aliveness

that day I saw beneath dark clouds
the passing light over the water
and I heard the voice of the world speak out,
I knew then, as I have before
life is no passing memory of what has been
nor the remaining pages of a great book
waiting to be read.

it is the opening of eyes long closed
it is the vision of far off things
seen for the silence they hold
it is the heart after years of secret conversing
speaking out loud in the clear air.

it is Moses in the desert fallen to his knees
before the lit bush
it is the man throwing away his shoes
as if to enter heaven and finding himself astonished,
opened at last,
fallen in love
with solid ground

- david whyte

I just read this poem in an email I received and got goose bumps. A clear sign of it's power for me. With the sudden death of a dear student I'm thinking a lot about the spirit of life. Thinking about how short life really is, even if we live to be 100. As I told Teresa today, our time here on earth is like the blink of an eye. We are only blips in this universe.

It's time to truly dig in, celebrate, dance up a storm and enjoy this earth party. The words "urgency" and "aliveness" keep coming to mind. To live life day to day with a sense of urgency. Cause to me it is urgent. Urgent to life fully. To dare. To take risks. To open our eyes. Our hearts too. To do good. To be good. As a sign I recently read says "aspire to inspire before you expire".

And this sense of aliveness comes not from extravegant gifts, or big trips (not even those to my beloved Mexico although they inspire aliveness), nor marriages, or jobs. It comes from a deep rooted place in your soul. It is the fire in your heart. The knowingness in your belly. It is known not only by monks, gurus, or poets, but also those living quiet ordiary lives, day in and day out.

Living with this aliveness doesn't require you to quit your job. Or even change your job. It doesn't require a monthlong silent retreat. Or a trip up the Himalayan Mountains. It requires that you let your defenses down. That you recongnize your fears and vulnerabilities. It demands that you wake up. That you say (or shout or dance) YES to the immensity of life.

And when you do this saying, shouting, or dancing of YES....when you truly believe that you are deserving of the beauty and the power that exists in life...Well, I am willing to bet that your life will unfold in such a way that it will shake you to your core. In the most delicious of ways.

That's all I got for today. Amen. Namaste. Peace.
Love to Lucy. The world weeps without you. And rejoices the days you walked this earth.

adios mexico, hola kentucky

Andy and I had such an easy and enjoyable trip home today. I even got a bunch of work finished on the flight. Created the packing list for teacher training in Mexico as well as five pages of notes for a packet of info I'm creating for the participants. It will include ways to prepare for the training physically, energetically, mentally and emotionally. I really love this stuff so I'm super excited about pulling it all together.

We've only been home just over an hour. We've unpacked our bags, put some laundry on, gone through the mail, and purged some unidentifiable things from the fridge.

I've cozied myself into my bed that I love so much. Burning copal incense, listening to relaxing tunes, and gave myself a little foot massage with tridoshic oil to prepare for the winding down and settling in. It's all part of the effort of easing back into life, into my routines here at home.

It still seems crazy to me that you can be in one country in the morning and hop a flight and land in your own bed later in the evening. We live in a pretty amazing world don't we? Kentucky and the Big Blue House are looking particularly beautiful to me. Funk in the fridge and all. I sometimes take all of "this" for granted.

I'm also feeling drawn to getting back to regular posts on the blog. Feeling like I've neglected her for a while. Hoping that will change as I make a true effort to exercise my writing chops. ;) I have lots of discoveries I want to share. Like my very own way of defining contentment and the nasty little mind gremlins I encountered about giving myself three weeks in Mexico.

Buesos noches amigas. I've got a new Kriapu catalog calling my name. I'll see you soon....

the sucky and the sweet of being in mexico for three weeks

Hola friends! As I write this Andy and I are sitting in the hotel lobby in Cancun. We've checked out of our room and we're waiting to get to the airport for our flight home today. I thought this would be a good time to write about the good and bad of my trip as I don't want to be that annoying person that only reveals the rainbows without honoring the rain too:

THE SUCKY
**Losing my purse in Tulum. After putting a hold on my credit cards, catching a taxi back into town, and visiting the stores we had been in the previous night my purse was no where to be found. I made peace with it being gone and the coffee and cake with Rhonda certainly helped. I was ecstatic when Rhonda found it in her luggage when we got back. But boy, what a terrible feeling?

**My mama making the statement that she'd rather go to South Carolina to visit the beach than Tulum. What??? Oh hell, did she really say that?! Yep she did. I had to understand that this wasn't exactly an easy trip for her.

