Day 268 April 29, 2011

The time of colour is here.  Plants in all their glory.

It's definitely time to do the dance of joy, outdoors.

Day 267 April 28, 2011

Spring is sprung.

I walk the doggies late today.  A large rainbow faces me as I get ready my rain gear, coyote whistle, Iphone, camera, juice pack, glasses, fake vomit (haha), hiking boots, leashes and gloves.

We walk to the river.  Half way there it rains.  Who cares?  Nary a soul.  The hot air embraces my skin like a hot bath.  The rain patters softly on my jacket and as it lessens I remove my hood to feel the rain hit my face and head.  Luscious.  I am in water world.

This branch with tiny exploding flowers makes me stop and grab the camera.  Yes flowers are back and ice is gone.  Colours emblazon the green pastures here on the dyke lands.

I can breathe again.

Day 266 April 27, 2011

Today I chatted with a person in a greenhouse where we both happened to be shopping for seeds.  Standing amidst the lush trays of vegetable transplants, we shared our favourite approaches to growing tomatoes and it seemed that we both had something to learn from each other.  Just sharing a passion for growing vegetables with a complete stranger proved to be very satisfying.  And so a rural encounter happens where the kindness of a stranger brightens your day.

I hope that you encounter something that brightens your day today :)

Day 265 April 26, 2011

This just in from my daughter,
confirmation from MRI scans in a research study at Boston University that three one hour classes of Iyengar yoga a week help to treat depression.

Of course.  If you stick with three one hour classes of Iyengar yoga a week, I guarantee that even more will  happen.  It is like putting money in the bank, to take such good care of yourself that you are willing to work hard for three hours a week to take care of your whole health.  If you are depressed it will help with that.  If you are inflexible it will help with that.  If you are weak it will help with that.  If you are tired of the noisy gym but still want to feel like you have spoken to many muscles that you've forgotten to speak to for a long while it will help with that.  If you want to slow down the crazy pace of modern life and stop obsessing about your to do list it will help with that.

It helps with a lot.  Try it :)

Day 264 April 25, 2011

1. Our ancient Troy Built tiller still works.
2. Peas are planted in a 21 foot long row.
3. Half the onions are planted, 250 still to plant.
4. As I finished planting, I started singing to myself outdoors.

Hallelujah!  Spring is definitely here.  I hope you did some singing today too :)

Day 263 April 24, 2011

Add caption

ahh magnolia  photo by Jen Z.

I know. I know.  I already used this photo earlier in my blog but it is just so darn gorgeous I couldn't contain myself.  I had to use it again.

What a lovely spring day, our warmest yet!  The sun co-operated and we had summer like weather for all morning and afternoon.  I chopped down a scraggly looking rose bush that had a lonely mid lawn location that just didn't work (and yes there are more in the back yard), trimmed away old sedum flower stalks from many locations, weeded, pruned here and there and seeded two dozen beefsteak tomatoes in peat pots in the house.  It might be too late, but I'm trying anyway.  Actually we are about 7- 8 weeks away from the time I usually plant out tomatoes in the big garden, so maybe I'm not too late.  Don't have a greenhouse though, so we'll see.

Yoga practice is starting to rock.  I'm still working on my hardest poses but in small doses.  If I keep working at it my body just might get the message that it is okay to loosen up, or in some cases, get stronger in new ways.

Ah spring, I just feel a new lease on life!  I hope you are having a great Easter weekend too!

Day 262 April 23, 2011

Go ahead.  Stretch yourself.  As I told my doggies today in the middle of their walk, you are both very good dogs, as long as I remember to let you move.   


We need to let our animals move, and that includes the one we see when we look in the mirror too.

Day 261 April 22, 2011

Ms. Maddie and Mr. Bear

The sun is blasting away, the grass is getting green.  Now if we could just get some heat!  Of course I realize that I am a needy diva who will only be happy when the weather co-operates and gives me an exactly perfect day.  Too bad, says the planet.  This girl needs to learn some patience.

