YIKES...........YIKES..........................YIKES..........................................YIKES....................................
Friday, December 21, 2012
GUESS WHAT TOMORROW IS...........
YIKES...........YIKES..........................YIKES..........................................YIKES....................................
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Dear Human........
"Dear Human: You’ve got it allllll wrong. You didn’t come here to master unconditional love. That is where you came from and where you’ll return. You came here to learn personal love. Universal love. Messy love. Sweaty love. Crazy love. Broken love. Whole love. Infused with divinity. Lived through the grace of stumbling. Demonstrated through the beauty of messing up. Often. You didn’t come here tobe perfect. You already are. You came here to be gorgeously human. Flawed and fabulous. And then to rise again into remembering. But unconditional love? Stop telling that story. Love, in truth, doesn’t need ANY other adjectives. It doesn’t require modifiers. It doesn’t require the condition of perfection. It only asks that you show up. And do your best. That you stay present and feel fully. That you shine and fly and laugh and cry and hurt and heal and fall and get back up and play and work and live and die as YOU. It’s enough. It’s Plenty.”
Howdy!
Hope this finds you feeling good and enjoying the transition from Indian Summer to Fall. My daughter, Emily, sent me the quote above and I wanted to pass it on to you.
Sent to you with lots of crazy, sweaty, messy, universal love!
Donna Rae
From Land Of Medicine Buddha, Santa Cruz |
Howdy!
Hope this finds you feeling good and enjoying the transition from Indian Summer to Fall. My daughter, Emily, sent me the quote above and I wanted to pass it on to you.
Sent to you with lots of crazy, sweaty, messy, universal love!
Donna Rae
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
QI GONG CLASSES YA'LL!!
QI GONG!!!!!
Hi Folks!
I hope this post finds you well and looking forward to autumn. This is my favorite time of year when I spend time cleaning house in my head and making plans for the next 12 months.
The Level II Toaist Healing Style Qi gong training was fascinating. We spent an entire week building our own qi (mostly through the Buddha Palm practice) in our bodies, learning how to assess the energy fields of our classmates and provide appropriate treatments.
I also spent some time designing classes.
Would you please help me spread the word about the classes below.
I'll be teaching all of these classes and an autumn celebration workshop at a wonderful yoga studio called Yoga On York. Please check out all of their offerings at www.yogaonyork.net
I'm also teaching a class to employees at Sheppard Pratt.
Would you please help me spread the word about these offerings? Let me know if you would like a flier to put up at your workplace. Please share my contact information with anyone who is interested but not quite sure.
Because I am a nurse and a yoga teacher, I am really hoping to attract folks to the special needs class.
I am also available to teach privately ($40/hour).
******************************************************
Qi Gong (“chee
gung”) Class
Qi gong is a mind/body exercise
form similar to tai chi but easier
Come join us with gentle
stretches, strengthening postures and flowing movements that will open your
energy flow in a blissful, healing way
Tuesdays Beginning Sept.18th
6-7am
Early Morning Cup of Qi
Tuesdays Beginning Sept.18th
12-1pm
Qi gong for Bones, Joints and
Back
Thursdays Beginning Oct. 2nd
11-12pm
Special Needs Movement Class
(for people with Parkinson’s, MS,
arthritis or a similar condition)
No prior experience needed
Contact Donna Rae if you have “?”s
*************************
Autumn Qi gong Celebration
(pronounced “chee gung”)
Qi gong is a moving meditative exercise form similar
to Tai chi but easier to follow.
Date: Oct. 13th 1-3 p.m.
Where: Yoga On York
6711 York Road 21212
Cost: $25.00
Come nourish yourself in this colorful season! In
this workshop you will learn movements and meditations designed to support your
health throughout autumn.
Discover how autumn can signal a time for personal
reflection and “letting go”.
Pre-registration required by Oct. 1st
For questions or to register please contact Donna Rae
*******************************************
Our beautiful sun, earth, air and water made this rainbow chard. It's amazing when you stop to think about it.
*********************************************************************************
*********************************************************************************
A flying bird chases after its companion.
The green color is bright
And brings me into the moment,
like a sunset mist that has no fixed place." Wang Wei
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
.....is an unspeakably perfect miracle.
