Back to yoga

It is time to return to yoga. And because the world works in the unpredictable and amazing way that it does, a brand new ten-week session is starting today. With a little help from my mom, I am going back to the stretching and breathing and centering that my body and spirit are crying out for now.

It is the kind of yoga that is both active and deeply relaxing and will leave my muscles aching later that night and into the next day. Right now, that sounds so good. I need feel muscles other than my heart. I need to absorb some of the energy of other women radiating the divine I swear I've seen in the air in yoga classes in the past.  It is not my intention to  steal any of that light, just bask in it for a few hours.

Just put a bit in my hand to hold on to until next Saturday comes around again.

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Linkety Dinkety Doo: Four more

If all is well with my Wonder Urper today, we will take the long walk to music class to dance the Fruit Salad Salsa, toot on some recorders and listen to the calming chime of the claves. Later, we will head to the Y, where Lil E's best buddy will celebrate being three with sports and games and mayhem in the small gym above the pool. It will be a regular day in the life of a preschooler, which we both need in the midst of so much family upheaval and which I will celebrate later over one much-anticipated martini with my grrrl Molls.

While we are breathing a sigh of relief before the weekend, here are a few more favorite things to center on:

Favorite preschool gift of the year.

Favorite blogger costume of the year.

Favorite new blog.

Favorite new comfort food.

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On births and deaths, pumpkins and puke

It was a beautiful October in Chicago, with lots of that low sun that makes people's eyes and hair shine through shadows and enough chill that the leaves cover nearly all of the sidewalk in front of our apartment. It has been a cold and difficult winter within my marriage and so I've needed all of the amazement of the external world.  And now, here we are in November.

It is Dia de los Muertes, Day of the Dead, when people are invited to mourn and call upon the spirits of the loved ones they've lost. We buried Bruce's uncle and our family dog this year, and yet, the deepest loss is embodied in a relationship rather than tucked into the calm safety of the ground. The thing is, Day of the Dead is also a celebration. It is a renewal and communion, it is an honoring of the end of one part of life and the continuation of another. Maybe it is most important in times like these to mourn and hope simultaneously. That's what I am doing.

It is also the beginning of NaBloPoMo and I am ready for the challenge to post here everyday. I am looking forward to seeing where that commitment leads me.

And it is the end of a long and happy Halloween celebration with Lil E.  That end abruptly arrived at 3:30 am when the nasty little stomach bug that invaded his co-op spewed all over both of us for two hours straight. But before that, there was this hyped anticipation and glorious trick-or-treating and delight in a full pumpkin bucket of candy that had me smiling all day long.  Hopefully, we can set aside the barfing boy images and hold on to some of these of Lil E and his buddy Sammy going door to door, screaming happily, "TRICK OR TREAT!" with plenty of pleases and thank yous to match the fun-sized candies and spooky decorations. They are a great pair. And their connection is only more poignant because today we celebrate Sammy's birthday on this, Day of the Dead, time of birth.

[Photo Credits: Jessica Ashley]

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