I do.  I do.  And I'm probably not alone.  Dare I say that it seems like human nature to be impatient?  Now that I'm getting older I am gaining some insights that agree with this generalization.  You can clearly see this impatience in small children.  They want everything RIGHT NOW.  Parents help their children learn "that good things are worth waiting for."

So...... when you feel like your best effort in any endeavor is still falling way short of your self described minimal acceptable behaviour, cut yourself some slack and just BE for a moment.  Take a breather.  Inhale.  Exhale.  Again.

Look into the distance.  Then examine what is right in front of you.  Try the distance again.  Is a bird singing?  A child crying? A car revving?  A person breathing?  Yes, that person is you.  Now pat yourself on the back, tell yourself to be a little more patient and resume.  Your life.

Day 260 April 21, 2011

I'm starting a new book about three of my favourite artists, Carr, O'Keeffe, Kahlo: Places of Their Own by Sharyn Rohlfsen Udall.  Here is a quote from the Introduction:

"Each artist was vitally interested in the native cultures of her area.  However romantically tinged, the perceived authenticity of indigenous peoples helped these artists measure their own.  Indigenous peoples seemed to hold keys to the primordial spirits of place and nature, and all three artists explored the healing power of native myth as an antidote to personal fragmentation in the modern world."

I know it isn't just artists who sometimes feel fragmented by the experiences of this modern world.  That is why we need to reconnect to what is important in life.

Namaste.

Day 259 April 20, 2011

Spring in Nova Scotia

Another gray rainy day here.  All this moisture helps to awaken the winter dormant plants.  They've had a long sleep for many months.  In another few weeks it will be May and much warmer.

How fortunate it is to call Nova Scotia home.  This is a pretty special corner of the world.  If you've never been here it might surprise you to learn how quiet life can be here.  The quiet unravels and it gives you the time to really hear what your inner heart is telling you.

It's always good to listen to your inner heart.  namaste.

Day 258 April 19, 2011

Wolfville, N.S.

Flowers are back in Nova Scotia.  Buds are growing.  Next come the leaves.  Hallejuah!

Today I bought 25 kg of powdered rock phosphate and 25 kg of kelp meal.  Soon they will be spread out on the garden and tilled into the ground.  The pea poles and netting will happen soon too.

I hope you are looking forward to something happening soon, the way I am looking forward to growing vegetables organically this summer.  It is hard to explain why I love growing vegetables so much.  It is soothing in the garden.  Hard work sometimes too.  Back breaking at times.  Maybe it's because I get to be the cheerleader for the plants?  Help them grow?  I feel like I'm part of something in the garden.  Part of life.  Part of nature.  Connected.

Connections matter.  namaste.

Day 257 April 18, 2011

Tai,  Jen and Gingersnap

One of my goals for today is to have eyes that look out at the world with softness.  Not with desire, impatience, frustration, unkindness, grief or anger.  This softness may waver throughout the day, and acceptance of my own personal imperfections will help me to remain unperturbed.

But for now there are soil tests to finish, potting soil to portion out, seeds to plant, telephone calls to make, laundry to hang outside, padmasana to practice (one of the most difficult poses for me), dogs to walk and cookies to bake.

Of course, there will be softness too.  I wish you all a respite from your worries today.  Just let them go, if only for fifteen minutes today.  Give yourself a gift of at least this fifteen minutes to be at peace and look at the world with softness.

Day 256 April 17, 2011

self portrait  Ross Creek gallery 2007  porcelain clay, red willow branches, photographs,  duct tape,  pen

  

I spent at least an hour today gardening in the rain.  Thanks to my great rain gear I barely noticed the weather.  Earlier in the week I realized that the blueberries needed more acidity, based on a soil test result.  So out came the peat moss, the rotted manure and the hay.  I'll test the soil again soon to see if I worked in enough peat moss to change the ph level near the blueberries.

