This little light of mine

I'M GONNA LET IT SHINE!

This year my New Year's resolution is to let go of all my fears of sharing my talents. So in 2008 I'm going to play my guitar and sing with no hesitation, I'll not only write poetry, but I'll read it aloud to a crowd, I'll sew new clothes and gifts for friends, I'll cook meals from scratch for my neighbors, and I'll share yoga with all who ask for it.

I'm finally going to obtain that confidence that I have only envied in others...hooray for my own confidence, and to those who always encourage me!

If You See a Faerie Ring...

If you see a fairy ring

In a field of grass,

Very lightly step around,

Tiptoe as you pass;

Last night fairies frolicked there,

And they're sleeping somewhere near.

If you see a tiny fay

Lying fast asleep,

Shut your eyes and run away,

Do not stay or peep;

And be sure you never tell,

Or you'll break a fairy spell.

-william shakespeare

A Voice as Old as the Earth

I was just making a re-visit to a CD I purchased in the summer of 2006. The reason I bought this certain CD was the result of falling in love with this ancient voice belonging to Moira Smiley. I was at Song Writing school in Lyons, Colorado with good friends. Each night they have an open-mic...Moira came from behind the crowd belting a song that was most mysterious and enchanting in a Baltic style. I had an immediate crush, and signed up for a one-on-one mentoring session the next day. Indeed she is an elvish spirit who is wise and beautiful. Some day I will sing like her.

Her album "Rua" (Irish for "red") is my favorite. Check her out. http://www.moirasmiley.com/

On Grandparents

My Grandpa, Newel, grew up in Declo, Idaho. He has the kindest eyes and the softest heart. My Grandma, Celia, is a Salt Lake City Girl. She has the loveliest laugh, and cares most that we are all well fed and keeping warm. Grandpa always supplies good advice and Grandma always leaves us with Cadbury chocolate! Both have entertaining stories to tell, and wise words to share: living simply and taking lots of naps!

To One and All

Put a candle in your window tonight...

One of my favorite traditions that CJ and I have started for our only little family is, of course, an Irish tradition. Every Christmas Eve we light candles in our windows for all to see. This tradition stems from the custom in Ireland that to show a light in the window lighted the way of a stranger out after dark. It goes back to most ancient times, when the laws of hospitality were stronger and not abused. To have a light in your window on Christmas Eve to welcome a stranger meant that you were welcoming the Holy Family as well. To have no light meant that you shared the guilt of the Innkeeper at Bethlehem who professed to have no room at his inn.

I love this tradition simply because it reminds us to be most kind to even strangers...allowing anyone who is in need to find comfort and peace in our homes.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE!

Winter Solstice!!!

This is a megalithic site in Ireland, called Newgrange. It was built about 5,000 years ago (before the pyramids!). So what does this have to do with the winter solstice you ask...
Well, this ancient mound was built so that the winter solstice sunrise would light up the shaft and chambers. Basically it works like this: every winter solstice morning a shaft of sunlight shines through the roof box over the enterance and penetrates the passage to light up the chamber. This dramatic event lasts about 17 minutes. Only 50 lucky people are allowed to witness the event (out of 30,000 lottery applicants).

Other interesting winter solstice facts:
1. There is a whole series of medieval English carols on the subject of the rivalry between the holly and the ivy. In many of them, the holly and ivy symbolized male and female, and the songs narrated their often rowdy vying for mastery in the forest or in the house.
2. You may have heard of apple wassailing, the medieval winter festival custom of blessing the apple trees with songs, dances, decorations and a drink of cider to ensure their fertility. Here's another, more obscure tradition that most certainly predates Christmas, and was probably once a solstice ritual, because it is so linked to the themes of nature's rebirth and fertility.
3. A day to celebrate the rebirth of the sun!

Hermey Doesn't Like To Make Toys!

Why doesn't Hermey like to make toys? Because he wants to be a DENTIST!!! My brother, Dan, who is a dentist is coming with his family to visit for the holidays. I'm very excited to see his lovely wife, Courtney, and his cute kids: Emma, Jane, and Ethan.

Got my wish...with LIGHTNING to boot!

I can't remember the last time I saw lightning and heard thunder in December. This is going to be a great storm! Can you feel the earth moving?! This is incredible.

WAITING...

I'm just waiting for this storm we're supposed to have. Maybe when I wake up tomorrow this is what I'll see out the window. I'm in quite the mood for a winter storm that will leave us in a winter wonderland..."In winter in the woods alone/Against the trees I go."

