Woke up to this, April snow, Spring in Colorado
Four hours later, it’s still coming down
1. How Yoga Turned Me Into a Superhero. ~ Steph Richard
and Sleep: More Important than a Healthy Diet. ~ Katja Heino on Elephant Journal.
2. From Patti Digh, your daily rock : practice and your daily rock : you are not broken.
3. From Pema Chödrön,
The present moment is your ally: We might ask, “Given my present situation, how long should I stay with uncomfortable feelings?” This is a good question, yet there is no right answer. We simply get accustomed to coming back to the present just as it is for a second, for a minute, for an hour—whatever is currently natural—without its becoming an endurance trial. Just pausing for two to three breaths is a perfect way to stay present. This is a good use of our life. Indeed, it is an excellent, joyful use of our life. Instead of getting better and better at avoiding, we can learn to accept the present moment as if we had invited it, and work with it instead of against it, making it our ally rather than our enemy.
4. From Geneen Roth,
I tell my retreat students that having a practice they do everyday is important. It doesn’t matter what it is. Meditating, gardening, writing, walking, feeding birds. What matters is that you pay attention. What matters is that you have the intention to show up for yourself and have the chance, on a daily level, to ground yourself in the you that isn’t caught up in the emails, errands, natterings. It’s a way you get to be loyal to what matters to you. A promise you make to yourself that this day can also be for you.
And a really cool video of her feeding hummingbirds,
And this,
When I am willing to question and therefore feel whatever is there–hatred (that’s a big one!), anger, sadness–with tenderness and curiosity, the feelings relax because they are met with kindness and openness instead of resistance and rejection. The hard part is that I have to be willing to tolerate discomfort for a moment. Or three.
Think about what it’s like for you to be met by someone else with kindness. And then think about being met with rejection. It’s such a difference. Think about what you would give to a child who is hurting. And then take a leap. Be as loving to yourself as you would be to a child. As you would be to anyone you love who needs your attention. Over and over, this is the practice. A fierce kind of love. An unwillingness to devolve into pushing and blaming. It starts with you, now.
5. From Sakyong Mipham, “We want to infuse our day with good habits so that we can turn seemingly mundane situations into a ceremony of goodness,” and “In order to be brave, we must trust that underneath it all, there is sanity and openness.”
6. Becoming the Person You Were Meant to Be: Where to Start by Anne Lamott.
7. Type So Hard You Bruise The Screen writing advice collected and shared by Owen Egerton on Huffington Post.
8. This from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross,
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.
9. The Last Day from Sas Petherick.
10. Call Me Cupcake, shared by decor8. My eyes and mouth were drooling.
11. 11 quick + dirty things about writing, a brilliant list from Justine Musk.
12. The Five Stages of Clutter on Be More with Less.
13. Design Terms explained, from Eva Black Design, shared by Pugley Pixel, one of my favorite blog design sites.
14. Susannah Conway’s Journal Your Life Pinterest board, so many pretty things, so much I want to try.
15. The 40 Best Animal Cuddlers Of All Time on BuzzFeed. Who knew turtles could cuddle?
16. 90 Pieces of Wisdom for my 9-year old Birthday Girl from Tanya Geisler. I’m not nine years old, but I needed to hear these too.
17. My Well-Fed Life: Vivienne McMaster from Rachel Cole.
18. Tara Brach: Radical Self-Acceptance on A Good Minute from Sounds True.
19. A Guide to Practical Contentment on Zen Habits.
20. My (new) favorite question of all time from Alexandra Franzen.
21. You are more beautiful than you think, the new Dove ad. It made me cry.
22. Thoughts for a Friday: Pressures of Social Media on SF Girl by Bay. We need to stop comparing our blooper reels to other people’s highlights.
23. 50 Self-Care Ideas from Back to Her Roots.
24. This song, Gorgon City – “Real” ft. Yasmin, shared on Kind Over Matter.
25. Shared on Susannah Conway’s Something for the Weekend list: this recipe for spinach and smashed egg toast (which I’m making with a hard egg), and this one for Superfood salad with black rice, butternut squash, sweet potato, cranberries, goji berries, sunflower and pumpkin seeds (*drool*), and this cool home design site, the selby, (and look, it’s William the crystal guy on the selby!)
26. 12 Things You Will Never Say Before Dying on the Daily Breadcrumb.
27. This from Sri Prem Baba,
The process of awakening is a movement towards the real. In order for this to occur, the false will unavoidably have to be deconstructed. This is never easy. What is easy or hard to deal with is intimately related to what it is that is going away. Oftentimes, you believe that the walls that are falling apart are the walls of your house but, in truth, they are the walls of a prison cell.
28. And Dog Wants a Kitty,
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 