Looking up

A thread in recent pics of mine that has caught my eye: looking up.

Two chiropractors, in two states, have given me the advice to "look up" more to help combat spine, specifically neck, issues.  I remember being in Good Health after receiving this tip from Katina and noticing signs hanging from the ceiling to above eye level, over the aisles, for the first time and being awestruck.  I wondered how much I'd been missing and was tickled to have a whole world above my up-till-then sightline open up.

In the last year, Vinny had x-rays taken of my spine which showed that a curvature in my neck has since corrected itself.  Although the practice of literally looking up every time I touched a doorknob never stuck (the advice of the chiropractor I first saw when we moved to NJ whose x-ray showed that my neck curved in the wrong direction at the top of my spine), things have changed in my internal physical structure in the last few years.

I think there has been a correlation between my improved health, the personal and transformation work that have become a more focused part of my life, and the pictures that I take.  In this still moment as my family sleeps and the light, weak as it is (only 3 weeks till Winter Solstice), grows and grows outside, I can feel it "in my bones". 

As my vertebra have breathed, stretched, and realigned, I have gained expansive freedom.  I push outward in new ways...my eyes now naturally look up and I so love what I get to see.

#1: backyard, the Wisteria has grabbed hold of the Japanese Maple.  (Saturday)
#2: standing on my mom's block and looking up.  (Saturday)
#3: holiday decoration, the yummy Thai place next door to my mom's, the owners live in her building and are really nice people.  (Saturday)
#4: neon sign, 51st Street between 8th and 9th Avenues, noticed after leaving Shimizu (the chef is a friend of my mom's...the food was particularly fantastic this visit).  (Saturday)
#5: dusky sky outside Terra where Elizabeth and I had had another verbal-intellectual-emotional jam session over Steaz and Thai iced coffee.  (Sunday)
#6: breaking morning sky out my window...taking this shot led to this muse about looking up.  (Monday)

Look up.  Keep your chin up.  (Re)align.  See what there is to see.

Peace and love, fellow creatures.

Pricey but tempting

A gingerbread house making kit that would be utterly safe for Gem to handle and consume...

Seasonal yum

Veggie soup with leeks, garlic, turnip, carrot and ginger.  Everything but the ginger from the farm.  I used Imagine Foods No Chicken Broth for the first time (thanks Kelly :-)...it was nice.

Brussels sprouts.  Sautéed and steamed with sweet onion, salt and oil.

It can (re)start with a word

Yesterday someone referred to me as "lazy".  This person wasn't trying to hurt my feelings or call me a "name".  They were speaking their truth based on observation and experience.

And, I am lazy.  It's hard not to feel stung by the negative connotations and associations that come with that word, but it is possible.  The word itself is neither bad or good. 

Yet, I did feel misunderstood.

I can better understand my lazy self through personality studies.  I tend towards being an introvert and a phlegmatic (both are personality types which are/appear "lazy" to others).  Being lazy is far from being my whole picture.  But, it (and my personality) is something I can focus some attention on in the next few weeks as I shift how I work on financial accounting, decluttering, and generally managing my household more effectively.

I found this piece via a quick Google search of lazy and misunderstood :-)  Finding a different place to work on these aspects of my life will be a challenge (I spend a lot of time within this apartment!), but it's also clear to me that it would help.  A creative puzzle, just the sort of thing my mind likes to occupy itself with...

I also found this piece which resonated because while I was having my time with the person who called me lazy, I felt at a loss for words.  I did not wish to "get into it"...to share what I was thinking or feeling.  It didn't feel possible to translate what was inside to outside.  This was infuriating to the person I was interacting with.  Did I look smug?  Arrogant?  Blank?  I'm not sure.

And the process continues.  I really liked the line in the first piece: "...I say combat because I'll probably never win the battle completely."  That's honest.  It's accepting the challenge while accepting (and loving) what and who it is causing the battle in the first place.

More wise words

How does one keep from “growing old inside”? Surely only in community. The only way to make friends with time is to stay friends with people…. Taking community seriously not only gives us the companionship we need, it also relieves us of the notion that we are dispensable.
-Robert McAfee Brown

Wise words

Love is an action, never simply a feeling.  (bell hooks)

Thanksgiving 2009

Love it or love it

If you haven't seen The Wire, SEE IT. Really.

Remembering what was and who was here before

Bleary.

Up late catching up on accounting.

Awake now to pack clothes, make and pack food, shower, get rest of family up...our plan is to be out the door in 98 minutes.

97 minutes.

Off to Massachusetts for FIL's 70th birthday celebration/Thanksgiving meal.  MIL's tomorrow.  I'll be laying my head at Karen's tonight.  Back late tomorrow night.

96 minutes.  Gotta go.

Muppet love

Wordless Wednesday

Inside outside upside down

Inside. A brass bell at rest.

Outside.  What to do but burrow.  (Hiding out is near impossible.)

Upside down. 

My body.  I keep waking at 3 or 4 in the morning and lie mostly hazy for an hour or two.  While grateful for the additional hour or two I manage afterward, I can't completely let go of my preference for sleeping through and waking at 6 and having a couple of quiet, awake hours to myself.

My mind.  PMS.  Wedges created that puts me apart from others.  Last night it was the kids.  Instead of the usual, amoebic one body I feel as "us", I feel an acute need for separation.  Difficult times and emotions ensue when this time of the month comes around and it's a depleted night time and Cap is not around.

Reset with a personal 4 element plan:

Water: an uninterrupted shower (Cap is home this morning with the kids)
Air: listening to Matt Pond PA's new single plus 2 b-sides
Earth: back into a post-birthday routine - Sag's art class, winter share pick up, Vinny this afternoon
Fire: hmmm...need something here...any suggestions?

Peace, people.

The weekend in pictures