Gardening seems like a chemistry class at this point.  I'm reading, re-reading, planning, researching, testing, etc.  When do I get to eat the food I ask?

We are such impatient creatures sometimes it is just hilarious.  Gotta run.  It's time to make that lasagna or we'll eat dinner at bedtime tonight.  

How is your level of patience today?

Day 255 April 16, 2011

US Coast Guard in action

At one point when I had returned to university I worked for three years for the Canadian Coast Guard in their inshore rescue boat program.  Boating season.  What fun!

Did I mention that you needed to remain calm in the midst of possible danger to yourself and others?  At least calm enough to function, to perform your job.  Once my immediate superior told me, No!  Don't do it!  I was stripping off my lifejacket to prepare for diving overboard in a search for possible survivors at the location of a downed sailboat we'd been sent to investigate.  My superior protected me from getting tangled in the unseen lines and sails underwater.  I was naive enough to think I would have no problem negotiating through a completely submerged sailboat in the cold, opaque waters of the outer harbour.  I was wrong.  


Sometimes it is really important to listen and realize that you are wrong about something.  Educators call that a 'teaching moment'.  You can see your students are really listening and learning something at that exact moment. 


The practice of yoga has many such moments.  You listen and realize, oh, that's how you do it.  Sometimes it is because the last ten times your teacher told you this direction you just were too busy with all the other directions to even hear that one.  Or perhaps you weren't ready yet.  When you are ready, then that light bulb moment happens and you learn.

Day 254 April 15, 2011

poem plate

Day 253 April 14, 2011

Sometimes we need to do what is easy.  That makes us feel good.  But there are also times when it is in our best interests to do what is difficult.

For example, take a home practice for those of you who do yoga.  Do you go to yoga class and feel like your work is done?  Check.  I've gone to class and now I can live my life.  Well actually, class is for learning from the teacher.  One of the best ways to also learn is to practice alone at home.  Here is where the difficulty comes.  During your home practice it is best to do what is not easy for you.  You already know how to do the easy stuff.  This exact topic was under discussion in last weekend's intensive with Mayhar Raz, from Toronto.  As a senior Iyengar teacher, it is wise to follow her  directives.  That is why you go to a senior teacher, to heed their advice.  Mayhar said, at home, do what you are weak at, for that is what needs practice.   


So simple really.  A courageous person will humbly accept this approach to a home practice.  Think of young children.  Sometimes they are fearless.  Learn from them.

Be fearless in class and fearless at home.  Namaste.

Day 252 April 13, 2011

Sol Lewitt

The colours outdoors are soon going to be as exciting as these bold colours that Sol Lewitt chose for this section of wall in his exhibit at MassMoca.

Right now in my neighbourhood it's a gray day and the native red willows down the street look VERY red.   The  weeping willow buds are becoming more yellow each day and the lawns and fields are greening up.

Today I bought a compressed bale of Canadian spaghnum peat moss, bone meal, potting soil, peat pots and other sundry gardening items.  And the final sign of spring has arrived.  My snow tires come off tomorrow.

Yeah for spring :)

Day 251 April 12, 2011

Last night I glanced at the clock before going upstairs to bed.  It was 11:11pm.  It amuses me and also piques my interest when the clock plays games with me like this.  You see I had math anxiety as a teenager, due to an abusive math teacher, and now it seems that the clock often tries to lighten my load by playing with numerals this way.  Several times each week, it seems, I notice the time and it is a series of repeated numerals.  It is 3:33 or 10:10 or 4:44.  Does this happen to you too?  Believe me, I don't check the clock that often these days so it isn't like I hang around watching a clock to wait for these repeating numerals to appear.

Besides reporting on playful numerals I can also report that today was a day to play in the sun and wind with my trusty soil test kit, with a bag of peat moss and with my first wheelbarrow full of beautifully rotted manure.  Yes folks, it is time to garden once again in Nova Scotia.  My seed order has arrived and I'm ready to hit the dirt.  Happy Spring to all of you.

