be the soul

a few of my favorite words magically strung together by rumi are, "wherever you stand, be the soul of that place."

this is my fifth year of collecting (the now ubiquitous) foot self-portraits.  this simple practice really does serve a purpose for me.  when i stop what i am doing to document where i am at that moment, my presence and awareness and groundedness intensifies.  the end-of-year collection is also a lovely lookback at some of the places i've stood and some of the moments i want to remember.

twenty-fourteen was made of color, flowers, farm markets, making, forests, new friends, books, dogs, yoga, and tiny adventures.

i'm happy i was here to experience, to be, the soul of it all.

more of the same please in 2015.  and these feet, they need to touch sand washed by the ocean called pacific.  they long to stand upon the motherland and be the soul with her sunsets and her tide pools and her fog and her wildflowers.  there is a clear call to be with my own history.

see previous years here.

stand in the place where you live

i tend to avoid the ubiquitous.  one exception is the foot photo/standing-here self-portrait, which i have been doing for several years.  i love taking these photos because 1. they provide space and time to stand still and be present and 2. create a lovely end-of-year snapshot of where i've been.  if you'd like, you can see previous years' collections here (just scroll past this current one).

a few things about 2013:

• i happily became accustomed to a slower pace of life, with more precious space and time
• i became a better traveler, mainly due to the gypsy job
• i fell in love (again) with nyc
• i spent a lot of time barefoot
• ditto staring at the sky
• i struggled with being vegetarian and had to balance nourishing my body with my strong opinions on meat-production (ultimately reintroducing organic/local/humanely-produced animal products, which turns out to not be a lot around here)
• i embraced meditation
• i avoided most crowds, too much noise, those personalities that drive me over the edge (passive-aggressive people, narcissists, fear-and-rage-mongers) to the extent possible 
• i had a lot of time to think, daydream, plan and try new things
• i wasted a lot of that time learned the value of doing nothing

as i reflect on the year, i consider it to have been really good overall, if not somewhat non-eventful...a resting year.

now face north.

a good year

twentytwelve:  ten things i liked about you

1. there was courage to leave the job that was smothering me
2. there was something better and brighter and way more me to replace it
3. working with meg:  more greens, more breath, more space for what's next
4. walks in the woods with my favorite person and a corgi who loves to hike
5. yogaville and yoga festivals and just plain yoga
6. kindreds
7. solstice fires, new years day picnics, country roads
8. letting go
9. becoming vegetarian
10. the karma garden

thank you.

see previous year-end-slash-gratitude-slash-foot-shots-collections here.

(p.s.  those pointy-toed ballet flats get some mileage!)

i was here

thank you 2011.  you gave me lots of solid ground upon which to stand.

i was here

i love the week between christmas and new year's day.  there's a magical pull to the future while looking back with gratitude and (mostly) satisfaction.  how do you acknowlege this transition? 

i do it with 'standing here' self-portraits.  i try to take at least one per month and really enjoy looking back at the places i've been and the space i inhabited.  some of them are fun and flighty and some really put me back in the emotion of that moment.

this year my feet touched both solid ground and undulating funhouse floors.  i slipped a few times and had to call at least one time-out to lie down; but mostly i stood confidently facing all the love, regret, beauty, acceptance, rejection, grace and fear.

some of the best places i stood in 2010:

• my home.  the home that loves me.
• my garden.  day or night, sun or stars, flora or snow, she always whispers, "do it."
• the cold pacific, who welcomed me home to california.
• the warm atlantic, who showed me i could stand solid even with shifting sand beneath my feet.
• bikram yoga class.
• with the most beautiful, talented, graceful women.  feeling like i belonged.
• at the door.  the same door i hovered around throughout 2009.  i'm still standing here wondering what's on the other side, trying to plan for all the possibilities and pitfalls.  i am slowly moving toward courage and away from the misconception that i can tip one toe into the unknown while the other foot holds firm in the certain.

thank you for standing with me.  where should we go in 2011?