Happy Birthday Miss M

Today is Miss M's 10th birthday. How time flies. I remember the day I took her out in the stroller and talked to her about life. I told her that she was my first grandchild and I did not know how to be a Grandma, but I assured her that God had given me a large measure of love for her and I didn't think it would be too hard. 

Miss M. has quite an imagination. Very early on I could  invent a situation and she was always ready to come aboard. My favorite little story starter was when we named the woods behind their house the Hundred Acre Woods. We always packed a little something before setting out on our "exposition". In the woods we would find Piglet's house, Rabbit's house, Pooh's corner and it amazed me how Miss M. reclaimed these exact spots on each visit.

Our all time favorite game has been, "What is Missing". Find a collection of small things and lay them on the ground. Hide your eyes and someone takes something away. Then open tour eyes and discover what is missing.

I made up stories when Miss M was small. She would sit enraptured for a long time and then upon the re-telling would correct my obvious errors. She can remember everything if you attach it to a plot line.

When she learned to read life opened up for her. Books could transport her to countless new places. It was common for Miss M. to begin a telling in the middle and assume I had read her book as well. I began explaining that I had no context for her narration. Unperturbed she would press forward until after a while I started to follow the story.

Gone are the chubby cheeks but the smile is still the same and the extra loud "Grandma" declaration when I appear at her door is as vibrant as ever. Now she wants to talk about make-up and stylish clothes so a new beginning has emerged and soon I will be the Grandma of a teenager. Happy Birthday Miss M. You are loved!!!! 

Back on the floor again at the Yoga Center

I took a really delicious yoga class yesterday. It has been a long time since I have taken class at the Yoga Center. Two years ago I was a regular on this floor. I took some time away from classes to develop my own yoga practice and then Jen started practicing with me. She invigorated my thinking and kept me practicing at home.

The class yesterday was taught by Nicole. It felt great doing her practice, so rejuvenating. Having a teacher always gives me new ideas to mull over in my head. I listened to her talk about the breath as the vehicle to move from the outer body to the inner landscape. Coming to the breath, or being attentive to the breath, opens the way to be connected with the spirit within. I find that when my mind is distracted by the ebb and flow of breath it becomes quiet, then add to that a quiet body and finally the spirit can rise up and speak peace. That is the language my spirit speaks; "be still and know that I am God."

         I will be spending time there on Tuesday mornings. There are lovely people in class; all with different bodies and different smiles.

So I declare March yoga month. 

Time to walk through this door and prepare to connect spirit to body.

After class I can watch the little bustling town I live in. It is a really good place.

Painting of the Month

I am so happy to share the painting of the month with you. Our artist friend Karen Dale allowed us to form a Painting of the Month Club. For a small fee we get to take home one of her oil paintings each month. I wrote about our December painting which was the Three Pears.

We really loved that one. All month I thought about the number three and the symbolism attached to that number. Do you see the smile on the middle ones cheek?

In January the Pears were replaced by the Persimmons and Crockery.

More muted in color, this still life was so refined. A still life has the effect of slowing down my energy so that I feel the moment it is capturing. I try to be more "in the moment" and looking at a painting is like looking at time standing still. (That sounded redundant)

In February, Karen called and asked us to take her newest painting. It was still drying but she needed time away from her "baby" to get perspective.

I photographed it in the natural light, with sun coming in through my front window but not on the painting. I love the narly stuff on the pumpkin.

Here is the same painting photographed with a spotlight. I thought the natural light from the sun deepened the color. Sunlight is so wonderful. I really miss it today. You know, there is a special sunlight moment coming up in April. Twice a year, Spring and Fall, sunlight comes through the small windows of my front door and falls right on a painting above my piano. The angle of the sun frames the picture perfectly for about three days in the afternoon. I will try to get a picture of that this year. Visual art is really important to my soul. When I teach at the piano I often steady my gaze at these lovely paintings, enjoying the color, the mastery of detail, the light and shadow, and the brush strokes which testify that a mere mortal has captured life itself.

Who Do I Think I Am?

I watched the NBC show "Who Do You Think You Are?" yesterday.

Kim Catrall was the celebrity who was searching for her ancestors. I found her story compelling. Her maternal grandfather disappeared and left behind three daughters and a wife to live in poverty. Her interest in tracking him down was to relieve the hurt her mother and aunties felt by this abandonment. Ms. Catrall was bitterly disappointed to find that her grandfather remarried a year later and set up another family just three hours away. Her ending statement stayed in my mind. To paraphrase, she was sorry to find such negative news about the ancestor she sought to find but the search brought her closer to the family she did have.

I thought of my own family.

This week is significant to me in regards to my brother.

Yesterday was his birthday and this coming Saturday his death date. I only have brothers, no sisters. They are all three much older than I am. My middle brother is 14 years older than I; he would have been 72.

