Stumble upon a pattern

How to appreciate "intimidation"

Thanks to the "Little Giants" movie circa the 1990's, where a group of kids who like football, form an underdog team.
I grew up loving this movie and the team of who tried, gave up, tried again and then succeeded in their own way.

Fall into the sun

I've always said you must find your place in the sun
because I think wherever we are going you must take in some of that light. Once, while visiting my father years ago, while his father was alive and I was his appointed cemetery tour guide, I stood between two stones propped against a strong thick tree. My estranged grandfather with his head up at the sky looked away from me and then to the tree. This tree, he said was taking the sun away from his son. It should go he muttered if it were to block the light. I thought but no it was so beautiful. It was so alive.
This tree has long branches and to look at it is to look at fingers spread wide. The sunshine will find its way to my father. It will find it's way to where it should fall.  Our lives are highlighted and so we will be able to find our way; we will always get our place in the sun.
There are things that get in way of what we see so brightly. Shadows form with even a slightest bit of dust.

Thanksgiving is a benchmark of a Happy ----day greeting because it reminds us to clear away our "muck", to take a break and think of what in our lives truly makes us happy for ourselves.

Above is a charm I received in the mail from my dear friend. It is just a simple sun, but it hangs off my wrist for her and me both. It is a reminder that sometimes our joy comes from others and sometimes it comes at our own hands. Most of the time it is both, so be careful and look.

The hardest thing, I used to say, was not only convincing ourselves that we are worthy of our own affection but also making it stick. This essentially will help us to get stuck to ...
stuck to peace love and life
because with those things you've got quite the adventure.


Thanks for reading!


Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

How to make five minutes

Some meditate...


In honor of National Novel Writing Month, I paid homage to my degree. Despite spending four years as a declared writing major, I sometimes find it hard to assert myself in the things that make me most like myself.  With writing there is respect and dedication. But there is also doubt. For some, it is that fear of wasting time.

 Whatever happens I have tried for five minutes to find five minutes. I have stopped. I have set a deadline. I have the time.

A goal is something you reach, a resolution is something you hit and keep going. The thing about five minutes is it will always pass.

How would you spend the rest of the 23.5 hours if you know that 5 minutes of your day are just for you?


Meditation is also nice...

how not to read

I am a reader. Let me just preface the title of the post with that. I love to read, was an English major and go to the library often. 
But when I was younger before I knew how to read, even after I had learned and started to explore big letter books on my own, I loved to be read to. Read to in a circle among my classmates on a checkered rug,  read to before bed by my parent's in various story voices, and read to by animated characters from PBS. Now I seek the books on tape or rather books on cd to carry me from place to place. I find the books I choose to listen to in the car are often the ones that I can read from the page but do better for the drive. 
Just because you know how to do something does not mean that you must always be the one to do it. Whatever that may be- driving, reading, cleaning, cooking, dancing. learning something once also means you can listen to how it changes itself and changes you- to let someone or something else show you how again.  At the end of the day, even if you are a reader, it is nice to be read to and nice to know you still enjoy it.  

here is a link so that you can get read to http://www.storylineonline.net/
in particular the Betty White reading is great!

how to eat from the trees

Last month, I left the state. I traveled two buses a train and one crowded mini van to go apple picking in the country. Apple picking is one of my most favorite Fall activities. What makes it so fun is this idea of renewal, growth and of course selection of "good".  Together with light jackets abandoned for nice weather and fields of grass meant for us to roam, we become explorers who have reached their destination.  This is an activity that changes each year I do it. Who I am with, where, even I have changed from the wondering child in the apple fields to one who wonders with them. It is an activity that becomes a tradition because it celebrates not only the season but the passing of it.  I will always love the Autumn and what it brings before it leaves. This year, Ulysses and I sat, resting our bellies on the grass, eating apples from the trees, careful of the seeds, and finding the "good ones" before we had to leave.

a lego piece for each of us building a beginning

To my fellow yogi adventurers- I've told my teacher trainees this before

I can't stress enough how important this training is to me. You see I spent four years away at college growing into myself, loving/learning who I am, but more so following where this person should be next. But now that I am finished what I realized is that you must be willing to make and follow your own guidelines.

To be honest,  at first, my confidence were hurt. I had been so many different hobbies/goals combined. I didn't know where to start. I learned the bittersweet of happiness; that yes, I can be anything I want, but I can't be everything.

When friends and family ask me what I will be next I tell them of my journey right now. Because each day I spend thinking of each one you I feel strong right now. I feel strong because you are inspirational women. Women who try new things, run businesses, raise families, have gone back to school, picked up and moved to another state, another country. You are teachers, mothers, friends, and wives, even FBI agents, and marathon runners. You're crafty and compassion and together we share our weekends, our yoga practice, and our goal to be present for those two things.
And so I thank you because Laurie said that transitions are so important, important because we can get hurt more easily. But this time, I am learning to flow.

Today I say it to you. Find where you can flow and don't just let it take you, but go and let go.

http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/home_practice
for a home practice guide

I started an online collection

The Rembrandts-I'll Be There For You

how to discover friends again

Yes, I know it has been a while since my last post. But I have not forgotten about becoming an adventurer. In fact, while I have not been posting I have been trying to take a look at the things I have thus far found.
Remembering my last post and letting it take me to November, I started showing up. Meaning I honored my goals and tried to appreciate each place I was one step at a time. Many times when I feel that I am facing an obstacle I try to remove the unpleasant feeling. But now I am trying to do something different.
Pictures fade, song dials on the radio fade to a new song, transitions in movies switch to other scenes, even beauty is said to fade. We don't always notice a clear ending but know that it will come.  The last second before the slow and things fade. Therefore, even an unpleasant notion such as studying for a test, getting stuck in traffic, even hurt will go.

As I am doing so, letting go, I feel a better sense of what I want to cling to. I am not saying that I feel any less pain when situations do not go the way I would have hoped but I do feel calm. I do feel like I know I am someone who can be in a better place soon.

I've recently re-discovered my love of friends. appreciation for the people who surround themselves with me and so even if I go on an adventure by myself, I am not truly going alone.
In tying this together, I've also started watching the television show Friends. I began with the first episode and was able to see the show in a new way. Here are a group of friends who are likable because of their transitions and imperfections. The show is a progression of relationships, the links to others in how we start to plan. I am enjoying the series now even more so then when it aired because I am looking for an understanding in addition to a laugh.