I so cant wait...

Happy Tuesday! I got in my 30 minutes by walking to work. I was more mindful of my eating today, but was not perfect bc I'm doing that whole "this is my last chance" thing. Because with the new year comes a new me. I bought a pedometer bc one of my new years goals is going to be 10000 steps a day. I'm going to start wearing it tomorrow so that I can see where I'm at. I honestly have no clue what it will be but I'm guessing loooowwww.
Well my title is for the fact that I am extremely pumped to be in Philly on Saturday, seeing my lovely mother that I haven't seen in over a year! Love ya Mama!

30 Minute workout...Check!

So just checking in to say that I got my 30 minutes in today. I danced around and picked up the house and then i also did a few minutes of walking on campus. Well thats about it. Flying in 4 DAYS!!!!

A Rare Sight...

Wow this must be a special occasion... all of us posted on the same day!
Mom I totally agree. I need to refocus my ten minutes. Lately I just focus on getting the 30 minutes done. I've forgotten to think of each of you during that time.
Joelle when i went to the ladies tea the pastors wife spoke about Mary. I found she has a blog and she posted the message she spoke on if you want to check it out... Link
And as for EPIC... I think it's just a sign that this next year is going to be the most EPICest!

Epic

This word keeps finding me everywhere.Epic. It's a theme in my life right now, but I still haven't quite figured out the message. I continously hear and see the word, almost on a daily basis. Tonight Shanna used the word, just blurted it out, really for no apparent reason. Then, I was browsing around on-line. I was looking up the Hail Mary prayer in Spanish on the Catholic.org website, one of the top google finds. And flashing on the side was the "epic catholic (something or other) DVD's!!!" My thoughts have been with Mother Mary today, or Our Lady of Guadalupe as she's known in Mexico. Tomorrow is her big day. She is highly revered in Mexico City, Mexico. 6.1 million people make their pilgrimmage to her site in Mexico City tomorrow. Before her shrine was built there (in the 1500's I believe) she was known to the Axtecs as Tonantzin, "Revered Mother." She's a fierce goddess of war and childbirth. Supposedly her temple was destroyed when the Spaniards conquered the Aztecs and they built the shrine to Lady of Guadalupe on the exact same spot. It was an attempt by the Catholic Church to convert the Indians. The Indians were rejecting the messages of the Christian missionaries until December 9, 1531. The Lady of Guadalupe, appearing as an Aztec princess appeared to a peasant named Juan Diego. She told him to build a temple in honor of her on the exact spot where they were standing. He went to tell the local bishop who wanted proof. So he went back to the spot in the desert where she had first appeared to him and she appeared again and told him to "bring the roses behind you." Being winter, and also the desert, roses must have been a rare sight. He turned to see a rosebush and he cut some roses and put them in his poncho. He returned to the bishop and when he opened his poncho, rather than roses a figure of the Lady appeared. Today that piece of cloth is held in Mexico City and is one of the most visited Catholic shrines.

Well it's an interesting story-interesting enough for me to want to go and look at the shrine. We will be driving through there in January. I can't decipher whether it was just a scheme by the Catholic church to convert the Indians into believers or whether the "Mother" is always just the mother, no matter what name you call her, Mary, Guadalupe, Tonantzin, and perhaps she doesn't really care what you call her, just that you believe, and remember her and give her thanks, and she wanted her temple to be rebuilt. Either way, everyone (Catholic or Indegenious) agrees that she is The Giver of Life and Mother of us all.

Thank you to all the mothers, my Mother Roselle who gave me life, my Mother Earth who nourishes me with food and shelter, and my spritual mother, Mary, Tonantzin, Lakshmi, Sophia, Ishtar, whatever name you give her. Thank you for this precious gift of life.

Peace be with you.

Shanna, thanks for changing the background. Fall is so last season. ha ha

Friday was beautiful and I walked for a half hour. I was thinking how I got out of the habit that I was once diligent about...dedicating a concentrated 10 minutes to each of us. I"ve been just bundling us in the 30 minutes, but I do feel it takes away from an important part of giving strength to each indidual and I want to rededicated myself to giving a specific 10 to each of us.
Friday night I also went out dancing. Well now...I do get this sorta of haughtery attitude that I never get tired, never get sick, never get hurt. David had a toothache a couple months ago, and think or "too bad so sad" sort of attitude. Then, I got a tootache in the same dang place! But I keep ignoring it, so it will go away. Then Friday David tells me that he hurt his knee out bowling the night before. I had an attitud because I wanted to go out dancing. Thus, to please me, we danced. Saturday, I wake up with a pain knee..........same knee! same spot on the knee! HOly crap! David got me a knee brace and hobbled with that all day as I decorated his house for Christmas. I didn't exercise....excuse of the injured knee, but I did stay busy all day decorating and cleaning.
Today, I went to a "Om for the Holidays" yoga message session. It was a gift to me from a lady at work. And though it was no workout....just total relaxation.... I made that my dedicated time.
All is well in my peaceful pain-free world.
Selah.

