Patience

Last night's spiritual sisters meeting was delightful and challenging.  Is it truly possible to LEARN to be patient?  We worked on it and I think made some progress.  Clearly, these lessons from Living Your Yoga are pushing our limits in some chapters.  What a joy to share this journey!  I hope that some of you are gaining a bit of insight just from reading my reactions to our work.  For me, patience while waiting in lines has gotten easy - but my patience with myself is not easy.  Why is it we are so very hard on ourselves?  Is somebody up there pushing our buttons?  Who's pushing your buttons?  You?

Breathing

Can't believe it's already Wednesday!  How do I get so busy?  Well, one thing I've done is I've begun knitting again - if you don't have something like that to do, find it - nothing calms me more quickly than knitting a few rows.  Today is another busy one - first by the DMV to get Kelsey's car registration - then over to Ashley House for a yoga session with the residents, then a couple of stops to complete getting stuff together for trip next week - Just bought some Airborne yesterday - had never heard of it but comes recommended by brother Jim and so I'll try it - last thing I want is to be under the weather while at Light Body School in Joshua Tree California!  Well, maybe that would be a good place to be to get healed!  Anyway, nothing of real importance to pass on this morning - too scatterbrained.  Did help to get in my morning meditation on my back on the floor - beginning to really get with that style.  Comes from Rosen's breathing book.  Then, of course, my Light Body School morning breathing routine that truly prepares me for the whole day by acknowledging all four directions and  Mother Earth and Father Sky, etc.  Come to the November 17 Yoga Retreat and I'll introduce you to both practices.

Haymonds Thanksgiving 2010

Missed taking a photo last year - but we won't this year!  It's Sunday morning - ending my stay in Atlanta today after I drop off Walker at another soccer game.  Yesterday was a fun one - drove an hour and a half to Clarkesville for soccer - then off he went to tennis in the afternoon - and away to spend the night again with a friend.  Kelsey, of course, is away at Clemson.  Sydney, too, a busy one - I really see very little of the kids but enjoy being here in their lovely home with Rex - who stays outside most of the time.  Truly a very easy child/dog-tending experience!  Soon they won't need me at all and there's something sad about that but also wonderful watching them develop into beautiful people.  Before I go home, I'll stop by Luke's home and see his family for a bit - again how blessed I am to have both sons and families living on the north side of Atlanta and only ten minutes from each other.  I've grown old enough to know for sure that family and friends are what life is all about - how blessed I am to have both! 

Illumination - Walks - Change

Looking North early morning from labyrinth center

Busy, busy days!  One day I did four illumination treatments (energy healing) - FOUR different people.  I pray some good came for them.  Of course, I'm still in the practice stage - and probably always will be - but it's an exciting time - learning so much about this process.  I am so very grateful to those who are subjecting themselves to my work.  This is opening many doors to me that I have never before been privileged to share.  One more special blessing that has come my way.  The more I practice, the more I study, and the more I learn - my most fun thing in life - learning.  And, walking - another great pleasure in my life.  Lately I've spent a lot of time walking the labyrinth - partly to try to subdue the fire ants who are extremely persistent - but also to simply enjoy the quiet and the rhythm of walking in a sacred space.  I've also resumed my road walking - another great joy in my life.  It always surprises me that I find myself smiling before I even get out of my driveway on my walks.  Of course, coming back up the hill to the drive my smile is somewhat forced - but still, it's there.  The fall is my favorite time to walk - the scenery changes every day.  Leaves that were green suddenly show a few red or yellow ones.  And, each day, more of the green changes to red or yellow or brown.   Change - another of my favorite things in life!

Dreams Don't Come

Friday is my day off - no appointments, no need to go to town, no visitors, just being - didn't get out of bed till 9:30.  Great time meditating to a new CD with a Native American twist - fell back asleep afterwards - but still no dreams!  Can't seem to make them come back no matter what I try.  Had only one remembered dream in weeks now.  Any suggestions!  I walked the labyrinth late in the afternoon, visited with soul mates, soaked in tub, spent time reading, writing, and meditating on spiritual matters, still no dreams. Oh well, maybe that means all is well????  Certainly seems to be.  Can't think of anything that is truly bothering me these days.  Thanks be to God!  Still, I'd like a pleasant dream!  By the way, the other ingredient in the waffles is 5-minute oatmeal, not garbanzos but they could be used instead of lentils.

Nutritious Waffles

I must show you the waffle Susan cooked for me Sunday morning!  On a George Foreman grill!  Tasted great - lentils, water, pecans, oil, and I've forgotten what else - garbanzos?  Anyhow, tasted great - later she switched to the waffle iron.  What a great time we had together over the weekend.  She's a super hostess! 

