It’s Spring!

I have to say, that after what seemed like a very long, very cold and all around difficult winter, I am beyond excited for Springtime in Kansas City. I’ve been getting things ready for the warmer weather–purging old clutter, removing obstacles both physically and spiritually to make room for the new growth that Springtime brings and getting out to explore the city as it comes to life again.

Another way I am honoring and creating space for growth and renewal within myself is by taking a moment to reconnect and get back into my exercise routine.  The winter treated me pretty well overall–I got to run the PsychoWyco (lemme tell you about that sometime!) and connected with a personal trainer, but I can definitely tell that the long nights, lack of sunlight and cold have taken their toll on me.

 

Like anything trying to grow, however, I am trying to remind myself that it’s going to take a little bit of time for the habits that I took for granted last year to become fully realized in this moment. It’s a little hokey, but I can relate in some ways to the sprouting flowers and the beginnings of blossoms I see on the trees around here–we all know that they will become, but it’s a process to get there.

 

 

People talk a lot about New Year’s Resolutions and what they are going to accomplish–I have started taking a different approach.  I am making seasonal resolutions–trying to focus my time and energy on things that are appropriate for the season. I have found that when I go with the seasons and stop trying to fight the natural world’s rhythm, things fall into place.  For example, Winter is a time to reflect, draw inward, nest, build and support a home structure–it is also a time to work on warming the body from the inside through powerful, earthy Yoga sequences or brisk, winter-time activity fun such as skiing or snowshoeing which use deep core muscles and groups.   Winter is also a reminder that simple can be the most beautiful–taking in a landscape that is essentially devoid of color and seeing the beauty in it can be as therapeutic as meditating.

 

 

So, now that it’s Spring, I’m moving out of hibernation as it were and into the routine of active growth, self-exploration and moving meditations. I am also figuring out ways to bring the elements of the budding world around me into the home–fresh flowers, small changes in color schemes and fresh, seasonal foods are all working their way into my daily life.

 

It’s not easy in the world we live in to stay mindful of the natural flow of the earth and the environment–we have every device and technological advance available to make nature more of an accessory than a guide.  But, I believe that allowing the seasons to influence us on a deeper, more involved level can lead to a sense of purpose and happiness.

 

So, get out there and start enjoying Spring and all the months of growth and warmth to come!

 

If you’re looking for more great tips on how to bring seasonal rhythm into your life, check out this article from Yoga Journal!

 

 

WordPress snow and longing for some deep winter

WordPress has some fancy footwork in play (hooray HTML5), which makes the screen appear to be snowing. It’s making me long for some real-life snow of our own. People can argue for or against Global Warming all they want, but the reality is, we’re living in different times than we used to and it’s really scary. The Yoga I practice tells me that I should accept change as it comes, breathing in and out all the same, accepting the day-to-day fluctuations. But the idea of rapid, major Global change is terrifying to me. It’s overwhelming and it makes me want to get out there and do something about it–and then reminds me how small of a blip on the map I really am.  It’s very humbling to look at and process the numbers of people on this planet and the rates at which we consume every single day. And those of us who recycle and make or grow our own foods and drive less, walk more, ride bikes, whatever it is, aren’t even making a dent in the overall population.  We aren’t putting the atmosphere back together every time we make a good decision and ride a bike instead of driving our cars.  We are accomplishing lots of other wonderful things but it’s not like we can simply undo what we’ve done already.

I don’t mean to sound pessimistic but it’s something that I think about, a lot.

I don’t like talking about my fears like this and I don’t like being controlled by them, but I’ve also learned the value of expressing those emotions and feelings which threaten to consume me.  And so, there it is. I am afraid of Global Warming and of not having any power to stop it.

 

Merry Happy Holiday Stuff!

So, the holiday season is upon us here in Kansas City and, while it’s far from snowing here, it is still starting to feel a little bit like the holidays.

This being said, I wanted to share my Etsy site with you all and let you know that I happen to be hosting a sale.   All you have to do is enter coupon code Merry15 at checkout!

Love you all and have a safe and wonderful Holiday Season.

So it’s been a while. Hopefully all can be forgiven.

