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.

meeeee!

julie and lucy assisting



all this traveling around has left a lot of photographs in need of editing and posting. i get to it all eventually, but i'm not sure if i totally believe my own explanation that photographs get better with time and anticipation. still, these yoga and houndstooth photography promo shots definitely need to be posted because stacey veath did such a great job taking them. i mean, i really don't like getting my picture taken, so much so that i was really nervous before the shoot. luckily i had my best friend julie, julie's adorable dog lucy and stacey to be my entourage at the arboretum. the shoot ended up being really fun and i love the photos. it's really helpful for me to see what happens on the other side of the camera. i come across a lot of people who are like me about not wanting to be photograph and nothing makes me happier than taking a picture of them that they like. i don't know exactly what happens energetically during a photo shoot, but it does feel kinda big to me in that we have to be pretty vulnerable to let ourselves be seen and the conditions have to be right to do that well.

it's great to look at these pictures now as i am just finishing up healing from a bike accident two weeks ago. i have ridden my bike all over this city without fear for two years now, and then the accident happened so suddenly. the details were that i was late to teach a class so i was riding extra fast and was going straight through an intersection. the driver didn't see me, made a left turn and i didn't have enough time to stop. i crashed in her passenger side door and bounced back, landing on my lower back. it was a dramatic ordeal with lots of people standing around me and firemen and an ambulance. i had a good amount of time to lay on the street and wait for everyone to get organized and in those moments i had a pretty intense yoga practice of just trying to stay in the moment. my back was hurting pretty bad so my mind starting telling me that i would never be able to have a real yoga practice again, i wouldn't teach again, etc. every time i went there i would start crying which was my indicator to pull myself back to what i knew to be true in the moment--i was just having pain in my back.

two hours and an xray later, the doctors told me that i was going to be fine with just pain and bruises. now two weeks later, i am barely feeling it, thanks to advil, arnica gel and lots of rest. it's been a good evaluation time for me to see how busy i am and how crazy this can make me. it was a big reminded for me to slow down and pay attention. techinically, it wasn't my fault, but this yogic path i walk demands me to take responsibility for everything that is going on in my life. i know that if i had been more aware and rushing less, i probably could have avoided it. i'm lucky to have learned this lesson in such a, relatively, gentle way.

ah, so much good stuff has been happening of late. i could write many but i have to teach soon and in the spirit of slowing down in my travels, here are the three i've been thinking about the most of late:

--i saw fela on tuesday at the shakespeare theater. it was an amazing political, interactive, musical experience. i highly recommend it.

--i wrote this piece on the peace corps for the 50th anniversary this weekend and my friend ann published it in her magazine, GOOD

--my friends mark and rebecca were married last weekend in st. louis. it was a magical night--the wedding had a masquerade ball theme and involved an ancestral fire and aerial silks performance. pictures are coming soon!

needed: orangutan companion to ride on my handle bars

sneak peak at allison and david's wedding

here are a few pictures from allison and david's amazing, beautiful wedding in jamestown, rhode island over labor day weekend. i've known allison and david since moving back to dc, but i feel like i really got to know them this weekend. the couple--who has been together for 15 years--wanted their wedding to be natural, surrounded by the people they love the most. so they packed a beautiful old estate home with their nearest and dearest and proceeded to have the most fun, loving wedding i've seen in a while. as always, i felt so honored to share in the festivities and so happy with the moments i was able to capture. honestly, it wasn't too hard with this lovely crew.

first costa rica photos

here are my photos of the day from costa rica. how do i start writing about this? i can't yet except to say that it was amazing and exceeded all of my expectations. a lot happened, outside and in and i am hungry to reflect on that here but first i will go to rhode island this weekend to photograph allison and davids wedding, which i am so excited about. life, in all its luscious, imperfect glory, has given me some incredible experiences of late and all i can say is thank you thank you thank you...

