Highlights from 2016

Farm view - Rural Retreat, VA

Well, they say it's better late than never...so, I'm finally getting to complete this post started many months ago.  For me, 2016 was shadowed by my sadness over my mother's passing away in February of last year.  I spent much of the rest of the year just taking things as they came as I realized that I wasn't going to be in control of things the way I usually like to be.  As I incorporated the responsibilities of settling an estate into an already busy schedule, I had to come to grips with the reality that grief makes you move at a slower pace through life.  I had to let some activities go in order to cope.  Despite that, there was still plenty to celebrate during the year.  The year was also filled with plenty of personal reflection, and I marked the end of the year by doing a look back to celebrate the highlights from 2016, picking a word and setting goals for 2017 as I have been doing over the past 10 years or so.

Here are some of the highlights from 2016:

I started and completed 1/4 of the coursework in a graduate school program in transpersonal psychology.  This partial stack of school books in the photo below kept me busy during the year.  My coursework has a large experiential component requiring a great deal of inner work.  My personal meditation practice has become even more consistent as I explored a variety of both Eastern and Western techniques.  I delved into a journey of self-discovery uncovering the mythologies of childhood and culture that are influencing me today, and immersed myself in discovering the science behind the powers of the human mind and the the mysteries of our dreams.  I've included a resource list of some of the books I explored in class and some others just for fun in case you are looking for something to add to your reading list.

Because of my studies, the garden didn't get as much of my attention as I would have liked to have given it.  However, the harvests still offered an abundance of fruits and vegetables plus beautiful flowers for bouquets.

I attended a weekend program on intuition and dreams at a farmhouse called the Big House in Rural Retreat, VA.  In addition to gaining new knowledge, it was a weekend of much needed rejuvenation, beautiful scenery, and making connections with a like-minded community.  After the program, the road trip continued with visits to family in Kentucky and Indiana before heading home and back to work and my studies.

The Big House in Rural Retreat, VA

Other highlights for the year included:

spending time with my brother and his family

a photography workshop with my favorite zen master

high tea at an historic inn with some of the ladies in the neighborhood

a fun summer evening at a traveling carnival with a girlfriend and her family

performing dance at a charity function

a special night at the 10-year anniversary celebration of  the release of Hip Tranquil Chick

my husband taking me to a performance of Love Letters by Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal

a beautiful local Christmas light display

monthly volunteering with my son at the local food bank

As I have done for many years, I completed Susannah Conway's Unravelling exercise of reflection for the year past and set aspirations for the year ahead.  Last year's word was IMMERSION, and that came about when I dove into my studies and also coped with being unexpectedly immersed in grief.  For 2017, I have chosen AUTHENTIC as my word to explore as my knowledge and worldview expand with my studies.  I'm looking forward to watching the rest of 2017 unfold and the adventures it might bring.

Thanks for reading!

Reading list:

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Personal Mythology: Using Ritual, Dreams, and Imagination to Discover Your Inner Story
Dream Solutions! Dream Realizations: The Original Dream Quest Guidebook
Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, and the Inexplicable Powers of the Human Mind
Meditation for Beginners
Living Deeply: The Art & Science of Transformation in Everyday Life
When the Soul Awakens: The Path to Spiritual Evolution and a New World Era
The Secret History of Dreaming
The Essential Edgar Cayce
Succulent Wild Woman - Dancing With Your Wonder-full Self!
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

   Rose in full bloom in my garden

Tidying Up

Mixed media play from my current sketchbook

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”   Don Williams, Jr.

Spring is here with its promise of new beginnings.  Changes brought on by a new job have turned my routine upside down, and I've been having a difficult time finding a new rhythm.  My discombobulated schedule has really thrown me for a loop with not enough time to write blog posts, experiment as much in the kitchen or dabble in other creative endeavors.  However, it has been good for me to take a step back and take a good look at my lifestyle and do a bit of an overhaul. 

