Unfinished business

So, my 45th year is over. I had a sense of being at a turning point when I started this blog, and while I can say I’ve rounded the corner on this particular turn, I’m not quite back onto the straight road.

The growing independence of DD and DS has been one major cause for this turning point. I’m still learning what it means to parent at this stage of the game. I consider it a major victory that we all still make it a point to spend time together…not just me, them too. It's a funny thing with parenting…just when you think you’ve got it down, they go and change again!

The blog has been a great place to not only document my 45th year challenge, but also to process various things happening in my life. Some things I’ve discovered about myself:

1—I really like to write. When I don’t have time to blog, I feel out of sorts and kinda mentally constipated…like there’s just too much stuff in my brain and some of it needs to get out!

2—I also like to take pictures of the things around me. The act of documenting helps me see things with new eyes.

3—I like being part of an online community. This blog and RocBike have introduced me to people and experiences I wouldn’t have known otherwise.

4—Now that I know I can do this blog thing, I’m ready to move into something new that I think may have an appeal to a broader audience. More on that in the next post…

But first, for the unfinished business…

Here are my last 3 finished objects (finished before my birthday, I swear!), modeled by DD in between homework and watching "So You Think You Can Dance."

A yoga mat bag for T (from the same pattern as this one

Scrap striped scarf. (I am all about using up the stash right now. Don't worry, it will pass.)

Colorful scarf from various yarn scraps, with no particular pattern. I just switched yarn and pattern as the mood struck.

There's also a random hat somewhere which I made to use up some yarn, but I can' find it. That's okay, it would be number 46, anyway!

Up next…the ride report from my 45-miler! Then, on to the next stage of the blog.

Recently seen on my bike

(Cross-posted at RocBike).

After a powerful Earth Day sermon that echoed many of the themes in Michael Pollan's recent call to each individual to do something about climate change, and included a mention of the Rochester Chicken Club (of which I am a proud member--more on that topic to come), I came out to find this on my parked bike.

And this week, on my ride to yoga class, where I met my daughter, my new Ortlieb panniers managed the task of carrying our two yoga mats admirably.

I splurged on the panniers after I decided that an XtraCycle is not right for me, at this point. An XtraCycle is great if you want to be able to give someone else a ride, but my 17 and 19-year olds aren't likely to want to be seen on the back of their mom's bike. And everyone else I might be traveling with would likely ride their own! So, I got the panniers instead; they hold plenty of groceries and are very easy to use. I recommend them if you're in the market.

Bikes, chickens, and yoga...what more could you want?

Mother-daughter yoga

DD and I have been taking yoga classes together at this lovely place for the past several weeks. I've practiced yoga off and on for ten years; she just started, first at home with my yoga practice tapes.

While our classes have been good, last night's was OUTSTANDING! It was a much smaller class with a different teacher, and I knew it was going to be good when he started by first poking the small of my back, then hers, to see how alike or different they were! (Different at the beginning, alike by the end, as she learned about proper alignment.)

The teacher was so attentive and provided just the right amount of challenge. By the end of class, my whole body felt like it had been stretched, straightened, and strengthened. WOW! We walked in feeling tired and like we probably wouldn't have come if we weren't doing it together. We walked out feeling energized and inspired!

I'm so glad we can share this experience. Recently T and I discussed the fact that, because our spiritual practice is meditative in nature, it's not exactly easy to pass along to the kids. I like yoga because it is physically, intellectually, and spiritually challenging.

For me, spiritual practice is about mindfulness, or presence, the ability to be fully present with your body, heart, and mind. Yoga is great because the practice, if done with attention, REQUIRES such mindfulness.

Of course, Toni Packer and many other spiritual teachers say that such presence is always accessible.

She says: Awareness, enlightenment, wholeness--whatever words one may pick to label what cannot be caught in words--is not the effect of a cause. Activity does not destroy it and sitting does not create it. It isn't a product of anything--no technique, posture, activity, or nonactivity can create it. It is there, uncreated, freely functioning in wisdom and love, when self-centered conditioning is clearly revealed in all its grossness and subtleness and defused in the light of understanding.

For those of us who need a little more revealing of our self-centered conditioning, though, yoga can be a great path, and I find that the more I practice mindfulness, through yoga, sitting, and regular life whenever possible, the easier it is to get to that state of awareness.