super nancy and ilan

these portraits were taken on a warm july morning, with the assistance of the great dc photographer stacey veath. stacey, who is also a yoga instructor, generously offered to spend her morning showing me some of her favorite couples portrait methods. photography, just like yoga, is an endless education process. as soon as i learn something, it shows me how much more i have to learn. it takes a lot show up and trust that i'll find the right scenery, right light, capture the right moments. it can be a very humbling process. yet no matter how much i am learning, what i have going on in the moment always seems to be enough.

i leave tomorrow morning for costa rica. oh my it's already here! just like everything, there have been ups and downs in the process of bringing this trip together but now that it's here i couldn't be happier with how our group has come together. i still don't quite believe that i'll be doing yoga overlooking the ocean in a couple of days in the country that taught me to love traveling.

my intention for the week is embrace wholeness. this means loving any parts of myself that are less than patient and grounded (they always come up when i am traveling) just as much as i love the strong goddess qualities that have brought me to where i am in life. because i know when i hold a space for my own wholeness, i hold a space for the wholeness of those around me and love them even when they are messy, which is what we really all need.

honestly there isn't a day that goes by where i don't question whether the pursuit of yoga is selfish and ignorant of the harsh realities of life. i look at people starving in somalia and feel silly instructing the proper shoulder position in downward facing dog.

but what i am realizing again and again is that it's not about the postures, but rather it's about the process of showing up for myself and when i do that i know deep in my core that i am calm, peaceful, open as the ocean is deep. the stress and the fear and the jealousy can cover that up but when i really look, i know who i am. from what i've seen in my life, i don't think change happens until we can really know ourselves and stop the internal struggle, which slows the external one. but it's not as easy as that. we must realize this and then continually engage in the practice of reconnecting to it often as we can for the rest of our lives. this to me is the best definition of peace that i can think of right now.

so i travel down south the only way i can imagine--which is wholeheartedly, imperfectly and the best i can. i am so truly honored to be fostering a yogic experience for the six lovely people on this retreat yet i know that i will learn my own lessons along the way. it goes in and out that way--the teaching, the learning, the remembering, the forgetting, the inhale, the exhale all for our finger tips brushing against the whole, splendid truth of right here, right now, exactly as it's supposed to be.

jess and brett and a beautiful belly.

aren't jess and brett the most glowingly beautiful pregnant couple? i photographed them while i was in chicago this summer. it was one of those shoots--beautiful couple, scenic location, and the perfect summer evening light. basically it was all a photographer could dream of, but it was more than that. something felt really special about our time together, like the love got super turned up. thinking about it afterward, it felt to me like the life force of this new baby was already shining through. i am so excited for jess and brett and so honored that they had me document the last weeks of their first pregnancy, an uber special time for them. jess is due on the 20th and i can't wait to see their first baby pictures!

things that have been lighting me up this week...

spending the weekend at deep creek lake with adam and his family. he had four nieces and nephews there and it was an awesome opportunity to be silly and play. acroyoga with them was a big hit, as was tubing behind a boat and all-you-can-eat fried chicken and mashed potatoes at this mennonite village down the road.

i made this delicious no-bake chocolate cake from leftover cream and melting down a chocolate easter bunny that was really past it's prime. recycled leftovers at it's best.

this song by riceboy sleeps during savasana.

photographing jay and lisa's tiny wedding at the collingwood museum and library on the potomac. it was the smallest wedding i've ever seen and one of the most heart-felt. check in soon to see pictures...

i've had some really excellent teaching moments this week where i felt this deep relaxation yet ability to hold healing/growing/strengthening space for my students. i also took carolyn blueme's incredible level 3 class at unity woods and got my ass kicked. that 10 minute headstand is so challenging! i made it to 5 minutes and then came down and marveled at the other 40+ year-old students as they held strong til the end. it felt good to be such a student again.

this idea in chicago about revamping muncipal buses to become portable fruit and veggie markets, serving "food deserts" in inner cities

love in the time of cholera by marquez. he's incredible, the story is rich and is sticking with me already.

midday happy hour pedicures at mimosa in dupont circle. i only do it a few times a year so i like the best. they have awesome massage chairs and give you champagne and i leave feeling so pampered.

eating popcorn with my brother and best friend ricki last night, who just moved to dc. it's good to be close to the people i love.