Walter "Walt" Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.
Born on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and – in addition to publishing his poetry – was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842). Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. After a stroke towards the end of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. He died at age 72 and his funeral became a public spectacle.
Thought you might enjoy this fantastic quote from the great Walt Whitman.
Until sometime in July,
Much love,
Donna Rae
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Burn In The Goodness
Yummie Lentil Loaf
Yummie Lentil Loaf Recipe
Ingredients:
▪
1 onion diced
▪
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
▪
1/2 red chilli finely chopped
▪
2 T olive oil
▪
1 1/2 cups of cooked lentils
▪
1 carrot grated
▪
1 zucchini grated
▪
5 mushrooms chopped
▪
3 artichoke bottoms diced
▪
2 egg whites, beaten to fluffy, 2
egg yokes
▪
1/2 t salt
▪
1/2 t sage
▪
1/2 t italian seasoning
▪
¼ cup bread crumbs
▪
1/4 cup tomato paste
Steps:
1.
Preheat oven 350 degrees
2.
Saute onion, garlic and chilli on
medium heat for a few minutes
3. Smash about 1/3 of lentils and leave remaining whole
4.
Place the onion mixture and all
the other ingredients into a bowl and mix well
5.
Pour into the prepared loaf pan
6.
Bake 50 minutes or until loaf is
cooked through, a little brown around the edges
7.
Let the loaf sit in the pan for
approximately 10 minutes before turning it out and slicing
****************************************************
If you never knew what goes on in the garden when you aren't paying attention, watch this ... Some of the finest photography you will ever see.
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0
*************************
Hello Friends, When you get a few minutes, you must check out the above you tube video, it is simply amazing. My favorite is the bat footage. I happened to do my Qi Gong practice right after watching it and a beautiful hummingbird joined me drinking from some lavender . He was darting in and out and causing all kinds of stirring up among the bees and butterflies that were also there. I've been exceedingly busy and preoccupied with the Medical Qi Gong training I'm doing. It's very complicated and important to teach correctly. Next week I return to Santa Cruz for 9 days. This quest is certainly part of what I plan to do with my time in my 60's. It's powerful stuff and takes a tremendous amount of focus to really understand. I hope you are content and healthy. We learned last week that a dear person and next door neighbor of ours in Maine was just recently diagnosed with a Glioblastoma, a brain tumor that generally takes a progressive course. He has completed surgery and will start radiation and chemo soon. He is a rock of a man who is always there when you need him - digging rocks out, helping shovel sand, giving (good) advice, not to mention sitting down to watch the sunset over the lake with a fine glass of wine. A number of wonderful musicians have recently passed away. One of them is Robin Gibb. He said before he died, "Even if you live to be 100, it's not long enough." Love each day, each minute. And each smiling face that turns your way, let your smile reflect in their eyes, and theirs in yours and burn in the goodness that is there in each one of us. Namaste, Donna Rae |
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Howdy Folks - What cha been doing?
Luke |
Jade, Hank and Luke (grandkids) |
Luke dancing to "Southern Man" played by Henry
Luke - I think he's thinking about building a nest of some sort |
You know who |
Loves to splash the water. Got to wear a wet suit when I'm bathing him. |
Hi Folks,
Been a long time.
Happy Belated Mother's Day! This essay can be appreciated not only by Mothers but by Fathers, husbands, wives, and anyone who is or ever has been in a relationship. The ending is a real clencher.
Essay on Motherhood
By Anna Quindlen, Newsweek Columnist and Author
All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost-adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like. Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves. Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.
Everything in all the books I once poured over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, have all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories. What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations --what they taught me, was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all.
Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout. One child is toilet trained at 3, his sibling at 2.
When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome. To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing. Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow. I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China . Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk, too.
Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the, 'Remember-When- Mom-Did Hall of Fame.' The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language, mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pick up. The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, 'What did you get wrong?'. (She insisted I include that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window. (They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?
But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them, sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get onto the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.
Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I'd done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top. And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the world, who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity. That's what the books never told me. I was bound and determined to learn from the experts. It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.
