Ending the Beginning

I ended up running a little over my set end date with this blog, but I just couldn't help myself.
I loved the experience and learned a lot about myself.
I hope that everyone does this on occasion to spice things up and get creative.
Thanks for following and being a part of my life, one way or another.

Keep an eye out for my next blog.

Enjoy life to its greatest capacity.

Namaste.

Writing a Letter

I used to spend hours writing letters; I loved it.  It's always meant a lot to me to receive a handwritten letter, but these days, e-mail has taken over.  And, in a way, it's ruined the beauty of the spontaneously poetic English language and the creativity of our personal and defining handwriting.
When I sat down to write this letter, I wasn't sure what I wanted to say or how I wanted to say it, but I also needed to consider the significance of the time I would need to put into this letter for my thought process before I even wrote it.  There is no room for drafts or mistakes.  I cannot backspace to delete a misspelling or misplaced word.  As a writer, I have been known to spend a considerable amount of time on just one sentence or even just one word.  Plus, my handwriting needed to not only be legible, but also, hopefully somewhat aesthetically pleasing to the eye of the reader...  It's been a while.  This was certainly a challenge for me.
There really is so much that goes into the art of sending a card.   First, I had to seek out my stationery in my new house.  Once found, I flipped through the old stationery to find just the right color, texture and sparkle.  I added a little perfume to give the card a soft scent of myself for the reader.  I dug through my writing implements, looking for the proper color and fitting texture, making certain it didn't run on the card.  After I summoned the presence of the handwriting Gods, I put my pen to page and held my breath.  While I wrote, I laughed, paused, thought, giggled, smiled; I was happy. Once finished, I set it out to dry while I prepared dinner, with my friend distinct in my mind's thoughts.  Afterward, I placed it in its envelope, addressed it, stamped it and sealed the note.  The next morning, I woke early to place it in my outgoing mailbox.

What a sweet way to spend an evening.  It was creative, elegant and peaceful.  I love the act of thinking of someone for an evening, and then days later they receive your thoughts.  It's quite a lovely practice that we have given  little time and respect to these past few years.  Is it, perhaps, a dying art?  I highly recommend this challenge.  It certainly breaks up the monotony of everyday life, as well as brings a little color and love directly into someone else's.

Taking a different route

I always go to the same beach to walk along the water in Orleans when I'm headed out from my house, so today I decided to make a change.  And what a gift it was.  I headed out to Chatham, to Lighthouse beach, a beach I had little interest going to because of how it looked on a map.  Silly, I know.  But I wasn't so interested in driving to the ocean to see a bay, since I already live on the bay side of the Cape.  When I got there, it was stunning.  I am ever grateful for this blog, because it pushed me to go a different way, have a new experience.  The drive brought my through the sophisticated town of Chatham, (which I am now excited to explore).  And the beach, oh the beach in Chatham, it has a beautiful white lighthouse, waves crashing far out on the national seashore sand dunes, waves crashing on the beach I was walking on and water rushing into and out of a small kettle pond the ocean created.  It was lovely, exciting and new.  So much to take in.  And on top of all this beauty, there was a distant fog horn singing a soft lullaby out to sea.  The sounds at this beach are music to my ears and the colors instilled in my heart.  I felt so much love for the chilled land beneath my pink rain boots and the icy grey water tumbling over the grainy brown sand.  Oh, and along the way, I found a couple rocks for my collection.   What a day.  Definitely recommend trying a new route.  Easily breaks up the monotony of everyday life.

Participating in a Yoga Class

As many of you know, I am a certified Kripalu Yoga Instructor and have dedicated my life to my practice for the past 6 years with all my heart.  Recently, I've found myself busy with performing, travelling and cooking that I've denied myself the time I need to nurture my body, mind and soul.  It's been a while since I've had my 1-2 hour session on a regular basis.  I've found I've replaced my Yoga practice with swimming and running, but I know that it's not enough.  So today, I found a local Yoga studio, grabbed my mat and dove in.  Advanced Vinyasa Yoga.  Oh boy!
There have been times in my life when I've desired to only practice on my own, no need for teachers and students alike to motivate my practice, but, I figured, since I can't seem to roll my mat out in my own living room, I needed to participate with society.
The class was excellent.  Breathing in sync with other bodies and allowing the teacher's words to guide my practice provided me with a sense of calm, safety and warmth.  I felt comfortable and was able to release myself deeply into my practice.  Moksha.
Yoga is such a wonderful way to break up the monotony of everyday life.  Allowing myself 1-2 hours to connect entirely with my presence is a true gift.  Checking in with how I am doing and where I am in my life can be revitalizing and reawakening.  It was a workout for my body, mind and soul.  I now feel refreshed, cleansed and motivated to live life better than yesterday.  It's a wonderful feeling.  I cannot wait to get back on my mat again tomorrow.

