rampage of appreciation.

yolanda.



me with my godson kenneth! doesn't he have a wonderfully large head?

my host parents, utisch and magno.

i appreciate that i had a crew of happy, giggly people stay at my house last night on their way to start a road trip to canada. i appreciate the practice of thai massage. i appreciate that i get to teach yoga for a living and that it always leaves me feeling more grounded and energized. i appreciate my house (so beautiful and affordable), my housemates (so creative and warm), and my neighborhood (calm, connected, just the right amount of up-and-coming). i appreciate that i am getting better at telling the truth to myself and just feeling whatever i am feeling and knowing that there is a always a part of me that can just observe and love. i appreciation be present yoga pants. i appreciate pancakes with cream cheese and experimental banana syrup that turned out really well (one frozen banana + a touch of maple syrup + a little bit of water + cinnamon--all heated up). i appreciate my health and my family being so close all around me and my amazing friends and all of the travel and learning of my life. i appreciate learning how to go easier on myself and my loved ones and all of the resources that are out there to help me grow. i appreciate inspiration in all forms and being able to write it all down no matter what and there always being a way to feel better about something. i appreciate big bear hugs and fresh mango and summer rain storms. i appreciate that the weather is cooler these days and the cheese lady at the bloomingdale farmers market on sundays and bottling homemade kombucha and booking yet another ethiopian wedding and having a good cry and hot pink carnations in the italian wine carafe and this simple, beautiful evolving life that i am so privileged to live.

i am two classes into my fall semester of art exploration (i'm taking intro to drawing and design at nova) and feeling busy but grounded too. i think appreciation and simple pleasures have a lot to do with that and just the conscious choice to share my love and light as much as i can. i totally falter in that some days and get so judgmental and rigid about the silliest things like dishes in the sink. i used to think my practice was to get over that but these days i am just taking all the hard parts and knowing that it's part of a beautiful, rich life.

we all have so much to offer but its funny how the mind can cloud that. wherever you are, take a deep breath and know that it's totally okay to be imperfect and struggle with life because that's how we keep expanding. our job is just to get more flexible so we can break less when life bends.

take another deep breath and know that i love you!

first peru pics...kids and cuy

"drink it in--it always goes down smooth."

i'm excited for trip to san diego this weekend for my friends kali and trace's wedding. in the meantime i am teaching up a storm, editing the last of the wedding photos and made some killer zucchini bread today. it's warm outside but the window unit is blaring and i'm feeling pretty good.

a few good quotes.

i have been getting these peace quotes for a while and sometimes they are kind of eh, but the past week has yielded some great ones (i also included a few that i've kept starred for a while now).

In practicing meditation, we're not trying to live up to some kind of ideal- quite the opposite. We're just being with our experience, whatever it is. If our experience is that sometimes we have some kind of perspective, and sometimes we have none, then that's our experience. If sometimes we can approach what scares us, and sometimes we absolutely can't, then that's our experience.
- Pema Chodron

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring two pence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
- C.S. Lewis

The ancients are right: the dear old human experience is a singular, difficult, shadowed, brilliant experience that does not resolve into being comfortable in the world. The valley of the shadow is part of that, and you are depriving yourself if you do not experience what human kind has experienced, including doubt and sorrow. We experience pain and difficulty as failure instead of saying, I will pass through this, everyone I have ever admired has passed through this, music has come out of it, literature has come out of it. We should think of our humanity as a privilege.
- Marilynne Robinson

I've come to what I call the "ingredients for a satisfying life." They are:
1) Dedicate your life to something you consider worthy.
2) Celebrate your contributions.
3) Have That Which Animates you as your most intimate relationship.
4) Know how to give your attention to what you choose.
5) Keep your word to yourself.
- Cheri Huber

Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.
- Alice Walker