*************************************************
Have you ever been to............Nashville? Henry and I recently went. It's a really happening, fun place. Here's a little photo representation of our trip -
The Hermitage - Andrew Jackson's Mansion - This is his tomb. His wife is buried there with him. |
Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson, born Rachel Donelson, was the wife of Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States
This is Andrew Jackson's wife. |
Moon shine |
Namaste-ing with a Nashville Buddha! |
Fooling Around |
THE Ernest Tubb Record Shop |
More fooling around |
Studio B. You could feel the vib of Chet Atkins, Roy Orbison, Elvis and all the greats there. It's still a very active studio |
Had to go to the Grand Ole Opry with my sweet husband |
****************************************************
Hope all is well with you all. I've missed writing what's on my mind. Been so busy but.......
My shoulder is healing and I can now do my PT exercises on my own, I'm going to PT every 2 weeks.
My pilot Qi Gong classes have concluded, I learned a lot. I've taught yoga for a long time - teaching Qi gong is very different from teaching yoga. I'm still looking for my Qi gong voice. Had a great bunch of students in the pilot class. For a teacher - the student is so often the teacher in these mindfulness type classes.
And, I'm hoping to get back to blogging at least once a week.
We're in Maine for a few days. Came to open up camp, pick up fall and winter leaves and sticks and make sure there aren't any dead squirrels in the toilet (the Terminex guy found one once, Yikes! Glad it wasn't me. I mean, I'm glad it wasn't me that found the dead critter, not me that was in the toilet. Although, i have been in the toilet a few times). When we first come up I still lift each lid really slowly expecting some giant woman eating, hungry squirrel to jump out.
Much love,
Donna Rae
p.s. This is really Rachel. And Andrew. Bet I didn't fool ya.
p.p.s. By the way, Andrew Jackson was responsible for The Trail of Tears. What was he thinking? Those were my peeps. And yours too. He was very nice to middle class white men.
p.p.p.s Andrew would not have liked the song "Southern Man". He might have loved the song "Skinheads". I wish I could sit down and talk with Andrew Jackson and tell him what's on my 59 year old mind in 2012.
p.p.p.s Andrew would not have liked the song "Southern Man". He might have loved the song "Skinheads". I wish I could sit down and talk with Andrew Jackson and tell him what's on my 59 year old mind in 2012.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Aging - What's in your mind?
Hi Folks,
I've just got to share this really funny you tube video with you. It is of my daughter Emily's friend, Kerry and her baby. Kerry is truly one of the funniest people I know. They were housemates at the University of Maryland and spent (all 7 of them) senior spring break with us in Florida (near Miami). My sides ached from the uproarious monologues Kerry would instantaneously come up with. She is trying to win a Mother's Day contest with Ellen Degeneres. The more hits her video gets, the more likely she will win. She really should win - it's a "Mother's Day Dance Dare" - check it out.
I've been looking through a book titled Sixty Things To Do When You Turn Sixty.
#47 is interesting. It's rather long but worth reading - for you women who are about my age, for you young readers to know what you might experience and for you men so you can also gain a little insight.
by Gloria Steinem - Gloria Steinem is a writer, feminist, and social reformer. After graduating from Smith College, she went to New York City as a freelance writer, first attracting attention with her article, "I Was a Playboy Bunny", an exose' based on her own undercover work in a New york City Playboy Club. Among her many lifetime achievements, Steinem is the founder and original publisher of Ms. magazine.
Rediscover Yourself at 60 - Aging is a journey toward self-discovery and perhaps a revolution of sorts.
Age is supposed to create more serenity, calm, and detachment from the world, right? Well, I'm finding just the reverse. The older I get, the more intensely I feel about the world around me, including things I once thought too small for concern; the more connected I feel to nature, though I used to prefer human invention; the more poignancy I find not only the very old people, who always got to me, but also in children; the more likely I am to feel rage when people are rendered invisible, and also to claim my own place, the more I can risk saying"no" even if "yes" means approval; and most of all, the more able I am to use my own voice, to know what I feel and say what I think; in short, to express without also having to persuade (and for me, Donna Rae, the more able I am at times to not feel the need to say how I feel about something-or-other).
