Monthly Archives: October 2015

Something Good

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oldtownalleySo great to be partnering with Wanderlust to share this list with a larger audience.

1. This American Was Shocked When His Facebook Post About England Went Viral. “A few weeks ago he visited England, and he decided to share his observations on Facebook.” This list is both interesting and funny.

2. Wildlife is absolutely thriving at Chernobyl disaster site.

3. Living a Full Life, a dharma teaching from Natalie Goldberg. “A writer, for better or for worse, gets to live life twice.”

4. This offensive photo sparked a whole lot of love for the boy who deserved better.

5. It’s here and it’s being claimed “The first zero-waste grocery store in the world.”

6. Nutritower is a vertical farm for your tiny condo.

7. The Just F*cking Journal Class: October 12th-16th. “5 days. 5 fresh prompts. 5 ways to get present with YOU.” This is a great opportunity, a great practice — FREE.

8. Wisdom from Mara Glatzel, on the page for her The Deep Exhale offering, something I needed to hear so badly I signed up for it,

When we are well-rested, well-nourished, and well-loved we are able to show up in the world to do the work that we were put on the planet to do with ease and grace. It really is that simple and yet, so many of us tie ourselves up in knots believing that working hard(er) is the only way forward.

9. Begin Again: How Yoga Unlocks the Writer Within from Dani Shapiro, in which she says,

The writing life is painstakingly slow. We toil invisibly, tearing our hair out, steam escaping from our ears, our hearts frozen in fear, our poor small selves so full of the tension of what we hope to express and the impossibility of ever getting it exactly right. It’s just about unbearable, which is why we look to our totems to help us along the way. But perhaps the wisdom we crave isn’t to be found inside those objects we imbue with magic and meaning. Perhaps—just perhaps—to quote Woolf once more, “We are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself.”

10. Squirrel Rescued After Hurricane Becomes Family’s Cutest Member. A squirrel named Jill.

11. The True Secret of Writing: A Talk With Natalie Goldberg, wisdom from one of my favorite teachers.

12. #3bravethings : Have You Done 3 Brave Things in 2015 Yet? from Diana Dellos.

13. Money Talks with Jill Salahub I love the Money Talks series on Mabel Magazine with the lovely Sherry Richert Belul, and was so happy when she asked me to take part. It’s so timely, because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I make my living.

14. The Simple Technique that Changed My Life on Elephant Journal. This article explains why I meditate better than almost anything I’ve ever read.

Our tendency at grasping for the next thing to fill a hole that we perceive in our being is demonstrated in our thoughts during meditation practice. By cutting the pattern of discursive thought we learn to relax and just be. We can actually sit and be content. But, we’re not doing all of this to just be good little meditators, or to have short reprieves during our day from our constant state of anxiety and dissatisfaction. We’re doing this during our sitting time so that it begins to affect our entire life.

15. The corporatization of higher education: With a system that caters to the 1 percent, students and faculty get screwed. I could only read this in short doses. It’s so true, so disappointing, that it makes me feel sick.

This exploitation of low-wage faculty is part of what’s known as the corporatization of higher education. Increasingly, both public and private colleges are being run on the cost-cutting model of American business. Which presents a burning question: If faculty are being paid less, class sizes are growing and tuition is higher than ever, where is the money going?

16. Dog Refuses To Leave The Side Of Man Who Saved Him From Flood. This story had me in tears.

17. This Is What You Should Eat. Any Questions? This is so great, highlights how hard it can be to know what to eat when we listen to something other than our own body, our own inherent wisdom. And, it’s funny at the same time.

18. Instead of a ‘dislike’ button, Facebook tests new set of reaction emojis.

19. Mom’s Viral Facebook Post Offers Powerful Message After Miscarriage, “Scars tell stories. Scars mean survival. Scars mean you showed up for the fight instead of running from it.”

20. Awake in the World, 2nd Annual Online Free Event, November 4th – 8th. Last year this was great, and this year promises to be the same. So many great teachers.

21. Raise Your Hand Say Yes with Austin Kleon. A great podcast, a great guest.

22. The Brutal Economics of Being a Yoga Teacher.

23. Good stuff from this week’s Positively Present Picks list: 25 Hilarious Tweets That Perfectly Capture Your Feelings About Animals, and 5 Positive Reasons for Saying No, and The Two Best Ways to Uncover Your Truth.

24. Austin Kleon on Mary Karr’s new book, The Art of Memoir.

25. the shutterbugs: kate holstein on SF Girl by Bay. Such dreamy pictures. I clicked through to her full website and got lost in it.

26. 5 Ways to Manage Stress at Work, some great tips from Laura Simms, who is also offering Your Career Homecoming Training Series videos for FREE on her new website.

27. The Crossroads of Should and Must. “This is a story about two roads — Should and Must. It’s a pep talk for anyone who’s chosen Should for far too long — months, years, maybe a lifetime — and feels like it’s about time they gave Must a shot.” This post ended up inspiring a book that I really want to read.

28. Why you should stop saying should on Positively Present. Stop shoulding all over yourself.

29. Wisdom from Anam Thubten,

If we were asked to be free right now, to jump into the sea of love in this very moment, we might turn our attention inward and try it, and it may not work. Why? Because of a hindrance, a block. That block is the very sense of “I am” that is the false image of who we are. It is the shell that is veiling, covering our true nature. So the goal of all spiritual endeavors is to actually realize the enlightened part of who we are, not sometime in the future, but right now.

