LifeStyle Revolution

Sunday Morning Inspiration

 

Inspiration is a funny muse.

Elusive and fickle, just below the surface of awareness; a fleeting scent that triggers a memory of our soul's deepest desire.  

She asks to be nurtured, fed, coddled and cajoled. And when we show her that we are present and awake and ready... she delights us with a gift of insight and rewards us with a moment of joy and light.

When life tumbles us around like rocks on the shore, and the wind inside our very head creates a hurricane of emotion and self doubt, this is when our muse is hardest at work. 

Listen for her whisper in the rain. Look for her through the mist and fog. 

A little more than three years ago, the path on which I was traveling slowly disappeared and I found myself scaling the edge of a cliff in the middle of the night. Being afraid of heights, the darkness was my greatest gift. And the muse was ever present, providing beacons of beauty along the path. 

On this Sunday morning, I am reminded why I do the work that I do, and I am filled with gratitude for the fellow travelers who have shared their stories, insights and discoveries. 

And so, before I head out to a rainy soccer tournament, I'd like to share what was inspiring to me this morning:

A French-press of strong Italian Roast coffee in my favorite Orla-Kiely mug while listening to the rain and spending time with my journal (doing the daily meditative writing exercise that many of my clients are surely doing too!). And watching my favorite NPR Tiny Desk Concert... 

Enjoy your Sunday... and let me know what inspires you today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March into Wellness

My acupuncturist friend, Dave Schiman, is hosting a fabulous health fair this weekend at the Lyceum Wellness Center, in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia. There will be free workshops, treatments and demonstrations all day Friday and Saturday... he's got some great folks lined up so if you are in the area and interested in learning more about acupuncture, natural childbirth, pranic healing, mindful breathing meditation or nutrition, this is your chance. 

I'll be speaking about Homeopathy and Food (big surprise) on Saturday morning at 9. After me is Yvonne Fisher who will be demonstrating The Bowen Technique. I describe Bowen as, "The Homeopathy of Bodywork" because it works with the body's ability to facilitate its own healing action. I have worked with Yvonne many times as have my children. She is a gifted healer with a gentle demeanor and mastery of her craft. Yvonne always makes me smile--and feel better.

Dave Schiman works with a concept called, "Community Supported Acupuncture"... it's a low cost way to receive high-quality treatment in a community setting.

Thanks so much Dave for making this happen!

Here's a link to the flyer. I look forward to seeing you there.

 

 

Nothing to fear...

Well, except for the rapist.

One of the things that make it possible for me to live in the city is getting out of the city. Here in Philadelphia, I am able to do that without actually leaving. The Fairmont Park system is a huge network of trees, trails and water nestled inside the City of Brotherly Love, and over the years, I have spent countless hours enjoying the quiet solitude of this magical place.

I can recall being nine months pregnant with Number Two, hiking up and down snowy trails with Number One in a backpack and our dog Lucy (who was petrified of heights after a  20 foot nosedive off an icy cliff in that same park) gingerly following behind. Later that Spring, with Number One still in the backpack and Number Two safely ensconced in a front sling, we spent hours, rain or shine, watching the fiddleheads transforming into ferns in the underbrush and quietly hoping the nine-point buck would visit us once again.

Aside from the fact that Number One got frost nip on his cheek that winter, and I had to remove a deer tic from Number Two before he was a month old, the woods were our safe haven from the noise of the city.

Fast-forward a dozen years and you’ll still find me traipsing through the woods, although now that I’m unencumbered by little people, I’m logging in a lot more miles running trails and (with impressive battle scars on my elbows and knees thanks to surprise interactions with roots, rocks and slippery terrain) loving the fact that I can get my exercise, meditation and dose of the wilderness all in one handy package, just blocks from my doorstep.

Except…

for the rapist lurking in the woods who recently attacked a woman along the very route that I run. Over the last five or so years, he has violated a handful of women throughout the park and in one even more horrific incident, committed murder.

