Home again and back to “real life.” The past few weeks now seem surreal, though the memories and pictures keep me smiling like a fool.
So where was I?
First I was here:
Then here, for a beautiful wedding:
And then spent a lot of time here:
Piroshky’s anyone?
I don’t usually make New Year’s Resolutions, but this year I was inspired to make a list of goals. (Thank you, EZ, for the inspiration!) Some of these won’t actually be accomplished in 2010, but they’re on the list anyways. 
Goals for 2010
- Get into a safe and stable tripod headstand without using a wall
- Do more yoga: more styles, more places, and teach more
- Get certified in prenatal yoga
- Volunteer more
- Cook more vegan meals
- Learn to make real curry, rather than buying the premade stuff
- Gossip less
- Become more compassionate
- Travel more (even within the state!)
- Actually catch a fish while out fly fishing (and not the trees, rocks, bushes or my own rear end)
- Touch a bamboo fly rod
- Learn to tie flies
- Practice more acts of charity and gratitude
- Pay off my credit card bill
- Write more: blogging, creative writing, journaling
- Discover at least two new authors
- Read a volume of poetry by a contemporary poet
- Spend more time outdoors, even in the city
- Find a cute hat with a big brim and wear it in the summer
- Go to the beach at least twice
- Go downhill skiing at least once more before 2011
- Learn to telemark ski
What are your goals for 2010?
Core Flow
60 minutes
8 peeps
Music: Take Me Home and Somewhere over the Rainbow, by I. Kamakawio’ole
child’s pose
cat/cow tilts
downward facing dog
modified vinyasa
3 sun As
2 sun Bs
3-legged ab work
warrior I
warrior II
reverse warrior
triangle
prasritta A
pivot to front
tadasana
repeat from 3-legged ab work to triangle on left
vinyasa to table top
opposite arm/leg
spider
child’s pose
repeat on other side
3 locusts
2 bridge with block between thighs
supta baddha konasana
abs with block (“Forrest abs”)
happy baby
inversion
spinal twist
savasana
Rangeley really is the best town. Today’s group was some repeats from Monday and some new faces too.
Thank you to Jeff Hawksley for letting me volunteer teach at the fitness center! And thank you to all the people who came to class. Thank you for showing up, for your willingness and enthusiasm. It warms the cockles of this yoga teachers heart (especially when it’s -30 below!)
Tagged ab work, ab workout, abs, asanas, core flow, downward facing dog, hard yoga poses, poses, teaching yoga, yoga flow, yoga poses
Yoga-lates for Boomers
Rangeley Region Fitness Center
December 28, 2009
60 minutes
7 peeps
Music: Prana After Dark 12 by Ray Mucci
child’s pose
cat-cow tilts
down dog
modified vinyasa
high plank
knees down as lower to mat
cobra
table top
downward facing dog
tadasana
2 Sun As with modified vinyasa
2 Sun Bs with crescent lunge and high twist
3-legged dog ab work
low lunge with hip opener
triangle
pivot to back wall into triangle
low lunge with hip opener
tadasana
tree
lower to mat on 5 count
3 locust
2 bridge with block between thighs
supta baddha konasana
rock and roll
modified half pigeon in 3 stages
wide-legged baddha konasana
viparita karani
spinal twist
savasana
I volunteered to teach a couple yoga classes at the Rangeley Region Fitness Center and thanks to my parents who recruited their friends, I had a class full of enthusiastic fifty-somethings. They were AWESOME! They came committed, enthusiastic and I think it was a reality check for a lot of the men on just how aerobic yoga can be. It’s not just sitting on a mat and stretching for 60 minutes. The class was pretty heavily modified to accommodate an older audience. I can’t wait to see them again on Tuesday and Wednesday!
The family is up in Rangeley, Maine for the holidays. Snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing (maybe), and a lot of napping, sleeping, reading and hanging out is being accomplished.
Brother Bear & Me on Cross Country Skis
Christmas was beautiful and laid-back. We really pared down on the buying this year, focusing on spending time together rather than buying a ton of stuff that no one really needs.
A Maine Christmas: A new fly fishing net!
On Christmas Eve, the clouds sunk really low and as the temperatures continued to drop, everything was coated in a thick layer of rime ice. I’ve never seen this happen at such a low elevation, usually it happens up on the mountain tops. It made for a gorgeous, crystally morning and some cool photo ops.
Internet access is spotty (as in I have to get to the ski lodge or the public library for access) so posting will be sparse until I get back to Cambridge.
There are some great posts coming your way in the New Year! So in the meantime be safe, be healthy and be your yoga.
Happy New Year & Namaste!
Tagged cross country skiing, downhill skiing, happy new year, ice, maine, merry christmas, new year, rangeley, skiing, snow, snowshoeing, Yoga
Going to be in the Rangeley Lakes region over Christmas and New Years?
Get out of the cold and come warm up at my yoga class at the Rangeley Region Fitness Center!
I’ll be teaching a “yoga-lates” class. (It’s really more of a Core Flow, but I guess “yoga-lates” is better marketing.)
