Day 128 December 10, 2010

'The Look Off' outside of Canning, N.S.

Just thought I’d let you know about a real source of inspiration in the world of recovering from cancer, in case you’re interested.  Her name is Kris Carr.  Yes, the same woman who wrote, My Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips.  She is a writer and artist and her book is fabulous, and I speak from personal experience.  No, I don’t have cancer, but a close family member did.  Kris Carr’s book helped a lot.  Her website is also full of tons of information and she is now promoting a new book on diets, not diets in the sense of losing weight, no, diets in the sense of “what the heck do I eat, now that I feel like a truck just drove over me and I want to re-inflate my sense of well being and health?”

Here are two other great books on recovering from cancer.  Lawrence LeShan’s Cancer as a Turning Point: a Handbook for People with Cancer, their families and Health professionals, revised edition and Richard Beliveau and Denis Gingras’ book Foods that Fight Cancer and their follow up book Cooking with Foods that Fight Cancer.  All of these books are really helpful.  I know what I’m talking about, so if you know of anyone who is dealing with this issue of the big C, please pass this information on to them.

Thanks, and embrace yourself today.  Take a walk, go for a swim, stand on your head, or lie on the sofa and read a book, make some art, and remember to LAUGH :)

Day 127 December 9, 2010

Clear evening at sunset.  Inspiring quality to the light.  I worked with some inspiring art made by students at King's-Edgehill school this afternoon, deciding which work to hang at the school doctor's office in his waiting room in town.  Such a large range of work that covered many years of teaching with several different art teachers, it was quite a beautiful pile of work that I sorted.  Some of it was going to go to town and some would go to enliven the buildings on campus.

Then I visited the library, my old stomping grounds, and there I found a colleague holding a meeting with a  keen group of students.  The yearbook committee was planning who would create different pages.  It looked like a good group.  Several students wandered into the library with that 'deer in the headlight' look in their eyes; it is science fair time of year.  A grade eight boy had to write 1,500 words on his research topic of "obsidian".  It was due tomorrow.  Oh yes, even in grade eight the idea of a deadline is firmly entrenched.

What I am realizing is one real benefit of this commitment of mine, the 365 days of yoga and art, is that I am entrenching my own desire to center my life around yoga and art.  Today's morning yoga practice felt so necessary.  Sorting art work this afternoon, yes, that felt the same.  Necessary.  I am like a fish out of water, gasping.  I was away from yoga and art too often in the past.  Too busy with other things.  But now, I'm finally getting to what I need to keep me a happy clam in my clam bank, or a happy fish in the pond.  It feels really right.

Find out what makes you a happy clam in your own clam bank.  What feels right to you?  As right as a fish feeling the pond water moving smoothly across its slippery scales.

Day 126 December 8, 2010

Perhaps you've heard of Vincent Van Gogh?  His work is greatly admired today, but within his own lifetime it was not.  He had a difficult life.  Fortunately for art lovers, he painted amazing works.  He suffered from mental illness, physical illness, poverty and from many failures both within his working life and his personal life.

Here is a quote of Van Gogh's, " The more ugly, ill, poor I get, the more I want to take my revenge by producing a brilliant color, well-arranged, resplendent."  Taking revenge is usually not a great approach to anything.  In Vincent's case though, he was achingly aware of his own difficulties and he acted out of that misery to produce vibrant, sensationally colored work.

So you see, sometimes splendor and greatness can come out of the deepest difficulty.  Let Vincent Van Gogh inspire you to overcome your own difficulties.

watercolour

Day 125 December 7, 2010

Muriel and Denise at Vital Health Yoga Centre, Halifax, NS

As I drove with David to yoga class last night in Wolfville, we looked at all the Christmas lights,  and I thought of Denise who was just here last week.  She came to class with us in Wolfville and we laughed that night.  Yes, laughter and yoga do go together, especially once a few of the students know each other well enough to tease each other.  David teased someone last night and we all laughed again.

David and I are ahead of schedule for our Christmas decorations.  Our tree is already in the backyard, next step is to bring it in and decorate it.  Two wreaths are up on the outside of the house.  Next we'll check our outdoor lights, hopefully tomorrow.  I've mailed all my Christmas cards home to the United States and tomorrow we'll mail the Canadian ones.  I love keeping in touch with people.

Do you?  I hope that you enjoy some kind of holiday season, whatever that season might be in your home country.  A few year's ago I made my Christmas cards.  One of my friends who is an artist saved that card and it is displayed in his living room.  This made me look at it again with fresh eyes.  The card's cover image is the top image below.  The image inside of the card is directly below it.

This is my wish for you this holiday season.  Peace within.  Namaste.

Day 124 December 6, 2010

 "You have to give people room to play so that they can come up with something innovative, as opposed to directing the process too early and too often."  Michael Hayden, a genetics researcher from the Univ. of B.C.

Yes, be playful today.

