Everyday Yogini

Yesterday, I spent most of the day preparing to have guests over to our home today.  I started the day stressed and tense, and ended it by actually getting down on the floor and playing with Clara.  We tossed the “indoor” ball and played soccer, took a bath and danced a bit to her new CD. All in all, it was a lovely way to end the day.  I am really enjoying and appreciating the groove Clara and I seem to be in at the moment.   

Today was a perfect Saturday. Erick and Clara went for a walk while I prepared buckwheat pancakes and fruit salad for breakfast. We ate our yummy breakfast together (and Clara even ate pancakes! I was so happy…) and then got ready for our luncheon with a Canadian family that lives nearby. After a delicious lunch, Erick, Clara, and I laid down for a family nap. Oh, it was so decadent and wonderful. I couldn’t sleep, really. I just lay there and listened to Clara and Erick snore their identical snores and snuggled with Clara.

When we got up, our domestic had finished cleaning up all the dishes so the house was clean and in perfect order for the rest of our weekend- a long weekend at that (Monday is an Italian holiday). It really, really doesn’t get any better than that.

I am amazed at how the positive aspects of my life are so much more obvious to me as conscientiously focus on gratitude and what is beautiful in my life. I love this practice. Feel free to join in… you won’t be sorry.

Today it was quite humid here.  Quite.  Humid.  With rain showers thrown in to increase the moisture content of the air periodically.  As I was tromping around the city, I had the great good fortune of having a broken umbrella available to me. But TRUE good fortune visited me today as I was feeling pissy and sorry for my damp and soggy self on the bus today.  I actually got a seat to sit down on a longish bus ride.  

I was busy mentally bitching to myself about hating humidity, and the side dish of all this moisture and smog: zits, and wondering if my new haircut was as too-short as I think it might be when I realized, “I am sitting down.  ON THE BUS!  What a stroke of good fortune!”  

Humidity, zits, too-short haircuts, and damp, soggy clothes faded into the background as I relished the joy of having a seat on the bus today.  Simple pleasures. Yoginis, gratitude is a miracle.

Well, I missed a day.  I tell you, things are busy all of a sudden.  Busy with a capital B.  And yesterday, I was buzzing with excitement over the new job, our newest plans for a vacation in a few short weeks, meetings with friends, a fun evening out…

After all of  yesterday’s excitement, today I am so grateful that a comfortable bed is waiting for me to fall into it.   Which is where I’m headed right now.

As a child, our family kept a rather large garden- at one point, it was about an acre in size.  That garden was the centerpiece of my childhood.  Pulling fresh carrots up, rinsing them in the hose, and eating them on the spot for my afternoon snack, the taste of warm earth still clinging to the carrot.  Enormous squash and pumpkins, oh-my-god the luscious tomatoes that ruined me for life, stalks of corn dense enough to get lost in…  but my favorite, favorite, favorite rows of our garden were the rows of peas.

I have vivid memories of picking peas with my grandma- one pod for the bowl, two pods for me, one pod for the bowl, one for me, so on and so forth. It was a miracle if any peas made it into the kitchen. It was a source of pride (and maybe a little irritation) for my parents to never have to harp on me to eat my peas (or any vegetable for that matter!).

Do I even have to tell you what has just come into season here? You guessed it: peas. Glorious peas, unshelled, perfectly packaged in their sweet little pods, just waiting for me to undress them and pop them in my mouth… they are supposed to be for dinner tomorrow night. I may have to go get more at the market tomorrow.   

Ah, bliss…

I am humbled by, grateful for, and happy to support people who do work like this. Please join me in supporting No Impact Man.

I am grateful today for new friends- not only new friends for Clara, but new friends for Erick and I.  We had a lovely outing with another family to a new (to us) park and afterward, we shared lunch at a simple and delicious local restaurant.  Erick has been extraordinarily busy at work and I was happy to see him relax and unwind a bit.  

Tomorrow, I am anticipating a wonderful day exploring the Jewish Ghetto with another new friend and her sweet boys- both of whom Clara adores.  There is nothing better than watching Clara develop friendships- and getting to do that right alongside her.    

Today is the first day all week I’ve been home and able to catch up with some admin-type things.  I was giddy with excitement when I dropped Clara off at school- I was able to go to the market at a leisurely pace and take in all the lovely smells and colors of the blooming summer.  When I am busy, I am much more appreciative of the time I have to myself and the time I have with Erick and Clara.

When I got home from the market, lovely leftover fritatta was waiting for me for lunch- yum!  Coupled with ripe, juicy strawberries (picked up at the market, of course), this combo made for  a very satisfying lunch.  As always, I ate my lunch in front of my computer (old habits from my years of accounting die hard- or not at all) and I was able to catch up with some continuing professional education for the CPA license.  Every time I work on my continuing education, I am overcome with gratitude.  Thank goodness I am through that and able to just enjoy classes here and there to keep up with my profession!

And, of course, it’s Friday.  I am so happy that we will get to spend a nice weekend here in Rome, together, as a family.  Erick has some things coming up that are going to keep him away from us over the next few weeks, but this weekend is ours.  It’s been raining all week, but the sun is peeking out, promising to come play on Saturday and Sunday!  As they say here in Rome, buon Weekend, Yoginis!

Today’s Yoga class was an intermediate class and I thought it would be fun to start with a class focused on balance.  Balance is that elusive quality of finding our center and holding it without becoming rigid or tight.  The word balance has it’s origins in the latin root balare, which, happily enough, means to dance.  Doesn’t that change your whole perspective on achieving balance?  There is a quality of perpetual movement and graceful adjustment, when we think about it in those terms…  there is no end achievement, just constant practice while we learn to experience and dance with the richness of ALL experiences.

One of the things that I enjoy most about teaching a  Yoga class (and blogging) is that going through the process of laying out a class (or a blog post) helps me clarify my thoughts and my values and beliefs.  Over the last year, I feel like striving to keep up with the dance of my life circumstances was all I could do.   I am immensely grateful for the changes that have truly transformed my world.  Even when it hurt so bad I could hardly breathe, I knew (even in the middle of it) that that pain would, eventually, turn around and make the sweet spots that much sweeter.

I can say with a great deal of faith that my Yoga and meditation practice made that bit of equanimity and balance possible.  I am so grateful for that.  So. So. Soooo filled with gratitude.

Today, I was called to the Embassy to pick up a mountain (I’m barely exaggerating here) of paperwork from HR.  I am so happy to have my arm hurting from filling out form after form.  I can’t believe how happy I am to be GOING BACK TO WORK.

Please feel free to remind me of this moment of gratitude If I am whining in six months.

I also had an impromptu lunch date with the woman who currently has the position- she is so great!  It is so nice to be replacing someone who wants you to succeed.  And it’s always wonderful to eat delicious, Italian food…

Clara snuggled up with me this morning after a bad dream…  I love it that my arms around her provide a place of safety and comfort.  After she went back to sleep, I slipped out of bed for a long, (uninterrupted) shower before Clara woke up and was able to sit in meditation for a few minutes before she woke, requiring my attention.  A lovely way for a rainy day to begin.  

The rain has stopped for now, and as soon as the rain stops, the birds start singing.  Taking advantage of the sunshine.  Singing it’s praises, maybe?