Since my brothers were all grown and out of the house by the time I was 8, my connection to them was one of  good examples. They provided  me with men to look up to, although our bonding was weak

Their wives connected to me which kept our relationship alive.

My gratitude goes out to all three brothers who impressed me with the importance of a good education.

A formal education was valued in my family but not to be discounted was the life-long pursuit of knowledge in all subjects.

My oldest brother may have been a postman but we all knew he was brilliant in what he remembered from reading and thinking. Thank-you dear brothers for staying with your families, for fighting the good fight, for your Fidelity and perseverance. 

There is only one brother left alive today. He is my last living witness to my birth. We joke around together when we call but we understand how important it is to know "who we really are."

Happiness.wmv

This week has been a winter break for the school district here so my Early Morning Guests, piano students, and Swingset kids have been on break as well. On Monday I thought to myself, I will write a song while I have uninterrupted time. Can I write a song and publish it by the end of the week? Hmm... Nothing Tues, nothing Wed, but yesterday lyrics my friend Sharie shared came back to me. Hope I did them credit, Sharie.

Happiness

Ever since happiness heard your name
It has been running through all of the streets.
Trying to find you,
Trying to claim you,
Trying to give you your due.

Happiness is knocking,
Are you ready to hear?
Happiness is knocking,
Will you open your door?

And several times God himself has come,
 to my door asking me for your address.
Trying to find you, Trying to claim you,
Trying to give you your due.

God I thought you knew everything.
Why are you asking me where your precious one lives?
I do, indeed,
I do know everything.

Happiness is knocking,
Are you ready to hear?
Happiness is knocking,
Will you open your door and let it in?

This is my happiness.

An Unlikely Yogini

I have only two more weeks before my yoga buddy is ready to get back on the mat next to me. Hurray! I have been practicing alone, upstairs in my room. I feel some pressure to practice, these days, as a certain group of ladies may have passed on information to other ladies that I do yoga and like to talk about it. So, yours truly will be doing a class on yoga for Super Saturday. This is a stretch for me, pun intended. I am not a typical body doing yoga, in fact, I am usually the roundest body in my classes. I could have used this as a reason for quiting but I needed yoga and I fought back the feelings of  "unworthiness" to go after something that seemed the key to physical and spiritual progression.

My Mama Daughter introduced me to yoga back when she was single. I was so nervous and shy to be in a class and have someone watch my body. In that first class Mama Daughter went right to the front row and I stayed back, hoping no one would notice me. When I was siting cross-legged on the floor my knees felt like they would break under pressure. Why was I there? Because I was teaching music and movement to toddlers and they were up off the floor before me. My choice was to quit that endeavor or find a way to become more limber.

So I became a warrior for myself and found some good teachers whose voices I still hear in my head.

Lynelle Sjoberg was very supportive and she laid the groundwork for my understanding what yoga is. 

This is Lynelle, on the bottom. Haven't tried her Aeriel classes, I need a new and perfected body for that.

What is yoga? It is the yoking together of the mind and spirit with the body. I realized how unconnected my spirit was to my body when I could not answer the question, "What does your body need, right now?" When Paul says our bodies are temples the underlying teaching is that we must care for them. Not to care for them is like going to a run down shack and claiming that the spirit of God resides within, just push aside the garbage and clutter and wait for him to show up. He can show up there, I know, but He will begin the renovations as soon as he is invited to stay. A temple of God reflects who He is and what He can do.

A temple is not a perfect, worldly body but a responsive body; a body which allows light energy to flow through it, unrestricted. Speaking of restrictions, I have many to overcome, but I am amazed how willing my joints are to move if I respect and honor the body I have. 

I shall get off my soapbox and get back to doing the real work. I need to show up on the mat this morning.

Feel free to join me at Super Saturday, April 16th. If nothing else you can chortle at the little tubby woman bearing her soul about one of her passions.

Namaste!!

Winter Is Still Here

"When I woke up this morning

Snow was on my mind, yeh.

Snow was on my mind.

I saw white, whoa,

I saw ice, whoa,

I went back inside....."

Really now, mother nature, you are outdoing yourself giving us variety.

Here is my early Roddy bush 2 days ago, and this is what it looks like today.

Hang on sweet blossoms, the temp will be back to 45 degrees by Sunday.

I still have evidence of the recent winds in my front yard. A branch from a pine tree came hurtling through the air and impaled itself in my front yard. I thought the branch was entangled with the branches from the tree above. After yanking over and over again I saw to my horror that nothing was holding this branch from above, it was planted a foot into the ground.

I am glad that it did not come through my front window. 

I was so proud of myself this week because both Monday and Tuesday I went into the garden to do clean-up and pruning. The sun was shining and I found several leafy greens coming back for a new start.
1. 

Hello, swiss chard, I shall plan on eating you in a couple of weeks, unless, winter comes through again.

Well, I shall keep the fire going today and enjoy the few days I have left of winter break. I have been without students this week and I have enjoyed happiness in other forms.