Just Keep Dancing

I got my 30 minutes in! Woot woot. I played just dance. It was great fun. That's about it!

Book Blog??

Mother I Love it love it love it! I have been watching Seinfeld a lot lately. I love that show so freaking much!
So yesterday i bought a planner for 2012. I'm all ready to go being organized, and goal-full. lol.
Mom what have you been reading lately?
I have been wanting to start a book/tv type blog for a while. And I've actually started a few in the past. But like with most things i loose my train of thought.
Do you girls what to do another blog?
What i love about this power of three is that when one or two of us are slacking there's always another to pick up the slack.
I think it would be fun bc we all have somewhat different tastes.
Mom we have less then a week!! I'm not gonna lie as the day gets closer i get more afraid about "fitting in the seat". The other day at work i was reading the "Dear Abby" section of the newspaper. Its like where people as qs and she gives her opinion. Well this day it happened to be about how airlines should deal with big people. The consensus being that they should have to buy a second seat! Screw that why should someone have to spend a 1000+ dollars for a plane ticket? How about making normal sized seats?
When i flew out her i got so lucky. My flight to Minneapolis i had no one next to me and then to Bozeman i sat next to a skinny girl. Ladies please pray that I will have favor with my seating. Thank you Lord AMEN!

Serenity Now!

Serenity Now! Was a favorite episode of Seifield. (Then again, every episode is a favorite... and yep, the setting is NYC!) Frank Castanza was suppose to say "senerity now" to keep his blood pressure down... but he would yell it all stressed out. In my attempt to find serenity in writing, I had shared with David my comments about New York and the stress of it all. Of course, he, as a true New Yorker, took great offense to my comments that were anti-New York. Our conversation quickly turned into an arguement. Him defending his city and my attempt to explain that I would rather be left alone in the woods then exposed to New York City. Our tones escalated in attempting to prove our points and convince each other to accept our points of view. I stormed out and haven't seen him since. All in the name of finding serenity. Ha ha
However, I have enjoyed being snuggled in bed and reading.. something I haven't done in a long time.... I'm enjoying slowing down and pausing so peace and tranquility can catch up to me.
I did Polates for the past couple days.
By the way, I do have a love/hate relationship with New York. I love going there and I love leaving there. It's not all bad. I just feel smoothered by the chaos if I'm in it for too long. And David, loves the woods too. Silly why we argue. He moved to PA for the same reason I live here; we love the rolling hills to ride it.
I was also thinking more about the Frost poem. How the owner of the woods lives in the village. The owner too likes the hustle and bustle of the city and didn't even bother to build on his wooded property with a lake. Different strokes for different folks.

Peace be with us all, whether city folk or country folk.

5 Rhythms

I hit up a 5 Rhythms class last night. It was only my second class ever. The first one was in Michigan. Jude went with me this time and it was different than my first experience, but both times were a blast! I remember my first one. I had an organic chemistry test the next day, but my friend Emily invited me to come dance. I couldn't resist the offer, so I blew off studying for the test to go dancing. Not an ounce of regret about that decision.There was a club through the school. It was in a Judo building rented out, they lit incense and shut the lights off and there were about 15-20 people just dancing, to their bodies liking. Everyone was free, and creative and in an almost trancelike state...both times I went. It's kind of a therapy or a release through dance. It's also called the wave because the music leads you through one long wave. Man was it a workout too. I was DRIPPING sweat. Jude fell asleep, I thought my sweat dripping on him would wake him up. A lady Gabrielle Roth is accredited with creating "the wave" or ecstatic dance. She says,

"Over the years, I discovered-in observing my own body and thousands of others-the five sacred rhythms that are the essence of the body in motion, the body alive: Flowing...Staccato...Chaos...Lyrical...Stillness"

Here's a tid bit about Gabrielle. The last line made me chuckle, especially after reading your (mom) last post.

