Sunday something...

...it's an "April showers bring May flowers" here in Austin - for which I'm very grateful!
And these words from Hemingway (which make me think that it's time for me to re-visit some of his other classic writings - it's been too long) make me long for a true Spring in Austin, something which we sometimes speed by, racing in a ridiculous way to 90 degree weather and missing the beauty of what Hemingway describes here:

"When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest."

friday quotation

"What the river was showing her now was that she could flow beyond the brokenness, redeem herself, and fuse once more." ~Ursula Hegi

into my shell or sails unfurled?

Yoga is always a place of revelations for me.  Whether I'm discovering a new flexibility or new pose or whether I'm discovering a new sense of courage or vulnerability, a part of me is always moved by my time on the mat.  Today was no different.  It was a class about the basics.  Breathing.  Balancing.  Grounding.  Rounding up.  Stretching out.  And then those most basic of things were turned into a number of poses - most of which I barely stood a chance at achieving.  But the cool thing was that even if I couldn't get into scissor leg side crow (it's sort of crazy but sort of possible...one day), I could do parts of it. I could breathe.  I could balance.  I could push into the ground.  And then one day, with practice, I'll be able to round up from there and stretch out.  One day it will be time to unfurl the sails.  For now, it's a time to stretch out of my shell a little, but still find the comfort and security that is there.  Yes, my word for the year was courage.  And it still is.  But I'm learning that courage doesn't necessarily mean letting the sails out all at once and that I can inch out and then retreat and still call that brave.

friday quotation

"None of us knows what the future will hold.  And so we let ourselves move forward into it, clear-eyed about the limits of our certainty and invigorated by the adventure."
~ Leah Hager Cohen

sunday something

The hours rushed ahead and let me a bit behind...as in two days behind...like on Friday, when I should have posted this quotation. 

friday quotation

"The extraordinary is what is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary"

~ Mark Nepo

friday quotation on a saturday

Because sometimes this is just the way that the week goes...but perhaps it was meant to be because I came upon this today and it seemed just right.  I do love Anne Lamott!  
 
"And inspiration is when the really real in us gets through the chatter.  Not the drama and trauma addict with her Blanche DuBois inner storms, or the lawyer, and not the flight attendant, or the set director arranging people on the set we've created, with the sand that trucks hauled in, and beach chairs.  Just the child, and our animal selves, and an old but ageless person who takes it all in with a small smile, who has seen it all, who nibbles away on a bit of leftover scone, tends to the cats and the orchids."