After a too-short hiatus, he resurfaced a few weeks ago on the two-year anniversary of his last attack. At 6:30 on a busy Tuesday evening, he grabbed a woman runner out of her car, put a gun to her back, dragged her into the woods and raped her.

Now what?

I really don’t like making decisions based on fear. But I really don’t want to be stupid either. So I have stopped running alone except during the busiest of weekend afternoons. And even then, accompanied by my 96 lb. black lab/German shepherd body guard, Jake, I am hyper-aware of my surroundings and staying only on the most well traveled trails…because I am afraid, which makes me really, really, really mad.

Fear and anger.  Fear and anger. Fear and anger.

Oh, how very zen of me.

Yup. How very zen. 

Well, what did I expect? This is life. And life is fraught with things that rock our worlds and move us into places of discomfort and into feelings that we’d rather not feel. And the “zen” part about it comes from staying with the feelings and observing them rather than judging or pushing them away.

Because when we stay present in the discomfort and allow ourselves to just be with the feelings, we give ourselves the opportunity to grow.

This is what happens in meditation… when we sit in meditation we are inevitably faced with emotions that we’d rather not have. Or we become aware of parts of ourselves that we’d rather not see. But if instead of suppressing those thoughts or feelings we simply allow them to arise without judgment, acknowledge them for what they are, and then let them go, we move one step closer to awakening. 

And we realize that very often, the ugly parts of life are our greatest teachers. The people who irritate us most are our gurus. And the emotions that most freak us out are the ones with which we ought to get intimate.

What I love about My Woods is that I could run for hours and see few, if any people. I could forget that I was in the sixth largest city in the United States and just groove to the sound of the wind in the trees and the waterfall in the distance.

But what I love about My Community is that people are forming meet-up groups to walk, run or bike together. And what I love about My Life is that I have a best girlfriend who loves to run in the woods as much as I do—AND who laughs at all (OK, most) of my jokes.

Yet I am still afraid. And I am still angry.

But I’m not alone. And that’s super cool.

So for now, I’m allowing myself to feel the fear and the anger while I work on letting it dissolve. And in addition to exercising my body, I am working on exercising compassion—for the victims of these terrible incidents, for our community, for myself and (on a good day) for the perpetrator.

(And, by the way, here’s a link to a previous post that offers more insight on fear and also includes a handy-dandy breathing exercise…)

Simplicity and the fig.

I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity... Oliver Wendell Holmes

When I spend an entire afternoon cleaning up after a Snow Leopard encounter (the new Mac OS guaranteed to turn all QuickBooks files to confetti) followed by a three-hour weed-whacker symphony (courtesy of my neighbor’s yard service) I crave quiet simplicity. 

Peace, contemplation, reflection…the space that allows us to recharge our battery, listen to our intuition and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.

Lately I have been craving that kind of experience. After spending the summer in Vermont, living in an open-air cabin, waking to the sound of the loons and the crickets, I find myself particularly susceptible to the cacophony of city life and not so sure I want to acclimate just yet.

Being in the rhythm of nature…eating according to the seasons, waking with the sun and listening to the sounds of life around us…enables us to see the connectedness of ourselves to something infinite and helps to take the edge off of the things that just don’t matter.

When I get overwhelmed with the complexities of life, there are a few things that always seem to put me right: First, I remove the clutter that keeps me distracted. Next, I unplug and look for contemplative time either by sitting in meditation or walking in the woods. And most importantly, I try to connect to things that are beautiful, like a simple bouquet of zinnia from my garden… or a platter of figs.

The fig is considered to be the first cultivated tree, and similarly, I suppose the fig leaf could be considered the first cultivated fashion statement. 

Figs are sexy in that that food porn sort of way. Out of hand (or better yet, out of someone else’s hand) figs are the absolute perfect food. Delicate and sweet, softly yielding to the bite while offering textural interest on the palate… you can’t rush when eating a fig, because it draws you in to the sensuality of the moment.