"Gabrielle Roth is an internationally renowned theater director, philosopher, and recording artist who has created her own form of ecstatic dance. She is the best-selling author of Maps to Ecstasy: A Healing Journey for the Untamed Spirit, Sweat Your Prayers: Movement as Spiritual Practice and Connections. Her teachings, for the past forty years, have permeated many areas of the culture and included many diverse settings such as schools, hospitals, corporate offices, theaters and growth centers. Her work has been featured in Self, Elle, Mademoiselle, New Age Journal, Body Mind Spirit, Shape and many other national publications. Her award winning musical recordings are on the cutting edge of shamanic trance/dance music. Gabrielle's workshops and retreats have an electric intensity that mates contemporary currents of rock music, modern theater and poetry to the ancient pulse of shamanism. She lives in New York City. "

I guess there are some great things coming out of that hustle bustle mad city. I think Jack Kerouac was from NY. It's definitely not for me though! I am in the woods with you mom! I actually like to bounce back between both, but my primary residence I feel is harmonious and peaceful. It would be difficult for me to feel like that in NYC I would think. I love my mountains. Well I think that this dance thing might be taking me on a new journey. It almost felt like fate just going to the class. I randomly mentioned it to a fellow mom I met hiking...well sure enough she goes and was actually at the class last night! I would love to learn more! Just dance your ass off!


"What is the 5Rhythms®?

The 5Rhythms is a simple, powerful moving meditation that anyone – of any age, size, or physical ability - can practice. There are no steps to follow, no choreography to learn, no way to do it wrong. The only requirement is a body that is still breathing, a heart that is still beating, and mind that is still curious!

Just like light, sound or ocean waves, a dancing body when moving freely passes through five distinct rhythmic patterns. These patterns continuously repeat themselves in a wave of motion.

The 5Rhythms are:
•FLOWING – the fluid, continuous, grounded glide of our own movements
•STACCATO – the percussive, pulsing beat that shapes us a thousand different ways
•CHAOS – the rhythm of letting go, releasing into the catalytic wildness of our dance that can never be planned or repeated
•LYRICAL – the rhythm of trance, where the weight of self-consciousness dissolves, where we lighten up and disappear into our own uniqueness
•STILLNESS – the quiet emptiness, where gentle movements rise and fall, start and end, in a field of silence


Here's another great qoute by Roth...



Sweat Your Prayers


"To sweat is to pray, to make an offering of your innermost self.

Sweat is holy water, prayer beads, pearls of liquid that release your past.

Sweat is an ancient and universal form of self-healing, whether done in

the gym, the sauna, or the sweat lodge. I do it on the dance floor.

The more you dance, the more you sweat.

The more you sweat, the more you pray.

The more you pray, the closer you come to ecstasy."



Gabrielle Roth

Just Push Pause

I've been so busy ....doing the pre-holiday shuffle. Spent last weekend in New York walking Time Square. I think the bright lights are fun, but I don't care for the New York hustle and bustle. It's missing peace and joy.... not an ounce of sereness. I have missed some exercise days.... I hate missing them.
I need a revival! I have a plaque in my livingroom... "If you don't PAUSE...good things will never catch up to you." I need some pauses.
Maybe that is why I don't like NYC...there is no pauses. If you dare pause, you will get honked at, yelled at or shoved. Everybody is in such a hurry to get to something, that good things never catch up to them. A city of angry, aggitated people.
I will take a walk in the woods over a walk in the city.

Robert Frost understood the need for pauses and wrote a very famous poem.



Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I remembering discussing this poem in high school. There is a lot of meaning about life in these serene woods. "Miles to go before I sleep." Means I have a lot of life to live before I die.
Yes, I have a lot of life.....and I need to push pause much more often to enjoy it to the fullest.

Diciembre!

Ayyyyyy aaahhh! New month. And only 8 minutes and 2 hours til the strike of midnight which is the day of birth 28 years ago. However I wasn't born until 5:32 am or was it 5:33? Happy to still be around Earth, kicking it, breathing, walking around and feeling good. I feel like the stars are aligned in my favor. I feel blessed to be a Sagittarius because the ruling planet Jupiter, is one bad mo-fo. It's big, and it's lucky with a lot of rings. So even though it's exciting to celebrate my bday tomorrow...I have a a few more weeks of Sag reign time.

We put up the Christmas tree you made for us last year Ma! Acutally it's lit up and beautiful right now and Jude is sleeping literally less than 2 feet away from it. Sound asleep like a little angel. My heart really goes out this gal who gave up her baby for adoption. His middle name was Jude.

Today Jude and I officially listened to "Hey Jude" for the first time. His grandpa Spud and Uncle Randy love to sing a line of the chorus every time they see him, but today we really listened to the song. I actually had no idea the song was actually about what it is about. I like the line " don't carry the world upon your shoulders" Goodnight love you ma and sis!

Happy First Day of December!

Wahoo! 3 days! So today was Nia. It was awesome. I've missed it, it's been two weeks since we last did it bc it was canceled and then it was Thanksgiving. Um... Im tired and i dont know what else to say so... The last 3 nights I've went to bed in the eight o'clock hour and i LOVE it! So I'll probably do it agian tonight. Thankfully tomorrow is my last 6am for the week!