years! That was followed by my biography of Fritz Smith and Zero Balancing, “Life in the Bones.”
John Conway and I started The Lauterstein-Conway Massage School back in 1989 - here, about 30 years later, are John and I “planting” a peace pole in front of the school - “May Peace Prevail on Earth”.
The front cover of my latest book, co-written with Dr. Jeff Rockwell - coming out March 21, 2023. I love writing (when I have something to say. :)