I am from...

I am from the Isle of Man. Well, at least that's where some of my ancestors are from. I have never been there, but talked with those who have. Some day soon I'll go there. Perhaps tonight I'll watch the Secret of Roan Inish. I'm feeling a strong pull towards the British Isles today. I'll probably spend the rest of my day listening to fiddles, reading about King Arthur, and watching Fiona fix up her old thatched-roof home on the island.

To a beautiful goddess...

Last night I attended the grand opening of a dear friend and teacher's yoga studio. It was absolutely beautiful...especially the picture of Shiva and Shakti together. The company, the food, and the air was simply lovely.

I am oh so grateful to know such a beautiful woman who helps all of us on our journey. Namaste, Syl! Syl has catapulted me into the world of yoga and beyond. It was with Syl that I finally found union between my body, mind, and spirit.

Syl once shared the following quote with me and it has started a stampede of growth.

"I am not afraid of storms for I am learning to sail my ship."-Louisa May Alcott

NAMASTE!

Perhaps Next Year...

Next year at Christmas time THIS is where I want to be. Somewhere in the British Isles, in a lovely little cottage in the countryside. If only I could get my whole family in on this.

Other "Move the Gift" topics

Sorry to have THREE posts about the Move the Gift party, but it really was THAT good. I wanted to list the other "gifts" that were given along with their topic- it makes a great book list! So here it goes.

Rebekah and Greg: "Make a Difference", book: Thank You, Mr. Falker

Ash: "Community", book: Big Box Swindle

Tess: "Fungi", Fungi articles and Mushroom to knit! (my favorite!)

Ryan: "Moments", book: "The Condemned" (written by his dad!)

Erin & Jeff: "Poverty", book: Nickel and Dimed

Grant: "Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools.", book: How Computers Work

Zina: "Observation", book: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Jane and Marc: "Gratitude"

Jason: "Soil", book: Dirt, the Erosion of Civiliations

English: "Sabotage", book: The Monkey Wrench Gang

Kate: "Refugees", book: What is the What

Jake & Brooke: "Iraq", film: No End In Sight

Ashley: "Kindness", film: Amelie

Elisa: "Heathcare", book: Awakening

Caleb: "Fellow Man", book: Democracy in America

Hasen: "Crosswords"

Oliver: "Air Quality", book: How to Live Well Without a Car

Davey: "Service", film: Dancer in the Dark

Katy: "Invertebrates", book: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Mo: "Food",

Chris: "Justice"

Sam: "Journaling"

Raquel: "Slow Down", book: How to Live Well Without Owning a Car

Phil: "Humor"

Dana: "Cooking"

Lauren: "Animals"

Sophie: "Integrity", books: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and The Omnivore's Dilemma

Rachel: "The Good", book: The Lord's Question

Seth: "Discovery", book: The Immense Journey

Rosie: "Antelope Island", book: Visions of Antelope Island and Great Salt Lake

Elizabeth: "Tolerance", book: The Quran

George: "God", book: George Herbert, Poems

John: "Music", Film: Dreams

Austin: "Understanding", article: On Spectral Evidence

Tristan: "Compost", book: The Rodale Book of Composting

Amy & Ryan: "Health", book: Eat to Live

Joe: "Art and Nature", documentary: Rivers and Tides

Neil: "Reduce", book: The World Without Us

Chris: "Vegetarianism", book: The Food Revolution

Georgiana: "Charity", book: The Brothers Karamazov

Adam: "Strangers", film: Bicycle Thieves

Our "Move the Gift" gift

CJ and I will give Phil (the future tense because Phil couldn't make it last night) a copy of The Little Prince. Our favorite part from the book is the following exerpt:

"You are beautiful, but you are empty, " he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you-the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass blobe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose."

For CJ and I the small simple things are most sacred and not to be undermined or overlooked. Taking care of those closest to us by listening to grumbles or silence, surprising friends with a well-cooked meal, talking with a grandparent about their childhood, helping someone with a small task--this is what is meaningful, and this is what can change the world.

Happy Christmas to all...and MOVE THE GIFT!

