Persnickety Tutu

I've donated. Will you?

My husband Simon and I just celebrated our one year anniversary. We began this journey as two independent spirits and while we still savor our independence and distinct individuality we are happy to have found in each other a wonderful partner in crime. In one year we've been to San Francisco twice, Guatemala and have enjoyed time in the desert many times. We are great travel companions...

Very soon we will be off to Australia for two weeks! We will stay with his family in Adelaide and spend time with my cousins in Melbourne. I have never been to Australia and have yet to meet my in-laws so this will be a great adventure for both of us. There is a good chance that we will be moving there eventually so I need to have my own experience of the place and people to decide if we are a good fit. Simon loves his homeland and misses it like mad. He's incredibly excited to show me around and share me with his people. And I am beyond the moon that I finally get to see my kangaroos and koala bears. Happy me!

Now if only I was as excited about that damn 15 1/2 hour flight...

Two months ago I made the commitment to immerse myself in another full fledged yoga teacher training. I mean seven full weeks of Hatha and Kundalini yoga training with nothing but all yoga, all the time. I'm talking daily home practice, weekly classes at the studio, and hours upon hours of lecture, teaching one another and discussion. That's right: I invested in me!

It has been one of the best decisions that I have ever made for myself.

Though I am trained in Anusara Yoga and Restorative Yoga I have felt for some time that something has been missing. While I love many aspects of Anusara Yoga and am grateful for the solid foundation that it has given me, I have been missing a softer kind of yoga, something that I feel is more in keeping with my Restorative Yoga teaching.

I set out a while back to bring something new into the mix as I have wanted to create soothing asana classes that I know are needed in today's fast paced world. I ended my search for another teacher training when I found Kelly Wood and Karuna Yoga here in Los Angeles. I signed up a few days later.

I have found during this training that I took in more than I did with my first asana yoga training as we were a very small group which made things very intimate and nurturing. There were only nine of us which I loved. This training was also not about teaching only one style of yoga which I found made it more relatable and accessible. Kelly is lovely and her combined experience as a Kundalini Yoga teacher and a Hatha Yoga teacher really brings something rich and full to the table. Her experience as a dancer adds something wonderfully graceful to the teachings as well. She's also incredibly intelligent. I like my women smart!

Her Yoga Dance class happens to be my all time favorite yoga class - ever.

After two incredibly full months of training I turned in my final exam this past Saturday. It was 12 pages typed and felt like gold in my hands. The feeling of completing this journey was so empowering. The love and connection this small group of yogis shared was profound and beautiful. We came together with our own life stories, issues and convictions and left with one shared story of this time together. I hold a special place in my heart for each of these shining creatures. I am forever humbled by them.

I've done many teacher trainings now and I will say that this was more than a yoga training. It was a life altering experience. I am facing things that I have long run from and in doing so I can feel my feet more solidly on the ground. Each day feels a bit different. I feel more settled in my skin.

Who doesn't need a little bit more of that in their lives?

Kelly herself is a complex creature. Very beautiful and centered and yet so clearly real and flawed like the rest of us. This makes her a very present teacher. The more I get to know her the more I respect and care for her. My gratitude to her for creating such a supportive space where I have found my feet and felt safe in expanding my work as a teacher and healer.

Bellissima...

If you are looking for a yoga teacher training here in Los Angeles that is small and feels very grassroots and grounding, I highly recommend Karuna Yoga and Kelly Wood. It's not just a Yoga training, it's a life experience.

Live life. Love fully. Savor anything and everything delicious.

Namaste & Sat Nam...

Kathy

Photo cannot be reprinted without permission.

I'm leaving in the morning for one week in my favorite US city, San Francisco. I am doing my Advanced Restorative Yoga training with my teacher, Judith Lasater, at Yoga Tree S.F. I was with her last year in S.F. and I've loved teaching all the more since I connected with her. I am now registered at restorativeyogateachers.com and will soon be one of a fairly small list of teachers to be registered at the advanced level. I'll just need to complete my final project for her, much like the one I did last year, and I'll be done. I love what I do!

I am staying at my home away from home in S.F., The Metro Hotel, and have extended my trip by two nights so Simon can come up and join me for some play. I will hunker down and savor my week of study and then relax and settle into the city as a tourist. We are both eager to check out the Georgia Okeeffe/Ansel Adams exhibit at MOMA. We also look forward to green tea in The Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.

It's the simple things, you know?

For our last two nights we're there I've landed us a great deal on Priceline bidding low and getting The Hilton Hotel in the center of the city. It was cheap. Love that!

Off to pack then. More coming from San Francisco...

It's day three of our stay here at The Spring. We've just had dinner under the stars at our little table by our front door and now we're about to head off to the hot mineral tub, then to the sauna, then to the pool and then to the middle road mineral soaking pool. It's all water all the time!

I can see the things that need to be improved here at The Spring and will write more about that when I get home. I can tell you that the staff is bar none and wonderfully warm and friendly. There really is nothing that they won't do to make your stay here a happy one. And it's very chill here. It is NOT pretentious or high brow. It caters to everyone and everyone is made to feel welcome. I'm not a fan of snooty, special-fussy places.

