Copyright info

This entire site started ⓒ August 5, 2010 to present day, and all photographs and text herein, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted by the visual artist and photographer, Muriel Zimmer. No part of this site, or any of the content contained herein, may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without express permission of the copyright holder(s).

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Day 239 March 31, 2011

 gluten free English muffins






Yesterday reminded me of day's past when my girls were young and I used to make all the family's bread.  Due to my wheat sensitivities, yesterday I made gluten free sourdough bread, in the time honored 'make your own sourdough starter' tradition.  Thank you Edward Espe Brown for the cult classic the Tassajara Bread Book.  By day's end I had lovingly dry grilled more than 2 dozen English muffins and baked 2 loaves of bread.

Yum.

Good food makes my heart glad.  What is your favourite food?

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Day 238 March 30, 2011

Frank Gehry building      Bard College, New York




A few thoughts on Iyengar yoga classes.


Iyengar yoga is humbling, all the time.  If you can embrace a childlike humility and realize that you always have a lot to learn, then you'll accept that steep learning curve that Iyengar yoga presents to you with grace.  It is all about the journey.  Every class I attend I am humbled by what I do not know or by how my body responds to some demand the teacher suggests.


The good news is that on a day when you are really exhausted or coming down with a cold there is still a practice for you.  Iyengar yoga is for all bodies.  


The biggest learning curve for my personal health was moving through Graves disease, a hyperactive thyroid.  Yes I did all that Western medicine wanted me to do until they wanted to remove my thyroid, or part of it. I knew that meant I'd be on medication for the rest of my life.  I decided to not do that.  I stayed on medication for six and a half years and then my my thyroid stabilized.  For the first one and half years I only was allowed to do one yoga practice, a combination of supported inversions and forward bends with a head wrap to keep my eyes closed.  To limit input.  That practice was a key part of my recovery.  It taught me how far away I'd come from feeling quiet inside my body.  I credit that restorative practice as being an instrumental part of my recovery from Graves disease.  


Did you know that there are yoga hospitals in India?  Here in the west we sometimes take medication several times a day.  B.K.S. Iyengar will say, 'here, do this three or four times a day.'  A different approach than the Western approach, but can you see how it can help?

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Day 237 March 29, 2011



Soon the garden will need constant attention.  For now, I walk along the rows of garlic and glance at their tiny tips poking through the hay.  I am grateful to not have to pull any weeds yet.  That time will come later.

In yoga class today we did pranayama.  It is a quiet kind of work.  After what felt like an hour I finally was able to feel what David was talking about.  Lifting the side ribs on the inhalation and then watching the diaphragm drop on the exhalation.  When you first start pranayama it is so subtle it is hard to catch an awareness of the movements.

Onward to savasana which is the final pose you do at the end of a yoga class.  It's other name is the corpse pose and it's a different kind of pose.  It's a time to rest, let go, and observe the body as it unwinds from the demands of the class.  Me time.  Savasana and pranayama both bring quiet inside your body.  In today's hectic, fast paced world, a little quiet can go a long way.  If you are interested in yoga and you haven't tried pranayama or savasana yet, no worries, perhaps that time will come later for you.

namaste.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Day 236 March 28, 2011



Sunrise.  How that simple event helps us.  A day filled with sunshine is a day worth rejoicing.  I am so much happier on sunny days.  Well, okay, talk to me in late August when I am nearly all sweated out and grumpy from too much heat, and then maybe I'll change my tune.

But after a long winter of grayness and bitter cold, just one day of sunshine makes me ridiculously happy.  Like today.

May the sun shine on you today too :)

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Day 235 March 27, 2011


There is something timeless about floral designs, whether they are imagined as loosely drawn peonies on treasured Asian vases,  or as pictured here on finely made lace that one could find on a bridal gown from the 1930's in New York city.  My mother's bridal gown.

Flowers make us rejoice.  There is much to be happy about on a day with flowers.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Day 234 March 26, 2011

Day 234 Atlantic ocean
All of us experience rough weather in our lives, whether that weather is actual torrential wind and rain, or perhaps it is just a really bad day where things didn't go so well for us.  My hope for you today is that at some point in this one day of your life you can say, Ah! ...... this patch, this time, right now, this is smooth sailing. 

