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Beautiful Places Healthy Living Uncategorized

The Key to Success

Doesn’t a water crystal look just like a flower? Or more like a star …whether it evokes in you a flower or a star – It’s beautiful:) Knowing that we are about 70% water, I am telling you – you have a whole galaxy, the entire universe filled with brilliant stars within you … you do.
sm_IMG_6692 Had to take a double take to these words hanging on the wall…

Success is not the key to Happiness.
Happiness is the key to Success.
If you Love what you are doing, you will be successful.

– Buddha
Exactly:)

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Sighting of a weird tree hugger … no doubt, a weekend hippi-want-to-be.
Later she’s collecting water …imagining what it would be like to be a Native American back in the days…
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Babbling water brook … the sound of the water is just so … soothing. So very therapeutic for the soul.
sm_IMG_6510Get lost in the forest.

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Beautiful Places Beautiful Rituals Beautiful Things Healthy Activities

Kindness Matters

says a sign at the window of a yoga studio in Mt. Shasta – this is my kind of place – so dropped in on a snowy morning…after slip and sliding on the snowy road…
sm_IMG_6406Snow quietly falling outside – it’s so cozy:)
sm_IMG_6414The studio looked up happened to be by my favorite grocery store…
sm_IMG_6450 with the best veggie wrap I ever had – so fresh! Trying to recreate at home:)
sm_IMG_6447No cell phones in the cafe – nice:)Here’s the inviting entrance…
sm_IMG_6385Again and again, Kindness Matters – really.
sm_IMG_6386adults and children, mixed-level community class taught by a lovely teacher who modified the poses for a child and a very expectant mother and others at various levels of experience and needs – very kind indeed. Fascinating talk on bone density and alignment – Iyengar school trained… should have known. My stiff tight shoulders from 5+ hours of non-stop driving just melted away…it was a right amount of movement vs. rest, that balance. Loved that floating sensation – is it just me?
sm_IMG_6419 Snow covered walkways – snow no longer falling…
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Some city-dweller girl getting excited over … a crystalline spring water stream…it apparently dawned on her that this is the start of Sacramento River…
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Next day… snow has mostly melted and spring is here.
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Lonely as God and White as a winter moon.

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sm_IMG_6616 Blessed water …
sm_IMG_6674 Clear and pure water to wash away whatever needs cleansing emotionally and spiritually… icy coollldd to awaken you:)
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To be a tough cookie or NOT…

“Everything observable by the senses is subject to change and therefore in motion….there are interlocking cycles of change…. One cannot bid the winds and waves to cease, but one can learn to navigate treacherous currents by conducting ourselves in harmony with the prevailing processes of transformation…..and thus weather the storms of life.”

-I Ching (The Book of Change)

We are not always the same – at times, more dynamic and charged and wakeful, at another time, more static, steady and constant …a lull … sometimes there’s movement and sometimes there’s stillness… Living mindfully, calibrating an equilibrium, through the practice of yoga in my case. My intention is an offering to students who find me in a serendipitous ways, that space set aside, sometimes a hideaway to be left alone, other times a social place of connections. Different vibes dependent on many variables. I realize some classes are conducted with no music, no sounds… and that can be more relaxing at times. Sometimes that is what you need – that feeling of being under and in the water… submerged in “silence”… whatever the preference, they are all good. I cannot answer to everyone’s preferences and invite all to have an open generous heart … and be receptive. It might help lighten the load you carry if you loosen up. There’s no need to clutch onto things… There will always be a style and mood that suits you out there & it may not necessarily be my class and it’s all good. My intention is only to hold that space of safety and peace – a place where you just “notice” and “release”.

OM OM OM omcookieBe a chewy cookie, soft and rich in the center – sometimes a bit “nutty” … crumbling… but never a hard cookie, no. Aum, um, om, OM… yum Yum says the belly. I mean, YAM for the heart… Bija mantra for the Anahata chakra is … Yam … happy belly is a heart opener:) Noshing on a cookie for a treat today?