leaving town for the 3 day holiday~~~~heading to our other home in the wine country~~~should be a nice change of scenery!

ta ta!

what is

lately I have been contemplating where I am right now in my life.

things have changed so much for me since we moved from Marin to Grass Valley...I miss so many things about my previous life in Marin. To be perfectly frank, I don't like living here at all...but I am trying REALLY hard to accept "what is". I can't even put a finger on why I am so unhappy here, I just am. I know that everything happens for a reason, and that things turn out the way they do because that is the way it is supposed to be...but it doesn't make it any easier somehow.

I also know that this isn't forever, so I cling to that thought a lot!!

Yoga has been great this week, as well as the couple of runs I have thrown in for that ever needed Cardio and those legs~~~that is what keeps me Sane!!!!!

OM Shanti~

last nights show in colorado....

some friends of ours moved to Colorado last month...from California.

last night they were sitting inside eating dinner with some friends when all of a sudden they looked outside and saw this....

CNN interviewed her husband this morning..we'll see if he made the cut!

the pictures are amazing~and everyone is fine. The natives that they spoke to said they have NEVER seen anything like this before in Colorado...the last shot is their backyard...pretty close to home if you ask me.

nobody lives forever

yesterday while outside talking with my neighbor..she said something to me that made me wonder.

We were talking about the wonderful man who lives across the street, he is perhaps at most 65 years old (if that) and he is always so positive and happy-go-lucky. He just sold his Mercedes Benz and bought a brand new Vespa and he takes his little dog (who looks like Toto from the Wizard of Oz) on his Vespa to the store and for drives around town. His little dog loves to go and he even wears little "doggie goggles" to protect his eyes...too cute!

I had not seen them for a week or so and was concerned, so I asked my next door neighbor is she had seen him..then she told me that she had just found out that he is dying..he has liver cancer..and that Hospice will be coming on Monday...he will go anytime.

just like that

done

Then she said that "thing" that made me wonder....

"You know" she said. "I have been working all of my life, never really going and doing, just working..and you know, I was thinking that maybe I'm just going to "check out" for awhile and Go and Do"

I told her right off that that is how I live my life...I have never waited and thought "maybe I shouldn't do or go here or there" I have just Made it Happen. I told her that is why I go each year to India..because I don't want to wake up one day and realize that I didn't live my life how I wanted to live it. That I just held onto all of that money and saved for a rainy day...That Rainy day is NOW. Of course we have a savings..of course we have that "fund" for "Just in case"....but we go and we do and we live. Because one day it just might be your turn, and to live a life unfulfilled would to me be a tragedy in itself. I just wonder how many people live their lives in that way..I mean, like how Bindi said once in her blog..."Live outside the Box" there IS so much to see in this big world of ours...nobody lives forever. Just Go and Do if you possibly can...

Shanti~

THE WHY'S OF EVERYTHING SUDDENLY NO LONGER MAKE SENSE.

WHAT IS IT THAT I TRULY BELIEVE AND WHY?

ONE COULD GO THROUGH AN ENTIRE LIFETIME AND NEVER LOOK INTO ONESELF. VARANASI IS THE CAN OPENER TO YOUR SOUL.

COME IF YOU DARE.

lonely planet...

thought it would be a good idea to pick up the newest version..our old one is tattered and has seen better days! But this is the Bible for those going to India..a wealth of information even for the well traveled. Oh, and makes for good reading material too ;0)

Ellen and Portia!

“She’s taught me lessons about myself, and I feel like I’ve taught her,” the TV host said of de Rossi last year. “We’ve both changed and grown, and we just feel like, ‘Oh, okay, this is completion."

I think its wonderful! All the Best!

Awareness....Compassion

I have ordered all of the necessary meds for the trip to India...Malrone, Cipro (which we never need) and Amoxicillin (which my husband usually always needs). No shots are needed...thank you very much~ just the Visa which can wait until November at least and that will give the Indian Embassy in San Francisco plenty of time to get them back to us before we leave.

I want to Thank You for your emails regarding the new Charity! Looks like I will see some of my fellow Yogis while I am there! That is always fun!!! It's really nice when others start to see the importance of giving to others..its such a small gesture really..but when your Heart is Open its really so easy to see...Yoga does that to a person. It's called "Awareness" and "Compassion" and when you study the practice of Yoga and read the texts, it just comes naturally~ for some anyway :0)

It's funny really. I could not imagine going to India and NOT doing something like this now..especially after having done it once, it becomes a part of you really...and it's nice to see others wanting to do more with me! I Thank You all!

Namaste

"The Colors of Love" my new charity for the kids of Karunya Mane, Mysore, India!

I rolled out my yoga mat this morning and began my practice as I do 3 days or more per week when I am not running...

and as I moved through my practice to the "Chants of Shiva" breathing, sweating, stretching...

I began to think about my upcoming trip to India in 2009..this will be my 5Th trip in 6 years, and last year as my readers know, many of whom sent shoes...I collected 90 pairs of shoes for the street kids of Mysore and worked with Operation Shanti in distributing them..it was a time that will remain within my heart forever. I loved being with those beautiful children and seeing their faces light up when they opened up their shoe bags and tried them on! When they came to me and thanked me, and took my hands in theirs and looked into my eyes..they went right through me. That was LOVE!

So as I was saying...Yoga this morning brought back those memories, and knowing I will be stopping off in Mysore again this year to see my dear friends and the children again..I wondered what it was I could do this year, what I could bring them, what they could use...and have fun with...

and it came to me..

Art Supplies! Those won't be nearly as heavy to bring, and they will be something that will bring them Joy and Fun! I checked on the Operation Shanti website after my practice and YES! They do need art supplies!! So..this new charity is named "The Colors of Love" and I am asking my readers if they can, to send me the following...if you are able~ anything would help!

This is what they need;

Colored Chalk, Glue, Tape, Colored Pencils, Crayons, Coloring Books, Origami Paper and small manual pencil sharpeners.

I will bring enough to fit into one suitcase and that should be enough to make them happy and have some great fun!! I thank you in advance and so, while you are out buying school supplies for your kids this year, perhaps you could just throw in a little something extra for the kids at Karunya Mane!!

http://operationshanti.blogspot.com/

Please leave me a comment if you would like to send me some Art supplies and I will email you my address~

I will NEVER forget how much it meant to those children to receive all of those beautiful shoes that you sent to me last year~ so this year, lets do it again!!! Thank You SO much!

of course I will keep you all updated with photos as the supplies come in!!!

OM Shanti~

I have come to this realization that in order to get to the future you must live in the present..easy to say, most days pretty hard to do. But...and that is a BIG but...I Promise to do just that! Because the truth of the matter is, that, basically the Present really is all that we have...and the future is something that always will be....so, with head held high, I will trudge ahead knowing that today was lived fully and the future looks so bright...I need Sunglasses!

Fiona is home at last!

she arrived this morning all the way from Japan! Her dress fits perfectly and now we are just waiting for her pink hightops to arrive from Hong Kong~ anyday they will be here and she will be a perfectly dressed little green froggie! I think she likes it here...she hasn't stopped smiling since I took her out of the box ;0)

the plan...

we have a plan...

it involves time off...

much airline travel...

relaxing...

incense, yoga,meditation...

rickshaw rides...

chai...

the arabian sea...

the backwaters of kerela...

you get the picture!

coming (hopefully) in January 2009!

more to come, stay tuned!