**A harmless comment that a retreatee made that brought some old insecurities directly to the surface.

**Andy and I adapting together in paradise. For me in Tulum I walk slowly and bow often. Everything feels like God to me here. Andy runs into the waves tackling and bows to margaritas.

**Having a freak out moment during teaching a class. It had been a while since I have experienced that. Quite humbling....after the fact.

**Losing my key to my room and safety box.....permanently. They had to cut open the safety box and replace it. I see a theme with losing things on this trip.

**Missing my best friend. And she's getting married in August. So I was away during a pretty crucial time.

**Leaving the sweetness of Tulum for the chaos of Cancun. Andy and I have certainly realized that the all inclusive Cancun thing is, well, not our thing. Now we know. We'll never leave Tulum early again. Ever.

**The suckiest, most terrible thing ever...hearing of a student passing away just yesterday. I hoped. And I prayed for her when I heard she was in the hospital. I got an email that she had passed. I cried. And I prayed for her family. This news broke my heart.

THE SWEET
**Sleeping in the same room as my mom and sis. It's been a long time.

**Making breakfast with Joel....fruit salad, grilled tortillas with avocado and tomato, and coffee made in french press pot. So simple. So good.

**Seeing two students from the studio at Maya Tulum with their eyes sparkling and hearing "This place is magical. I can see why it's hard to describe this place." yes hard to describe, but easy to love.

**My sister meeting and having a treatment with Fabian. Now she knows of his special-ness and healing ways.

**A long dark walk up the beach with Rhonda underneath a blanker of stars.

**Teaching and learning from a pretty amazing group of yogis at Maya Tulum. YES to this group, this place, and this thing called Yoga.

**Seeing two (yes two!) turtles make their pilgrimage to the beach, dig a hole in the sand, lay tons o' eggs, cover the hole, and return to the sea. Holy moly, that was special.

**Our whole yoga group (14 total) doing temazcal (sweat lodge) together.

**Witnessing strangers form deep deep everlasting friendships.

**Doing yoga in the sea with Sarah.

**Granola. And more granola.

**Getting treatments. Sweet sweet healing treatments. And walking the sandy treatment path, smelling copal, and knowing that someone was getting a delicious and healing treatment.

**Singing and dancing with retreatees. And running into the sea. Tackling the waves. Ala Andy.

**Showing and experiecing Tulum with Andy. My home away from home. He now sees what all the fuss is about.

**Snorkleing with Andy at Xel Ha, natures own aquarium. Walking the labrynth together. Exploring the town, eating with the locals at Don Cafetos. Eating ice cream. Doing yoga.

**My solo hour long walk on the beach after breakfast. Just me, the sea and Michael Franti singing about seeing you in the light.

**No blow drying or make-upping for 21 days.

**Discovering skype.

**Being barefoot and fancy free for ten straight days.

**Knowing that when I get home it's time to buy another ticket back to Mexico for our yoga teacher training here. :)

I'll be getting in Cincy around 6:30 tonight and back to the studio tomorrow teaching. This is certainly a sweet part of returning home. I've missed you. And can't wait to see you.....

mexico love

Hola Yoga Amigas!

I haven't been quite as diligent as I thought I'd be here in Mexico about the blogging. Sometimes the intentions don't quite manifest,eh?

I still cant quite believe that I've been here nearly two weeks. That my fam was herre, that the retreat has come and gone, and that Andy is here....and getting a hot stone massage now as we speak.

The retreat went so super well. I know I say it each year....but it truly keeps getting better. I continue to be amazed at the beauty that unfolds when you bring open and like minded people together in a magnificent natural setting and explore yoga and self reflection.

The week with the group went super fast. Everyone seemed to love the food, the yoga, the people here, the beach, the treatments, and of course they loved our fave healer/shaman Fabian. In fact our whole entire group did the local sweat lodge, temazcal. We all set beautiful intentions, hung in there for all four rounds, and were rewarded with an outdoor shower where we were individually covered in a big fresh sheet and invited to lie down on the ground and gaze at the most beautiful sky filled with billions of stars.

As the retreatees were leaving Saturday Andy arrived. I was so happy to finally get to share this place that I love so much. He is pretty amazed by the beauty here. The wonderful people too.

We've been spending lots of time on the beach, eating at different places, getting massage, and I'm doing yoga daily here at Maya Tulum. Today we went into town for lunch and shopping. I bought the cutest white skirt that was made in Cancun.