Friday, March 25, 2011

Day 233 March 25, 2011

Ms. Windy slipping in for her swim in the river


Today David helped me with my yoga asana practice and I now feel like I'm getting my old body back.  An injury has prevented me from my normal routine this week, but the good news is I really appreciated the rest I was forced to accept if I wanted to get better.

I read three books this week.  Sinking into the sofa with my book was delicious, even though I felt some pain here and there throughout the day and especially at night.  I did some very quiet therapeutic yoga practices and just listened to my body so that it could lead me back to a state of ease.

If you are a really busy person do you find it hard to rest?  Just laze about and not do much?  I used to be way too busy to rest and any interruption to that overly busy life made me drive myself even more furiously forward to finish the agenda at hand.  Now I'm learning to move at a much slower pace and I think I'm ready for that now.  I saw what that frantic way of life was like and I'm ready to move towards a much more balanced approach to my life.  I'm ready to slip into the river instead of crashing in cannon ball style.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Day 232 March 24, 2011

mimosa tree in flower      New Jersey, USA


Did I mention that it's spring?  Perhaps if you already live in a year round warm climate the fact that spring is now happening here in Nova Scotia doesn't really register as something worth celebrating?  Just try to imagine living with freezing temperatures, so bone deep cold and damp that everyone you know gets sick at least once or twice during the long winter, weather so hostile that there are days your dogs turn back shrinking from the suggestion that they go outdoors, and these dogs are bred in Labrador, an even colder spot than Nova Scotia!

Then there are the beautiful days and nights of diamond like snow falls.  White flakes of snow create deep drifts in front of your doors.  The time may come where you need to climb out of a window because your doors are frozen shut with these icy piles of snow against them to ensure that they stay closed.  It happens.  It gets dark at 4:30pm in the depth of winter here so you lose 5 hours of sunlight every day which makes everyone a little depressed.

Now do you see why a few more hours of daylight each day and being surrounded by frozen mud and one half inch of a flower stalk breaking ground in your garden is cause for celebration?  Spring is here!  Hurrah!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Day 231 March 23, 2011


on the way to Cuban elementary school to drop off art supplies



One of my friends asked me how I’d managed to strain my neck, which is getting better slowly.  This is a good question.  For me it all started when I fell out of a tall tree as a young girl and was knocked unconscious.  An osteopath later suggested to me that I’d landed on my left hip.  I also remember falling in ice skating and the exact moment when I quit skating because falling on my skinny hips hurt so much.

As the years went by I dislocated my left shoulder, left knee and my left foot arch remains chronically, partially dislocated.  Add years of being bow legged, being right handed, and years of working on a potter’s wheel leaning constantly to the right as I worked on the clay forms.  Lots of small imbalances added up. 

Now that I’m getting older, add some osteo arthritis in my neck, upper back, hands and feet and voila, I injured my neck.  Not in headstand, not in shoulder stand, no, just by living my life with all these little imbalances built into my daily posture.  Almost forgot to mention the large heavy purse I carried on my left shoulder.  I have a tendency to overwork and overdue a lot too, but part of that is my inherited tendency for an over active thyroid, the thyroid that sets the metabolic rate of your body.  I zoom around a lot.

So there, that’s how I injured my neck.  Make sense?  Do you think in those terms about how you injure yourself?  Do you see the whole picture of your health?  Things do add up.  

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Day 230 March 22, 2011

Five Islands Park

Soon I will go to the beach again.  I miss the water, the sound of the waves as they hit the shore.  The warm air, the smell of salt.

Now that it's spring lots of changes are on the way.  Even though there are times when nature threatens us it can also console us and inspire us.  And those times when we're ill or hurt, those times give us a chance to stop and rest, to heal and repair ourselves, so that we can rejoin the stream of active life and rejoice to be there.

What time of year makes you want to rejoice?

Monday, March 21, 2011

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Day 228 March 20, 2011

Avon River


The spring equinox, at last.  Here in Nova Scotia it is still cold, but beautiful.  The river's ice is a thing of the past.  Now just a bit of snow is left to melt and with a few more sunny days it too will be a thing of the past.  That is, unless we get another winter storm, which is entirely possible.  There is a saying here in Nova Scotia, if you are tired of the weather just wait 15 minutes.  This means that in 15 minutes the weather can be quite dramatically different!