Day 123 December 5, 2010

"You can't be both creative and predictable."  John Allemang of the Globe and Mail   

Stir things up.  Today you could just hang out and enjoy the neighborhood.

Day 122 December 4, 2010

Today is a good day to move, take flight and spread your wings.  Soar.

Day 121 December 3, 2010

Newfoundland winter storm  - photographer unknown

Today brings another moist, gray day to my part of Nova Scotia.  While I enjoyed gardening yesterday, my neighbours to the south outside of Buffalo, NY had such a fierce dump of snow that Interstate route 90 was closed in sections for up to 20 hours!  Travellers stranded in their vehicles tried to help each other out.  A boys' and girls' basketball team shared the bus they travelled on with their coaches and driver overnight.  Yes, weather can get intense in this part of the world.

Who am I to talk though?  I'm sure many of you could give me much more intense examples of the weather's impact in your country.  For example, one year at the school where I used to work, we returned after our Christmas vacation to settle into the winter term; international students arrived in dribs and drabs due to their lengthly travel times.

Once classes had begun, a houseparent shared this story with the rest of the faculty.  One of the likeable, serious international students who lived on his flat asked to have a word with him.  He said, "Sir, is it possible for me to take a bit of time off from participating in sports for a little while, because my leg is injured."  The houseparent replied, "Oh, I'm sure that will be all right, and that's too bad to hear that you've injured your leg.  How did it happen?"  The boy replied humbly, "Well sir, my family was on vacation over the holidays and we were caught in the tsunami."  There was stunned silence from the houseparent at that point I'm sure, but details followed of this boy's close escape with his father from this horrific event.

Fortunately, this boy's family all survived that terrible natural disaster in Asia that killed thousands and thousands of people.  Fortunately too, this boy seemed all right emotionally and he was ready to get back to his studies.  He studied hard and upon his graduation was accepted to Johns Hopkins University in the USA, a prestigious medical school, where he intended to become a doctor, so that he could help others.  So for this one boy, it was just part of his life's experience to witness a profound natural disaster.

We all witness some kind of disaster it seems.  Whether it be a familial disaster, a regional disaster, an automobile accident, or a disaster created by the weather.  When it is your turn to experience a disaster, I wish you the strength and calmness to survive.  To carry on, to inspire others with your humility, with your helpfulness.

We all can benefit so much from helping others.  Reaching out to others brings personal satisfaction.  Of course, it also really helps for you to take good care of yourself first.  That's our first priority, and our second priority, is to help others.

I include a photo taken in Newfoundland one winter after a storm.  It circled around on the internet a few year's ago, and I cannot credit the photographer as I don't know their name, but I think you might appreciate it.

Day 120 December 2, 2010

Day 120  'hens and chickens in flower'

It is warm enough today that I am gardening.  I weed the flower beds by the kitchen entrance, transplant several perennial flowers, one so large I had to drag it across the lawn on the shovel because I couldn't pick it up.  I rescued several clumps of the hens and chickens' flower that I posted an image of today, to place them around the edges of the flower bed below a large picture window.  The new rose bush got wrapped in hay and landscape fabric.  I'm new to roses so I'm trying to model my work on the gardener who kept my last place of employment looking spectacular year round.  And there are still the last of the carrots to unearth, but they might have to continue to be patient with me.

The quality of the air today reminds me of Ireland, moist gray, cool air, just on the verge of forming a mist.  By the time I get back indoors after gardening for well over one hour, I am sweated through my clothes.  My hands are still warm as I inch off muddy work gloves and drop them onto the porch floor.  There is just something about dirt.  I love it.  I love what it does, it nourishes plants.  But I'm not just in love with the plants, it's the dirt too.  I like building it up, feeding it compost and fish meal, manure and soybean meal and lots of hay.  I feed it and it feeds me.

Embrace part of your day today.   Find something to do that makes you completely stop thinking.  Just be.

Day 119 December 1, 2010

Sara, Tai, & Jen as girls in Cape Breton

Another country heard from... those sweet days of youth bring memories of the ecstasy of summer.

In my summer as a girl I'd stop to taste the tiniest droplet of sap from the blossom of the honeysuckle bush. There was no hurrying this process.  First I'd inhale the smell from the bush and then pluck one blossom and pull it apart to expose its one fat droplet of juice which I'd then quickly taste before the tender petals fell away in my hands. Then another and another, until I was satisfied by its taste.   Or I'd deeply breathe in the fragrance from my mother's roses, just for a moment.  But the very best part of summer, that could perhaps only be equalled by my love for swimming outdoors, was to savour the ripeness and inexplicable delights of my favourite food that peaked in summer, fruit.

Peaches, early apples, nectarines, plums, apricots, grapes, pears, dates, figs, watermelon, canteloupe, honeydew melon, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, each fruit had its own unique shape, colour and taste.   The one commonality all fruit shared was its sweet juice.

What is your favourite food?  Can you still remember lingering over its taste?