Creating a new recipe

I love to improvise, so actually creating a recipe, remembering what I've put in my food, was a challenge for me.
I'm not much of a shopper.  So, my friend had already bought everything she wanted me to make.  I got right to it.  One of my specialties is roasted vegetables, especially beets; she'd made sure to mention her desire for them as soon as I landed.  That meant that I had to plan the rest of the meal around my beets.
She had jasmine rice, onion, squash, zucchini, garlic, scallops from the Cape and limes among other things.  I put my chef hat on and got creative.  I love cooking random vegetables together, so I chopped up the veggies and threw in some dried cranberries dressed in salt, pepper, cumin, sherry, shoyu and lemon zest.  Delicious!  After combining with the jasmine rice, I added some dijon mustard to finish it off.  Oh glorious food!
Then came the scallops.  I had never cooked scallops before, believe it or not, so I had a lot of fun with this one.  I threw in some lime juice, butter, garlic, paprika and oregano in a pan and placed them in the broiler.  After they were cooked, I mixed in a little kudzu to thicken the sauce and poured it on top of the scallops to serve.  Yum!
As for the roasted beets, I won't tell you my recipe, but gosh they were good.  The recipe is outstanding, but varies depending on the home I'm in.
This creation certainly spiced up our day.  Plus, knowing that I had completely created each recipe on my own made it all the better.  Try it out.

Past Enjoyment Re-Kindled

I arrived in DC today wondering what on earth I was doing here, after such a huge snow storm with another on its way.  The roads were a mess.  Literally, the "plowed" roads had at least a foot of snow on them, and they had had a full day since the snow stopped!  It's unbelievable.  I'm from New England, and clearly we know how to handle the snow in comparison to DC.  Something to remember next time I venture south in the winter.

With nothing else to do, my friends and I bundled up and headed in pursuit of snow playtime.  We borrowed a neighbors sled and made our way through the bumps and crevasses of the hardened snowy streets of DC to a colossal hill.  I was bubbling with delight at the thought of making my way down this challenging hill with a river to the right, a ditch to the left and a man hole and prickers at the end.  

I hopped on the slick sled with a friend and we flew down, straight over the bumps bruising our bottoms and straining our voices screaming and laughing down the frozen mound of earth and snow.  Running our legs into the ground as we briskly prance straight up the hill to race back down again.  What fun!    I have always loved sledding, and am excited to go again and again.  I feel like a little kid.

Finding Something New

I've rarely spent time on hobbies in my past.  I didn't want to waste my time with something I didn't really care about.  When I chose this challenge, it took me some time to come up with what I really wanted to do.  I had trouble coming up with an idea.  So, I decided to go for a brisk stroll on the beach to get the the ball rolling on this challenge.  Whilst deep in thought, I looked down and saw a brilliantly colored rock amongst several others beneath the surf.  I picked them up, felt their weight in my hands, admired the texture, shape and radiance and thought: collecting rocks!
As you know, I live on Cape Cod, and there are millions of stunning rocks in the sea that happen to make their way on to the beach.  I was quickly taken with this hobby.  Rushing out onto the beach, rain or shine, searching for small rocks, big rocks, odd rocks, lovely rocks, jagged rocks, smooth rocks, etc.  It was easy and a lot of fun dancing around the beach, sprinting from the waves as they crashed over the beautiful rocks.
For me, my everyday life includes driving the Outer-Cape; this hobby gives me a reason to stop at the beach besides surf watching.  It makes my visits a bit more enticing and gives me a sense of accomplishment.  I've found this to be one of my favorite things to do now, and have even begun making collections for other people.
The colors are beautiful.  The rocks are smooth from the lapping of the gentle waves, others rough from the tumultuous stormy seas.  I love that most of the rocks only shine and show their pristine colors and rippled affects when they are submerged in water.
This hobby has not only given me joy from such a simple action, but it's motivated my creativity.  I've found so many rocks in just a few weeks.  Currently my Yoga "altar" holds them, but I want to find a way to have them submerged in water, christening my home with their eye-catching colors and charm.  This hobby has brought the ocean into my home.  I feel happier for it.  I have found a hobby that gives me peace and happiness.  It makes me stop to "smell the flowers," so to speak.

Going to the movies.

Going to the movies without someone is certainly a rare experience for me, especially being one of 3 people in the entire theatre - thank you Cape Cod winter living.  I hadn't gone to a movie alone since I was in college years ago.  It was pretty awesome practically having the theatre to myself.