I know my journey's form is a common one. I'm exploring the other half of the circle --- something that is especially hard in this either/or culture that tries to make us into one thing for life, and treats change as if it were a rejection of the past. Nonetheless, I see more and more people going on to a future that builds on the past but is very different from it. Isee many women who spent the central years of their lives in solitary creative work or nurturing husbands and children -- and some men who work or temperament turned them inward too --- who are discovering the external world of activism, politics, and tangible causes with all the same excitement that I find in understanding less tangible ones. I see many men who spent most of their lives working for external rewards, often missing their own growth as well as their children's, who are now nurturing second families, their internal lives, or both --- and a few women who are following this pattern too, because they needed to do the unexpected before they could feel less than trapped by the expected.
I'm also finding a new perspective that comes from leaving the central plateau of life, and seeing more clearly the tyrannies of social expectation I've left behind. For women especially --- and for men too, if they've been limited to stereotypes --- we've traveled past the point when society cares very much about who we are and what we do. Most of our social value ended at fifty or so, when our youth-related posers of sexuality, childbearing, and hard work came to an end --- at least, by the standards of a culture that assigns such roles --- and the few powerful positions reserved for the old and wise are rarely ours anyway. Though the growing neglect and invisibility may shock and grieve us greatly at first and feel like "a period of free fall" to use Germaine Greer's phrase, it also creates a new freedom to be ourselves -- without explanation. As Greer concludes in The Change, her book about women and aging:
"The climacteric marks the end of apologizing. The chrysalis of conditioning has once and for all to break and the female woman finally emerge."
From this new vantage point, I see that my notion of age bringing detachment was probably just one more bias designed to move some groups out of the way. If so, it's even more self-defeating than most biases --- and on a much grander scale --- for sooner or later, this one will catch up with all of us. Yet we've allowed a youth-centered culture to leave us so estranged from our future selves that, when asked about the years beyond fifty, sixty, or seventy --- all part of the average human life span providing we can escape hunger, violence, and other epidemics --- may people can see only a blank screen, or one on which they project fear of disease and dependency. This incomplete social map makes the last third of life an unknown county and leaves men stranded after their work lives are over, but it ends up so much earlier for women that only a wave of noisy feminists has made us aware of its limits by going public with experiences that were once beyond its edge, from menopause as a rite of passage into what Margaret Mead called "postmenopausal zest," to the news that raised life expectancies and lowered birth rates are making older people, especially older women, a bigger share of many nations, from Europe to Japan, than ever before in history. I hope to live to the year 2030, and see what this county will be like when one in four women is 65 or over -- as is one in five of the whole population. Perhaps we will be perennial flowers who "re-pot" ourselves and bloom in many times.
Aging is so fascinating to me. There are many pre-conceived ideas that can stand in the way of staying youthful. In my Qi gong readings - the idea of aging = growing old and weak is completely contrary to what the masters believe is the truth about aging. The Qi gong movements and meditations maintain youth and strength and vitality in the organs and muscles and spirt for many, many years.
What are your pre-conceived ideas about aging?
I've just got to share this really funny you tube video with you. It is of my daughter Emily's friend, Kerry and her baby. Kerry is truly one of the funniest people I know. They were housemates at the University of Maryland and spent (all 7 of them) senior spring break with us in Florida (near Miami). My sides ached from the uproarious monologues Kerry would instantaneously come up with. She is trying to win a Mother's Day contest with Ellen Degeneres. The more hits her video gets, the more likely she will win. She really should win - it's a "Mother's Day Dance Dare" - check it out.
*****************************************************
#47 is interesting. It's rather long but worth reading - for you women who are about my age, for you young readers to know what you might experience and for you men so you can also gain a little insight.
by Gloria Steinem - Gloria Steinem is a writer, feminist, and social reformer. After graduating from Smith College, she went to New York City as a freelance writer, first attracting attention with her article, "I Was a Playboy Bunny", an exose' based on her own undercover work in a New york City Playboy Club. Among her many lifetime achievements, Steinem is the founder and original publisher of Ms. magazine.
Rediscover Yourself at 60 - Aging is a journey toward self-discovery and perhaps a revolution of sorts.
