"Beside the sea...."

WHEE!  I am sitting on the third floor of the Harbor Town Yacht Club in a lovely suite with its own balcony looking out over Calibogue Sound.  How fortunate I am to have a brother who lives right across the harbor and provides such wonderful hosting whenever I am here.  This weekend will be especially special since friends Harriet and Ed and their family are here on a winter break vacation from Albany, NY.  The temperature this morning is 69 - a beautiful day is beginning - even shorts weather!  Harriet and I have traveled together several times and our families have been friends for over fifty years.  What a joy!  Last evening Jim and Anne took me and Frank to the Quarter Deck here right beside the lighthouse.  I somehow or another had never eaten there before and, of course, the food was very good.  Like Atlanta, it is difficult to eat in any restaurant that doesn't serve very good food - a real treat for a Ninety Six resident!....but the most important benefit is the atmosphere, the energy of being "beside the sea."....As a child, my favorite poem began, "When I was down beside the sea, a wooden spade they gave to me, to dig the sandy shore."  I've forgotten the rest.

Yoga Benefits

I am beginning a new book: Threads of Yoga.  Thanks to my niece, Kate.  It is a whole new take on Patanjali's sutras.   Here are a few words that caught my attention - particularly the last few words:  "it does not lie."
The legacy of yoga has been resurrected in our time through the innate pleasure of our flesh.  The simplest techniques of breathing, spinal elongation, and joint fluidity have given countless flesh-alienated postmoderns a renewed sense of vitality, purpose, grounding, and connection........Through modern postural yoga we have remembered that our flesh innately wants to rejoice, connect, and serve--and that it does not lie.
In my experience, these words are fact - vitality, purpose, grounding, and connection.  Yes, these are benefits of practicing Hatha yoga, as we teach at The Yogatorium.

Valentine Rose

Still trying to learn how to use my upgraded laptop!   Here's a photo of Frank planting his Valentine's gift to me - a Mr. Lincoln tea rose bush!

South Texas Winter Break

Laguna Madre, South Texas

Finally I have my computer back and working - BUT still there are new learnings to take place with the upgrade.  So, I will resume my weekly trips to the Apple store in Greenville for tutoring.....The trip to South Padre Island was exactly what we needed.  Weather cooperated.  Friends were delightfully hospitable - true Texas welcomes everywhere we went.  The condo was very close to the beach, nicely decorated, and had a balcony which we were on much of the time simply enjoying the sunshine and the ocean and all that goes with those two.  Walks on the beach.  Meals out with friends that included home-cooked tacos, beans and rice by Linda; barbecue; lobster; and more.  The biggest surprise was Padre Island itself. Reminded me a bit of the Outer Banks of NC.  Long, narrow island with the spectacular Laguna Madre on the west side (photo) and the Gulf of Mexico on the east.  Bird watching was spectacular - particularly at the home ranch of Mira and Neal - beautiful peacocks, guineas, and several local birds whose names I don't recall, but the beautiful colors I do.  Of course, one leaves Texas with the feeling of wide open spaces everywhere you look both on land and water.

Fix your eyes not on the seen…

My morning reading in "Jesus Calling" was a thoughtful awakening:  Fix your eyes not on the seen but on the unseen.  I glanced up from my book and looked out over the Pond to see a quiet, total, stillness and "saw" the fish beneath the Pond surface.  A few seconds later the surface of the Pond became a total swirl of movement seen but also, the unseen wind,  where I fixed my eyes.  A small shift in my eyes over to the trees and more wind movement.  Today I will come back to this - fixing my eyes on the unseen.

A Cloudy Day Walk

Walking again for the first time in many months with absolutely no excuse except laziness.  I started by walking the labyrinth and then a short walk down the road and back.  Wished I'd taken a plastic bag - saw at least 6 beer cans on the side of the road in just a couple hundred yards.  Next walk I'll take a bag and my pick-up stick to get as much as I can without scrambling down in the wet ditches.  It is truly amazing to me that my neighbors are not thinking of Mother Earth or me when they dump their beer cans beside the road.  All I can do is justify it by assuming they don't want someone at home to know they have been drinking a beer…….How do we justify such inconsiderate acts?  Perhaps the only answer is charging fines but I daresay few ever receive fines…..Anyway, getting back to walking daily is my goal right now - at least as long as the weather is agreeable.  That means 50 degrees or above for me.  I'll share the glory of the cloudy day view from the other side of The Pond where lies the labyrinth.

Snow morning

Well, we've had our first snow.  It almost covered the ground but now, at 2 pm the sun is out!  Just the way I love our snows - although I wish it had been a bit deeper so that the whole area had been white.  Spending the day reading "Zealot"  in preparation for our spiritual growth group meeting the end of next month.  Frank and I will be leaving on February 4 for South Padre Island, TX and visits with several of his friends who live in the area.  The two weeks away will be a wonderful winter break for us.  If we are to have an ice storm, I hope it is while we are away!  Last year it was - we were in Costa Rica with Susan Bentley when the power outage occurred.  Fortunately Tobias was here and handled the buildings.  This year, we will rely on Eric, our new tenant in the Cabin.  He has offered to help and I'm sure we will find ways to take him up on that.