Tomorrow we plan to go to Xel Ha, the open sea aquarium with tons of nature lovin activities. We hear it's the natural equivalent of Disney World. I'm sure it will be fun and while I know that I should be ready to see lots o' people, still not sure I'm quite ready. I put shoes on today for the first time in nine days. Sandals, but they were shoes nonetheless.

I just spoke with Teresa and she lovingly assured me that all is well at the studio. Makes me feel very happy. I cant help but feel super duper lucky being here in Mexico for three weeks and having teachers that I know are taking good care of everybody. Blessed. I. Am.

And still feeling over the moon that my mom was here. And I got to hang out with the fam here in the tropics. Read. And laugh. Revel in the joy of it all.

maya tulum retreat - day 3

Hola Amigas (and amigos too)!

We're into day three of our retreat here in paradise....otherwise known as Maya Tulum. All but one person from the group arrived on Saturday. I have to say that it's really a great group. Although I think I'm pretty lucky in working with yogi's. It's pretty hard to complain about em". ;)

We have 14 total people in our group. Myself and Sarah as teachers, four BW's yogis, two gals from the Lexington area, two from Arlington Va, Toronto, Orange County, Miami, and Playa Del Carmen. Ten yoginis and two yogi's. Good peeps.

I had tons o fun being here with my family. I left them on Saturday to come to Maya Tulum (about 25 minutes down the beach). Was very happy to see them yesterday briefly. Rhonda came down for a holistic massage with Fabian (she too now knows what I mean about him), them mama and Joel walked down to have breakfast. I got to show them my home when I'm here, and introduce them to people I've gotten to know over the years of coming here. Plus they got to meet some people from the studio which was fun.

After they left I felt a tiny bit sad. But then commenced with a dance party in my cabana to celebrate that my mom was actually in Tulum! Crazy. Happy. YES to mondo beyondo dreams when they come true.

I will be going down to visit the folks at Cabana La Lunas today also. This is where we'll have the training in the fall. Sarah is going to come along.

I'll teach two sessions today and Sarah one tonight. I don't have any treatments scheduled for today, so it's gonna be me and the sea today. On a date.

I do miss all the sweetness of the studio. The students , the teachers, the familiarity. But I must say that being here feels so easy, so natural, so good. And t Leaving me feeling very happy today that I still have two more weeks here in Mexico. I must take a photo on my phone of the yoga hall we practice in so you can see how much it looks like the studio. We dont have the bright flowers of Sunshine Grown Shop, but we can see and feel the ocean and hear the loveliest of birds chirping. Lucky lucky gal.

And Andy will be arriving Saturday! Saturday...yep Andy will be here. :)

I'm gonna sign off and prep a bit for this mornings class. I hope that each of you are feeling blessed and lucky today....no matter where this message finds you.

Un abrazo.....

todays highlights

Doing yoga on the front porch at 6:30 this morning and have the cutest dog join in and immediately demonstate a perfect up and down dog. He then proceded to nibble Joel's ear in cobra and my big toe in standing forward fold. We decided to cut the session short and take Chipitali for a walk down the beach.

More mango deliciousness. Yummmmm.....

Three dips in the sea for jumping into waves, floating atop the waves, and getting smashed by them too. One that slammed me into Rhonda and during the flailing of her arms she punched me in the lip. Got a wee little swelling in the ol' liperoo.

Tomato and avocado sammies. And real coka cola. With real sugar.

Reading/reviewing materials for the retreat in hammock.

Studying ayurveda seaside.

Delicious dinner with wine, bread, nuts, pasta, hot tea, chocolate mousse... followed by a dark walk up the beach with Rhonda in which we wondered if we would see our lil cabana. It is super dark on the beach, which is a big plus to me. It is simply beautiful. We found our sweet little cabana. We waited outside with Joel and mama caught a taxi back.

I sit. And gaze at the stars. And gratitude unfolds.

made it to mexico!

Hola! As I sit here typing, this is the view I see! Yeah, pretty amazing. And I'm not taking a second of it for granted. :)

Travels yesterday were uneventful. Thankfully so since it was my mom's first flight. She was a trooper. She started in the window seat then ended up swapping with me for the middle seat. Turns out she didn't like looking out so much. But she did want to see out the clouds so I took some on her camera.

