Wisdom

Today I was preparing for my workshop, “Working with Older Yoga Students,” and came across this appropriate quote from Lilas Folan.

Understanding my life in the framework of the seasons allows me to see the value in each phase. As we get older, it can be easy to give in to hopelessness as we finally recognize our mortality. But when we understand that our afternoon and sunset years have a value and a purpose all their own, we gain a new appreciation for these years. […]

Extracurricular Yoga

Extracurricular Yoga

A woman called today and wanted some information about yoga for ageing. Why me? Two reasons, I guess. I’ve advertised I’m teaching a workshop on “Working with Older Yoga Students” and I am older.
The caller said she had been a yoga teacher and stopped teaching because she was too old to be bending in all sorts of positions. How old? Sixty-two. I said, “Well, yoga is more than doing postures.” “I know that,” she replied.
It’s so much more that I don’t know even know it all. […]

The Growing Season

The Growing Season

Ever since returning from the U.S. last week, I’ve been happily ensconced in the Yoga Shed each morning around 6:30. My body is remembering the grooves it used to slip into with ease before holidays and even before major surgery through up barriers to progress. I am very blessed by having this studio to play in, Heather to practice with and the amazing green vistas we look out on.
You can hear things growing this time of year. […]

Frisking Vs. Frisky

I like joking. I think I have a reasonably good sense of humour. It’s fun to share a joke even with a stranger, like at the supermarket check-out; it’s an opportunity to brighten each other’s day.
Ever since fears about terrorism have been so widespread in the U.S., airport security checks there have become very serious and very thorough. Homeland Security does not allow joking. There are even signs posted to that effect.
Since my February surgery, by which I gained two new titanium hips, I have a new relationship with Security. It’s a very predictable one. […]

Biorhythms

Biorhythms

On a list of things that are good for recovery from jet lag, I reckon digging in your garden rates pretty high.
What doesn’t work well, I believe, is looking at a screen for hours on end, be it iPhone, iPad or Mac. Also leave out any inordinate amount of thinking, shopping or consumption of alcohol, even in what you deem modest amounts.
Walking on the beach is pretty good, especially smelling sea spray and hearing the ocean pounding. Sunshine in limited exposure will help reset your clock. […]

Common Ground

Common Ground

It’s no accident that we’ve created our small intentional community that is our home on Mitchells Island. Something in me longed to be part of community for many years.
An old movie called “Witness, starring Harrison Ford (when he was still very dishy), had a scene in it where the Amish people raised a barn in no time at all because they worked together. I saw that movie 4 times and every time I watched it, I would cry when I saw the barn-raising scene.
Well, yesterday afternoon five of us “raised” our new garden. […]

I Left My Heart in Mitchells Island

I Left My Heart in Mitchells Island

Daniel and I had a beautiful last day in Northern California. Old friend, Melissa, took us into S.F. to lunch at the Legion of Honor Cafe in Golden Gate Park and then to the exhibition of paintings from the Musee D’Orsay – featuring Van Gough, Gaugin, and much more at the De Young Museum. Brilliant!

I kept thinking as I walked around dazzled by paintings like “Starry Night” and “Beach at Heist” how much I was missing the green vistas of our home on Mitchells Island. […]

Lechaim

On our last full day in the U.S., I was invited to a wine tasting in the beautiful Napa-Sonoma country where we are staying with friends. I was able to see the newly harvested grapes starting their processing journey through crush pads, fermentation room and aging cellars. We were hosted by Margaret Duckhorn, co-founder of Duckhorn Vineyard, http://www.duckhorn.com in a private tasting of a selection of beautiful wines: pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, sauvignon blanc….
It was a privilege to hear Margaret describe the various wines and the locales in which they were produced. […]

Sigh

Those of you who have practised yoga with me know I am a sigher. Why hold back? Sometimes yoga is so delicious pleasure begins to burble up from the belly, the kidneys, the heart, and who would want to stifle such an organic impulse. Add voice to it, and, voila, perfection!
I’ve traveled miles on this U.S. trek, now drawing to a close, maybe 450 miles in Arizona alone. Sighs have been too few and far between. […]

From Haigt-Ashbury to Marin County

From Haigt-Ashbury to Marin County

One of my favourite places on earth, Marin is synonymous with everything au naturel, from alpha sprouts to hemp clothing. Coming off the Golden Gate Bridge from the glorious city of San Francisco, you go through a tunnel entrance ringed with a rainbow that to me announces a shifting of the seismic plates from hard to soft reality. […]

Sadly, iPhone-less in San Francisco

I’ve kept my blogging hat on all across the United States and done it easily, even in the middle of hard Nevada desert at the Burning Man Festival, where WiFi was as weak as a cuppa American coffee.
I was able to stay in communication with my audience on my trusty iPhone. Now, I’m somewhat hamstrung because I know not where my device is. It could be in the seat pocket of a United Airlines aircraft; it could be in the pocket of a United Airlines flight attendant or cabin cleaner. […]

Lake Shasta

Our current port of call is our friends’ houseboat on this man-made lake in Northern California.
There’s hardly anyone about because this is the end of the season with cooler temperatures – maybe 10 degrees o’nite. But daytime in the mid-twenties.
So with a dearth of other boaters, it’s absolutely peaceful here and the houseboat’s flat roof is perfect for yoga practice and very conducive for meditating.
We’ve slept under the stars on the roof, bundled in our doona, and searching out northern hemisphere constellations, like the Big Dipper. […]