US GARBAGE – EVERY WEEK
MY NEIGHBOR’S THIS MORNING
UK GARBAGE- EVERY OTHER WEEK
WHERE HAVE WE GONE WRONG?
This week I am a bit lost. I am missing my yoga class. Last week I completed the 2nd week in a yoga immersions class. We take 3 classes which are each 40 hours and extend over a 5 day period. After that we engage in teachers training classes where we end up with 200 hours in total and a certificate that says we are inspired to go on to the Anusara hall of fame which takes you to a different universe. My teacher Leslie was an Anusara teacher. She was my mentor. At the time I didn’t know anything about other schools or techniques. All I knew was that this was hitting a place physically, emotionally, and spiritually that inspired me, and made me a better mom. One year later, I walked into my first training immersion wearing a tennis skirt searching for a greater purpose. Now my life is transforming.
I love yoga and not just because it is stretching me out and to my sheer delight strengthening my pelvic floor (hurray no operation). I love it because it is gently guiding me to “unlayer”. My yoga instructors Ann Greene and Todd Norian have taught us that the process of becoming a Yogi is similar to the life of a butterfly.
I will shed my exoskeleton several times. Much like a caterpillar, with each immersion I am changing my appearance from one molting to the next,
shedding my cocoon and at the same time helping me face my fear of vulnerability. It takes an open revealed heart to open your body. Through physical pain, emotional tears, and learning to trust I am shedding my layers until I will go through my final molt and reveal the chrysalis of my inner beauty.
If you would like to read more about this experience please visit http://bit.ly/womansforum where I write a column on parenting for Womensforum.com.
Recently I came upon this great website www.finerminds.com for personal growth where they talk about great quotes, personal growth, and ways to transform your life. They didn’t pay me to mention them. I just happened across the site and when I find great things I like to share them. One of their columns was the Editor’s movie picks of top five movies that changed his life. Here were the ratings:
- The Matrix-a bit sci fi for me, however it is a movie starring Keanu Reeve about living the truth.
- Star Trek- An accurate description about how the Universe splits. NOt sure I am a Star Trek Fan. This one might be tough for me.
- Dead Poet Society-Definitely! I loved this movie. It was about seizing the day and embracing your life. I have a son who is 12 who I think will benefit from this movie. It really shows the difference between studying a text book and living through history.
- Waking Life-A movie about free will, our relationship with others, and the meaning of life. Available on You Tube.
- Sliding Doors-Watched it Sunday with my kids. A London woman’s love life and career both hinge, unknown to her, on whether or not she catches a train. We see it both ways, in parallel.It was about wondering what would have happened if I took this door instead of that one. This morning I woke up to one of my kids with a broken heart from a broken relationship and used it to show her the value of letting go and our inability to control our life. Thumbs Up!
I recommend using these picks for your family movie nights. They will not only entertain but be useful in teaching your kids invaluable life lessons. What are your favorite movie picks, movies that changed your life?
Tomorrow I am off for my second 40 hour session at Yoga Camp. The dichotomy is that I am off for a “peaceful retreat” with a fever, a child with a broken heart, a husband that was unexpectedly called to California for an interview, Junior prom, and a shower that I am cohosting on Friday night. Being a mother doesn’t stop. There are no time outs, breaks, vacation, or sick days. It is 24/7. My daughter looked at me today and said “Mom please don’t go.” I explained that I would be back tomorrow evening and that my mom would be here but somehow that wasn’t enough. They want to walk in the door with good smells coming from the kitchen and Jason Mraz music playing in the background. They want me there welcoming them with a big hug and kiss as they walk through the door. Once they put down their book bags, they sit at the kitchen island with their homework. For hours they do their work and chat with me, filling me in on their day and the events that have unfolded in their lives.
Someday, too soon, I will miss these days, being needed, being wanted, feeling loved. No matter how many mantras and yoga philosophies I study, that is the true meaning of peace.
I tried Pilates for the first time. I couldn’t help but feel that I was at the ob/gyn office or like someone was playing a cruel trick after my column on vaginal sneezes. I thought that pilates was stretching using an exercise ball and doing extensive ab work. However once this Mom was strapped into my machine, I was in training for the new soldier post outside of Buckingham Palace. You are lying on your back with your head in between two shoulder rests and your feet are pushing against an elevated bar. Your body then performs a rowing action where you push against the bar with your feet and slide your body backward on the machine. Once it starts to become tricky you place a circus hoop in-between your legs and putting them straight in the air you hold on to trapeze bars that are attached to the machine that elevate your arms…one, two, march, three. Anyway, it was entertaining although I am not sure how many calories I was burning. Maybe I am just turning into a yoga snob? Then again, maybe I just missed the point. Any thoughts?
