EMILY PERRY:: ELEMENTAL

surrender

ah, february.  how you rock my world.  it seems every year, this is the month for me that is the challenge.  it's cold, raining all the time.  there are sicknesses about, and usually some objects in my life need fixing. last year it was both cars; this year, it is the dryer, phone line, and the persistent ant invasions due to all the rain.  you might imagine the extent of my crabbiness: when the kids are sick, and i have all of this going on, at a certain point i just have to give up.

 
so yesterday, that is what i did.  i gave up the mere thought of my to do list.  i dropped my expectation that my daughter could actually clean up after herself.  i waited for my husband to get home, and then ate chocolate & watched project runway.  what has asked you to surrender lately?  leave your comment below- i would love to hear!

moving house

ah, so it looks like our family is moving. 

we will be moving to the next town over, to another beach house.  and so we only have a few weeks left at the place we call the sea ranch. 

things we have learned here, in no particular order:

• how to quickly start a fire in the wood stove
• that great horned owls love to duet
• that orion protects our house in winter
• how the plants, birds, sea and stars change with the seasons
• how to bike without training wheels
• how to climb the pines
• how the swallows return in spring
• the way the seabirds follow schools of fish
• the way the dolphins come play in summer and fall

our new house is just a bit north, up the coast.  i cannot wait to see what it holds for us!

"the place inside us that is always steady"

{SX-70 at Bar Jules, San Francisco with Sheri of Today is Pretty, 02.06.10} 

Consciously making our breath steady at such a time isn't about suppressing our feelings, it is about understanding that every high and every low arises out of and returns back to a potent neutral place.  The point is not to control the breath or to control the situation but to use the regular, metronomelike availability of our breath to remind us of the place inside us that is always steady.  The breath then becomes like a companion that is always reminding us of who we are.

-Donna Farhi, Bringing Yoga to Life

digging for ideas

where you might find me digging for ideas today:

 

1. in the garage studio, going through old art journals and inspiration books
2. in my piles of books on yoga and Buddhism (always pages of underlined material waiting for me)
3. on the couch, knitting & thinking about said books
4. in the kitchen, as I cook and clean for the day
5. on the mat, during yoga.  sometimes cool things just pop into my consciousness in my practice, as if they have been unearthed, or wash up, by all the opening asanas
6. building legos: there is quiet a lot of zen to be found in building something with legos
7. watching my daughter paint: i love her use of color
8. in a podcast: today it's notes from the voodoo lounge, and jamie ridler studios
9. on a walk up to the bluff to see the ocean
10. in a cup of chai: because let's face it, the whole world is to be found in a good cup of tea!

 

where are you looking today?

Guest post at the Wishstudio!

Hi there!

in case you didn't see it yet, i have a guest post up over at the Wishstudio:: come check it out!

::on the coast::

{the Olympic Coast, Washington State, circa 1997}

::transformational space::

{tent, 2009}

Our lives are constantly transforming themselves:: they shift, open, and change according to what we need, who we are, who we need to be.  At times it is easy to forget that we have this ability:: to shape our lives into what we envision.  For this, transformational spaces can hold us gently while we become more of who we would like to be.  

In our everyday lives we often have small transformational spaces:: a place where we walk, a spot to paint in, a reading corner where you can dream your dreams.  What are your transformational spaces in your life?   How can you create more of them, or find time to explore them more on your journey?