Yoga, T'ai Chi Chih, the Tibetan Five (which is Yoga) and Just Hoping for Good Luck

My mom aged pretty damn gracefully on her cigarettes and gin. She was a fun to be with, had lots of energy as a grandma, and powered forward after a traumatic lung surgery in 1970-something to live a regular hard working life. Her second lung surgery in 2009 didn't go nearly as well. She finally quit smoking a year or so after she moved in with me in 2012 at the insistence of her vascular surgeon, but even so, it was a slippery slope the last couple of years.

My daughter C., thinks our family might carry the Ozzy Osborne gene. I've always enjoyed drinking (nowadays I drink a lot less) and only twice in my life have I every been sick or even the least bit hung over from partying. But I feel the need for a different approach as I prepare to get on Medicare at the end of this year. After my mysterious illness a year ago I got a bit more serious about my T'ai Chi Chih practice, added more yoga to my week, and at the end of November I began practicing the Tibetan Five at home. The popular lore surrounding the Five makes some big claims about the fountain of youth and while I don't expect to wake some morning with black hair and a 125 lb. physique, I do feel stronger and think that the opening of the upper body and the strengthening of it is a definitely a good thing for me. I've tried to do various iterations of a home yoga practice for years and never was very consistent, but there are lots of videos online for the Tibetan Five. Because of that, and who knows whatever other reasons, the practice has become part of my routine and after beginning with only 5 reps of each of the 5 moves a few months ago, I've been up to the full 21 reps of all 5 moves for the past week or so. 

I also really enjoy reading about yoga and what it has to say about the physical body. Here are a few lines from  Light on Yoga by B.K. S. Iyengar:

      "The yogi feels that to neglect or deny the needs of the body and to think of it as something not divine, is to neglect and deny the universal life of which it is a part. The needs of the body are the needs of the divine spirit which lives through the body. The yogi does not look heavenward to find God for he knows that He is within, being known as the Antaratma (the Inner Self). He feels the kingdom of God within and without and finds that heaven lies in himself."

I've been aware of the divine in the natural world around me for most of my life, but my body often felt like it was only meant to get me into trouble. (Catholic school.) Nowadays, I feel in my bones (what an appropriate expression that is!) how it is the body that tethers us to all that we love in this life on Earth. I feel profoundly the loss of those loved ones who are now longer tied to this life, and I know too that someday I will let go of the tether. Until then I want to remind myself with these daily practices that there is a divine spirit that lives within this body of mine. 

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Wednesday Morning Beach Report: Squishy Pink Aliens, Found Art, and People just build things...

There were dozens of these on the sand this morning. They seemed to be alive--pulsating a bit, shiny and fresh looking. I'd read some neighborhood chatter on the internet saying these things were jellyfish eggs, but the internet look-up that I did says they are salps. They can link together, according to National Geographic, and swim around looking amazing. According to the LA Times, they showed up at the south beaches a few months ago. I was careful not to step on any.

Now for some found art:

Degas Bronze Ballerina lets her hair down and buys some stilts

Room with a View

Healthcare, Selfcare, Taking Care of Business, etc.

Last Saturday's Sunset

Here's a pretty picture to distract you from the political madness. I'm sick to death of looking at pictures of men deciding the fate of women. This morning, looking at the news, I thought my head would explode just like Trump claims Obamacare is exploding. Or was that implode? I'm pretty sure he claimed both. I want ALL young women to consider politics as a career. Women have to take charge. If there were a headcount of all the women in this country who have NOT been raped, sexually assaulted, sexually harassed, suffered domestic abuse, or suffered economic inequality, would there be anyone to count?

Meanwhile, I've been taking care of business (taxes) and cooking ratatouille and making a salad from collard greens that a T'ai Chi Chih student gave me this morning.

And the best part? I'll be sharing all this goodness with friends while celebrating the demise of the Republican health care bill.

Spring

Poppies at Arroyo Verde Park in Ventura

My adult children and my grandchildren spent much of last week at my house. We climbed a hill to see these poppies. We went whale watching and saw at least 30 gray whales and several hundred dolphins. It is a glorious thing to survey the ocean around you and see dolphins in every direction. We kayaked; we walked on the beach and hunted sea glass, shells, and interesting rocks. We visited the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum and Planetarium. We ate out at a restaurant on the sand, had high tea on my patio on the newly refurbished teak furniture, and ate delicious food at my table. I can't think of a better lead-up to the first day of spring--all the love, conversation, and the sheer bounty of this life.

I know that spring can feel like a false promise, a let-down, a so-this-is-all-there-is, but not for me this year. Of course, perfection always eludes, but at this stage of the game I'm calling even that perfect enough.