While growing up, we moved nearly every two years with my father's work  in the military.  To ensure that we wouldn't go over our allotted shipping allowance for household goods, pre-move, my mother made sure we went through drawers, closets and shelves to evaluate if each of our possessions would come with us to our new home.  Was it still useful to us, had we outgrown it, was it in good working order or a prized possession with deep sentimental attachment?    I was always happy to put things in the donate pile because I hoped that someone new would be getting as much joy out of each item as I had in the past.  In the same way, our move would necessitate having to evaluate if an activity that I had been engaged in at our previous residence still held enough interest to get me to seek out a group or teacher in the new location.    

This cycle of moves and purges continued even into my adulthood until it stopped 15 years ago when my husband and I bought a Victorian house that needed lots of love and care in a suburb of Washington, DC.  Although I still do a spring and fall house cleaning and am considered to be fairly neat and organized, it's not quite the same.  I've held onto some things in case I might need it for some project that I often never seem to get to or continued on in an activity out of habit whereas if I were doing a physical move, I undoubtedly wouldn't have held on to either. 

As our renovation work continues in our old house, my husband informed me that our guest bedroom a.k.a. my craft supply/dance costume storage/off-season clothes space had to be emptied so he can began work on it this summer.  It took me a few minutes (okay, days…oh, alright, a couple of weeks) to wrap my head around how I was going to make my nicely organized things fit into other areas of the house without making everything look a cluttered mess.   To help with my dilemma, to  my rescue came a book club pick from my favorite creative lifestyle blog:  Tranquility du Jour:

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. 

The concept is simple - pull out everything you own, one category at a time and reflect on each item.  If it brings you joy, it still has a place in your life, if not, then let it go.  Taken as a whole, it seems a dauntingly overwhelming task, but done as prescribed in the book, it is manageable and enjoyable once you start to see the outcome.  Over several weeks, I have spent an hour or so on weeknight evenings:  one night it was socks, another it was workout wear, etc.  I have whittled down my wardrobe and folded it as prescribe to all fit in my closet and drawers with room to spare for my displaced items from the soon to be under construction room.  So far, I've donated  about 10 large bags of clothes, craft supplies, kitchen and household items, 9 boxes of books and magazines and shredded a stack of old paperwork that was 3 feet high.  I still have to complete going through a few more categories including the more sentimental items like photos and my dance costumes, but I can feel the effects of what I've accomplished so far.  Things are easily visible and accessible so I can enjoy them plus there is space when I decide to add something new. 

With the physical clutter much reduced, I surprisingly feel less mental clutter and the creativity block that had settled over me starting to loosen.  Now I am ready to tackle crafting a new routine that allows me time to pursue the creative endeavors that still bring me joy plus enough room to cultivate new passions.    

Thanks for reading!

Rhubarb leaf buds

Expansiveness - year in review

Taken at the US National Arboretum

For more than a few years now, I have completed a review of the successes and lessons from the year before and crafted an outline to help guide me through the new year.   A few of my words from previous years include:  focus, serendipity, mindfulness and last year, expansiveness.  Looking back over my year of expansiveness, 2014 was full of  new adventures in learning through workshops, classes and exploration to nudge me out of creative stagnation and a feeling that I was adrift of my core values.  I am not one that naturally looks back to fully savor past experiences; I'm more of the kind that is always focusing on completing the current adventure while looking ahead and leaning full tilt into the next.  So, through annual reviews, monthly aspiration setting and quarterly check-ins, I am beginning to choose my adventures more wisely as well as embody my experiences more fully. 

For this reason, I have chosen embodiment as my word for this year.  For me, embodiment means to embrace, incarnate and take in with the eye and mind...in essence - to enjoy the journey.  Some supporting words will be simplicity, mindfulness (again!), passion and savor.  

I encourage you to explore setting your personal core values, conducting a year in review and guide for the new year. Although most of us instinctively know our core values, we may not be able to articulate them easily.  Having them accessible for reference has helped me make decisions much more easily when testing an opportunity against my values list.  It's less painful to let an enticing, but inappropriate choice go when I can see how it's not going to work with who I am and strive to be. 