What was your day like today?

Today was a day to try on wedding dresses for some, a day to pick up winter debris off the lawn for others, and also a day to pray for all those people in turmoil around the world.   I hope that today was a good day for you.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Day 227 March 19, 2011

Toronto airport

Do you ever have one of those days when you notice that just putting one foot in front of the other as you walk along is a challenge?

That is the kind of day when you can help yourself by saying,  thank goodness I have feet, otherwise I couldn't walk.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Day 226 March 18, 2011

Carolyn's hot chili peppers


Today feels like spring.  The sunshine is brighter.  The heat is coming back to the land.

I think of places on our earth where turmoil is present and know that I will think of them tonight at the sweat lodge ceremony.  I will think of our small planet earth.

namaste.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Day 225 March 17, 2011

Irish Peace tiles  porcelain and glazes

"May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand."

an Irish blessing



Happy St. Patrick's Day to one and all



Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Day 224 March 16, 2011



Today I am eating lunch at a friend's house and her children will probably be home because it is their March break from school.  I love children's energy.  They are so in the present and so innocent and sincere.  They help me stay in the moment too.

Of course sometimes children's energy is a bit too much.  They can tire us adults out with their huge bursts of enthusiasm.  It can be exhausting working with children as I did for over twenty years, in swimming pools, on the beaches and in the classroom.  But there is still nothing like those teachable moments I remember when you see their faces transfixed, riveted to your every word, totally engaged in a lesson.  Children can be fearless about learning.  Those moments were blissful.

Children also help us remember that we still are children inside who can marvel at the wonders of this life, this planet and all the kingdoms of plants and animals that live here with us.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Day 223 March 15, 2011



Do you sometimes feel like you are just going in circles?  Repeating yourself, your expectations, your problems, your solutions to problems, and your mistakes over and over again?  Well there is that phrase the circle of life.


It's normal to feel that way sometimes.

Sometimes I felt like I was on a treadmill that went nowhere.  That is the kind of time when you just need to be still for a moment and draw on the wellspring of your inner self.  Let out your feelings.  If you keep them all pent up they have nowhere to go.  Owning your feelings, is owning your own very special life.  Own up to how you feel.  Own up to yourself, or to your best friend, or to someone like a counsellor.  Owning up to these feelings will lead you in a new direction.

Your feelings are like air.  They need to circulate.  They need to move.  Otherwise they can stagnate.  Open up those windows and let the fresh air inside.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Day 222 March 14, 2011

Day 222  Jessica and Sara  photo by Mike Z.


How was your day today?  Exciting? Rewarding? Relaxing? Backbreaking? Invigorating? Tiring?  Maybe some of all of the above?  Perhaps you won a medal today?  Or lost an argument?

Basically, I hope you all had a hug today.  We all need lots of hugs.  I can never have too many hugs.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Day 221 March 13, 2011



In yoga class last week David discussed how the asanas are learned by the body, not by the mind.  It is the body that remembers the poses.  All of this physical work of doing the yoga poses is really an avenue to approach touching the mind.

Ah, the mind, that busy, busy part of us.  Always on a quest for a new idea, a new purpose, or to relive an old memory, or project into the future.  The mind just turns and turns like a leaf in the wind.  That is why when you practice yoga asanas, or poses, the activity is designed to be done from the base of the neck, where the neck meets the torso, downwards.  That major portion of the body works during the asanas while the head and the neck remain passive.  This passivity of the head and neck keeps the mind calm even when the rest of the body is meeting the very physical demands of the poses.

The mind becomes calm from stepping out of the way of the rest of the body, as the body completes the yoga asanas.

Calm mind.  Now that is a great approach to life's demands, don't you think?

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Day 220 March 12, 2011



I need to see images from other seasons, other than winter, just to remind myself that this day of strong rain, gray skies and cold wind will not last forever.  Winter is lovely and unbearably beautiful.  Severe, yes, but beautiful.

