Contemplating Paradise

After a nice vacation to Boca Raton, some promising weather of summer ahead and recent new of Maho Bay closing, all I can think of is white beaches, blue skies, clear water, sunshine and green, green life. This shores up next to a vision, notion or experience of what I like to call paradise. Whether or not your own paradise is lush, warm, bright and breezy I think most of us can appreciate this sense of vastness. Something about being by the water and under the sky brings on a certain sense of freedom, joy and vigor. Since my vacation in Boca Raton was filled with beach days, long walks, yoga, eating and drinking out, more long walks, I found a lot of time to turn inward and be quiet. The serenity and calm that go along with this rejuvenation is what I see when I look at pictures of Paradise.

So a few yoga photos from the beach... These are for you, MOM! She isn't on Facebook so she hears/sees these things second hand on a smartphone at work, it's just not the same.

And here is a memory of my first paradise, Maho Bay, St John, USVI. After a family vacation in my middle school years introduced me to this particular Slice of Life, I was hooked. The eco-friendly campground offers screened in bungalows connected by miles of boardwalk amidst the natural beauty of St. Johns hillsides; seriously , this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever experienced. After I graduated from high school, my best friend Laura and I both decided to take a year off. In September we flew to the Virgin Islands to volunteer at Maho in their work exchange program. We would do laundry, clean cabins, plunge toilets, pressure wash boardwalks for about 4 hours a day in exchange for a cabin for two. We were 18 years old.

I could go on for another 17 pages but I think I'll save it for my memoir... The most memorable times were spent on the beach enjoying the pure bliss of such a small piece of paradise which has now been sold for close to $14 million. Phew, that feels good to get off my chest, something I will continue to sit with for a long time. Contemplating Paradise.... To wrap things up with Maho I thank you for the skills I probably wouldn't learn anywhere else: hitch hiking, drinking warm rum, living on an island, windsurfing on the ocean, and loving every bit of every thing every where.


















In my life today, I'm spending time in the garden and planting seeds, my favorite thing to do this time of year. The newest to pop up are arugula, basil and thyme. I've also started some tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and various flowers scattered around my tiny lawn and porch.

Yoga continues to thrive in my life, thankfully. I teach ten classes a week at the studio now, which is proving very fun and exciting every day. Students are so inspiring, and as a self-proclaimed "inspired student" it feels very right to be spending lots of time in the studio. And I'm heading off to class in just a minute so I'll finish things off there. Simply trying to fill my life each day with whatever comes my way.

Don't eat more than you can carry.
~Miss Piggy

Embrace Everything

It is supposed reach 70 degrees today and the sun is shining so I am struggling with the notion of sitting here (in my living room------windows open) in front of the computer. Every time that I hit a wall I need to write something down, and today I found myself home from class waiting for the next one to roll around this afternoon feeling stuck in place. So I looked at my last blog post and read that final thing I mentioned Yoga Sutra #48 from Book Two, "one is not disturbed by dualities".... OH yea, sometime in our lives we wake up one day and find our head swimming with thoughts. Whether it is clear what those thoughts mean or not, whether it's emotional, practical or total nonsense, we have to find ways to push through the mud and ruts. Take a break, do something you love, and be with your thoughts. Then go on with the rest of your day and enjoy the freaking sunshine!!!

Jayson and I take off in 6 days to Boca Raton for a week! A much need break for the both of us, working opposite schedules and always keeping projects going on the side proves to make our time together sporadic but also very special. For his birthday we spent the day together, drank mimosas and had cheesecake! Jayson loves cheesecake so I took upon myself to make it happen, duh. I made my first ever cheesecake from scratch with ricotta cheese and a graham cracker-cashew crust. And I topped it off with some rhubarb I had in the freezer and fresh strawberries stewed with liqueur! There's nothing more to say.

I think Springtime always brings up nostalgia of things we love, embracing life, growth, goodness and sunshine. I even moved some of my plants outdoors for the daytime, check my avocado tree now! My herbs are a bit more tricky. I need to buy a good quality grow lamp because my windows just don't get quite enough sun this time of year (especially not everyday) but things are coming along nicely.

When I get back from vacation I will be teaching 9 classes at the studio each week and Emily and I will have our second workshop! I think I am still getting used to using my body every day all day, but besides being a little tired sometimes, classes continue to excite and inspire me. I also had the opportunity to ride horses and talk yoga in Stowe with friends from Yoga Vermont this week. We will be going to Wanderlust together (horses, too!) and I am simply overwhelmed with happiness and love. So in an effort to embrace this overwhelming emotion, I thank you for checking in and wish you sunny afternoons for eternity.


xo

PS I'm not even proofreading :) #sunshine

A is for April, Asana, And, Awesomeness...

