Will the weather ever change? It will! Remember when it even rained for five minutes a couple days ago? What else will change? Everything, including you, whether you want to or not. And probably you do. But why? Please don't want to change because you think you aren't good enough as you are. Please don't want to change to please the world or anyone in it other than yourself. Consider, instead, being open to the shifts in energy and frequency that your higher self gently awaits. Consider joining me at Ottine Mineral Springs in late September for a ritual experience to encourage this process. A ..read more

After a rough couple of days, this afternoon was a turning point. Tonight, I asked-- what should I keep in mind leading up to Friday's new moon ..read more

As the month (which I take serious umbrage with anyone judging "the cruelest"!) draws to an end, I'm struck by the fact that I'm wearing a fleece hoodie and it's nearly May!. We've had showers and flowers and wind and thunder and crazy lightning and rainbows and moons of all the moon shapes, bright planets dim stars baby birds alive and dead, fallen nests cats frisky with spring fever dogs that can't stop sniffing all the smells, all the smells, new life, old stuff shedded eyes opened breaths taken... and breaths taken away. In the park, drishtis of shiny glistening leaves, broken birds' eggs ..read more

Lately I've been humbled yet again by the build-up of my assumptions and illusions. They can be so subtle that I don't notice their presence until I'm thinking through a situation and it hits me that the container in which I've put my thoughts is a fabrication of my own anxieties and fears. A daily mindfulness practice helps me keep the layers of the Illusion Onion in check, but the veils can be sneaky in the way they crop up when you are looking the other way. In a film I saw yesterday called How to Blow Up a Pipeline (everyone should see it!) there was a scene where two young saboteurs outf ..read more

four of us met in Shipe Park, with excitement and trepidation. Annette, Clayton, Paula and me. It felt transgressive in the best way. It felt important. A huge relief! To be with old friends, see faces. We are okay, so far, we could see. Spring was playing games with us. Our mats were like ten feet apart. Today (April 6th 2021, a date that sounds like it was pulled from a sci-fi novel) we celebrated one solid fucking year of Park Yoga. It's been amazing to have other souls float in and out; two of them today floated in last summer and have stayed, to the benefit of all. Such beautiful energy ..read more

It was 8 degrees Fahrenheit here in Austin, TX on Monday. Our neighborhood lost power at 2am during a freakish snowstorm. It's Wednesday now, a balmy 28, but still no heat. Inside our drafty old house the animals' water bowl froze, along with our pipes. We are grateful for the gas stovetop and full box of matches that allows for soup and hot drinks (including warm water for the pets). So many have it so much worse, so it's difficult to admit how challenging it's felt, how... uncomfortable. Physically, an urge to shut down, to hunch, to contract. To resist or escape vulnerability. Deep breaths ..read more

Pema Chodron received advice from a mentor about mindfulness: At teatime, just drink tea. Like teatime, yoga provides opportunity to escape from multitasking and just do the one thing. (It's curious to me, because I also marvel at yoga's amazingly efficiency, stretching and strengthening muscles while cultivating mindfulness, deepening breath, toning organs.... a beautiful mystery that it can be both one thing and everything). The simplest postures are perhaps the most enriching in this "just drink tea" aspect. Take Sukasana, or easy seat. We sit without effort, with ease. Then we can sit more ..read more

In another lifetime, (pre-pandemic, pre- a lots of new life circumstances!) I loved throwing dinner parties. Sure I'm an introvert, but dinner parties always felt festive and playful, an un-stressful way to be creative and enjoy the company of friends. I loved choosing ingredients, planning the menu, imagining the chemistry among the invitees, and especially relished being asked impromptu questions like: mind if I bring a friend/relative/blind date? Cool if I bring my kids or my dog? After each event, I felt enriched, having learned something new about myself, my friends, and food and process ..read more

Summer (or, earth season) ended with a beautiful waning gibbous moon (almost full!), and here in Austin autumn-- also known as air season-- cooperated with a cool front coming in just as the hour of the equinox approached. Conditions for our yoga in the park that morning approached perfection- the temperature, the breeze, the state of the grass (not too high, not too dry)... we were visited by an enormous circling red-tailed hawk and the more ochre of the pair of white squirrels that live in the trees that line the creek. Never mind "approached"; they were perfect. But even the imperfect days ..read more

Everyone appreciates the absurdity of a good oxymoron (Hell's Angels; jumbo shrimp). Sometimes, more subtle. In Tarot, the Death card doesn't portend physical decline but rather a deep and meaningful rebirth, and the Fool is far from stupid. We understand the dunce cap and the thinking cap are the same, right? In yoga we begin by taking off our thinking caps (dunce caps) so we can be clear in our minds and our hearts without the noise. Stop thinking, stop judging, stop plotting, stop chastising, stop buffering, stop recalibrating, stop complaining, stop expecting, stop doubting, stop justifyi ..read more