Day 250 April 11, 2011

birch trees 

Think of those song lyrics, "we all need someone to lean on".  Or as a friend told me recently, it's good to be willing to receive help.

Embrace the help offered to you.  Otherwise, how can it work if you resist, tense up or create a symbolic wall between you and the help you need?

Go ahead, lean on someone.  Yield.

Day 249 April 10, 2011

David and I just got home.  It is dinner time but before we eat I needed to read my friend Denise's blog and then write my own post for today.  It is always great to leave home just so that you can experience something new.  It is satisfying as well to return home, to your nest.

The sun is blazing away today, spring is definitely in the air, every single fragment of snow has melted from our property here in the Avon River Valley.  The lawn is showing signs of green life and my tulips are several inches out of the ground.

My heart is also full with joy for the wonderful lessons learned with Mayhar Raz in Fredericton, N.B.this weekend.  Studying in such an intensive fashion gives you an opportunity to leap forward in your understanding of the subject under scrutiny.  This can be true of the study of any subject.  If you commit yourself to spending ten hours with an excellent teacher and you try your best to act as a respectful student of course you will learn something.  Not only did we do yoga asana together we ate meals together, shared the same roof together and laughed a lot about the follies and comedies of humanity around the supper table.  It was a thorough blessing indeed to have such a few days.

For you who wish to study a subject, choose your teacher wisely.   Then spend time with them.  Bask in their willingness to share their knowledge.  Soak it up.  Be not afraid to ask and answer questions.  Share part of yourself, part of your journey, even if this is done in silence.  An excellent teacher can read your intent from just watching your reaction to their own words.

Once again, I offer great respect and gratitude to the teachers who help me on my path.  I wish that you too find a teacher to help you on your own chosen path.  Namaste.

Day 248 April 9, 2011

Today is a day of deep work in Mayhar's ten hour yoga workshop.  Today we spend five hours in the embrace of yoga asana.  The first time I studied with Mayhar at a ten hour workshop, by Saturday evening all I could manage was to nearly crawl to the bathtub and soak my aching muscles.  Food was out of the question.  So was even a nap.  I needed immense heat.  After a long soak then I napped.

Finally awake, I did get to eat supper.  It felt like quite a miracle to find myself at a restaurant pretending that all was normal in the world.  I was staggered by the deepness of the work on the mat.  It reverberated for days afterword.

Fortunately, Mayhar is very gentle.  She knows exactly how much her students can take.   I offer thanks to all the wonderful teachers I've had the honour to study with over the years: Jawahar Bengara from Mumbai, Pam Stewart from PEI, Patricia Walden from Boston, Mary Dunn from Conneticutt, Marlene Mawhinney from Toronto, Donna Fornelli from Ottawa, Ingelise Nherlan from BC, Liz McLeod from Winnipeg, Maureen Carruthers from BC, Father Joe Pereria from India, Barb Winsor from Newfoundland and of course, my David, David Thomas of Nova Scotia.

Once again, thank you to all the teachers we meet who inspire us.

Day 247 April 8, 2011

David and Bob's living room mantel

Today David and I are driving to Fredericton so that we can stay with friends and then attend a ten hour yoga workshop with Mayhar Raz, a senior Iyengar teacher who operates a yoga school in Toronto and in Iran.  She is a wonderful teacher, as are all the senior teachers in the Iyengar method.  They've all gone the distance and come back to help others along on their paths.

Inspiring folks, teachers.  How would the world ever get along without teachers?  I mean all teachers.  Elementary teachers all the way to professors and beyond.

Thank you teachers, for doing such great, meaningful jobs.

Day 246 April 7, 2011

Half way through the book Born to Run: a Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall I find this quote by Jenn Shelton an ultramarathoner, "When I'm out on a long run, the only thing in life that matters is finishing the run.  For once, my brain isn't going blebblebbleh all the time.  Everything quiets down, and the only thing going is pure flow.  It's just me and the movement and the motion."

