“The moving finger of time writes, and having writ, moves on” — Omar Khayyám One of my favorite things to enjoy this time of the year are all the lights! On cue our early dusk reveals neighborhoods glowing red, green, blue and white. It instantly lifts my mood and makes me crave a fire and hot chocolate. I’m an early riser so I always turn ours on, inside and out, while my tea is brewing. I start my day with a mug of hot earl grey, sipping and staring out the window at the tiny white lights dancing through the fallow garden. One of my least favorite things this time of year is all the haste.&n ..read more

“Eight times down, nine times up” — Zen saying Everyone who knows me knows this past session has been personally harrowing! 12 weeks ago my husband was told he needed urgent spine surgery to address the loss of mobility in one of his legs.  The next couple of weeks were a blur of tests, second opinions, scheduling, re-scheduling and structuring our lives for the next 3 months of lifestyle limitations & healing. Soon he was on the operating table.  The surgery went well but shortly thereafter complications developed and the next month was spent trying to navigate debilitating nerv ..read more

A few weeks ago our Sunday Tai Chi class had an extraordinary experience.  It was smaller due to the weather and for the most part it was the intermediate/advanced group (and 2 adventurous newer students). Rather than split into groups for specific levels as we usually do, we all stayed together.  I decided to make it a leap-frog flow class, my favorite way to practice - practice a few movements, start over, repeat, add a few, start over repeat, keep adding etc. By the end of the 75-minute class we made it through the whole form, having repeated sections of it many times. I spoke lit ..read more

“Across the evening sky, all the birds are leaving. But how can they know it’s time for them to go? Before the winter fire, I will still be dreaming. I have no thought of time. For who knows where the time goes? Who knows where the time goes?” — Fairport Convention In a couple weeks I turn 65. If you’ve been around me lately, you know I’m a bit obsessed about it. I love birthdays; I think they should be national holidays. I love notes and calls and social media posts. I am not shy about stating when mine is nor how old I’ll be.  I’m finally at the point in my life where I think aging is f ..read more

“Nature follows the Way of the Tao” — Ancient Saying I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels the stuffing has gotten knocked out of them over these past months. Pick any of the current events and it’s enough, but combined in rapid succession, still under the shadow of this pandemic, it’s become too much to feel, even for the most resilient among us. Many I know continue to spout optimistic euphemisms. Others I know express their outrage through ugly memes spewed all over their social media.  I find myself in neither of those camps, instead choosing to withdraw from social media, the news ..read more

“And I scream from the top of my lungs, What's going on?" -4 Non-Blondes A couple of weeks ago I went into the dentist expecting to be fitted with a crown for my implant. It had been just shy of a year’s process that was fraught with too much of the unexpected. A cracked root, a big infection, less than desirable patient care from each dentist I saw, much advocating for myself in a field I knew nothing about. And of course, a lot of discomfort, time and a lot of money. Finally, the extraction, graft & implant were finished last October. All I had to do was wait for the bone to grab the t ..read more

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”  -Charles Darwin All the Moon students know I dove brush first into watercolor a couple of months ago. They give me wide latitude at the beginning of most classes telling tales of clumsily marking my way through this most mysterious of endeavors. I know we all strive for beginner’s mind at every moment, but let’s face it, when you have been doing something for 44 years, as I have in the martial arts, no matter how hard you try, you are not a beginner. But with ..read more

A year ago, when I signed the lease for my “Zoom Dojo” I didn’t have a sense of how long I might be streaming classes from this 300 square foot studio. I only knew I was on a mission: to keep us in our bodies, and this was the best environment I could create to stay focused on my purpose. When the vaccines rolled out a few months later, we were all so relieved. At the same time, the deep sense of focus with no other distraction but to stay present and alive would have to change as we all ventured back out into a larger world.  Over the late winter and spring log-ons told stories of famil ..read more

“Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was a person dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a person ” — Zhuangzi In the middle of Luohan class last Wednesday I remembered a dream I had the night before. I was an older woman – in my late 80’s, early 90’s. I was clearly me, standing somewhere. I didn’t recognize the spac ..read more

It was eating bitter in the garden today. The weather was grey & blustery & cold. The windchimes clanked all day long – not the lovely, beckoning tinkle but the hard crashing of wood against metal. They shout a provocation rather than sang a melody. “Come outside if you dare.”  I resisted. Other things I could do, study Spanish, practice Luohan, read about the Liver. Or Argentina. But the remaining days of my Spring break are narrowing now, and there is still much to be done. This is the year I demanded redemption for all the other years of May coming and me regretting not do ..read more