Sunday, August 28, 2011

Headaches



As I was cleaning piles of paper,
what is the matter with me and these piles of paper,
anyway, I was cleaning them up, finally and happily getting organized
I found this story written in my mom's own handwriting.
No wonder I don't like to go through these piles.
Her life was challenging....

My old friends? (sarcasm) As Mom used to say, "If I had a nickel for every headache I ever had, I would be rich."

Mostly in the left eye, shooting up through my skull, burning, boring, penetrating down on my left side of my neck deep in the muscles of my neck.

Give it up, Joyce. The day is given over to my pain. Discouraging, depressing. Who could understand. Isolating. It seems that only someone else who suffers chronic headaches could understand. Lynn has learned to accommodate after I learned to be straight with him and expect his understanding.

I always felt shame about anything that hurt my body. A need to hide.

I keep so much secret; like I must hide myself from discovery.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Restorative Yoga


Me trying to relax at the training in San Francisco. Right? With 80 other "relaxers"
chatting away while we learn how to be Restorative Yoga teachers not much relaxing and renewing here!


Restorative yoga, Relax and Renew is what restorative yoga guru Judith Lasater calls it, is about relaxing your body. To get there, you are propped up in various positions by blankets, blocks and bolsters. The few times I've practiced on people in order to get my certification, I have been most amazed at what a novel concept relaxing is to some people. "No, this is not about stretching or pushing or pulling," I tell my students. "This is about getting into a comfortable pose," I go on, "you know, about just letting your body find comfort and just settling into that." It's easy to tell when somebody finds relaxation. Recently, I put blankets under one of my new students, a yoga teacher, in such a way that her head fell gently over the top of them. OK, I could tell she was getting into the "moment." Then she put her arms out in T-formation...."Ahhhhh," was all she said! Yep, that's it! You are relaxed.

I find it hard to relax once I'm back into full-time work. That's easy during summer vacation but in a few days I'll be back at it, 6,000 hours a day; 87 days a week. I think I'll be bringing bolsters, blocks and blankets to my work! Lunchtime relaxing and renewing! That might just work for me :)

Monday, August 22, 2011

Joyful Curly Girl


So, we'll see. Saturday we "installed" this display in a new boutique in downtown Portsmouth, Buddhi. Many thanks to Aaron and Jess for wanting to sell my fused glass!

Friday, August 5, 2011

Happy Birthday to Me :)


This beautiful vase was purchased by my dad in Boise, Idaho at a local artisan glass "factory". He just sent it to me so I wouldn't have to hand carry it back from out West. What a beautiful gift, Dad. Thank you!
Posted by Picasa