I know ignorance is something to stray far from, but is it OK to "ignore" April? Welllllll, no. You would miss too much Awesomeness! This breathy Adrenaline is a by produce of the workshop Emily and I held at Studio Zenith last night. We had to greatest number of people doing Ashtanga in the studio thus far and the air in there was completely electric. So thank you to everyone who came out, we can not wait to see you again soon, and thank you to Anyone who does yoga Anytime, Anywhere.

A very different part of my weekend was spent cleaning out the "other" room in the upstairs of our apartment. Since we moved in (a year and a half ago) the room has Accumulated a wealth of stuff, and in an effort to begin the inevitable Springtime cleanse Jayson and I went to work. Luckily we've decided to remove the weight bench and desk we never use and there is actually space in there! I've put my herb starts in the window and vacuumed and voila:

An in-home studio space! An April miracle! I'm excited!

Another April must-do is celebrate Jayson's birthday, which is tomorrow. We went out on Friday starting with an afternoon at the Stoweflake spa and evening massages. It was my second visit to the spa last week, Emma and I spent an afternoon there on Tuesday getting aromatherapy body wraps and pedicures. The spa offers service for 50% off one week in the spring and fall each year. I highly recommend checking it out! Friday evening we ate out at Crop Bistro & Brewery just across the street and had an Amazing meal. The weather was sleeting and blowing all day but the mild temperatures allowed us to brave the night out. It was well worth the free birthday dessert and spectacular service, we will definitely return to Crop.

Alongside busy days and lush behavior, we've been eating out of the freezer at home! No more lentil soup, but there is still pie crust, pizza dough, homemade bread and plenty of other soups to choose from. I think a may start a soup-making-binge tradition every winter, it's especially nice for these drizzly and dark spring days. The black bean burgers I made months ago are almost used up and have become one of my faves. And yes, those are leftover fiesta fries and HLBs....


I can't resist posting this photo, Lola and her seven-toed paws...

46. sthira sukhamasanam
asana is a steady, comfortable posture (or asana is a stable, happy presence)

47. prayatna saithilyananta samapattibhyam
by lessening the natural tendency for restlessness and by meditating on the infinite, posture is mastered

48. tato dvandvanabhigatah
thereafter, one is not disturbed by dualities

Yoga Sutras: Book Two by Sri Swami Satchidananda

Smells like Spring! Cilantro, Snowmelt and More...

It's April 1st and the weather has been mild and forgiving in Vermont. All except for the massive snow meltage that has turned the back roads into a continuum of swirling mud. Last night Jayson and I dined at my mom's house for Easter with her boyfriend, Wayne, and my brother! The road was so nutty we parked my beetle at the elementary school and my brother shuttle us to the homestead, yeehaw! We had ham, baked pineapple (!!!), scalloped potatoes, roasted asparagus, cheddar popovers and pink bubbly.... wow. My mom also presented me with an Easter bag full of treats and love. Spring time is a great time to be reminded of family and abundance with the new life it brings. It also presents looming days of rain. Today remains dark even at noon with heavy clouds and showers in the forecast, a perfect day to spend in practice, both in the studio and out.

With Intermediate Series calling me I am trying to reshape my weekly yoga routine. Last Friday I went to the Friday morning class at YVT to start training towards the next series in the Ashtanga tradition. It's nice to be learning new transitions and movements along with the seasons, sometimes things just start to click. Today I teach Kids Yoga, attendance has been low but the kids really love to do yoga, so that's great! I've also been obsessed with watching videos of Pattabi Jois teaching the Primary and Intermediate Series. I warn you that the videos are lengthy, extremely inspiring and intensely powerful. Anyways, practicing everyday in the studio(s) feels excellent.

And beside that I've got a regular busy life at the restaurant and in my kitchen. This morning I made hummus with fresh cilantro, lime and garlic. I've been into buying fresh herbs so CILANTRO has been the pick of the week. Yum. Tacos, I even put it in the meatballs I made with mushrooms and onions, and there is still some left to be used! Keeping it fresh and waiting for spring!

A newer obsession has been unearthed in baking my own bread. I find it therapeutic and exhilarating all at once, very much like my physical yoga practice. There are such subtle changes in the recipes of breads that amount to very substantial disparities in the finished product! Now I'm not trying tog et all philosophical and yogic about bread making, but I do recommend giving it a try if you've got the time and capacity to make it happen. Here are a few ideas:

Free Form Sundried Tomato-Garlic-Basil Loaf

Pumpkin Oat Raisin Quickbread (in background of bagel boiling photo!)