The turmoil of last night's and today's storm makes me realize that here in Nova Scotia we have much to be grateful for, indeed.  My thoughts go out to the people in Japan who are dealing with a huge weather event, a catastrophic weather event.  If you are in Japan today, remember that you are not alone.  Many hearts are sending you prayers.

Other people too have lived through catastrophic weather events.  Is there any country in the world that has not seen such events?  Probably not.  Part of being human is recognizing that sometimes in our lives we experience joy and sometimes in our lives we experience suffering.  Calmness lies somewhere in between those two states.  It is our job to embrace our life in all its complexities.

Peace to you and namaste.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Day 219 March 11, 2011



Apples are one of my favourite foods.  I love their sweet, tart, juicy taste and I love their red skins.  Their skins are as beautiful as a painting by a fine master.

Fruit is definitely my favourite food.  How about you, what is your favourite food?

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Day 218 March 10, 2011

Another day in paradise.  Under gray skies the doggies and I walk out onto the dykes to the river today.  It is muddy and a bit icy but warm enough that you don't feel the sharp burn on your skin that a colder day brings.  The wide river is still completely covered in ice.  One lone coyote walked along the shore of the river on the opposite bank which signalled to me that it was time to turn back.

I took some photographs of the ice, the dogs, and the skull of a coyote on the pastures.  I thought of Georgia O'Keefe finding all those bones out on the desert; those bones certainly inspired some amazing paintings.

I'm off to do a bit of yoga.  And you?

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Day 217 March 9, 2011

Day 217  Icy sheets pinned to willow branches


Today the cold wind attempts to freeze your face.  Your skin and fingertips feel hot when exposed to that bitterness.  If you just turn your back to the wind though, your coat takes the brunt of it and you can revel in the new sights that the thawing pastures offer up to you.

Paper thin ice appears to blanket vast areas of the ground.  The ice is supported by a few inches of trapped air underneath and soft, rotten snow.  Ragged sheets of this thin ice seem to float on small willow branches about a foot off the ground.  These icy sheets hang much like laundry pinned to a line, but here it is the branches that pierce the ice and hold it in place.  The pinned ice moves in the wind reflecting sunlight, like  sparkling fishing lures held aloft in the sunshine.

A spectacle indeed.  The brittle ice tastes so pure when you break off a piece and pop it into your mouth, but only after you've held it skyward to examine its crystals.  It melts almost instantly.  Is it the strong sunlight or the thousand and one ice crystals that greet me everywhere that rivet my attention so strongly?

Look around you today.  Is there something that awakens your spirit strongly?

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Day 216 March 8, 2011

Today in yoga class I heard a phrase that rang a bell for me.  It really gave me an opportunity to learn something about myself.  Perhaps it will do the same for you.

The phrase was said aloud by our teacher, David, while we had been in savasana for a little while.  We were all resting, with outstretched arms and open chests, and with our eyes closed.  It was the last asana practiced before the end of class, and this is true in every class.  In Iyengar yoga asana practice you always end your practice in savasana.  Today you might say that we were prepared to hear this phrase.

"Length, width, balance, to place the body with awareness.  And now let the body be.  Let yourself be.  Accept yourself just the way you are.  Accept everything else just the way it is.  Surrender to this posture, savasana, allow the relaxation."


Easier said than done, you might say.  I am the kind of person who is perpetually fixing things, fixing myself in yoga asanas, making adjustments to things in my life, and yes, I know intellectually this is due to my tendency to sometimes exhibit OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) behaviours.  Knowing something intellectually is okay.  It helps one's understanding.  But for a person like myself, letting myself "be", now that is harder.

In yoga asana practice, especially in the Iyengar method, there are many fine physical adjustments made throughout one's practice.  You learn to see and to feel nuances of musculature, to acknowledge patterns habituated in your own nervous system, and to awake to subtle signals within your own body.  So to "let myself be" is difficult.   Life is a fluid event, and everything is always in motion, even when we lie still our autonomic systems are moving continuously.