Class times are:
Monday 12/28 – 9am
Tuesday 12/29 — 5pm
Wednesday 12/30 — 9am
Hope to see you there!
One of the highlight of my recent trip up to Rangeley was flyfishing — in waders! Awesome!
wading boots drying in the sun
We took a lot of hikes and woods walks. Some were very relaxed
bunchberries and toes
Others were a little more intense … and muddy!
mud!
Whatever we were doing, though, it’s always great to be in Rangeley. I am already looking forward to heading back up in October!
lakeshore
This weekend I discovered and rediscovered two new loves: fly-fishing and headstands.
I grew up watching my Dad and brother fly fish and have done my own share of fishing with a Snoopy pole and bobber. That kind of fishing wasn’t really for me though. No problems with threading worms onto hooks or gently slipping fish back into the water — my nemesis was boredom. Cast the line, sit and wait. Stare at the bobber. Pick your nose. Maybe catch a fish. Fly fishing changes that. It’s an art, a constant physical activity that demands your full attention at every moment. It’s a lot like yoga, so it’s no big surprise that I enjoyed it so much.
For Christmas I got a fly fishing “starter kit“: rod, reel, vest and some flies and was enrolled in LL Bean’s Fly Fishing Essentials I for Women on July 18th. (Side note: I highly, highly recommend L.L. Bean’s Oudoor Discovery School! Great instructors!) The two other women in the class and I met our instructor Sue and got right down to business. Four hours of theory, knot tying, and casting practice later I was feeling fairly confident in my skills and totally in love.
Sunday we got to practice a little in the pond in the backyard. My form totally fell apart in most places as I tried to adapt to a totally different terrain than the smooth, wide-open spaces I learned in the day before. Most of the fishing time was spent looking like this:
%@^*($!
Later in the day I got a chance to practice my headstands in the yard. I haven’t been able to practice them at all in the studio, so this was a real treat to rediscover something that I am learning to love. Inversions and I haven’t always been friends, but I think I’m falling in love (ha!) with headstands.
up up and away!
I didn’t catch any fish and I didn’t get my legs straight, but each activity brought so much joy that it didn”t matter that neither is perfect. I have a lifetime of fly fishing and headstands in front of me. It’s doubtful that they’ll ever be perfect no matter how hard I try … and that’s the beauty of it. Yoga has taught me to find the light in the imperfections and be comfortable and happy where I am — not where I want to be. Of course I want to be a better fisherman and to get my legs straight up overhead, but the journey is the fun part, not the result.
I hear there’s some killer landlocked salmon at the end of the journey, too.
The Inuit people of North America have a hundred words for snow. The same is true with Seattleites and rain. In the six days I was there we had mist, light mist, heavy mist, rain, drizzle, sprinkles, scattered showers, light showers, sporadic showers, downpours, heavy rain, and cats & dogs. (Just kidding about the last one. Though if I heard Renee Montagne say it, I wouldn’t have batted an eyelash.
Despite the weather, which really wasn’t all that bad, Seattle is an amazing city. Socially-conscious, artistic and open, I felt like I was in a near-perfect hybrid of Edinburgh (weather) and Boston (kick-arse city on the water), but with the added benefits of liberal hippie/yuppieism with a dash of ironic hipster, lest everyone get too serious about it all. It wouldn’t be a lie to say that if I had visited in 2007, I would now be writing this blog from Seattle instead of Boston. And yet, how wonderful to fall in love with a place and know that it will always be there for a visit.
So, without further ado (and maudlin meaderings) here are some photographic highlights:
(More pics on Flickr!)
Steel girders at the breathtakingly modern Seattle Public Library
Yes. we saw them throw fish. Yes, it was very very cool.
Northwest Native American art in Occidental Park (I think!)
Sea Otters at Seattle Aquarium - utter cuteness
The hostess with the mostess and
So far, all the east-coast stereotypes of Seattle are proving true, which I’m finding utterly hilarious. The coffee is superb, it’s rained non-stop since I landed (in the rain), the traffic is intense, the people are friendly, Microsoft, Boeing and Starbucks are everywhere, and the politics are supremely liberal (I haven’t seen one McCain/Palin sticker yet). In short, this is my kind of town.
I’m staying the area known as Tangletown in the Green Lake neighborhood, just a few miles outside of downtown Seattle. The houses are all super cute and mostly built around the turn of the century. Tess’s house is adorable, with beautiful and charming touches in the woodwork, big windows to catch any available sunlight, and handcrafted tiles set into the fireplace from the original mason who built the place in 1904.
Pictures will be delayed as I’m working with film, but I’ll get them up soon after I return.
Today’s tentative itinerary: lunch with Tess in Pioneer Square (near Sasquatch books), errands to get ready for the Halloween Party tonight, a nap (damn east-coast time!), then trick-or-treaters and a Spooktacular Party!
Blogging will resume, hopefully, on Monday, when I return to the incredible Seattle Public Library to take a tour and use their computers