Show us the mountains

This morning during my morning ritual this request caught my attention:  Show us the mountains we only dare to dream of.   I've been praying that every morning for many weeks now but never truly contemplated it.  What are the mountains you only dare to dream of?  Some of mine were shown to me on my recent trip to Taos.  And still now, almost daily a few more dreamed of concepts come into being.  Or at least come back into my consciousness.  Isn't this how dreams come true?  Coming into consciousness repeatedly?  The trick is to choose our dreams carefully.  Someone wiser than I has said that what you think is what you become.  I begin there - choosing what I think.  At least some of the time.  Like now, this morning in the quiet of the morning gazing out over the Pond and watching the ripples the breeze makes.  All is still except those small ripples.  No, actually the wind chimes are swaying gently too, and my swing chair.  But no trees seem to be moving.  It is in the stillness that my dreams become. The mountains I dare to dream of show up.

Doing nothing.

The last two days have been busy preparing for guests.  Thank goodness someone visits relatively often - that's when I clean house.  And, then I can enjoy it for quite a while without any cleaning at all.  And that leaves time for meditation, contemplation, prayer, and just being....no doing.  One of my favorite mantras:  Don't just do something, sit there. Amazing how long it has taken me to find the joy of sitting.  There was a time, most of my life, when I was constantly on the move.  Now I give myself the gift of stopping and truly being - in the moment - at least once each day.  Usually much more often.  I once wrote an essay on finding God in the pauses.  Now I'm doing it.  ....This afternoon is a long pause when I am free - after a morning of getting the septic tank pumped out - locating the drainage problem - jury-rigging a temporary fix - and now settling down with a couple hours of doing nothing.  Have you read The Art of Doing Nothing?  It is an art worth cultivating.....In this state of doing nothing I've finally made the mental commitment to hold another yoga retreat - Nov. 17.  So, get ready - that day will be here sooner than we think!  Then you can practice doing nothing.

Reminiscing

Jaquie playing model in Taos backyard

So, here's another photo from Taos.  Can't quite give it up yet - what a terrific vacation it was - a totally different environment for two weeks!  Dry, high altitude (about 8,000 feet) clear blue skies, white clouds, and lots of wide open spaces.  Must go back again soon.....well, maybe not soon, but back sometime.   Now I'm back into yoga classes - a new prospective student for the Yogatorium who lives just down the road from me!  Never met her, but looking forward to doing so tonight.  Met with my church groups yesterday and assisted living group in Greenwood this morning.  Surprised me how much I had missed them...all of whom are very grateful for the opportunity to stretch a bit with me once a week.  Now it's time to plan another yoga retreat - shooting for November.  Perhaps the 17th?  And, practicing Illumination process...part of Healing the Light Body School learning. ...... Yesterday was fun seeing old high school classmates - old in both senses!  We hadn't gathered for several years but did yesterday for a few minutes at Felder Dorn's book signing at McCaslan's - where we reminisced about buying our school textbooks - long before the schools supplied them.  That store has been in business a very long time! Fun remembering fun times together.

Space to Just Be

Here I sit looking out over the Pond at the labyrinth and big rolls of hay.  A neighbor leases the pasture land which is now converted to hay fields since he keeps his cows on his own land across the road.  I don't recall seeing the hay rolls before. (Are these called bales, too - like the rectangular ones are?  Don't see them very often any more.)  How neat everything looks over there now.  Greens and browns.  No autumn color in the trees yet but it can't be long.  Yesterday was a gray one misting rain most of the day and turning to deep fog by the time students were leaving the Yogatorium.  First session upon returning from vacation in Taos.  Still recovering from the long drive, but I loved it.  There is something about driving across country crossing rivers, mountain ranges, and flat lands that is comforting.  New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennesee, North Carolina, and South Carolina.  How fortunate we are to have a peaceful place to be with much space to just be.  I wonder how many square feet of space each one of us actually has in this country?  My own 53 acres seems more than my share.  So, I attempt to share it with others often.

Home from Taos

It's over.  A great vacation that has renewed my spirit, expanded my horizons, and inspired me to MORE.  Here's me posing against the backyard fence in Taos.  The other photos are one of the valleys we passed through on the way down to I-40 from Taos.  The golden aspens are so beautiful against the Ponderosa pines at higher elevations and Pinon at lower occasionally.  What a difference to see only gold - no reds - which we did begin to see in the Appalachians as we came into Asheville yesterday.