I picked the movie "Up in the Air," found the closest theatre and headed on my way.  I was excited to take a break from my every day living.  I don't usually go to movies.
When the film was over, I was a bit stunned.  If you haven't seen this movie, you might not get the irony of the the choice I made, but I'll try to explain.  It's rather shocking how the stars can collide sometimes.

For those of you that don't know me that well, I travel for work, spending 180 - 225 nights a year in hotel rooms, similar to George Clooney's character's life.  It can be a lonely job at times, but as he says, I'm not "isolated, I'm surrounded!"  For me, relationships beyond my family haven't been very prominent in my current lifestyle.  6 months out of the year, I travel from city to city within the US on a weekly basis while rapidly adding to my hotel elite membership and airline mileage.  It's a game, but includes no one for me to play with.  

The message I got from this movie was that most memories we hold on to include other people, that living in hard times is easiest to survive with loved ones beside us and that human life is only fulfilled when we have someone to share it with.  The film discusses the reason for the existence of marriage, the desire to have love in our lives and the ability to create true beauty within ourselves thanks to the help we receive from those around us.  Without it, we have little to live for...  Heavy stuff.
The irony for me is that not only have I been living a solitary lifestyle for the past 7 years and debating whether it's enough for me to get by or if I need people in my life to share it with, but also that I have now challenged myself to go to a movie on my own and the movie I have chosen tells me how important it is to share my life experiences with others.  Seriously?!!

Would I go to a movie alone again?  Yes.  Although, I would have liked to have had someone to talk to about the film.  It was great to put away my cell phone and forget the monotonous life for 2 hours.  

I'm thankful to have fulfilled this challenge.  And greatly appreciate the irony.  It has changed my perspective on my life.  I realize what I want to live for.  I just needed this last push to get me there.  I'm still processing how to prepare myself for the next 6 months of travel.
Any thoughts?

Making a connection.

What is it like to reach out and call someone you haven't spoken to in 5 years?  That's a long time for me to not speak to someone and still have their number on my cell phone.  Whenever I've gone through my phone to delete old numbers, this always feels so obnoxious but completely necessary, I would skip over this particular friend, saying to myself, "I'll call him... I'll call him."  Years passed me by and I still couldn't seem to find the right time.  Nothing negative passed between us, we didn't end our last conversation badly or positively, we just stopped conversing.  I moved elsewhere, began a busy, busy job and failed to continue the friendship.
Originally, I had assumed that whomever I decided to call would be hard for me, that perhaps I would let this challenge slip down to the bottom of my list, but when I realized who I would be calling, (he's all I've got left on my phone from that long ago), I made the call immediately.  I thought I'd have trouble hitting the send button, but it was a breeze.  It was the right thing to do.  He answered after the fourth ring with a huge smile on his face and a "Wow!...  Suuuuuu-nie."  It was wonderful to hear his voice, his smile, his happiness shining through the phone.  He was thrilled to hear from me- said he was blushing, which made me blush.  The conversation was sweet, respectful and charming.  We ended with plans to talk again soon and perhaps he'd make a visit to my new home.  (I live in a heavenly place.  Did I tell you?  Cape Cod.)
Talk about breaking up the monotony of the everyday life.  This is a great challenge.  And may not be as challenging as you'd think.  Somehow I picked the right person to reconnect with, and the right time to connect.  Although I went back to my regular lifestyle, I now have the pleasure of feeling fortunate to have such a good friend, to know that I made his day and my own as well.  I can walk around with my head a little higher, knowing that I recreated a wonderful connection, even if for just a half an hour.  Knowing that you can have such a deep effect on someone else's life can be motivating and quite endearing.  It made my month.  Try it.