Here are the resources I used for both exercises:

Living Your Values free how-to by Steve Pavlina

Unravelling the Year Ahead free downloadable workbook by Susannah Conway

Tranquility Du JourAnthology beautiful memoir and workbook by Kimberly Wilson

Citrus ready for juicing

Finally, I thought I would share some of the highlights of 2014 - my year of expansiveness:

Successful suburban gardening season from start to finish

Photography featured in an exhibition at Annemarie Sculpture Garden and Art Center

Got dressed up and went to high tea at the Mandarin Oriental with fabulous neighborhood girlfriends

Volunteering through One Brick at the Capital Area Food Bank

Attended an intro and two 4-week Zen Photography workshops at the US National Arboretum

Enjoyed performing at local cultural festivals with fellow dancers

Attended a week long Main Street Vegan Academy course

Said goodbyes to former coworkers when they put on a vegetarian farewell potluck (they rock!)

Was greeted by new coworkers with a vegan welcome lunch (they rock too!)

Posted some healthy cooking favorites:  collard green egg rolls and coconut peanut butter bites

Attended fantastic milestone birthday that included a scavenger hunt in an historic mansion

Attended a beautiful milestone birthday/anniversary party complete with jazz band and cabaret singer

Savored neighborhood cookie baking party and holiday caroling events

I hope your 2015 is off to a good start, and I look forward to sharing my adventures during my year of embodiment.

Thanks for reading!

Snowy day nesting

Snowy day comfort food - hot oatmeal with fresh berries, walnuts and maple syrup for breakfast

I'm enjoying a blustery snow day at home nesting.  The snow is swirling around outside like a snow globe and the temperatures have fallen past freezing and continue to drop as the winds kick up.  After making a trip out for a brisk walk with the dog and to gather wood from woodpile before dark (there are scary, scampering noises out there in the dark, oh my!), I'm settled in to savor the past week and to do some planning for the week ahead.

Highlights from the past week:

Dance rehearsal in preparation for an upcoming show on Feb 1 at Blue Wind Gourmet

Meditation workshop at Still Water Mindfulness Center

Dance class date with long time girlfriend and fellow Tribal Remix dancer

Conducted fun Zen Gypsies Tea and Journaling Workshop with Aurora 

Penned Zen Gypsies blog post with recipes for savory tea treats 

Unexpected testimonial feature at Tranquility du Jour

A romp in the snow with Noah

Looking forward to the week ahead:

Stack of books for upcoming course

Attend Living and Sustaining a Creative Life program at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Gallery

Meeting with a potential Zen Gypsies workshop sponsor

Recipe testing and creation for future blog posts

Lots of dance practice

Trip planning for weekend excursion to Virginia Beach for hubby's birthday

Nesting time in front of the fireplace curled up with my stack of required reading in preparation for the  Main Street Vegan Academy program later this year

May you have a delightful week

Thanks for reading!

Noah, the snow beast

Winter garden: photos and a podcast interview

Bok choy

This past weekend just after the winter solstice, we experienced amazingly balmy temperatures in the 70 degrees F range breaking records for the high for the day all over the Washington, DC area that were set nearly 100 years ago.  I took advantage of this rare opportunity to spend time outside in shirt sleeves and finish some end of the season maintenance that I never quite go around to earlier including: removing the expired fall peas along with their supports and garden cover, pulling out a few remaining stumps from my first crop of sorghum and tending to the compost heap.   

I also took a peek under the covered tunnels to see how things were making out and snapped a few photos to share below.  Serendipitously, a podcast interview on gardening I did with Kimberly Wilson for Tranquility du Jour earlier in the fall was aired this weekend on her site.  Kimberly is so creatively inspirational and I'm honored that she asked me to talk about one of my favorite pastimes. Give a listen and also check out all her other sparkly musings.  

Rainbow Swiss chard on track for spring harvest

Brussels sprouts also in progress for spring harvest

Carrots ready for harvest

Thanks for reading!

Christmas cactus