30. Wisdom from Kiki Smith,

Just do your work. And if the world needs your work it will come and get you. And if it doesn’t, do your work anyway. You can have fantasies about having control over the world, but I know I can barely control my kitchen sink. That is the grace I’m given. Because when one can control things, one is limited to one’s own vision.

31. The Geography Of Sorrow: Francis Weller On Navigating Our Losses.

32. Claritude from Jena Schwartz.

33. Breathe, an eleven week, (self-directed), deep breathing, creative recovery retreat for your spirit with the lovely Julia Fehrenbacher.

34. A dirty secret called grief. “After her mother’s death, Kiran Sidhu found she was expected to ‘move on’ with such bewildering haste that her only option was to conceal her sorrow.”

Day of Rest

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workshopreflectionThis morning I’m reflecting on the workshop I facilitated yesterday — Wild Writing, Crazy Wisdom. It was beyond full, (I had to turn someone away!), and there was only one flyer left on the board, so any fear I had about there being no interest was dispelled. I got there half an hour early, a bit later than I’d planned because a friend and her girls had stopped by to get pumpkins (we had a mini pumpkin patch in our front garden), but that still left me plenty of time.

It turns out earlier wouldn’t have been better anyway because there was a class in the big room until 1 pm, and that’s where all the extra props we needed are stored, so I couldn’t set much up without them. There were also additional obstacles. The teacher training group that was at lunch until 1:30 pm (start time for my workshop) had left all their gear in the room I was using, and the class that was supposed to finish at 1 pm lingered until 1:10 pm, so it was a mad scramble to move everything around and get set up. Thankfully, one of the teacher trainees was there eating her lunch and was nice enough to help me clear out the room. It was a warm day, I was running around and was hot. And finally, I realized the music player in that room was only an iPod docking station, so the cds I brought weren’t going to work, I’d have to use my phone, and the only outlet was across the room from my mat.

So I was a bit flustered to start. And yet, it was a good thing. I didn’t have a chance to make things precious, to have it all set up perfectly, to be ready and waiting, to be still and have time to get nervous, to think too much about how it all might seem to those arriving.

The thing I noticed as I was preparing, that morning and in the days before, was that I didn’t need to do a lot of prep. I made an outline so I could be sure to stay on track for time, I had my yoga sequence outlined, had picked a few quotes from some of my favorite practice books, and had the prompts for our writing sessions ready. But other than that, I didn’t plan beyond thinking about it. I felt confident that I knew what I was doing. I could teach this from my heart because this is what I know, what I study, what I practice, what I do, what I love. I can talk authentically and on the spot about all of it because of the foundation I’ve built for it in my own practice.

My intention for the workshop was to create an experience where people could uncover some meaning, open up in a safe space, and be fully present without feeling overwhelmed. I also for myself wanted to experience ease and joy. And as I told the women who attended, underlying all that was my intention to not fuck it up. And I didn’t. I know, because this is some of the feedback I got, (shared with permission):

This afternoon feels really pivotal for me. Any workshop that incorporates getting in touch with one’s own heart is of great value. I also really appreciate the easiness in which you allowed the class to relax right out of the gate.

Safe, welcoming and inspiring class.

If you need a day to focus and jumpstart your writing practice, this is for you.

It was a great experience in just letting go of demands & expectations of my writing. Jill created an atmosphere that felt safe & comfortable & so I felt free to just let it all out.

See. I didn’t fuck it up. Even so, there are a few things I’ll do differently next time. I will use the bigger room so we have more space. I’ll try a few other times, like Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon, or maybe even a weekday. There will be a snack break, in addition to the other breaks we took. I’m also considering a short discussion at the end of the writing sessions to debrief, talk about what that experience was like, talk about why the practice of wild writing and sharing what we write without commentary is so important. I also want to offer a modified version that’s just the meditation and writing, without the yoga or with a much shorter practice.

I was totally wired when I left the studio last night, but crashed as soon as I ate dinner, and feel slightly hung over this morning. I’d love a full day of doing absolutely nothing, but I’m never very good at that. Instead, I’ll finish this post, go to yoga, work on my Something Good list, and dive into Unfold and The Deep Exhale, which will be restorative in a whole other way.

I’m thinking a lot today about how I’m shifting making my living. Paul Jarvis wrote a really great piece last week about the subject, and his opening line is still rattling around my brain, “Are you looking to make money selling things or are you looking to make the world a better place with what you make?” This was very timely because just after I read it, I found out that Wanderlust was no longer going to pay me for my Something Good list on their site. It was a tiny amount of money, and if they’d asked me initially to share the list on their site simply for the exposure, I would have most likely agreed, but being paid and then not felt different. It sucks, actually. And yet, after thinking about it, I’m going to continue sharing the list there, because ultimately what I want is for more people to see it, for more people to have access to what I’m doing because it might be helpful to them.

I know all the arguments for why I shouldn’t continue. They are good, valid arguments made by people much wiser than myself. And yet, I want to continue to make this offering, paid or not. I want to reach people more than I want a reward. It’s interesting, because when I determined what I wanted to do instead of working at CSU, I thought I would just do it. Sure, I’d have to figure out a bunch of logistics, but I thought the shift would be clearer — stop doing this to do that instead. Now it doesn’t seem so simple. It isn’t a choice between two things. It’s a web of things and I’m not entirely sure how exactly to weave them all together in a way that affords me the life I want. And I’m realizing, after so long of thinking what I wanted was to be successful and popular, that I have no interest in being “Oprah-fied.” I want to be authentic and for my life to be simple. I want to ease suffering, in myself and in the world. I want a life that is small, but deep and wide.