Lessons in Balance

Memory, in Five Minutes

May I share with you, an example of why I'm so attracted to cyberspace?  I looked at the topic for Day 15 - Five Minutes, and thought I'd fire up the search engines to see what "do you remember when" would bring up.  Here's how it flowed:

 

• Of course, out of all the choices Google offered, I was attracted to Jack Johnson's "Do You Remember" . As I listened,  I recalled the times in my studio when this song played as we did massages and acupuncture treatments. Sweet memories arose.
• As soon as I heard the lines "Do you remember when we first moved in together? The piano took up the living room," I searched for "piano filled living room" and my favorite picture? The one above.
• In order to give proper credit to the photo, I followed the linked website and discovered Jessica Williams. I've always loved the piano, classical and jazz music, and near the end of the introductory video I learned that she also has synesthesia. Now I want her music to fill my living room.

In five minutes every link I made, tugged at memories and when I followed the trail, it led me to something new and fascinating. Try it yourself. Set a time for Five Minutes, pick a topic, run a Google search and see what memories are accessed and what new connections appear.

 Please come back and tell me about them.

Photo: Jessica Williams

Learning to be Grateful

"I have learnt silence from the talkative,

 

 
toleration from the intolerant,

and kindness from the unkind;

yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers." - Kahlil Gibran

 

Related posts: Reverb 10 - Appreciate, I'd like to get even with this man.

Photos: Layman Blog, Birth Sense, and CoolFwdClip

The Ancestor of Every Action

 

The ancestor of every action is a thought. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whether we're serious, or just being funny:

 

 That's a scary well-deserved thought.

 

Related posts: Reverb 10 - Action, I Think, Therefore I Act.

 

Sisyphus by Titian: Squidoo.com

Cartoon: Fifth Digit

Walk a Tightrope, Walk a Straight Line

Have you ever noticed how easy life seems just after you experience something harrowing and difficult? I see it all the time in the yoga classes that I teach; people find it easy to balance in a yoga pose after spending time in more challenging postures. I often liken the correct foot placement in Parsvottanasana as being similar to walking a tightrope, it takes practice to do it gracefully.

I like the idea that experiencing hardships and discipline in the present, allows for a more comfortable future. It feels much better than the idea of forcing and pushing yourself to prepare for unhappy outcomes.

Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope. - Edith Wharton

 

Related posts: Reverb 10 - Body Integration, Taming the Hungry Bear.

Photo: The Telegraph

Eleven Things I Grabbed During a Tsunami Evacuation

Luckily, this was not what happened in February last year when an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile set off a tsunami warning in Hawaii. Those of us who live at sea level, take these alerts seriously because of the damage that our island has experienced.

These are eleven things I took with me when I moved to higher ground on  February 27, 2010:

1. My glasses & contacts (I like 20/20 vision)
2. Make-up bag (I like to look good too) :D
3. Laptop + charger (How else will I know what's going on?)
4. Cell phone + charger (I don't want people to worry about me)
5. Several days worth of clean clothes (I want to be approachable)
6. Toothbrush (I want to be approachable)
7. Kindle (in case I have no internet or phone reception)
8. Passport (it's a drag to replace)
9. Birth Certificate (it's a drag to replace)
10. Purse (it's a drag to replace the contents therein)
11. External hard drive (I believe that I can't live without the contents therein)

I'd be very interested if someone could give me a quick personality assessment based on those items. If I like it,  I'll save it to my external hard drive or stick it in my purse. I never flee home without them.

 

Related posts: Reverb 10 - Eleven Things, Closing the Complaint Department.

Photo: Tsunami Wave, Hilo, HI. April 1, 1946 by Rod Mason via Sit News.

I've Looked at Clouds from Both Sides Now

I'm always captivated by clouds, from both sides. When I'm on the ground, I wonder what's beyond. When I peer out from the window of an airplane, I guess at what goes on below. My thoughts veer toward the philosophical whenever I'm thousands of feet above ground. Is this where wisdom resides?

