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.

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.

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.