Creating a dinner for two

For those of you that don't know me, I am single and live completely on my own.  So... this task was a treat for me.  I love to cook.  I have been known to spend hours in the kitchen.  Those that are close to me always look forward to the Holiday meals.  Although, when I'm on my own, I tend to find myself stuck in a routine.  I'm always buying the same foods and cooking the same things with an occasional variety thrown in... boring.  So, I took on the challenge of inviting a guest to dinner.  The two of us had just recently gone out to dinner, which is a very different experience, and I was craving a burger.  Unfortunately, I'm not one to eat meat at a restaurant that can't tell me where their meat comes from, "That's a question you have to ask our meat distributor, not me [the owner]," so I rarely order animal products at restaurants.  With that said, I had been craving a burger for a week, but knew I wouldn't enjoy it without another person sitting beside me.  So, I'd chosen the meal I would make, chosen the friend I would make it for, and called her up the night before to invite her to dinner.
The next morning I went rushing off to the store to purchase sweet potatoes for the "fries" and organic lettuce for the burger.  As I said, I'd been craving a burger for a week, so I'd already purchased the local grass-fed beef at the store a day or two earlier.  On my way home, I thought about my timing, given that I had to be at a rehearsal for 4 hours right before my dinner guest would arrive.  Mixing the yeast, flour, honey and warm water to create the sponge of my hamburger buns was exciting, but then I had to let it rest for half and hour,  Gosh, making yeasted bread always reminds me of the patience one needs to let things create and gives me much appreciation for the seasoning of time.  Of course, I jumped to the next thing, chopping and seasoning the sweet potato fries while the yeast was doing it's job.  Next to my favorite part, 10 minutes of kneading- this for me is the practice of Ahimsa, sanskrit for non-violence.  The kneading of the dough can be a rather violent if you so desired, but then the dough would be too harsh, too dense and unforgiving to the teeth.  Rather, kneading the dough gently, calmly and serenely can be a very meditative and soothing rhythm for 10 consecutive minutes.  And to know that someone dear to me would be eating this is always a treasure.
After the work was done, my friend arrived and the cooking commensed, the aroma was heavenly; burgers, fresh whole-wheat rolls, caramelized onions and garlicky sweet potato fries were spilling into our nostrils causing our mouths to water.  We were starving.  And boy, was the food delicious!
This was certainly a wonderful way to change my monotonous life of always the same food, same time, same place and same company.  We had good food, good conversation and lots of laughter over a simple meal that was worth every second of my time.  In fact, I enjoyed this change so much, I called another friend who's headed over for lunch on Friday.  Yippee!

Joining the Community

As my first challenge, I decided the best route to take was a simple soft opening to new monotony-buster quest (i.e. knowing I couldn't fail).
I got my library card and actually used it!
What a great first step for me; I've just recently moved to a new town (well, 5 months ago) and still don't know much about my hometown.  I've been putting off getting a library card since the beginning.  And now I've gone and done it, and because I got to come home and report it to you, I really felt like it was a true accomplishment.  Whoo Hoo!
Why was it so successful, you wonder?  Not only did I make a few new aquaintences, but I also took my first step in truly joining my community.
Libraries have so much to offer and are one of the most community oriented places in a town.  As soon as I walked into the lobby, I glanced at a thorough map of my hometown and scanned a corkboard filled with local happenings, personal business cards and announcements about my town, state, country and world.  I was certain to stick my business card up there too.  Entering the main hall, I breathed in the scent of old and new books and a thick air of creativity and thoughts.  While surfing the book shelves, I felt at peace from the "library voices" at a quiet whir, the turning of the page, and the light beep-beep at the check out.  There were tutoring sessions progressing, newspaper readers digesting and book enthusiasts borrowing.  I felt as though I were in a Barnes and Noble book store without the distractions of coffee, music and constant chatter.  It was an opportunity for me to be silent, admire my community and find something that strikes my fancy amongst hundreds of books, books on tape, movies, etc.
When I left, I walked out proudly with book under my arm, but more importantly, with a sense of warmth and vitality.  To be amongst education, sharing and giving was well worth my time.  And now I have a library card and a book to read as opposed to surfing the net or watching movies.
What a great challenge and true change for my daily life to come.

To make the world a better place one step at a time.

Everyday living is what we have, but how much can we actually allow ourselves to experience in today's busy 24/7 lifestyle?  Do we forget to look at the flowers, to breath in fresh air, to donate our time to a local cause, to fully connect with others, to reach beyond our limits?  Do we allow ourselves to fall into a daily routine that isn't necessarily benefiting the world's needs and perhaps our own needs?  Do we turn a blind eye to a magazine falling off a shelf, to someone dropping trash in the street, to a stranger struggling to stand up on their own?  Is this healthy living?  Can we live better?  Do we have the power to change our lives?
I believe we do and we can.  Dare you believe, too?
I invite you to join me in a challenge.  Spend the next 2 weeks welcoming 6 positive changes we can strive to achieve and experience for ourselves to bring to the world.  One of the largest challenges I face is to remember to work on the little things within myself in order to then help the larger things in life that affect the life beyond my door step.  Perhaps you think spending some time on yourself is meaningless, selfish or foolish, but one happy person in this world will create a positive energy that will spread within the world throughout your day.
Not the right time?  Don't have a second to breath?  Find a way to clear out some time in your schedule to center yourself, come back to who you are and feel the power of your presence.  And go from there.
A friend and I have compiled a list that will hopefully inspire you to begin this change with me.  Feel free to use this list, add to it, or create your own.  I only wish to inspire and create love and happiness within the daily monotonous lifestyles we frequently find ourselves living.
Get out, change your views, seek laughter and love, give your heart, bring happiness to loved ones and strangers alike.  Connect with yourself, others and this beautiful world from the dirt to the sky.