 

"The clouds usher in tranquility. Below us are enemies and colleagues, the sites of our terrors and our grief, all of them now infinitesimal, mere scratches on the earth. We may know this old lesson in perspective well enough, but rarely does it seem as true as when we are pressed against the cold plane window, our craft a teacher of profound philosophy..." -Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel.

 

Related posts: Reverb 10 - Wisdom, True Wisdom Requires Bravery.

Photo: Clouds Above NY-2009, taken with my iPhone.

Need a Reason to Party?

Why wait for a national holiday, especially if you're all dressed up and raring to go? If all you need is a good reason to party, consider these:

    1. What historical event happened on this day? Check with History.com's This Day in History section and find that today in 1864, George Custer got married and in 1964 the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.

    2. It has to be someone's birthday! Fact Monster lists Carole King (sing or play her songs) and Carmen Miranda (wear your fruits on your head) as a few celebration choices.

    3. Pick a Country and serve their favored foods.You could go the weird  or traditional route.

    4. Love movies? How about 10 Cool Movie Trivia Games for Film Buffs. Pop corn required.

    5. There are 100's of Reasons to party, inane or not. Just do it.

 

Related posts: Reverb 10 - Party, There Was a Party Today

Photo: Annie Leibovitz via Sara Gilbane Interiors

Beauty in the Eyes

An eye can threaten like a loaded and levelled gun, or it can insult like hissing or kicking; or, in its altered mood, by beams of kindness, it can make the heart dance for joy.... One of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance of the eye; it transcends speech; it is the bodily symbol of identity. 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

In all of the faces in these photographs, I found the eyes to be the most expressive feature. Self-taught photographer Jonathan Rosser, says of the people in his photos: "As with most of my work, each of these individuals has a story and a name."

Rosser impels me to stop and listen by manipulating composition and light. The eyes then tell the story.

Just look at these faces.

 

Related posts: Reverb 10 - Beautifully Different, For Beautiful Eyes.

Photo: Jonathan Rosser via Living Design.

 

Which Way to a Healthy Community?

Individual health is closely linked to community health -- the health of the community in which people live, work, and play. Likewise, community health is profoundly affected by the collective beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of everyone who lives in the community. --- Healthy People 2010: Understanding and Improving Health

I've been intrigued by the concept of healthy communities since the late '80s and if I'm not mistaken, the year 2000 was picked as a goal-achieving year. People and organizations weren't actually aiming for a high health status as the end point. They were looking for strategies to help communities make healthier decisions and plans, at the local level, with whatever resources were available.

The movement grew, the federal government stepped in and initiated Healthy People, with a set of ten-year national health objectives. Today, we're moving into another ten-year cycle and Healthy People 2020 has now identified nearly 600 objectives along with more than 1,300 measures aimed at improving the health of all Americans.

Most states issued a report in 2010 and have developed their own plans for 2020. I'm happy to learn that my home state of Hawaii, has four county plans of which I plan to familiarize myself with Hawaii County's indicators. I think I need to go looking for the way to a healthy community on this island rather than wait for someone else to build it. 

What about you, are you there yet?

 

 

Related posts: Reflecting on My Year via Reverb 10, We Share Sunsets.

Photo:The National Parks of the Pacific Islands

I can't make time.

These are my responses so far, to a Reverb 10 prompt by Gretchen Rubin: December 6 - Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

December 6: I listed a few things I wanted to make but admitted that I had to make time, first.

January 6: I made a commitment to try the CLEAN program for three weeks, picked a start date and kept to it until the end. Some parts of the program may have become daily habits, what a coup.

February 6: I'm in the final stages of knitting a cap (pictured) for a loved one in the cold. I knit a bunch of sweaters many years ago, but I've never made a cap. So here's what I've learned in the last sixty days: I can't make time, somebody else beat me to it. If I really want to make something, I just have to make it.

I'd like to put "make time" and "hard work" on a list titled Self-defeating Self-prophecies to Stop-repeating. Yes, that's where they should go.