I think I’m talking mostly to myself in that title but ya know, whatever.  It’s been an awesome, busy, ridiculous and stressful month of July and as it came to a close on the 31st, I can’t say that I was sorry to see it go.  First and foremost, this blog is supposed to be about the random awesome that can be found in Kansas City. SO, for all of you who don’t know, we just wrapped our 8th annual KC Fringe Festival and by god was it awesome or what.  457 shows, 30 visual artists, a mobile Art Truck (Yes, the one from the pictures I posted earlier in the season! Wait til you see it now!), amazing, amazing volunteers and good friends.  It’s a force to be reckoned with.  </soapbox>  Go check out our webpage if you haven’t before and if you’re in town next year, check us out.  We’d love to have you!

 

This blog is not just focused on Kansas City, however.  It’s also focused on the growth that I have experienced and continue to experience during my time here.  Maybe it’s narcissistic.  Maybe I don’t care.  Ha.  Ego.  Take that.

 

We recently went to Colorado and it was a strange but great trip overall.  I did all the requisite revisiting of places and spent time in the mountains.  I even showed off my new job skills by working from Golden while sipping a mocha in the beautifully cool air.  We mountain biked, we indulged, we fell down mountains and got really sunburned and had to reorganize our trip a bit to accommodate for said blunders….and yet it left with a really strange sense of uncovering something that I had left deeply buried.  I still can’t wrap my mind around it really but I feel like something has been opened up, uncovered, exposed perhaps.  I don’t know.  It’s not that I want to move back to CO just yet, I’m not ready for that for all sorts of reasons.  But I also don’t want to sit in KC the rest of my life.  It’s a strange place to be in;  on one hand I’m involved in and making a difference in some really awesome things in Kansas City–experiences that I don’t feel would be as readily available in other cities, especially one as competitive as Denver–and yet, I know this isn’t where I’m going to end up.  I want to go to grad school, I want to continue to travel, I want to experience living with new horizon lines and an ocean–or maybe different mountains–or both.  I say it’s a strange place to be because it’s not exactly wanderlust I’m feeling–at least that I know what to do with.  I’ve spent most of my life wanting to be somewhere else.  This “exposing” of whatever it is that is driving this shift in perception comes at a time when I thought I was getting better at living in the present.  Perhaps I am.  Perhaps that’s why I am not experience true wanderlust and instead something that is quieter–different.  

 

I don’t know.

 

I have been trying a new yoga class the past few weeks–I’m still going to see Bernie of course–but I added a Kria Yoga class to my regime.  I was really, really skeptical at first.  Me?  Use props?  My inner Ego just about threw a fit.  I had always and incorrectly perceived that props were for people who couldn’t just touch their damn toes.  I’m wrong.  I knew I was wrong but now I really know it.  We did a supported chest opener that was practically religious.  It was amazing.  We don’t cover as much ground in this new class but the ground we do cover is very thoroughly done.  I appreciate the slower pace and the focus and attention given to some of the more forgotten parts of the Yogic body.  And, the teacher comes around and gives scalp massages.  It really doesn’t get any better than that!

 

More on all of this later–definitely needed to jump back into the Blogging Waters though! 

 

 

 

 

Mmmm Tasty TED Talks. (c:

 

I have quite a lot I want to write about but it’s taking some time to percolate and form itself in my mind.  So, I’m waiting.  I’m trying not to procrastinate–sometimes these blog posts are difficult for me and I don’t know why.  I feel like I’m trying to saysomething but I can’t quite get to heart of it.  I have missed my blogging, however, and it’s time to get back on the saddle.

It has been a very crazy transitional period for me the past month or so and as the dust begins to settle I can see that it’s been a very good thing.  Prana is in everything and we need to stir it up sometimes!

 

I just returned from a trip to Colorado where we went mountain biking and visited some old and new haunts–wonderful trip filled with all of the requisite “Summer Things”:  Lots of playing outside from dusk ’til dawn, delicious iced coffees sipped from verandas with mountain views, sun-soaked skin and a dose of adventure and pure Nature.  I have much more to say and some stories to tell but I don’t think now is quite the time.  So, instead, go enjoy the TED talk on creativity and the roles and destruction of “Genius” from Elizabeth Gilbert and I’ll be back shortly with some musings.

 

Namaste.

Blackjack CO Trail

So, this is where we are currently plotting to go ride in the next few weeks…should be awesome. (c: It’s not KC but it’s worth mentioning!

More Art Truck!

It’s really coming along!

