Monthly Archives: March 2016

Three Truths and One Wish

The camera on my new phone takes amazing pictures

The camera on my new phone takes amazing pictures

1. Truth: I almost forgot to write this post this week. It’s Spring Break at CSU, so I’m taking the week off from that work as much as I can, which always makes me confused about what day of the week it is. On Monday, Eric and I went to dinner at Mount Everest Cafe, one of our favorite places, and I said to him “it’s really quiet in here for a weekend” and he said, “that’s because it’s Monday.” I laughed and told him, “don’t let me forget to go teach my yoga class in the morning!” Daylight Savings time, being an hour off, meant I didn’t really know what time it was for a few days either.

2. Truth: Adulting is hard. Most days I’m pretty good at it, but yesterday I failed, miserably. I’m sad because a dear friend’s dear dog has cancer and Eric is going out of town for a conference. I’ve been depressed lately, so I was already low. Then we had a furnace guy come to do our free yearly maintenance that we haven’t had done in the fifteen years we’ve had this furnace and he, as expected, found all sorts of things wrong, things that to fix would cost almost as much as a whole new furnace, also as expected. But one of the things he found had nothing to do with the furnace — our new tub has apparently been leaking. And I’d spent the entire morning trying to back up my old phone so I could activate my new phone and in the process of that my old phone died for real and for good. I didn’t handle it very well, kind and gentle reader.

3. Truth: Still, life is good. On our walk the other day, I told Eric how good it was to feel strong again, to be able to walk without hurting the whole time. Later in the day, after my meltdown, Eric told me he’d read that my new phone’s camera had a feature where you could make little slow motion videos. I made one of him running across the dining room and it made us laugh so hard, which felt like such a relief after all the fussing that had come earlier. And I bought myself tulips and daffodils at Trader Joe’s on the way home from my physical therapy appointment yesterday, so even though it’s snowing outside this morning, I have a bit of spring inside.

One wish: That no matter how confused or turned around we get, no matter how frustrated or upset, we find our way back to sanity. May we know the relief of laughter and always keep that little bit of spring inside.

Something Good

myfavoritetree

My favorite tree in our neighborhood

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

1. There’s Nothing Left to Do, Seek or Fix—The Quote that Brought it all Home. This piece by Alexa Torontow does such a good job of summing up what yoga is, what practice is, and the importance of self-compassion through all of it. “Awareness and mindfulness are one thing. But to truly and honestly show up for ourselves like we would our best friend — with that level and quality of compassion — is absolutely vital for this journey.”

2. If You Acted Like Kanye At The Office. Love this! #workgoals

3. Do not scroll past this picture, a really great post about what it’s like to attend a Trump rally.

4. How To Meditate from The Onion. *gigglesnort*

5. Wisdom from Elizabeth Gilbert,

The women whom I love and admire for their strength and grace did not get that way because shit worked out. They got that way because shit went wrong, and they handled it. They handled it in a thousand different ways on a thousand different days, but they handled it. Those women are my superheroes.

6. She’s 22, from rural Zimbabwe, and a mogul in the making.

7. 10 talks by women that everyone should watch. “Color bravery. A headset for brainwaves. His/hers healthcare. 10 big, bold talks from female speakers.”

8. She thought it was only a 24-hour bug. What she really had almost killed her. So scary, but probably worth knowing, adding to the list of possible symptoms.

9. Loving the People You Hate/Donald Trump, an important post from Susan Piver.

10. The Secret to Developing a Regular Writing Habit, some great tips and free support from Jeff Goins.

11. Wolves are fighting for your mind, wisdom from Paul Jarvis’s latest Sunday Dispatch.

12. How to #repost with respect, (link shared on Tammy’s Happy Links list on Rowdy Kittens). The title says it all.

13. Orkestra Obsolete play Blue Monday using 1930s instruments, (link shared on Austin Kleon’s weekly newsletter).

14. Embroidered Mushrooms, Animals, and Other Forest Creatures by Emillie Ferris. Beautiful.

15. Cheer someone up today with these 14 joyful pictures of Death Valley’s superbloom.

16. To the Strangers in Whole Foods Who Surrounded Me After News of My Father’s Suicide. As Ram Dass said, we are all just “walking each other home.”

17. 10 Blunt Truths about becoming a Meditation Teacher from Lodro Rinzler, one of my meditation teachers.

18. Rejected by Oprah from The Bloggess, her hilarious perspective on social media etiquette.

19. Recipes I want to try: Spicy, Peanutty Udon with Kale, and Sweet Potato Chickpea Buddha Bowl, and Salt and Pepper Caramel Brownies.

20. Setting Her Down, on learning to let go.

21. #40daysoflight: journaling, a primer, a really great post from a journaling master Karen Walrond, “my philosophy on journaling, and how you can get started if you’ve always wanted to journal, but were afraid to try.”

22. New Rules of Engagement on Rita’s Notebook, an important read during this particular political season.

23. The Magic of Being Broken, “Kintsugi: embracing imperfection.”

24. This man incubated supermarket eggs and got a baby quail (video).

25. Penguin swims 5,000 miles every year for reunion with the man who saved his life, one of the sweetest “unlikely friends” stories I’ve ever seen. “I think the penguin believes Joao is part of his family and probably a penguin as well.”

26. Fuck changing yourself. Word.

27. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön,

In the present moment we can always realize that the ground is to develop loving-kindness toward ourselves. As adults, we can begin to cultivate a sense of loving-kindness for ourselves—by ourselves, for ourselves. The whole process of meditation is one of creating that good ground, that cradle of loving-kindness where we actually are nurtured. What’s being nurtured is our confidence in our own wisdom, our own health, and our own courage, our own goodheartedness. We develop some sense that the way we are — the kind of personality that we have and the way we express life — is good, and that by being who we are completely and by totally accepting that and having respect for ourselves, we are standing on the ground of warriorship.

28. What I Know About America After Getting Thrown Out Of A Trump Rally.

29. Eulogy for a friend, a beautiful tribute from Patti Digh for Laurie Foley.

30. The 20 Funniest Tweets From Women This Week. This whole series is one of my favorite things.