Age is supposed to create more serenity, calm, and detachment from the world, right? Well, I'm finding just the reverse. The older I get, the more intensely I feel about the world around me, including things I once thought too small for concern; the more connected I feel to nature, though I used to prefer human invention; the more poignancy I find not only the very old people, who always got to me, but also in children; the more likely I am to feel rage when people are rendered invisible, and also to claim my own place, the more I can risk saying"no" even if "yes" means approval; and most of all, the more able I am to use my own voice, to know what I feel and say what I think; in short, to express without also having to persuade (and for me, Donna Rae, the more able I am at times to not feel the need to say how I feel about something-or-other).
I know my journey's form is a common one. I'm exploring the other half of the circle --- something that is especially hard in this either/or culture that tries to make us into one thing for life, and treats change as if it were a rejection of the past. Nonetheless, I see more and more people going on to a future that builds on the past but is very different from it. Isee many women who spent the central years of their lives in solitary creative work or nurturing husbands and children -- and some men who work or temperament turned them inward too --- who are discovering the external world of activism, politics, and tangible causes with all the same excitement that I find in understanding less tangible ones. I see many men who spent most of their lives working for external rewards, often missing their own growth as well as their children's, who are now nurturing second families, their internal lives, or both --- and a few women who are following this pattern too, because they needed to do the unexpected before they could feel less than trapped by the expected.
I'm also finding a new perspective that comes from leaving the central plateau of life, and seeing more clearly the tyrannies of social expectation I've left behind. For women especially --- and for men too, if they've been limited to stereotypes --- we've traveled past the point when society cares very much about who we are and what we do. Most of our social value ended at fifty or so, when our youth-related posers of sexuality, childbearing, and hard work came to an end --- at least, by the standards of a culture that assigns such roles --- and the few powerful positions reserved for the old and wise are rarely ours anyway. Though the growing neglect and invisibility may shock and grieve us greatly at first and feel like "a period of free fall" to use Germaine Greer's phrase, it also creates a new freedom to be ourselves -- without explanation. As Greer concludes in The Change, her book about women and aging:
"The climacteric marks the end of apologizing. The chrysalis of conditioning has once and for all to break and the female woman finally emerge."
From this new vantage point, I see that my notion of age bringing detachment was probably just one more bias designed to move some groups out of the way. If so, it's even more self-defeating than most biases --- and on a much grander scale --- for sooner or later, this one will catch up with all of us. Yet we've allowed a youth-centered culture to leave us so estranged from our future selves that, when asked about the years beyond fifty, sixty, or seventy --- all part of the average human life span providing we can escape hunger, violence, and other epidemics --- may people can see only a blank screen, or one on which they project fear of disease and dependency. This incomplete social map makes the last third of life an unknown county and leaves men stranded after their work lives are over, but it ends up so much earlier for women that only a wave of noisy feminists has made us aware of its limits by going public with experiences that were once beyond its edge, from menopause as a rite of passage into what Margaret Mead called "postmenopausal zest," to the news that raised life expectancies and lowered birth rates are making older people, especially older women, a bigger share of many nations, from Europe to Japan, than ever before in history. I hope to live to the year 2030, and see what this county will be like when one in four women is 65 or over -- as is one in five of the whole population. Perhaps we will be perennial flowers who "re-pot" ourselves and bloom in many times.
Aging is so fascinating to me. There are many pre-conceived ideas that can stand in the way of staying youthful. In my Qi gong readings - the idea of aging = growing old and weak is completely contrary to what the masters believe is the truth about aging. The Qi gong movements and meditations maintain youth and strength and vitality in the organs and muscles and spirt for many, many years.
What are your pre-conceived ideas about aging?
****************************************
Time to rock and make dinner. I think we'll have tempeh sandwiches -
really good toasted rye bread with seeds
spread a generous mixture of horseradish, ketchup and mustard on both pieces
layer - spinach, tomatoes, roasted red pepper, sauerkraut, tempeh browned a little, 2 fake bacon strips, avocado and anything else you want
oh, and really good, cold beer
Pickles and chips on the side and there you go, prep time 15 minutes
Much love,
Donna Rae
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