Here Comes The Sun

Looking up, I see the sun coming through the windows and lining the floor and walls of the sun room. Suddenly I feel a rush through my body. My heart is happy. There is a smile on my face. After so many months of snow, and snow and more snow there is sunshine. Lots of sunshine with warmth. It is calling me to it. "Come over here and sit in my warmth and glow." How can I not?

So now, here I sit in the sunshine with the window open even though the thermometer says 56 degrees. It feels perfect. And maybe, even at 4:42pm, there is still enough sunshine and warmth to melt the last little bit of snow on the deck.

Go Sun!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

♥ Flower Love ♥

"Can we conceive what humanity would be if it did not know the flowers?" ~Maurice Maeterlinck

Flowers have been an important part of my life for the last 10 years - maybe even longer. In my last home, my flower beds we brimming and blooming with flowers of all different kinds. I loved them. I nurtured them. They were my peace, solace and my connection to all that is. As we were sitting at the closing to finally sell our home, I started to cry. I couldn't believe it because we had wanted to sell the house for a long time. But I was not crying for the house, I was crying for all of my "flower-babies" I was leaving behind. Makes me want to cry now just writing this - I still do miss them. 

In all those years I realized the connection I had to flowers and the earth. Then I discovered flower essences. Oh. My. Golly. Wally! They have changed my life.

I will plant flowers at my new home this spring with an even greater understanding and appreciation for these amazing healing beauties. And I will be nourishing them with flower essences remedy just for them, Green & Tonic from Green Hope Farm.

"Flower essences offer wonderful healing information about a vast array of emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual concerns." ~ Molly Sheehan, Green Hope Farm

Gratitude for Flowers & Molly

♥♥♥♥♥

Open

Did you know that it is all here? Everything you want, need, dream about, long for?

Open.
Open wide.
Open with a knowing
That it is on its way
To you, right now.

Open so that
When it arrives
You can see it
Feel it
Taste it
Live it

Say thank you for it.

Open.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

♥ Be Mine ♥

February brings Valentine's Day. And it also brings to my full attention the heart chakra. Oh, the heart chakra. It is all about balance, love, compassion, openness, giving, peace and breath.

It is located in your heart center, upper chest and upper back. Its color is green and its right is: to love.

When we think about loving, we often think and look outward.

Reverse it.

To love.

Yourself.

Show yourself love, compassion, openness. Be peace. Practice balance. Breathe, for yourself.

Be your own Valentine this year.

♥♥♥♥♥

Pilates In Blue Jeans

Yes, it is so. I have created a new blog called Pilates In Blue Jeans. It is so inspired...

Come visit me over there too!

Pilates Body

Pilates will lift your backside, firm it and shape it. It will sculpt your muscles from tired to long and lean. It will develop in you muscles you never knew you had. It will make your core oh so strong. It will help you fully integrate your body allowing you to move with more integrity, flow and grace. It will be the reason you look great in your bikini...or nothing at all.

Get Pilates. You won't be disappointed.

Baking Cookies

You know those times in your life when you are moving and grooving along? Everything is going great. You are so busy progressing, getting stronger and more clear in what you are doing. Then all of a sudden - BAM! - some unforeseen and unplanned event occurs and everything stops. Not only does it stop, it upsets the perfectly laid out plans, it changes the way you feel, it challenges the way you think. It. All. Stops.

I was going full speed ahead and was stopped. Many aspects of the "moving and grooving along" changed. Even though I knew I had the answer I kept wondering, what is the lesson? One day I finally gave in and accepted that it is about slowing down and enjoying the ride. It is about letting go of the attachment to my schedule and the unrealistic due date I had set in my head.

It is about stopping to smell the cookies. Preferably cookies that I baked because I now have the time to do it.

Time

It feels like it just may be the time. Clarity is showing up more and more each day. There is no fear. There is no panic. It is calm.

This and that and this and that are beginning to tie themselves all up in a beautiful little bow. I can see the bow forming and shaping itself. It grows a little more in crispness and beauty each day. The bow is the gift the years of wondering and searching is presenting to me. Presentation day is not far away. I can feel it. I know it. I am patiently waiting.

Another First Day

"A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip." ~Author Unknown

So looking forward to the trip!
Happy Birthday to ME!

Something About September

"Happily we bask in this warm September sun,
Which illuminates all creatures..." ~ Henry David Thoreau

I am so inspired by September. Every year. Perhaps it goes back to my school days. While summer was coming to a close, there was something so new and fresh about the month. New things to learn and ponder, new schedule, new clothes, new hopes and dreams.

This September is no different. I am enjoying the sunshine during the day and the cool nights with the sun setting earlier and earlier. I come alive in the dark evenings and nights. So many new thoughts and ideas are revealed to me. I am enticed to read and write and learn new things, alone in my warm little nook with just a desk lamp and warm slippers, sipping tea - illuminated.

Thoreau is surely referring to me!

Hug A Tree!

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
The next best time is now." ~Chinese Proverb

On this Arbor Day I want to remind you to not only PLANT a tree, but also to hug a tree! This beauty is standing in Glacier National Park in Montana. I gave it a big hug before I snapped this photo. There is nothing like the peaceful energy of a tree.

Receiving

Yesterday afternoon there was energy in the air sent out freely by the flowers. After being sick for almost a week now the energy is yet to come organically from me. I accepted what they were offering with appreciation and gratitude. What a gift!

Capturing True Essence

"A photographer gets people to pose for him. A yoga instructor gets people to pose for themselves." ~T. Guillemets

In my experience with both photography and yoga, I find something different. When taking photographs of people, I get the best shots when they are not posing for me but instead, being themselves - laughing and talking and being. Just like in yoga class. I help my students to find "their pose" - a comfortable and steady space of being. To breathe, to smile.

How wonderful it is to capture a person's true essence through a photograph or through a yoga pose. I am so grateful I am able to do both.

Yes.

"Smile, breathe and go slowly." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Happy Thanksgiving!