All of the sudden, the world becomes a little sweeter. The weed whackers yield to the songbirds and the figs find their way to a bed of arugula with thinly sliced prosciutto and Manchego… a statement of sublime elegance and simplicity and a gorgeous way to start the weekend.

 

 

Rock on well4good!

I think I'm constantly in a state of adjustment...Patti Smith

Adjusting. Working. Adapting. Working.

It’s been a wild ride these last two months… completely off the blog radar as well4good took center stage. But it’s been well worth it.

First off, our new site, www.well4good.com is up. Second, we’ve had three really successful workshops (see photos) that are a combination of yoga, meditation, cooking and education all based on a theme. In February we launched the series with “Heart Centered Living,” in March, “Women’s Wellness”  and in April, “Spring Detox.”

Our workshops have been a blast—not to mention completely full, with a wait list—and two more are on the calendar (“Mothering Ourselves” and “Body Beautiful”) before we take a summer break and I head off to cook at Farm and Wilderness Camp in Vermont (more about that later). And please visit the well4good site for info on the upcoming workshops and classes.

Because these workshops are based on the well4good philosophy of sustainable lifestyle practices (when we do what’s really, truly right for ourselves, it will naturally be good for our family, our community, our society and the planet) we move beyond the self-help model to engage in a deeper exploration of the larger impact and implications of our choices. We work together to find realistic and practical solutions to help us live intentionally—and of course—with beauty, grace and flavor.

Sara Lomax-Reese (my partner in well4good) and I are also teaching a two-part class through the Mount Airy Learning Tree on May 12th and May 19th that takes and in-depth look at holistic health and the choices that we face as we navigate this ever-evolving paradigm. I warmly invite readers in the Philadelphia area to join us for these lively, interactive classes.

It is exciting and energizing to see the level of interest surrounding our work. We have received incredible support from leaders in our city government (a special thanks to Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown and State Representative Dwight Evans) and have been honored to submit proposals for community outreach projects that offer an opportunity to bring tangible relief to some of our most under-served communities.

We are even being featured on a TV program (New Visions, on WPVI Channel 6 in Philadelphia this Saturday, May 2nd at 7:30 pm.)

It really is a dream come true.

And as all of these things take shape, I find myself energized by the work and motivated to move forward. I also find myself in a state of perpetual adjustment. I’m working harder (yet hopefully smarter) than ever and am doing everything I can to employ the principles of w4g so that I can personally stay well4good as the business unfolds: taking care of myself by eating well, exercising, meditating and spending quality time with friends and family… and most importantly, enjoying the ride.

Politics, Prejudice and Homeopathy.

Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts... E. B. White

I am a serious book junkie and I have passed my obsession on to my boys. When we moved back from Minneapolis, we schlepped about 16,000 pounds of assorted stuff and it was estimated  (by the Moving Company Estimator) that 4,500 pounds of it was books. That means that more than 1/4 of the total weight of all of our worldly possessions is in the form of the written word.

Our various collections include beautiful art and photography books, row after row of cookbooks, a whole room of Homeopathy books, not to mention shelves of fiction, non-fiction, biography, spirituality, gardening, sewing, knitting and countless children’s books.

We keep books in the car, in our bags and backpacks, and in just about every room in the house. Personally, I like to have at least four books in progress at any given time spanning genres and satisfying my fickle moods.

On this blog, and in my practice, I frequently make book recommendations in the how-to, spirituality and “personal development” departments. But fiction, well fiction is really personal.

Yet I just read a work of fiction that got me thinking. The book is called American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld  and it is a fictional account of the life of (soon-to-be-ex) First Lady, Laura Bush. Were it not for the fact that the book was featured on the cover of the NY Times book review and in the NY Times Style section that very same day, I might have passed it by as it would not have appeared on my usual radar.

