and now for something completely different

After sobbing a little while Skyping into the Shad Bay Christmas party last weekend, I have pulled up my bootstraps. I’ve decided to find a balance between being a little bit (!) homesick for the Christmas I know and being excited about creating an alternative, for the time being.

it's pretty great.

The images running through my mind are of my gigantic family, the Muppet Christmas Carol, mountains of food (an 11kg turkey this year, according to mama won-ton), the unofficial HGS reunion, cruising around town with Will, tobogganing in the Shad, and nuzzling my favourite canine companions.

pupskis

What I have to look forward to is a fun Christmas Eve at the store (with fellow Christmas orphans BKidd and Silly), the extravagant Christmas day brunch that I’ll be making myself while videoing myself into Christmas morning at Casa Johnson, a noontime yoga class with Karlito at One Yoga, and a potluck dinner at my house, incorporating everyone’s favourite holiday treats and traditions.

HELLO!

Plus a package of surprises from home.

And, of course, it’s yet another time of year when I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for all the beautiful people in my life (many of you have received cards and letters from me this week expressing just that – if you haven’t, it’s probably because they haven’t arrived yet OR because I actually ran out of envelopes).

the photo that brought me out here in the first place.

I also know how lucky I am to have been granted the opportunities that I’ve had over past few years. (And every year.) As my mama would say, I seem to have a horseshoe up my ass. (Thanks, mom.)

sitting in a beauty of a coffee shop with my tunes and some fresh wool, rolling it into balls for upcoming projects.

Happy pre-Christmasing, all of you! If you have a few spare moments this weekend, please Skype with me. I’d love to see your faces.

my first love story

I am missing home today. I love you guys!

me and Boogs

“The minute I heard my first love story

I started looking for you,

not knowing how blind that was.

 

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.

They are in each other all along. “

- Rumi

today my practice is: slowing down.

Another reminder that my practice is ongoing and the guru is everywhere…

I jumped (dragged myself) out of bed this morning at the crack of dawn (the snooze button turned 7:30 into 8:30) this morning. Mondays are busy work days for me, and I almost always schedule myself so that I can do all I need to do AND make it to one of Reno’s classes. (The Monday 10am option is a favourite of mine.)

I was committed to condensing my morning rituals/vacuuming my apartment/cooking lentil soup for lunch/making & drinking coffee all into the one-hour window before I needed to hop on the bus to take me to my sweet class. I did okay.  I packed up my laptop, my go-mug, my mat, my jar of soup and scooted out the door only 2 minutes behind schedule.

damn.

As I hauled up the hill to hop on the 8, a little voice in the great space inside my head whispered, “did you turn off the stove?” My other voice replied, “of course I did.” But after three more steps up the hill, I had replayed the scene three more times in my head, and I truly couldn’t remember. Within three more steps, I had weighed the scenarios:

a) I probably turned it off. I’ll go to yoga. But I will probably be nervous about this all day.

b) I forgot to turn it off. I will have a distracted yoga class and then be nervous about this all day. Then I’ll come home to a blackened heap where my house used to be.

c) I go home and find out for sure. I won’t make it to my class. Sigh.

it's not all bad

Needless to say, I’m now at home enjoying an oatmeal feast, blogging about this, and letting it go (through these words, actually). Today’s lesson: if I want to do everything, I can’t just hope to find the time to do it. I have to make time for it.

(And if you’re wondering about the burner – I’ll never tell. But remember – there will always be another yoga class. Burning your house down is forever!)

always!

 

That’s all.

 

 

path of contentment

First, Buju Banton will provide the soundtrack for this post:

And let’s go. So, my super dope teachers, Reno and SJ, are hosting this unbelievable retreat in Thailand in February.

click on this bad boy to make it big and readable

I am going. And I could not be more excited. I feel like my ever-so-brief jaunt to Bali with Ryan was just setting me up for this. (Meaning, I got a taste of how delicious and beautiful Southeast Asia can be. I also learned a lot about the importance of sunscreen on my freckle farm, and how it might prevent a few sleepless, sunburnt nights spent crying under an ice-cold shower. FML.)

I'm probably writing in my journal about how much my skin hurts. Bali 2009.

Practicing One Love has been the biggest blessing to come of my move to Vancouver. Finding my teacher has ignited a totally new kind of dedication in my practice, which has, in turn, propelled my physical practice in a big way. And with that, my body and my monkey mind are way more supportive of daily sitting meditation practice, so my mala is staying warm and my cushion has re-established its place of honour in my room.

SO… come to Thailand with us. There will be beaching and yoga and coconuts, and sweet tunes like the dulcet tones of Buju Banton that you’re probably still listening to right now, if you hit play. (If you didn’t, go back and start again.)

amen.

Thank you Dara (my future traveling partner!), for the words that have run through my head every night since you shared them with me: “Cows roll over and go to sleep. You say your prayers.” Isvara-pranidhana!