We are stayling at Playa Selva in a traditional cabana that is two stories. The living space, bathroom, and small bed are downstairs (where Joel is sleeping) and a nice big bedroom upstairs with a kind and single bed for myself, mom, and sis. And we have a porch and a balcony to enjoy view like above.

Yesterday and part of today have been stormy. Something was brewing out in the sea that they thought might turn into a hurricane. Happy to say it didn't. We did have some rain and high winds. The water was a bit more green. But now it's back to the Carribean blue (which makes mama a happy gal) and a great ocean breeze that is refreshing.

I woke at 6:30. It was too cloudy to see the sun rise. I did spend about an hour doing yoga and meditation. We made a delcious fruit salad with mango (oh myyyyy, so good), pear, apples, and banana. It was a sweet surprise to have all this tasty fruit at our cabana.

We took a long walk on the beach and got ready to go into town. The owners of Playa Selva were going into town so they offered to take us. Again, it's the small touches like this that make me love it here so much. We went to an Italian restaurant and had great pizza and orangeade. It was right next to Tulums only supermarket. We loaded up on goodies for the week and caught a taxi back.

Spend time on the beach, a little splashing in the water, then Ayurveda studies. I am skyping (first time) with my teacher tomorrow to see how I'm progessing. My sister sits next to me, my mom is reading in front of me on the balcony, and I hear Joel chattering Spanish downstairs as he in getting a private lesson. Life is good. :)

Hugs, kisses,and sun salutations from Mexico.....

subs & book clubs!

I'm very thankful for the sweet and talented yoga teachers that will be subbing while I'm away. What a great time for you to get to learn from other teachers?! I know that you'll appreciate them as much as me.

You can view the classes and teachers here.

I also left info about book club out of the email newsletter. Thanks to Jeanne for the info...

This month, we're back to our regular time of noon on Sunday, July 25. Our book, "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran, proves to be another inspiring read. K will be leading the discussion. The Morris Book Shop will have copies available for us -- or will be able to order them with a quick turn-around.

See you there -- and bring a friend and a veggie snack, if you wish. And remember, you are welcome to attend even if you haven't read the book.

Off to visit a place so warm, so tropical, so magical, so full of yoga love that they hang yoga mats out to dry on a line. :)

retreat theme & bathing suit story

I just finished all of my materials for the retreat to Mexico! Yay, so happy! Now all I've gotta do is get them copied and stuffed into the folders for retreatees. This year's theme is "Journey into Bliss" and we'll be working through the koshas.

Yoga classes feel so divine for a reason. The reason being that we are much more than a body. Much more than mind. The practice of yoga lets us touch on the other aspects or layers of oneself.

Essentially they are
*body
*breath
*mind
*wisdom
*bliss

They start at the outermost level (physical) and work more inward (to spirit). Each day we'll start with a short talk about the kosha of the day, have a practice geared to this kosha, and in the handouts retreatees will have notes about ways to explore and bring the kosha into balance. I've also got a list of journaling inquiries for each kosha.

Hoping this will give enough form to learn about the koshas in a group setting and also freedom for those wanting to explore the koshas in greater depth. That's all for now. Don't want to give too much away since some of you reading will be attending. But there will be a few surprises.

Must go now and get to packing. One exciting thing from the weekend was finding the perfect bathing suit that I was looking for. Andy and I were in Owensboro this weekend. I always love going cause Andy's mom has every magazine under the sun. And well....I'm a sucker for mags. I was looking through Health and flipped to the section for bathing suits. You know the bit, "find the perfect suite for you."

I browsed through and saw a really sweet one piece. I looked at the brand (Caribbean Joe) and the price ($75) and thought...."that would be perfect!".
But knew I didn't have time to order and was only hoping this late in the game that I'd find a new bathing suit period.

BUT I went shopping with Andy's mom. We went to TJ Maxx first. I went straight to the bathing suits...flipping through the racks....then coming straight to the exact bating suit I just saw in Health magazine. I tried it on. Purchased it for only $19. And walked out a super happy camper. :) Still can't believe it!

**Pic is of my brother and sis, her first flight to Mexico last January. Next up is my mama and her first flight! Love being a part of it.**

yoga classes

Greetings Yogis!

Just wanted you to know that we are having all of our regularly scheduled classes this weekend. You can enjoy yoga today at 10:30 and tomorrow at 4:30 or 6:00. Enjoy!

Wishing you a day filled with sunshine, sparkles, and happy summer moments. :)