makes me happy

above everything

my beautiful yoga friend rosemary wanted some photographs of her sweet family before the birth of her second son.  we met two weekends ago at rock creek park and by now baby miles is fully in this world.  ah life, you get me every time. 

and i love this poem by david ignatow:

Above Everything

I wished for death often
but now that I am at its door
I have changed my mind about the world.
It should go on; it is beautiful,
even as a dream, filled with water and seed,
plants and animals, others like myself,
ships and buildings and messages
filling the air -- a beauty,
if ever I have seen one.
In the next world, should I remember
this one, I will praise it
above everything.

costa rica sunshine

doubling down on happiness

 i'm back from costa rica.  predictably, it was wonderful.  like it was more wonderful than last year--which was pretty darn great--and filled me with a deep sense of hope about life.  the reasons for that could be that it's such a nice retreat center and the people who came were so open and  the gift of taking a big time-out from life to stare out at the sea from a hammock. or maybe it was the food--all organic, local and prepared con mucho amor--that had me wondering if i was going to adjust to living back in the states again.  i've been joking with adam that he was going to have to cut up fresh fruit for me every morning for a week so i wouldn't be too shocked on the realities of living in the real world.  he seems to think i am kidding about that...

but home is good.  today i mapped out photo albums, planted window boxes with arugula and scallion seeds, met a dear friend for thai food and had the most surprisingly fast experience of getting my car inspected. i love it here and hope that every time i leave it's so that i can come back to my real life with more joy and hope and love to share.  so in that spirit, i choose this photograph of a the view from my plane ride from houston to washington, dc.  i spent the whole week freaking out about the beautiful sunsets that we saw from the yoga deck and thought about how i never see anything like that back in the states.  and then i saw the most ridiculously beautiful one in the home stretch of my massive travel--probably somewhere above oklahoma.  i love it!  it was the perfect reminder to me that we are all living in paradise, we all walking in beauty.  we just have to pay attention and call a thing by it's proper name.


i started my first day back in dc with this ridiculous grin on my face, wanting to share the love with everyone.  then in the afternoon, someone innocently said something that challenged me and my big bad ego. it was small but big enough that i stopped smiling and started worrying. when i realized what i was doing, the phrase that came into my mind was that i had to "double down on my happiness."  i'm not a gambler and don't even know if i am using that in that in any kind of right way.  what i mean though, is that if we are ever lucky enough to find what we are looking for, then we have to work extra hard to keep it up.  this means giving more when we start to feel stinginess invade our sense of generosity and loving deeper when the person we care about is really challenging us.  it's about paying attention, having intention and again and again, choosing who we want to be.

because it's precious--our lives and what we choose to do with them--and if we are lucky enough to know how to pay attention then we have a responsibility to keep trying for what we really want.   deep down i believe that what we all want is to access our own hearts and know that we really belong here in a meaningful way.  i've felt that a few times in my life and it's so big and whole that i know i'll spend the rest of my days headed in that direction.  and you too? maybe it takes you a week away doing yoga in the jungle to get there or maybe your life dictates that your own sense of inspiration must be found in the walk home from work each day.  regardless, know that i am there too, looking up into that sweet night sky, savoring the bigness that's there.

for a sunny monday morning...

these songs have been on my yoga playlist (and in my head) this past week.

a great instruction manual on how to say no.

love this quote from arundhati roy:

"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget."

stuff i like

 

the pool at dumbarton oaks (thanks for bringing us there lili, it felt like a dream)

i just dropped off adam at the metro for his annual conference in jacksonville and suddenly i have a slower week and a condo of one's own.   a part of me wants to start in on my to-do list of swiffering and finance organizing, but first i need a little time to savor a few of the lovely things that have sustained me during this past month of moving, power outages, and the art of co-habitation (which is going really well so far--i'm feeling what it means to be part of a team).


first, i must appreciate this breakfast at teaism that was the only thing i wanted to eat when it was 102 degrees and we were on our third day without power.  i came in a sweaty mess and left feeling human again.  it's in these moments that i truly understand the different levels of nourishment.


orchids at johnston's, the plant store where adam likes to go...a lot.  it's been fun having his green thumb around.



isn't this installation art at dumbarton oaks incredible?  my friends marcie and lili helped to hand tie those glass beads.  go see it if you are in dc.


i like these people a lot.


we spent our 4th of july at tricia's house, eating incredible indonesian food (happy birthday sylvia!) and watching the fireworks from the rooftop.  all of the shadowy turrets on either side made me feel like we were in mary poppins. 

and of course our new place is inspiring me! we got our couch on sunday and now it really feels like a home.  all we are missing now is a dog....

also:
beautiful cooking philosophies.  they feel a lot like mine.  we've been having some fun meals of thrown-together leftovers like panzanella with avocado and fresh corn, kimchi spring rolls, fresh mango sprinkled with cardamon for breakfast.  although i will endlessly love my roommates,  i don't miss the group house fridge with it's broken handle at all.  i've really moved up in the kitchen world.

i spent a half-hour giggling last night at these hilariously inappropriate test responses. 

i like this poem by wendell berry a lot too:

THE LAW THAT MARRIES ALL THINGS
1.
The cloud is free only
to go with the wind.
The rain is free
only in falling.
The water is free only
in its gathering together,
in its downward courses,
in its rising into the air.
2.
In law is rest
if you love the law,
if you enter, singing, into it
as water in its descent.
3.
Or song is truest law,
and you must enter singing;
it has no other entrance.
It is the great chorus
of parts. The only outlawry
is in division.
4.
Whatever is singing
is found, awaiting the return
of whatever is lost.
5.
Meet us in the air
over the water,
sing the swallows.
Meet me, meet me,
the redbird sings,
here here here here.

excited to see him in october!