Not my thing.

We have been happy with our room (number one) here at The Spring though they do need to rework things so that two chaise lounge chairs fit by the door and have some sort of shade option. We have only one and it's right on the walking path with no shade at all. We do have the most private kitchen and studio, thankfully, but it does lack a place to lie out in the shade that the other rooms seem to offer. That said, our kitchen is tucked away in the back so no one can see us. We can cook naked and not a soul can peer in. Nice! The other rooms that come with kitchens (only five of the ten have them) face the pool and so unless you close your shades you get no privacy. I happen to like the nakedness option. I like the privacy of our kitchen tucked away from everyone else. It suits us.

We went up to Pappy&Harriet's last night in Pioneertown (about a 25-30 minute drive) as it is our favorite hang out in the desert and the food can't be beat. We also got to take in some down home live music and enjoyed the sounds of Linnzi Zaorski & C.W. Stoneking. Linnzi sang 40's tunes while C.W. Stoneking , who happens to be from Australia which made Simon very happy, sang some serious Hokum blues. What a perfect way to spend the night! Then back home to our little oasis in the desert. It's nice to strike that balance.

Haven't you heard? The desert is the place to be...

I'm here out in Desert Hot Springs at The Spring Resort and Spa with Simon and we are having a delightful time doing nothing but swimming, soaking and spa-ing. There has been crazy wind out here so this is the first time I've had internet since we arrived yesterday. To be honest, it's nice to have a break from the big bad world and just, well, decompress.

Much needed.

As a surprise to me, and given the ongoing sinus pain I've been having due to allergies, Simon surprised me and booked me in for a sinus facial today with Mila. It was by far one of the nicest facials I have ever had! I left feeling all blissed out and soft, soothed and healed. I have been given some samples of products to try (Epicuren, no less which is serious stuff) and am happy to have found a sunscreen that doesn't seem to irritate me. It's the little things.

The mineral water here is so pure and delicious you can drink it right out of the tap. Can you imagine? They give you a pitcher filled with this oh so delicious water, complete with lemon slices, upon arrival and refill it for you as needed. It's nothing but fresh healing water all the time.

Fabulous...

We've stocked our refrigerator with goodies from the Vons nearby and our little kitchen has all the things we need complete with simple and organic looking dishes from West Elm, cookware, utensils, a great little tea kettle, toaster and coffee maker.. There are simple baskets to throw your things in tucked artfully under tables and cotton waffle robes and slippers to wander about in. Me? I'm living in nothing more than a bikini and a sarong. As it should be...

Oh, and the weather? Perfect. Breezy, not too hot and sunny. It just doesn't get any better than this.

People always say that it's not easy to change your life. I say those are the people who are still sadly stuck in their old script, the one written for them long ago, the one friends, family and colleagues have cast them in. This is just the reality of things. I get it and I understand. The question now is, are you ready to burn it?

Changing your life starts with the simplest of things: you begin to write the script for your life that has the things in it that turn you on. You know, make you all shiny and bright. You draft the script that you want to play the lead in! You become your own writer, editor and story boarder. The only opinion that counts is your own.

I kid you not. Your opinion is not only the only one you need it is freaking brilliant at that.

The people in your life who nag at you, beg you to stay in that familiar script, continue to demand that you stay where you are as anything else just plain freaks them out are the ones to perhaps leave out of the new and improved script of your life - the one YOU are writing. I mean really, do you want critics in your life judging your every move and looking upon you with that disapproving you-should-know-better look? Hello?

Exits are in the rear of the building. Make sure to get your parking ticket validated on the way out. Safe travels and remember to buckle up!

When we change we often frighten, unsettle, mystify and rattle those around us. The ones who have a pure heart and want only what is truly best for our own growth and our own life journey will applaud our courage and tenacity. There may be some initial resistance or trepidation, but that will pass. They will dance along with us and encourage us to go further. The ones who will not?

Ditch 'em.

I can tell you from own my life journey, my own redirection and rewriting of my own life script that I have had to do some serious house cleaning to lovingly let go of the naysayers, the threatened ones who wanted to keep me in my box and the ones casting judgement. It has been painful at times and my world surely got a bit smaller at first, oh yes. But it has also slowly gotten far richer and more interesting. I have made way for the like minded life writers and we have embraced each other's scripts. We are aware of the sacrifices we have made to do those rewrites. And every last one of us will tell you the very same thing: No regrets.

I mean really, how dare we take the time to find new paths, to travel the world and experience new cultures, to see and taste new things, to feel alive and to live the lives that make our souls sing. Are we barking mad? Are we reckless beasts only out for our own happiness and pleasure?

How utterly and deliciously wicked we are!!!

So, here's the question: what would you like your new life script to look like? In your perfect world free from doubt and the voices of those who might tell you to stay just where you are, what would your life look like? What script changes would you like to make? Who would you like to become?

DIG IN.