truckin' along

it's been a busy weekend, filled with a weekend-long motor speech disorders course with jay rosenbek (awesome and inspiring), a birthday party, a benefit for njg's teeth, and personning the booth for prananda at sunday parkways in penninsula park. i luckily got a little breather this evening on the way to picking up the weasel and her hubby at the airport - the sunset was so beautiful on this longest day of the year...

ch-ch-ch-changes redux

so, things are a-changin' 'round here...again! the studio where i teach yoga is closing its doors at the kenton location and temporarily relocating to the owner's house. we are hopeful that a new and improved prananda yoga and arts center will rise from the ashes like a phoenix in (at the latest) september. in the interim, i will be teaching a donation-only weekly class out of my house for my peeps who have been hard-hit by this crummy economy. and maybe some other free/almost free classes to keep up my skills.

all this change has me thinking back to that new year's intention i set back at the year's turn. i'm trying to remember to keep this little heart open to what the universe brings...

are you?

100th post!

the last few weeks have been crazy/great/nuts/busy/fun/etc. i graduated from yoga school and started teaching at prananda (portlanders! come to my tuesday 7:35 p.m. basics class). adjusting to not spending my saturdays with 9 amazing people at the studio has been tough. i didn't realize how hard the shift was going to be. on the health front, i figured out what food sensitivity was making me so sick (garlic) and that i had a vitamin deficiency that was wrecking my immune system. i got the garden started (with the weasel's help), worked in the yard, went to some shows (including play/start and northern swords), ate breakfast, and taught yoga to some pregnant and parenting teens.

anyhoo, i'm back to the blog and to carrying my D40 around to document my little moment in my little corner of the world.

big week

last week was a doozie. i taught both my first yoga class ever (with 8 other teacher trainees) as well as my first yoga class all by myself.

the former was totally planned, and i taught 2 classical sun salutations, the first with a breakdown of bhujagasana (cobra pose) and the second with a breakdown of chaturanga dandasana (four-limbed staff pose). it went well, and i had a blast teaching.

the latter experience was completely unexpected. my instructor and the owner of the studio, joy, was ill this week, as was the other tuesday night instructor. i received an email from joy late monday afternoon which started with, "you'll probably wet your pants when you read this but i wouldn't ask unless i felt you could handle it" and went on to inquire if i could sub for the tuesday all levels class, the class i normally take. i was both deeply honored that joy felt i was ready and profoundly terrified of putting together my first yoga class and teaching it in ~24 hours. i mustered up the courage and took the plunge. i took one of the lesson plans from our trainee classes and modified it a bit to make it more challenging, as that class is usually filled with more intermediate-level students. dave graciously attended (although i'm not sure if that made me more or less nervous). i knew four of the five other students pretty well, and the fifth was a graduate of the program that i'm in now. everyone was so kind and patient with my intermittent stumbling and fumbling. they even laughed at my jokes, which was also nice. it was an ok class, although i couldn't help but go over all of my mistakes over and over in my brain for a couple of days. on friday, joy told me she received really good feedback about it. the most i can say right now is that at least i will never have to teach (and get all worked up about) my first class.

oh, and that i can't wait to do it again.

prananda sixth anniversary party

karaoke at the studio's sixth anniversary party. woooooo! lots of pics of bryan, but he was so on it with the karaoke!

shameless self-promotion

but isn't that what this whole blog-thing is for anyway?

FREE YOGA CLASSES!

Saturdays
4:30-6:00 p.m.
February 28 - March 28

Prananda Yoga and Arts Center
1920 N. Kilpatrick St.
503-249-3903

These classes will be taught by the 2008-2009 Prananda Yoga Teacher Training trainees. Trainees will rotate teaching throughout the class while the others adjust you in the asanas being taught. It is supervised by director Joy Wolfe. It's a win/win...you get a free class and they get the practice! Thanks for helping us. See you on the mats. First come first served.

luckiest person in the world

one of our assigments for yoga school this week was to do something nice for ourselves. i decided to allow myself to get overwhelmed with the love in my life.

i get overwhelmed with my good fortune in the amazing people i have the privilege to know in this lifetime. some of them make it into my blog in photos and comments, some just inspire me to quietly shine in admiration whenever i am around them. if i truly only am as good as the company i keep, then i must be pretty fucking awesome.

for example, in less than one week, i have/will have experienced (in no particular order):

• feeling the precious support of my colleagues
• learning life lessons from my patients
• having a plain old good phone conversation with my mom and hearing my dad in the background talking about my blog
• exchanging giggles with my sister on facebook
• connecting with old and dear friends on a quick overnight trip up north
• attending a beautiful party celebrating nine years of friend-marriage for nate and nicole
• dancing at the seriously rockin' show by PLAY/START
• cracking up on the phone with the "long arm of the law"
• getting all crushed-out at the artist reception for an amazingly talented lorenzo
• starting the day off right with breakfast club
• learning more than what's on the syllabus from joy and my fellow teacher trainees
• basking in the rulerstry of a brunch with the oft conscious-altering feminist club
• reading blog posts by some of my favorite people all over the world, as i watch their children grow, see glimpses of the world through their eyes, and get inspired by what they write
• reflecting on having met the most amazing person ever ten years ago this week.

bigups to all my peeps. thank you.

a surprise from ms. wilson

melissa went to yoga with me tonight, her first class at prananda. she showed up with a great surprise - the 2009 slingshot planner. on the back cover, there's a dead-ringer for leila!



here's a photo from the vault - one of my all-time faves of melissa.

yoga study group

i hosted a yoga study group tonight. vyvyan decided to help.

yoga and family times

my parents and grandfather arrived today, but i was in class until this evening. we just had dinner at the local pizza/pasta place, and then they were off to their hotel to get some much-needed sleep. i feel a little like my head's been spinning lately, so i'm really looking forward to some chill time with the folks this week.



this is prananda, the studio where i'm training to become a yoga instructor. joy wolfe, who owns the studio and runs the program is my current hero. today, we did a three-hour workshop on the 2nd and 3rd chakras, mainly core and abdominal work. one of the things we worked on today was this.






oh, and what the heck are these flowers doing blooming in october?