Hand Rolled Onion (Mini)Bagels w/ Rosemary

And perhaps one of the more exciting things, mild temperatures have warranted OPEN WINDOWS! This is great for keeping things fresh AND entertaining the kitty who has never had such awesome exposure to fresh airs, smells, sounds, sights and squirrels! These pictures are mostly for you Laura!

Ending with a quick shout out to my and Emily's upcoming Ashtanga Workshop!

Namaste, may spring come in waves of sunshine, xo

Like a Lion...

Once a week? Once a month? Who cares!? I knew February would be a quick month but to already be a week deep in March is a bit of a surprise. Jayson was gone for a week due to an awesome conference in Syracuse and I seized the moment to spend time in the kitchen, a wild-woman I've become... I did spend a night out with my brother the The Black Krim in Randolph, a much loved place by the both of us. And Emma Sanford joined me for a much needed evening of wine and nachos, so I haven't been a COMPLETE dud.

Firstly, I thawed the rest of the fiddleheads we picked last Spring and made fiddlehead quiche, YUM! Next up was a classic, homemade macaroni and cheese. My mom's favorite recipe involves smoked gouda and is topped with freshly cut apples and it is to DIE for. I've added bacon and peas before but this time I tried something new, oven-roasted mushrooms. Even though they were a bit over roasted (crispy, for sure) I think it is my new guilty pleasure. And on a much healthier note, soup! First up was a loose recreation of Sarducci's own spicy black bean that I finished off with organic coconut milk rather than heavy cream. Another score from the freezer was mashed pumpkin from my brothers garden that I pureed with carrots, celery and onion, seasoned with thyme and serve with either a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt. Finally chili, not vegetarian but grass fed beef, tons of veggies and BEER. Needless to say the freezer is restocked and I've been eating chili for three days straight.

This mac & cheese is good with red or white wine, so I tried both!









Here are some photos from what may possibly be my last snowshoe of the season:

I have been starting to re-pot my indoor plants and plant some herbs in hopes of freshness and life and in anticipation of spring. I now have a baby tangerine tree standing at about two inches and my thyme, dill and basil have all begun to sprout! Where does she find the time? Besides feeling slightly under the weather there have been many people in my life telling me to take a day or two off, so I listened. Somehow I've managed to survive financially with a full week off from work at the restaurant, but I'll be back to the grind tomorrow....

Thankfully part of the reason for my "time off" is the fact that I am teaching seven classes a week at the studio now. They are condensed into 4 days and I love each one of them. I am also planning an Ashtanga workshop with Emily (fellow instructor and teacher trainee) which will be a three hour evening event exploring the Primary Series. We would love for the workshop to grow into something we can hold a few times a year, constantly bringing in new material and revisiting basics! I've eased up on my trips to Burlington in lieu of not spending enough time at home with Jayson and Lola, exhausting my gasoline funds and hoping to attend one of the two David Swenson workshops this summer. The problem is that I miss Yoga Vermont immensely once I haven't visited for over a week :)

And MOST IMPORTANTLY, I just bought tickets to New Orleans to visit Emma S-E and Laura is planning to come at the same time. Isham St reunion in NOLA! I'm feeling incredibly grateful for the richness each day brings to life and the opportunities that lay ahead.

Om purnamidah purnamidan
purnaat purnamudachyate
purnasya purnamudaya
purnameva vashishate

This is full
that is full
from fullness, fullness comes,
when fullness removes itself, fullness still remains

Avocado Squirt Gun

I just survived for six days in 2013 without a cell phone, so at least we know it's still possible. I had to check my email on the computer and my primary form of communication was in fact email, or facebook. I felt pretty pathetic. The good news is I now have a function fancy smartphone, we got a huge dump of fresh POWDER last weekend, and the reason I lost my phone is because I went snowboarding on Saturday with Nate. About 14 inches of the fluffiest snow I've seen in years (SERIOUSLY FLUFFY) graced us throughout the day and overnight last Friday, thank you universe!!!! Riding all morning with Nate kicked my butt and we had a ton of fun finding the best (and a little of the not-so-best) snow. Yes!

Avocado squirt gun? My avocado tree has leaves on it! I've been growing this thing for a long, long time and I am so happy to see new life! The kitty ate the first buds it ever had about two or so months ago, but it persevered. And the squirt gun has been brought into play as the official kitty deterrent for plants in the window sill. She will learn, but in the meantime she'll continue to make me act like a crazy person about my house plants.

It feels great to be back in the swing of things after vacation. Classes, classes and more classes. Taking yoga classes, teaching yoga classes, preparing for yoga classes, wanting more yoga classes everywhere all the time.... I am now the Kids Yoga instructor at Studio Zenith and can't wait for class on Monday! It should be a nice challenge for me to teach kids, very cool. I also just submitted my volunteer application for Wanderlust in Stratton this summer! I figure it will be a great excuse to take a long weekend for hard work, practice, new opportunities and sunshine.

