I’ve written in my last post how this fall is going to be a busy one. This post is about one of my projects this fall.

Yesterday I did a nude photo shoot for Babes Go Bare for Cancer 2011 Calendar.
Last year, Trish, this amazing young and courageous woman organized Babes Go Bare and 12 women posed for the calendar AND they shaved their heads afterwords. I sponsored the calendar and also bought several copies to donate as door prizes for an event.

The fundraiser was so successful Trish decided to do it again this year- but this time, it’s co-ed.
I volunteered to be in the calendar this year, just for the fun of it at first, but soon I found out my dad had a pancreas cancer(He had Hodgkin’s disease before as well), it all became very relevant to me.
Only thing I wasn’t sure about was head shaving part….I just can’t do it. I have talked to Trish, and almost bowed out, since this project is about posing bare AND shaving head…..but Trish said I could be in the calendar if I could find 3 people as my proxies. And it looks like I did find 3. Thank you, @GDGeek, @MMI_Heather, and @Unclespeedo!!! I am eternally grateful.

And I am honored to share a month with Eshu Martin, a Zen monk. Yes, Eshu and I were both completely naked when we did the shoot! Isn’t that hilarious?
It all stated when the photographer of the calendar, very talented and beautiful Veronique da Silva posted on her Facebook wall about Babes Go Bare project. Lots of people commented on it, and I believe one of them was by Eshu. I sent Eshu a message suggesting that he should also pose for the calendar. He replied to me, “Ha ha, the day I am considered a “babe” is the day I’ll pose.” I told him that this year it’s going to be co-ed and that he should totally apply!
I mentioned this to Trish and she loved the idea. Only problem was, there were so many people wanting to be in this year’s calendar, some of the months had to be shared by more than one person. Trish asked me if I minded sharing with Eshu.. what can I say, if I choose one guy to be naked with, that had to be a monk, right?

I met Eshu just over 2 years ago, when I was still pregnant with my younger son (he just turned 2.) At the time, I literally felt lost in my life, and a friend told me about his Zen open house at Uvic’s Interfaith Chapel. Now, I am not a religious person, but being Japanese, and having practiced Cha-do(Japanese tea ceremony), the idea of Zen came quite naturally to me.
I showed up one day, all by myself and pregnant, and met Eshu, he gave us all first-timers some tips on how to sit and meditate, and…the rest is history.
He is one of those guys who is impossible not to like. After the sitting, we all sat around and introduced ourselves….and I still remember the feeling I had listening to other people’s story there, it was almost life changing. I was recently re-telling this story to a friend, and it still brought me to tears thinking about that night. (It’s a too long a story to tell here, ask me in person if you are interested.)
Soon after that I gave birth to my son, and I lost all the free time I had, and I haven’t been back to the sitting. But we kept in touch through Facebook and Twitter.

When I showed up at the studio, I was quite nervous, especially when I saw the Check TV crews for the interview(!). But eventually they left, my hair&makeup done, and I took everything off.

The shoot was a blast. It was full of laughs, and at the same time very peaceful. I am very happy with the shot Eshu and I did, and I cannot wait for the calendar to be ready-supposedly in October-I will make sure to post here when it’s ready.