"Move the Gift" 1st Annual Party

Last night our dear friend, Ash, hosted a most wonderful party. We were all assigned a person to share the thing we are most passionate about and then to challenge them to "move the gift" (to do something with what we had given them--to share the love). Each of us received a little book containing everything that everyone gave. The book began with a true story from Ash and ended with:

"Real gifts are given around corners. Real givers expect them to come back, not from the person who got them (because that requires no faith!) but from the person who got them from the person who got them from the person who got them from you. It's called different things in different cultures. It's called karma, honor, faith, but it always means the same two things: It means we must believe in others and it means that...we cannot bless ourselves. A blessing is a gift given in faith and received again with reverence. A blessing is always a prodigal son, yours or someone else's. Anything else is a possession. There is one other thing about gifts. They must always move. A gift, to be a gift, cannot be kept. It can only be sent, forward, in the hope it will be cared for. This is a frightening thought for all people who have tried, with accomplishments and clothes and money, to bless themselves. In a gift economy, you can't take it with you, not even for a second. In our current economy, we spend what isn't ours and save everything (ourselves, each other). This Christmas we are traveling light, keeping nothing. This Christmas we are moving the gift, giving our cares in hopes they will be cared for, hoping to be blessed in the act of blessing. We are giving our hopes and dreams and our secret fascinations. Which is good. Conviction rot as fast as things if they are kept. Christ promises, "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you." This is mysterious. Sometimes it feels like a lie. We asked, and we got nothing! But maybe as we go, we might learn the beautiful rule: that asking is receiving if everyone asks."

LOVE YOU, ASH! THANKS FOR URGING US ALL TO GIVE OUR CAUSES!

Yoga + Part + Whitman = Awe

This morning I decided to accompany my yoga practice with the music of the Estonian composer, Arvo Part (my absolute favorite, hands down), Tabula Rasa album with Gil Shaham on the violin. I couldn't believe the movements I was getting from my body: spontaneous undulations, unexpected movements in my fingers and toes, breaths as long as the ocean. To add to all of that, I had visions of my blood swimming through the vessels, and my cells changing with every breath and movement. As I finished up with svasana I could literally see the solar system within my own frame. Truly, a moment of awe. Do we have any idea?! Our bodies, minds, and spirits are so much a part of this earth, but they are beyond it as well. After svasana and a bit of pranayama I ended by reading this passage from Whitman:

One touch of a tug of me has unhaltered all my senses but feeling

That pleases the rest so, they have given up to it in submission

They are all emulous to swap themselves off for what it can do to them.

Every one must be a touch

Or else she will abdicate and nibble only at the edges of feeling.

EVERY ONE MUST BE A TOUCH! It's brilliant.

Great-Grandma Thayne's Cookies!!

Secret ingredient: LARD (ya, they still sell it in the stores!)

I FEEL IT IN THE EARTH...

This photograph was taken by CJ last winter. I love the movement in the trees. It reminds me of what Treebeard, the Ent, says towards the end of The Return of the King to Celeborn and Galadriel:

"For the world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air."

There's something about the trees in this photo that make me feel the change in the earth. Indeed it is fascinating that the earth is feminine, and change is what feminine IS. I love the change that is happening at every moment on the earth, in the air, in our bodies, and in our spirits. Each moment takes us somewhere new.

In speaking of Treebeard, I love his motto: "Do not be hasty". This bit of advice I can always use. I am in constant need of a slower pace.

Holiday Cheer

I took these photographs of the ornaments hanging in our windows. Ornaments in the windows have become a tradition of ours, and I am quite in love with them. There are ornaments in the mix that I stole (shhh) from my Mom that we used when we were all kiddies, and there are some that are new and shiny. Let's hear it for Christmas colors! Red to warm, green to cheer, etc. etc.

What I imagine Christmas to be in 1950

This is a most beloved photo of my mom, Dianne, and her sister, Connie with Santa Claus. This photograph says Christmas to my whole being. It makes me want to have been born in 1946. What do you think? I think my mom was the most beautiful little girl (she's the one on the left)-which is why I think she is now the most beautiful woman I know. One of my favorite things about my mom is her simplicity and her love for simple things. Her bedroom is painted a lovely light, but intense, blue (the color of her eyes). She has a few books, all of which are insightful or pretty, or both. But I must admit that my most favorite thing about my mom is that when she was a little girl she used to pray every night that she would wake up the next morning as a faerie. She wanted wings so that she could fly. I think I inherited the faerie gene. Three cheers for a lovely, imaginative, and wise woman!

White Chocolate in the wild!

I finished my finals a few hours ago...hip, hip, hooray! After my last final I went for a walk around the neighborhood, and took the ol' Nikon along. As I was peeking through the black iron fence of my dream home I noticed these lovely berries (?). I'm not quite sure what they are. But they look very edible. I imagine they're either white chocolate or those mints they hand out at weddings that are oh so yummy.

First things first.

Today I started a blog.