Way too much excitement! (c:

So, I just found out that this is happening close enough to me to make it almost unbearable to miss: https://jackrabbit.webconnex.com/jurek  

Grrr!  I am a newbie to the barefoot running phenomenon and have only done one 5k but Scott Jurek is a total idol of mine…as is Christopher McDougall–Scott Jurek shows me the outside limits of human awesomeness–and Chris McDougall shows what is possible if you start out as someone who wants to run but keeps getting told either that you’re “not built for it” or that you’re “too injured” or that “running is just hard on the body” or all three and says to hell with all of it–and then scampers off to (casually enough) the Copper Canyons to learn how running is SUPPOSED to be done. Through first hand experience running with the late Caballo Blanco and the Tarahumara indians, he learned how to rebuild his body and mind.  It’s just another example of how age, upbringing, culture, etc. all have truly nothing to do with what we can accomplish.  Most people like to rely on the excuse that society provides, nay, tell us is true “oh, you’re too old to start something new.”  “Youth is the only valuable attribute anyone has, better use it while we can.”  Even that annoying John Mellencamp song sings about how you’re supposed to hold on to 16 as long as you can…but here is a tribe of people and a group of athletes who have taken all of the cliches and accepted truths and shot holes clear through them.  All while running around the country like a bunch of happy-go-lucky whackjobs with big smiles on their faces.

 

Something tells me they are on to something.  The joie de vivre.  The rasion d’etre.  The joy of life.  So, maybe it’s not running (though I challenge anyone to read “Born to Run” and not want to go for even the tiniest jog around the block) but it is something. There is something in your life, in my life, in the cosmic world that drives us to push ourselves, motivate ourselves and come fully into our own beings.  So, what is it for you?

I’ll be sad to miss the event but I’m hoping I’ll get another chance to meet and run with them someday.

 

Fear, get out of my way!

I realized the other day that in all the hustle I had forgotten to finish my chronicle of my mini-meditation challenge.  I did finish, not quite as strongly as I’d wanted, but I did it.  The mornings and afternoons of meditation passed pretty uneventfully really-I struggled to let go of what Bernie calls “The Meditator”–the one who has all these expectations about what meditation is or is not.  I struggled to not fidget, to not care if someone was looking at me while I sat outside, cross-legged in the grass…all good practice.  I need to continue finding time for myself to sit and be still.

The good news is that I’m nearing the end of the total crazy period in my life (extended work hours, lots of Fringe Festival prep, side projects out the wazoo) but I don’t quite feel that sense of relief.

I’m accustomed and entirely comfortable being reallycrazybusyallthetime.  I am not, however, so comfortable with being still.  And that is what the next phase of my life is going to require.  I’ll still have a lot of responsibilities and obligations and things that I have to or want to do but it’s going to require me to pull from a different place internally and mentally to accomplish what I need to do.

That, is pretty scary to me.  I talk a lot about my philosophy on change and how you can’t let yourself stagnate and you should always be curious and learning and all of those things, but when it comes down to it, I can be pretty “traditional” sometimes.  I like certain securities and I wish that I didn’t.  I am not proud of my stuffy side, as I call it, the one that gets in the way when I have an opportunity to do something really cool or big or potentially really, really good for me, but it requires me walking away from the Familiar, the Comfortable and the Stable.  I know that the only constant in life is change…but intellectually understanding that and actually being ok with it are two different things.

So.  I stand at this impass.  I know that I need to take a leap and get some movement, some prana, back in my life.  But, what happens if it’s the wrong decision?  I’m pretty resilient and I have a good network of people around me but, depending on the moment, that either does or does not feel like enough.

I read this guest blog post by Katie Silcox on Yoga Journal’s website and it really resonated with me.  If you can forgive some of the typos, it’s a really great post.  And so true.

Bridges to new places are really exciting–let’s just hope this one is made of something solid enough to support me for as long as the journey takes.

 

Life happens. Yup. There it goes!

Definitely got busy around here.  Sigh.  It’s a good thing but I’m seeing now how it’s going to go for the next few weeks.  (c:  Bring it on!  And while you’re busy bringing it, I’ll be napping…hehe.  Or sneaking away for some sort of massage or other pamper-ous treat.  Or hiding.  That could also be an option.

But seriously, things are going well.  It’s been nuts staying on top of everything but I’m getting into a rhythm.  I went for a run on Saturday, did yoga on Sunday…did a lot for my spirit and my body for sure.

Last First Friday’s was amazing-we got a ton of awesome stuff done on the Art Truck! I will toss a photo or two up in just a bit so you all can see what’s been goin’ on!  It’s looking so cool.  I couldn’t have done any of it without the amazing people who showed up to help, either.

So-I’ll try to be a bit more consistent with the posts but it could be a little sparse around here as I run around like a crazy person. (c:

Check out our awesome Art Truck!