Today has been wonderful, and yesterday I discovered that WordPress has an iPhone app, and I’m bright eyed and bushy tailed after amazing yoga with Natalie followed by a Korean BBQ feast at Woo Mi with Markie and Lizzie…so all of these forces of the universe mean I will finally update my blog. It’s only taken me a year or so….

A lot has happened over the last year, but I’m not prepared to do a retrospective. Maybe another day. Maybe not. Maybe reminiscences will flutter by from time to time like falling leaves caught in the wind.

After a belated and amazing honeymoon, Markie and I returned to a routine involving work and scourges. Finally healthy again. Hallelujah. Went to see Paula Poundstone with M at the Birchmere this weekend and I laughed until it hurt. Nature walk at the Audobon with my nephew, sister and brother in law on Sunday. Leaping deer. Fallen trees. Ginkgo biloba. The iPhone wants to change “biloba” to “blob”

Good night dear ones.

I wish you sweet dreams and a beautiful day!

post-yoga, pre-Esalen (we were already pretty blissed out, thanks to the TLC from our rock star hostess Liz)….pictured here celebrating 11 months since i met my sweetie, appropriately with a feast of sushi.

Recently returned from California. A blissful vacation. Many adventures, friends and family, relaxation and discovery. Mark and I took a chi kung class with a 90 year old Taoist priest who is a living inspiration. He is infinitely more limber and flexible than I but I am working on it. He has the mojo. The place and the practice sharpened amd broadened and focused my scope and perspective. Still digesting it all. I miss being submerged in steamy hot sulfur water under a dark sky with billions and billions of stars. I miss not knowing what day it is and measuring time by the sun and the rumbling of my stomach. I miss the peanut butter and apple butter. But it’s not all looking back or regret. I hold these reserves of strength and joy knowing this place and the people there and how the place affects and is affected by the people who pass through…it exists in my absence and affected who I am now. And I can cherish the stillness of moments but life is not stagnant nor would I be happy with it that way. Tonight, I had my first Cantonese lesson. Moving forward with melody.

a few moments of solitude, quiet in the midst of chaotic surroundings noise of people gathering with friends or meeting for the first time and i am filled with happiness affecting my thoughts and breathing and the way my blood flows. i feel giddy and glowy and bubbly and safe and loved. contentment. thrill and possibility. and the seasons changing. the smell of autumn, the chilly night air and brilliance of the leaves changing. literally turning over a new leaf. the music has taken a turn for the worse and i notice my jaw clenching a bit in response. kinda satanic and yell-y. ick. let’s get back to the random 80′s stuff. wow, it’s been a long time since i tried to write like this. in vikram’s class! oh, phew, back to 80′s rock and roll. and a phone call from m, only a few blocks away…thinking about family since last night. how do we turn out the way we do? what points in life are the critical determinant crossroads and do we ever recognize them for what they are when standing at them, or only later in hindsight? not sure what to write or what i want to say or how to say what i want to say maybe

actually, other than spending the day at work hunched over a computer, today has been a fairly healthy day.  after dinner and some cleaning, i went for a long walk over to the park.  there’s a path through this little grove of trees and i got over there at dusk to a magical show of twinkly little fireflies (and 2 little bunny rabbits. aww).  so, it’s sauna-rific but there are some joys of summer.  the little grove of trees is pure enchantment because, besides the fireflies, it reminds me of a book i used to love called the bridge to terabithia.  a year or so ago, a movie version was made of it, but i have been afraid to see it because the book is really about the use of imagination and it seems like the forced visuals of the cinematographer might not live up to the wondrousness of the story.

A time to build up,a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

…

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late

see that? it all comes full circle back to that whole harmony and balance thing.

so i departed the gym feeling all glowy and glistening [sweaty], driving home with the windows down and the wind in my hair, beneath a nearly full moon, with that special feeling of endorphinistic bliss that overshadows the deeper anticipation of the generalized muscle achy-ness that comes a-knockin at my door the day after yoga.

i arrived home to find my most excellent sweetie pie, aka kitchen chemist, and the newest member of our family: the creme brûlée torch.

turns out, this yummy dessert has to be refrigerated for 8 hours before you can scarf it down (um, i mean, savor every tiny spoonful of goodness). Which of course meant only one thing: breakfast this morning!

hell yeah!

Ordeal
~ Nina Cassian
I promise to make you more alive than you’ve ever been.
For the first time you’ll see your pores opening
like the gills of fish and you’ll hear
the noise of blood in galleries
and feel light gliding on your corneas
like the dragging of a dress across the floor.
For the first time, you’ll note gravity’s prick
like a thorn in your heel,
and your shoulder blades will hurt from the imperative of wings.
I promise to make you so alive that
the fall of dust on furniture will deafen you,
and you’ll feel your eyebrows like two wounds forming
and your memories will seem to begin
with the creation of the world.

Welcome, friends.