Category Archives: Amazing Women

Something Good

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The reminder in yoga class last week to look to nature, pay attention to how everything is moving to a season of rest and hibernation.

Thursday nights at Old Town Yoga, there’s a class called “Restoration, Rejuvenation and Aromatherapy.” It is described this way, which explains why I go:

This class invites you to allow yourself to truly relax. A gentle therapeutic style of yoga using props to support the body. It is a soothing and nurturing practice that promotes the effects of conscious relaxation.

I have classes I purchased and need to use before the first of the year, so I invited a few friends to go with me. The studio was cold, and we were all using so many blankets, and our teacher reads to us as we sink into the poses, and it felt like we were having a big slumber party. Our teacher talked about the light of the full moon and lightness of our breath, and how they balanced, contrasted with the heaviness of our physical bodies. She said that even though during this season in nature things slow down and turn inward, we remain busy, even busier because of the holiday and all we ask ourselves to do. She said we could instead consider and contemplate nature, see if there is anything we could learn from it.

image by Boaz Yiftach / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Dallas Clayton’s work.

I aspire to be the kind of artist, the kind of person that is true to myself and honest and brave and vulnerable and silly, but also does good for others, and because I am being who I am and doing it so exactly and so wholeheARTedly, the good I do is that much better. Dallas inspires me.

art by Dallas Clayton

TEDxFiDiWomen – SARK (Susan Rainbow Ariel Kennedy) Video.

It took me at least 45 minutes to watch this 16 minute video because I kept stopping and writing down things she was saying, making notes.

And then, a little moment of magic: for the second time, I was watching something unrelated to the Well-Fed Woman Mini-Retreatshop Tour, and saw Rachel W. Cole. This time, it was in the audience at this talk. During the segment where SARK reads a love letter she wrote to herself, who do I see in the audience?! RACHEL!

I even said her name out loud, just like that, but she didn’t look at me 🙂 But then, a few minutes later, she looked right at the camera and smiled.

Holy wow… It feels like the Universe winking at me.

“10 Things I Want To Tell Every Teenage Goddess” from Goddess Leonie

I posted the link to this on my 13 year old niece’s Facebook wall, and I hope she reads it. Although, #9 on the list could be for everyone (the whole list is for everyone, really):

9. The person who is happiest, wins. Happy people don’t bully. Happy people don’t give other people shit. Happy people are off making art under trees being kind to themselves and each other. Happy ALWAYS wins. Why don’t you be one of the gloriously happy weird ones?

Okay, I will! Amen.

Sam’s Birthday

Our “puppy” Sam turned two years old on Saturday. Here’s him at 3 months old, the week we brought him home, and then 2 years later on his birthday. He has been such a gift! Helped to heal our broken hearts when we lost our Obi.

Book Plates

My friend gave me a set of these for my birthday, and they are the perfect way to archive my journals. Previously, I stuck a post-it note to the front cover with a scribbled date range, and they were always falling off, but with these I can have the pretty plates placed inside the front cover. Now if there were only a simple way to create indexes for each of them…

SF Girl by Bay

This is a beautiful blog, written by a self-described San Francisco-based blogger, photographer, photo stylist, design junkie and bonafide flea market queen, representing “bohemian modern style.” I have no real style when it comes to home decor (unless dog hair and dirty laundry count as “style”), but aspire to it, and it makes me happy just to browse this blog.

This picture = happiness.

It has been reposted so many times, I can’t tell you were it’s originally from, but I’ll share it anyway, because I believe that whoever would take such a picture is one of the “gloriously happy weird ones” Goddess Leonie mentions in her list of 10 things, and I have to believe they would want as many people to see it as possible.

Full Moon Dreamboard: Full Cold Moon

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Last night was a full, bright moon. It was so light and white out that when Sam went to go potty before bed, he had a shadow that followed him around our snowy backyard.

Full Moon Dreamboards: This is another practice offered by Jamie Ridler. She describes it this way,

Dreamboards are fun and powerful creative tools. Using words and images, they express our desires and dreams, making them easier for both us and the Universe to see. Engaging in a regular process of dreamboarding can inspire, increase self-awareness and help you manifest your dreams. And to infuse this creating with even more energy, we harness the power of the moon by making or sharing these boards when she is full.

This is my first Full Moon Dreamboard, Full Cold Moon, (you can click on the image to see a larger version). This moon’s question:

“What comforts are you dreaming of?”

Some of the themes and elements that came up for me as I worked on this:

The ocean. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, only a few hours from the ocean.  Living with the sun and mountains of Colorado is home, but so is being near the Pacific. And even though I miss it every day, I still feel so connected to it.  Every other summer, Eric and I rent a house in Waldport, Oregon and spend a month hiking, eating seafood, reading, taking naps, and walking up and down the beach. This coming summer is the year we get to go, so I am dreaming of the comfort that place gives me.

Balance. Practice and study, but also stillness and rest, a blend of comfort and craft.

Connecting to center, the heart of wisdom and compassion. A return and rest in stillness and simplicity, mindfulness and meditation, the seat of power and love.

Blue. The water, the sky, the Medicine Buddha, (the doctor who cures suffering using the medicine of his teachings).

A return, a connection to what is simple and true. That which is never faded or broken or lost. Freedom from attachment to external things, a settling in to being, here and now.

Gifts. Connected, centered in self-love, self-care, and self-knowledge, I can simply be. The magic of an open heart and a still & skillful mind is that I also generate enough to share. I hum with power, and my superpowers are gentleness and mindfulness. I open my heart and give away what I don’t need. “Give, look, love.”