shana tova!

this painting and two photographs are going to be in an art show in bloomingdale in october! more details to follow...

happy rosh hashanah! i am not jewish yet love their holidays because they always seem so practical and contemplative and involve yummy baked goods. i was highly inspired this morning by a message in gwyneth paltrow's newsletter on the practices of rosh hashanah by michael berg:

"There are many tools that we can use during the two days of Rosh Hashanah but there are two important connections that we can all make. The first is to take time during these two days and think about our past year, the good, the better, and the not so good. Then ask yourself, “What do I want to change from last year?”, “what do I want to make better?” Also, “what blessings do we want to draw for ourselves and our family in the next year?” The supernal gates open up during these two days and by opening ourselves up to the flow of light and energy from above we can receive endless blessings.

The second important connection is how we think and behave during Rosh Hashanah. If we desire to connect to the supernal energy that is revealed we should behave like the supernal light. We should act in only ways of sharing, forgiveness and care. No anger, no doubt, no jealousy, no sadness, at least for these two days. How we are during these two days will influence the next 363."

that is such an awesome practice and i am willing to give it a try. it's so easy to get stuck in our habits of feeling upset that we forget what it feels like to feel really good. i have been living on stress for a while and when a day opened up for me yesterday (thank you rain!), i knew that i needed the release that only spaworld can give me. after five hours, a foot massage, a nap, and getting almost all my yoga training reading done, i left feeling like a new person and actually had the best time being stuck in traffic on the way home--for real. as many times as i forget, i can remember how dang important self-care is to feeling good and being the person i want to be. so it's an order--do something nice and decadent for yourself today. think about it as sewing the seed of what you want to see in this next year.

oh and i keep forgetting to post this, but i wanted to share the (belated) launch of the dcHOME Project. i met alex through lovely lizzy a few months ago. he's a lawyer by day but a photographer by heart. over this past year he's been organizing other dc photographers together to share and document their ideas of home through a grant from the dc commission on the arts and humanities. we work in groups of three with alex in all kinds of locations and the results are great. we photographed in georgetown and at my home in bloomingdale and during these two days i really got to know alex and an inspiring lady named mia who teaches art in virginia prisons. it helped me to focus on the small to tell the bigger stories of who we are and to learn that those stories are always there, all we have to do is starting asking and listening.