September 4, 2011 – 1:46 pm
Toward the end of my month of yoga teacher training at Kripalu last spring, each person in my class was handed a sheet of paper and a pen and asked to write the words “What I want to tell you is. . .” The assignment, then, was to write a letter, a letter from the radiant, wide-open, yoga-saturated, heart-full self of that moment to some beleaguered, tired and doubting future self who might one day be in need of a little bucking up. These letters, we were assured, would arrive in our mailboxes at the right time. There were so…
I can see it vividly: an August morning, just exactly a year ago. My friend Diane and I were taking a walk, as we had done together countless times over the last eighteen years. As we made our way slowly down the hill near her home, the summer sun warm on our backs, we watched our two elongated shadows, side by side, moving companionably along in front of us. A pair of women walking, a pair of shadows dancing to our rhythm: a small, ordinary moment, but one I will remember always. I knew even then — I think we…
A few months ago my friend Margaret Roach gave away a cookbook on her site A Way to Garden. I read her description of Heidi Swanson’s beautiful recipes, considered the lush photo on the book jacket, and gave in — as I rarely do — to an impulsive on-line purchase. (Apologies to my much-loved and frequented local bookstore!) I wasn’t going to wait an entire week to see if I might win a copy of Super Natural Every Day; I ordered the book that very moment and two days later I had it in my hands. Which is how this…
January 11, 2011 – 9:08 pm
I love earrings. But the idea of anything puncturing, piercing, or poking my body makes me queasy. I first tried getting my ears pierced in college, fortified by two glasses of wine and my friends’ assurance that this was “nothing.” Two months later, and I was still creeped out every time I had to work a stud through the flesh of my ear lobe. One night, preparing to go out, I stood in the bathroom, teeth clenched, sweat beading out all over my body, and began the dreaded ritual of putting on my earrings. The next thing I knew, I…