For More entertaining articles please feel free to visit my column at Womensforum.com where I have a parenting column http://bit.ly/Lifewithwendy.
My kids have 34 days left until school ends. I know this because I am a mom and I counted.
April break has been a parenting test run for the summer months and since Sunday I have not stopped. We might have gone away however the kids were told if they were to miss one practice or game they would be off their spring teams. I am not sure I am understanding this concept because when I think vacation, I think that I must do something radically different from my life so I can go back home and appreciate it. With all the carpooling, I am not feeling that this week is so radically different.
Here is a photo of a family vacation we took several years ago b.s. (before sports) that was different. We went to the Grand Canyon and looked at rocks for 7 days.
Here is another beautiful shot of all the rocks.
I think it was the smell from the buffalo
that made me miss home. It must have reminded me
of all the sneakers at my front door.
I have been getting a lot of feedback on my TW@#$ Fart article, and mostly from men. My friend called me to say that her husband was taken back that I would write about that. My male cousin opened the article and nearly fell off his chair. My brother, who never reads my column laughed and said “Ohhh I saw that one.” They all found it to be disturbing. My kids? They say that they block their feeds so they don’t even know what I am writing. When someone asks them about it, their standard reply is “I have NO IDEA what my mother is up to now.”
The women on the other hand thought it was one of the funniest columns they had seen. My girlfriend Mary who works at Yale in the ER said she called the girls around the table, and they all laughed out loud when she read it. My daughter read it out loud to my mother and sister in our car and the four of us were like hyenas laughing and snorting. My sister thinks I should change my social feed to “Twatter” versus “Twitter”. My mother thought I should change my description to “Vaginal Flurries, or Female Movement” which sounds too much like a bowel movement. What I would like to see is grown men who had birthed children and their reaction when out of nowhere air escapes from their “cookie.” Do they think being a woman is easy?
Also I wonder why Howard Stern can get away with having a woman who can queef the Star Spangled Banner on with a male dominated audience and men think its funny? Yet, when I put “twat” in print they go wild. Maybe what we should do is invest in some good medical adhesive tape preferably in bright shades of pink with a white imprinted bow to contain the problem. Then who would have the last laugh?
Good News – I am now devoid of any viruses. Wait a minute, not that kind of virus.
December 16Th, I got notice that there was suspicious malware on my site. I called my hosting Company Dot Easy and asked for their help. They told me that if I agreed to a $35 research charge they would see if they had a backup of my site. Apparently my site was completely deleted from an IP address in Mexico. Even worse, it was seven years of work gone, and I did not have a copy. The idea of backing your entire website up was foreign to me. I thought that was one of the reasons I had a web hosting company. After paying the $35, they called me to say they had no backup.
Immediately I called Gary at Connecticut Websites who designed my site. He had a backup and would help me to restore the site. Since that time my site was hacked and deleted four times. Working together, we moved the site to Blue Host which I basically had to do in the middle of the night with no one looking.
My message to you is :
- Make sure you back up your website
- Make sure you have a good hosting company
- Make sure you have a website designer like Gary who will spend the hours, not because he is looking for billing but rather because he cares about your site.
If anyone would like to share a story or a tip, fire away. I am sure we could all benefit.
My first day of yoga was great and most importantly I was able to go the entire day without letting out one twat fart. We were in the Shakespeare Theatre, hard wood floors and tall windows that let the light in. There were 4 rows of 5 mats; each of us would have a partner.
Each day started with an anatomy lesson.
“ Who here has never studied beautiful bones like this?’
The instructor asked pointing to the skeleton in the front of the room.
I was not going to raise my hand until I was sure I wasn’t the only loser that knew nothing about how her Twinkies failed to digest under normal circumstances. A couple of hands were raised, oh ok , mine followed.
We were told that yoga was about alignment and in order to align we needed to realize what we were aligning. I told them that I watched a lot of “Conjunction Junction What’s Your Function” as a kid so I thought I understood the concept. That didn’t go far.
After we had an exercise where I was paired with Gumby who had her mat next to mine. When it was her turn to stretch she would reach down far enough to extend her head BETWEEN her legs and see up her back. Come to find out I was a minority. Most of my classmates were instructors. I had a sinking feeling that it was going to be a l-o-n-g week.