Now that is what I'm trying to spread the word about too.  When you find your bliss, your passion, everything totally gets quiet.  You are lost in the process, time is meaningless.  Whether your bliss is making art, doing asana practice, baking bread, writing the next great novel, or rocking your baby to sleep,
you'll know it when you're there.  It's unmistakably peaceful.

namaste.

Day 245 April 6, 2011

The day lilies are coming up.  Soon we'll be able to smell them.  In this climate they are so easy to grow it is ridiculous.  If you ignore them they flourish.

Day lilies are so easy and yet so beautiful they make me grateful for the other pleasures in life that come easily.  Like baking your spouses' favourite cookies and seeing the look on his face when he comes in the door and smells the fresh baked cookie smell permeating through the house.  Divine.  It's the look of divine gratitude.

Bake some cookies today and get to that state of divine bliss.  

P. S. As I wrote this blog my cookies were still in the oven.  Guess what?  They didn't turn out so well.  I tried to make the recipe vegan, gluten free, and sugar free (except for some chocolate chips)  and even though it was a gluten free recipe to begin with the changes I implemented made the cookies so wet and crumbly I cannot successfully lift them off the parchment paper.  Oh well, at least they still smell good :)

Day 244 April 5, 2011

Here they are, those brave baby garlics sticking out their first green tips from a warm burrow of hay into the cold spring air.  They make me think of myself, waking up in the middle of a cold Nova Scotia winter morning in my chilly bedroom.  Stolen from a deep sleep underneath countless covers I realize it is morning and I am awake.  Ready to live another day.

Hurrah for the cycles of nature.  Hurrah for spring.  A new chance for life.  It's the same feeling you get after a really long and wonderful savasana at the end of a yoga practice.  You become another kind of being in savasana and then when you awaken, your known life begins again.

Day 243 April 4, 2011

*** tiny tips of garlic
push through
gray hay

Arise
for it's spring


*** the yoga mat
whispers
rest here

Arise
for it's spring


*** the Irish B & B keeper
greets us in the kitchen
Ah yes, another morning
above ground!

Arise
for it's spring



*** choose your
own strategy

Arise
for it's spring

Day 242 April 3, 2011

Jen and Tai 

The word yoga has several meanings.  One of its meanings is yoking together or joining.  Removing dualities from our awareness joins us together with all the rest of this earthly experience.  After spending six and a half hours in a workshop with a wonderful teacher named Pam Stewart from PEI who has over thirty years experience in the Iyengar yoga tradition, I came away with a glimpse of understanding of this falling away of dualities.

After pranayama practice, and a quiet asana practice, when you quiet yourself down thoroughly to a very deep level then when you slowly reawaken to embrace your sensory awareness, and in the very moment of transitioning to this very busy world of ours, you realize yoga.  You realize that we are joined to the rest of the world.  We are the wooden floor, we are the air, we are the blankets underneath us, we are everything.

As Pam said, let go of the dualities..... of male and female, ..... rich and poor, .... illness and health.  Softly let go.

Day 241 April 2, 2011

Quiet. 


Try to get some this weekend and see how it affects you.

Day 240 April 1, 2011

Norma R.'s luscious lunch

Sometimes it is our friends who show us the beauty right in front of us.  Yesterday at a friend's home I was offered this delicious lunch that I've posted an image of here today.  It was so beautiful I asked the "artist" Norma if I could photograph it.  The colours of the food were reinforced by the complementary colours of the plate.  And yes, this lunch tasted even better than it looked.  It was so delicious because it was cooked with love.  The placement of the orange sweet potatoes on the opposite side of the dish from the mottled orange border of the plate only highlighted the symmetry of Norma's composition.

Yes, sometimes we create art in a stunning plate of food.  When we eat, we first eat with our eyes.  If the food looks beautiful it tastes even better once it enters our mouth.

Take a bit of time today to see the beauty around you.  If you hurry too much, you might miss it entirely.

namaste.