Once I started the book, however, I could not possibly put it down. Yes, Sittenfeld is a compelling writer. And yes, there is something undeniably sensationalistic about a fictionalized biography. But (deep breath) what really got me is that I started to have a bit of compassion for George Bush.

(Pause to allow Liberal readers to regain consciousness…)

Quoting from the NY Times Book Review: “In her Salon essay Ms. Sittenfeld described herself as “a staunch enough liberal that I take would-be epithets such as ‘flaming,’ ‘knee-jerk’ and ‘bleeding heart’ as compliments,” and a registered Democrat who regards George W. Bush’s policies as misguided at best “and at worst evil.” And in this novel Ms. Sittenfeld seems incapable of mustering any sympathy for Charlie the president.”

Clearly, Sittenfeld is not the president of the GWB fan club. 

Yet midway through the book I felt a palpable waning of my usual ire. And at that point it occurred to me that this is what happens when Homeopaths read fiction. Because at its core, Homeopathy is about simply seeing a person for who they are. It is about seeing symptoms and expressions of pathology as an aberration from the true nature of the “self” but not as The Self.

Samuel Hahnemann, the man who introduced Homeopathic medicine back in the 18th Century, wrote The Organon of Medicine (weighing in at just over 1 lb in leather-covered hardback) as his treatise on medical philosophy and the healing arts. In the sixth aphorism of The Organon he introduces the concept of the Unprejudiced Observer as it relates to the practitioner’s ability to perceive and understand the presentation of symptoms—and as such, understand the inherent imbalance from which the person is suffering.

Being an Unprejudiced Observer is, in my opinion, the key to being a good Homeopath—but also, a good person. It is the nature of the Buddha. It is the emptiness that allows the truth to unfold—the truth that holds the very essence of who we are. In all its pain. In all its suffering. In all its beauty.

If we can withhold judgment (especially of those who tweak us down to our very core) we are likely to lower our stress levels, our blood pressure, our therapy bills, and maybe even our weight.

So on this Election Day 2008, I wish you all well as we collectively move toward hope and away from prejudice.

Music + Food + Humanity

That pretty much says it all.

Last weekend, The Husband and I went to a unique and FABULOUS event called Music + Food + Humanity at the home of singer/songwriter Phil Roy.

A few years back, Phil Roy started his, “I’m Not Leaving The House Tour,” which featured a four-course meal served (where else but) in his home, followed by an hour or more of live music.  Expanding on that theme, Sunday featured another exceptional artist, Jim Boggia, who hung with the crowd, joined us for dinner and then wowed us with a beautiful acoustic set. 

Click here to link to a few photos of Phil Roys’ home—a 2200 square foot artist studio in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia that was designed by the prominent Philadelphia architect H. Louis Duhring in 1928. The acoustics in the main room are as beautiful as the view out of the 20 foot Palladian windows that were the backdrop for the performance. With the balcony door open and a cool breeze stirring through the room, every single sense became engaged to maximize the experience.

Phil is an amazing cook and the meal was deliciously prepared around a Moroccan theme. Two different stews (one lamb, one chicken) melded beautifully with couscous, zucchini and a salad made of three different greens, sliced fennel and roasted butternut squash. Spicy harissa was served on the side to add depth and dimension to the already flavorful dishes.

This was one of those experiences where the setting, the food, the companionship and the artistry alchemically combined to touch the soul.

Thanks Phil and Jim (and, of course, Travis The Dog).

With Love...

Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore, nor actual difficulty in our life… Shunryu Suzuki

Yesterday, two of my dear friends said goodbye to their son who passed away after nearly two years of living with a malignant brain tumor.

Those of us who knew Cameron were blessed to be with one of those rare beings that magically radiate light and love and laughter. This guy was truly one of a kind. And his parents, well, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?