Three of the tag-team kayakers. The other two were picked up by their mom and taken home for hot showers.

Even this bear looks happy.

Photos of sand castles in progress, in ruins, or perfect always make me happy

Happy Spring!

One Year Later

It was a year ago today that my mother left this world. I feel her presence inside of me--what she might say or do, how much she enjoyed her life on Earth, how much she loved it when family or friends came to visit us.

Family will be arriving tomorrow for a spring break visit; after that old friends will come from afar for  a visit in April, and after that, another friend. Life keeps delivering its pleasures and I am grateful for every joy, large or small.

I want to thank all of you who left your messages of condolence on my blog, or on Facebook, or by mail or phone a year ago. It meant a lot. We are all on this winding road together, and yet it can be easy to forget that. Thank you for reminding me.

The Teak Project, Part 2

The table in the process of being sanded.

The finished project in the weird glow of the patio heater, six days after beginning. Wine for the crew.

And by day.  The remaining chairs have not been set out yet, but family vacation week is approaching! I'm also staining a "teak look" coffee table that needs a little more time.

After the rainy winter, time on the patio seems more beautiful than ever.

Looking toward the ocean

Pink water

The moon at sunset

The Teak Project

The first furniture I bought for my townhouse post-divorce was a barbecue and a teak patio set. I lived in the San Gabriel Valley then and with a little teak oil now and then, things went well.

The marine environment destroys everything here in Margaritaville. Hardware, doorbells, pruning shears left out for a mere couple of days. The previous owners here at my new place left a high end stainless steel barbecue on my patio that looked like this.

After 5 years year, and only a couple of previous treatments, the furniture looked like it needed to be sanded as well as oiled due to my neglect and a winter that gave us a lot of rain, so I called a professional teak restoration company. Hahahahaha. After a couple days of negotiations, I got the price down to 800 and something dollars. Hahahahaha.

With the help of a friend, a brand new orbital sander, and about 40 bucks worth of sandpaper, this is how things are going:

We disassembled the chairs so we could do a really good job. Left to right: the weather beaten, the sanded clean, and the re-oiled 

A stack of freshly oiled pieces in the morning light.

The dramatic before and after.

All but one chair is reassembled. Despite my careful note taking, it turns out that not every chair was assembled with the exact same hardware...there will be a trip to the hardware store today, and some improvising.  Stay tuned for pictures of the table.

You'll Want to Have What I Had

I had two glasses of the above concoction with some ceviche and chips last night.

Dream:

Dan Paik came back from the dead, wearing a long red skirt over tight pants, a bolero, a kimono, and two hats perched at jaunty angles. He came bearing gifts for every birthday and holiday that he'd missed. In the dream, I didn't quite realize that he'd been dead, I thought he'd stayed away because  he'd broken up with me. What's all this? I asked of the dozens of colorful shoes, the chocolates shaped like animals, the watercolor paints. "It's all for you, baby," he said. The gift that beat all gifts was an immense curly-haired dog wearing an embroidered jacket that said flowers and candy in romantic curlicued script. "Is that his name?" I asked. Dan laughed and shrugged. All this while I'm thinking, uh-oh, what about Amado? 

Dan and I were sitting on the bed in my apartment and I could hear Amado whistling as he came up the stairs. I stood up to hug Amado, then turned toward Dan. "Guys, I've got some explaining to do," I said. They listened and there was some back and forth about what it meant to be dead. "It's time to go downstairs," Dan said. The three of us descended into the street and half of L.A. was standing there, necks craned upward. It was the night of the Bobbing Man, or maybe it was Ballooning Men. The sky was full of  primary colored life-size balloon men, some of them anatomically correct. When one of the endowed balloon men bobbed up and down in the evening breeze, a roar would rise from the crowd. 

Dan, Amado and I walked around in amazement. The sunset had lit  the sky on fire and torches lined the street. It wasn't long before we ran into my friend Paula and her sisters who had traveled from Arizona to witness the spectacle. I tried to explain about Dan and got confused, but Paula seemed to take it all in stride. We sat on a bench and talked, and my younger daughter who was still a young teenager came and lay across our laps and fell asleep. I thought about telling Paula that I might be leaving the Earth soon, that I felt like I was as tenuously tied to this life as one of the balloon men, but I didn't want to risk worrying my daughter, so I kept that thought to myself.

What the heck? But thanks for the visit, Dan Paik. It was lovely to see you. Coincidentally, it was my friend Paula, who appeared in the dream, that left the bottle of La Vida Bonita at my house.  What a pretty life, indeed.  But who is Amado?