There are times though when we need to just lie down and rest.  There are times when we need to be still.  There are times when enough is enough and we must accept that we are done for the moment.  And one such time is in the wakeful state of rest in the asana we call savasana.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Day 215 March 7, 2011


Okay, I know it's not much to look at, these crowning crocuses, but to me they are a thing of beauty.  You must realize also that the narrow margin of green grass that was visible yesterday is now nearly 100 ft. wide around my little house in the country.  Water is running down my gravel driveway.  Ice is now mainly only a memory. The warm air and rain are making quick work of many feet of snow; our back yard and the sloping garden at the side of the house have only perhaps one foot of snow left.

You're right, there will be more snow to come this late winter.  Perhaps two more storms, or maybe even three.  And then there will be snow squalls, flurries, and then finally, the heat of spring that brings out the bugs and mud season.

But, the thaw is upon us today and we are happy.  I hope that you find some measure of happiness today too :)

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Day 214 March 6, 2011



As David and I walked the doggies this morning I exclaimed, "Wow, it feels like Cuba out here!"  David replied, "It's all relative."

Yes it was hot, in comparison to our usual March weather.  Today our snow banks receded by at least a foot or two.  I can see green grass in places and the crocuses I planted in the fall are breaking ground.  As I cruised down the street with David, I didn't wear a hat, or goretex pants, or Arctic quality mittens.  Yes, I still had on my heavy weight hiking boots, winter coat, gloves, several layers of clothing all around, etc., but... the sun was shining and the wind warm.

Hallelujaih!  Spring is in the air.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Day 213 March 5, 2011

People are people.  Why are we surprised when we find out that rich or poor, people are people?  We all make mistakes, have dreams, work too hard sometimes and sometimes get cranky.

Ah, the human condition.  Show some patience towards someone today, even towards a stranger, or even towards yourself.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Day 212 March 4, 2011

Day 212


If you are feeling a bit adrift because there are just so many changes happening in your life currently, just look at your feet.   They will help to ground you and they will show you where you are.  Remember, stay in the moment as much as you can.

Namaste

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Day 211 March 3, 2011

Day 211  white sculpture clay, glaze, acrylic paint


May the winds of change blow sweetly upon you today.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Day 210 March 2, 2011

Day 210  Rosa Rugosa


"Hallelujiah" is one of my favourite songs by Leonard Cohen, especially when it's sung by the four Canadian Tenors.  As I started to write my post tonight, this song came to mind.  I could hear it clearly.  The practicing physician and author Dr. Oliver Sacks writes about musicophilia.  This refers to the varying abilities of some people to have an extraordinary relationship to music.  For example, there are people who can hear music so clearly that they can become mistaken and think it is playing out loud while actually it is really only playing within their own mind.  Of course you might think of Beethoven who composed some of his later symphonies while he was deaf.

The practice of yoga asana has similarities to this musical experience Dr. Sacks writes about.  The first time such an experience happened to me I had only been practicing yoga asana for a few years.  I was in headstand in the center of the room.  It was very quiet in the studio, as it always is when a group is in headstand.  A few minutes had passed since we started the pose.  All of a sudden I fell out of headstand and exclaimed to the teacher why this had happened.

I felt like I was lying down resting.  All of a sudden I realized and thought to myself, no Muriel, you're not lying down resting, you're in headstand.  At that moment of realization I fell out of headstand.  I think I was just so honestly surprised by my body's 'mistaken' feeling that it shocked me, so I instantly lost my balance, and fell.

My teacher thought this was wonderful.  He said, yes, that's it.  You are starting to learn.  I was learning how the body reaches a state of relaxation once it is in balance.  Of course an inversion also sends blood towards your head quite quickly and that has a rejuvenating effect also, so you feel rested, even in the midst of your balance.

Interesting perceptions we can have, don't you think?

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Day 209 March 1, 2011

Day 209  March 1, 2011


Know the basics.

In visual art that means you need to learn the colour wheel and how the three primary colours, yellow, red and blue, create all the other colours when they are mixed together.  In clay work that means you need to learn what kind of clay to use to make a certain object.  Not all clays are the same; you wouldn't make a tall elegant vase on the potter's wheel out of rough sculpture clay.  In yoga asana work that means you need to learn the foundation of each pose.  In standing poses it is your feet.  Basically, the foundation of each yoga asana is what touches the floor.

Know the basics because that is where you begin.  You have to extend away from something.