Over the course of Cameron’s illness, his extended circle of family and friends was held together through two wonderful websites/blogs (Caring Bridge and Care Pages.) These non-profit sites were created expressly for facilitating communication when people are going through critical illness, treatment and recovery, and they offer a much needed vehicle for staying in touch when individual contact may be overwhelming or impossible.

Also during this time, Cameron’s dad, Henry Allen, founded a non-profit organization called The Brain Candy Project to support the needs of families who are living in the hospital with their children who are recovering from brain cancer and other brain trauma. After sleeping on the hospital floor for the month that Cameron recovered from surgery— and trying to make do with what passes for food in a hospital—Henry took action and Brain Candy was born.

By providing life administration services such as financial management, nanny services, laundry and pet sitting, as well as specialized services and workshops in the arts, meditation, nutrition and cancer research, this group is making a much needed difference in the lives of parents who are traversing the unthinkable.

I learned so much from Cameron and his family over these last two years. Watching this beautiful child be so strong and unwavering in his appreciation for each moment--whether it was a ripe tomato from the garden, sushi from his favorite restaurant, the 1,000 handmade paper cranes hanging from his ceiling or his beloved dogs at his side, his ability to abide—to actually find joy—in the present was a window to the nature of The Buddha.

In Buddhism, as in Yogic philosophy, the understanding of “suffering” is of critical importance, and it is said that our attachment to suffering is what brings us pain and distress. The spiritual practices that are central to Buddhism, Yoga, and other meditative traditions are meant to help us transform that suffering into a connection with The Divine.

It is impossible to imagine how one could detach from the suffering that accompanies the loss of a child, but I hope and pray that Henry and Paula (and all of us who love Cameron) find moments of peace and light in these passing days.

And I thank you Cameron, from the bottom of my heart, for showing us your connection to the Divine and for all that you have brought to our world.

High Maintenance LifeStyle

Sally: I'd like the chef salad please with oil and vinegar on the side, and the apple pie a la mode. 
Waitress: Chef and apple a la mode. 
Sally: But I'd like the pie heated, and I don't want the ice cream on top. I want it on the side, and I'd like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it. If not, then no ice cream, just whipped cream, but only if it's real. If it's out of the can, then nothing. 
Waitress: Not even the pie? 
Sally: No, just the pie, but then not heated.

It’s been a high maintenance week over here at LifeStyle Revolution, and I apologize to the many feed subscribers who were barraged with emails as I re-published the site today.

Here’s the deal: I am currently working from a template on TypePad (who hosts the blog) until I get my custom site up and running. Although it is easy enough to post in this way, formatting options are quite limited and what I see is not always what goes on-line.

I have heard from quite a few people that they are struggling to read the type (too small and too light) and obviously, that’s not good.

The easiest solution was to choose a new (hopefully) easier-to-read template and then to go back in and enlarge the font on each individual post—and then re-publish them all. That’s why you received so many dings in the mailbox.

It’s been a real challenge for me as I’m a girl who likes things well-designed and functional. And I don’t like spending so much time on a computer trying to figure things out that are anything but techno-logical. But I hope that this interim step makes it easier for you to read the posts…and that a swanky new design will be up in the near future!

In the meantime, I have also been very busy moving into my New Office! Although this doesn’t affect my clients in other parts of the country, you Philly Folk are in for a treat. I have found a beautiful, quiet and private spot in Chestnut Hill. And best of all: There is a parking lot right in front of my door! See the button at right for directions. It is also easily accessible via the train lines and the bus.

We have spent the past few weeks painting and building (many thanks to The Husband and the Boyz) and today will start the oh-so-fun part of moving in furniture and decorating.

I’ve tried to be as green as possible in renovating the space, and as such, all paint and supplies have come from The Environmental Home Store in Mt. Airy. It was a joy to paint with the zero VOC paints—no smell, no toxicity but great colors and coverage.

Thanks for the patience as I re-format, re-arrange furniture and maybe slow down on posting for a few days.

And if you missed any past posts, now’s the time to go back and do a little large-type summer reading!