I was patting myself on the back – a good yoga exercise 😉 for having no trouble writing a post each day. Then, last night nothing came.
But I felt guilty. My blog guru says the way to keep my public profile is to post every day.
But what if my muse doesn’t speak to me?
Writing is a discipline like placing yourself on the yoga mat each day, but blog writing can also overlap with marketing. I don’t want to write just to keep my face in front of you. […]
The Life we Lead
Dag
I made more of an effort to dress up when we lived in the city. Of course there were more people to impress.
I’ve already confessed to you that these days I mostly do my early morning yoga practice in my p.j’s.
My next admission probably won’t surprise anyone, particularly if you live in the country. I love my blue gum boots. (Actually they are Judy’s boots but she doesn’t have much use for them in Sydney in her CEO job.)
I used to envy little kids when I saw them sporting patterned, bright-coloured gum boots. […]
Renunciation
If there is such a thing as a natural renunciate, I would be one. I don’t have to work hard at saying no to temptations, whether it’s dessert orbiting a new pair of shoes.
I’m not saying this is a good thing.
When I recently wrote about the ages of a person’s life, I mentioned there is an optimum time for everything. Ideally renunciation is timed for the winter season of life. It naturally coincides when many pleasures are off limits anyway.
Me, I just keep saying no, even when pleasure is in the offing.
Here’s an example. […]
Performers
Saturday night Daniel and I stuck our necks out and joined some other locals as part of a burlesque cabaret being held in the riverside town of Wingham.
Daniel’s neck was further out than mine, which you might discern, from the attached photo. […]
So Happy!
First of all, this post has nothing whatsoever to do with Kookaburras, but they are so darn cute that I thought you would like to see them. There were 5 of them hanging around in the trees back of the house, not making a sound. Perhaps all the wet weather dampened their intrinsic mirth.
What I really wanted to say today is how happy I am to be back in the saddle, that is, teaching. I have a really lovely group of people coming along already. […]
Discipline?
How’s your yoga practice going since the colder weather has arrived?
Sometimes yoga students think their teachers bounce out of bed, raring to get to their yoga practice.
I’m not bad, but I notice since recent holiday disruptions of my practice routine that now that I’m home again, I’m not bouncing back.
In fact, the last two mornings, I was very happy to practice in the late afternoon – when my body is more warmed up, when the weather has warmed up. […]
Lineage
I have been quiet on my blog for the last several days because I’ve been completely absorbed by Darwin and one of it’s great emissaries, Carole Baillargeon.
This a pretty charming place. I shouldn’t be surprised because I’ve been hearing about it for years. The city is little by most standards – just 100,000 and very friendly because lots of people are newcomers.
We had the most amazing experience in Kakadu, going in on the cusp of wet season transition to dry. On the Saturday night big storms kept campers from getting to one region. […]
Gifts Keep Giving
The other night I was honoured with an invitation to a Buddhist meditation led by an ex-pat, Rio Helmi, an amazing international photographer – www.riohelmi.com.
He’s a “civilian” rather than a lama, who has set up an amazing sangha space in his Ubud home. […]
One Student
Do you as a yoga teacher resent having small numbers of students in your classes?
Amazing Grace
Tonight I became all choked up while singing “Amazing Grace”, as our community choir was using it for our warm-up.
What was that about? I don’t follow any faith so it wasn’t a religious experience, but the group singing was palpably moving. It just caught me in the throat and that was it.
Many years ago at Sydney’s Circular Quay, I was waiting for a ferry when I found myself drawn to a young man positioned right in the middle of the pedestrian traffic singing show tunes, of all things. […]
Proof
Here are the photos that prove we are not living a life of sloth and indolence. Everyday there are jobs that call to us. Creating garden beds has kept us well-occupied for months.
Daniel and I spent this lovely sunny afternoon working on our acreage. After cleaning up after the horses that we agist on our back three acres, I had a wheelbarrow-ful of manure – just the thing to top up the extended no-dig garden below the shed. […]
Radical Acceptance
Over the last week I’ve been writing about the ways yoga teachers are expected to behave by their students or the general public. Paragons of virtue and purity, it would seem, is what is wanted, not adulterated weaklings.
In the spirit of coming clean, I’ve been revealing some of my frailities.
Here’s another way I can prove to you I’m human. I get grumpy when tired. Yoga teachers are not even supposed to get tired. To add crankiness to the bargain must certainly threaten the paragon’s credentials.
The problem is I get tired every day. Since my surgery Feb. […]
The Other Drink (in the Series – YTAPT – Yoga Teachers Are People Too)
Yoga and coffee go together like your two interlocked hands. A good yoga class builds thirst and appetite for a good cafe latte, or some version of that delicious brew. Why is that? And, does it matter? The stimulant loosens people’s tongues and makes them want to stay around chatting for hours. It’s the stuff of community-building.
I started drinking coffee when I was 16 because I thought it would help wake me up for my early morning summer school classes. I’m embarrassed to say it was instant coffee, but what did I know of the world of coffee. […]
Next to Godliness
Did you know there is a past tense of the word forego and it is forwent? Just so you don’t think I’m being showy when I say, I forwent my regular yoga practice this morning. I substituted 18 minutes on the stationary bike and two hours of cleaning the yoga studio.
Once you’ve seen the 72 squares space I practice in, you’ll wonder how someone could spend so much time tarting it up. Well, the usual dusting and vacuuming was de rigeur, as well as shifting spiders and skinks to the garden. […]
The Element of Earth
Do you feel like you’re too much in your head sometimes, perhaps even most of the time. I have a great remedy. Make compost.
Take several wheelbarrow loads of grass clippings, throw in a couple of buckets of kitchen scraps, and mix liberally with shovelfuls of horse poo. Deposit the mixture in the compost bed, cover with a tarp and let “cook” for some time. […]
I'm back!
As of today, I’m announcing to the world I’m back on deck teaching – in the Yoga Shed at Mitchells Island.
Yesterday was exactly 3 months since my surgery, and I’m fit and well. Certainly beach walks, fresh air, green vistas, and daily yoga practice have gone a long way towards my feeling reconstituted. Life is good. […]
Lettuce
I’ve never been properly appreciative of growers, being basically a city girl for most of my life. Produce was always something that you bought at the grocery store. These days you get designer or heritage or organic produce and it tastes like the real deal. […]
Something New Under the Sun
It’s not often that someone beats me to the yoga room, but Mike did today. So lovely to have his deep appreciation and experience in yoga beaming into the Shed. He did some thoughtful backbends, and I did my arm and shoulder weights routine, followed by an abbreviated yoga practice. Mike exited and Heather entered.
All of us Shedders ended up at the Waterbird Cafe for our regular Saturday morning breakfast, with the SMH quiz to tease our brains.
The beach walk is a daily ritual, you must know by now. […]
Heaven
What makes for heaven on earth for you? Reading the SMH at your favourite cafe early in the morning before the brunch crowd arrives? Sleeping in on Sunday morning – I mean all morning – with your darling? Seeing a five star movie that really deserves all of its rating? Maybe your kid gets his first paid work doing something he/she really likes? […]
Home
What a treat! I was able to practice with the Simply Yoga teachers this morning. Sigh. I miss having that routine in my life.
Speaking of routine, I waived my regular yoga practice while staying at the Fallows. Good thing it was only a week long. No walks either, but plenty of drinking and dining at Sydney eating establishments. As a result I feel trendified and rather overfull. […]