Oh right, Valentine's Day. I became obsessed with making homemade caramels for the big day.... So on Wednesday I started by getting all the supplies I needed, ingredients, parchment paper, a candy thermometer and a new pair of yoga pants. DUH. The making of the caramel was actually the easiest part. I let the stuff cool but had some sticky situations and ended up having to put it in the freezer for a flash just to get it to set enough to cut into squares. Somewhere during this process I decided it would be necessary to chocolate coat the caramels and make a variety of flavors.... About 3 hours later I had (with a few minor pitfalls) success! Chocolate covered caramels, peanut butter chocolate covered caramels, chocolate covered caramels with cashews, and sea salted chocolate covered caramels. Phewf. Last night we went out to J. Morgans and I did not cook or do dishes  :)

 

Wishing you all lots of love this time of the year! And so grateful for the return of winter...

You cannot be enlightened as the separate person you see yourself to be because that person has already disappeared, along with everything else from yesterday.
-Buddha

Dear Laura and Tim

Two people have mentioned my blog in the past month and inspired me to start up again: Laura Sturgis and Timothy Perez. This is for you two, so I'm not going to keep it short...

I just got back from a glorious trip to Orlando where my Aunt has resided for 7 years now. It is very much a place I can now visit for a retreat of sorts. Her back yard has a private pool and a bird feeder that attracts not only birds but squirrels, lizards, cats and, a first time sighting for me this trip, rats! We all know that Orlando is great for food, drink, theme parks, gators, conventions and combinations of all of the above, and I of course have been known to enjoy a margarita or two, a bottle of wine (or two), tacky miniature golf and gourmet cuisine. This time around when I wasn't spending time with my dear family, I really took time to chill. Mostly, I'm broke as a joke and have no cash for crap like that (I got a free flight using my Jetblue miles!)...

 How can it be that a bright, young college graduate working a minimum of 40 hours a week still scrapes by on a monthly basis? Oh I dunno, here are a few ideas: my cat, my yoga obsession, my love for extracurricular activities (this season these include snowboarding, snowshoeing, cooking and the occasional social soiree)...

Lola is the cat I've dreamed of owning since I first lived on my own on Mansfield Avenue in Burlington. She is sweet, soft, cuddly, playful and a source of constant love and entertainment. Not that my lovely. live-in boyfriend Jayson isn't all of those things, it's simply a void no person will ever fill. I am trying to get her onto a raw food diet and she uses pine pellets that turn into sawdust for kitty litter. Fascinating, I know. Yesterday was her five month birthday and most of the big expenses are out of the way now, phewf.

Lola in a cardboard box...

Sure, the yoga has sprung me into ultra awareness about my place in the world and what I'm eating/consuming on the day to day, but I've also just finished a book I think you might enjoy that is helping me to stay on track. It's called The Mindful Carnivore by Tovar Cerulli. For the record I still eat frozen pizza and Chinese food so it's definitely a baby step thing for me, it's much easier to force my kitten into a healthy lifestyle than myself.

I received my yoga teacher certification just before Christmas and have registered with Yoga Alliance, you can look me up on the directory. This experience has not only been a whirlwind of a dream come true, but still proves to be life changing just about every time I go to teach a class. BTW Laura, Tim has you beat here because he came to class when he visited in January, just sayin'. There will be much more talk about yoga in my blog posts to come. I am now training towards my 500 hour certification, nexxxxxxxt level ya'll!

Ok, extracurriculars... The winter hasn't been the best for outdoor sports and shenanigans but I've found my way onto snowshoes a few times and to the mountain a handful of times. Here is a picture of fungi on a tree covered in snow especially for you Tim:

And cooking has always been something I enjoy, but now that I'm trying to be more health conscious it also seems like a way to control what I eat. I recently made black bean burgers that came out fairly gooey yet delicious, a lentil-bacon-veggie soup and homemade loaves of bread. The crock pot and cookbook I got for Christmas have only aided my desire to be in the kitchen. Totally off topic but Jayson and I got a tent for Christmas, VERY AWESOME, can't wait for summer!

 BBQ Chicken Pizza

I've been home from Florida for about two hours now and had to get up at 3:30 am for my flight so excuse me for being sporadic and mild, I hope you liked it anyways. I promise that the posts to come will be more entertaining and insightful (maybe). The cat is asleep on my lap and it's snowing outside...

I thank you both for inspiring me to write again, you guys mean the world to me!

"The yogi's life is not measured by the number of his days but by the number of his breaths."
-B.K.S. Iyengar