Archives

Category: Personal Reflections
  • Beginning 2023

    Beginning 2023

    Begin as you mean to go on, and go on as you began, and let the Lord be all in all to you. Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon While I’m not at all convinced about the Lord bit of this quote, I do love the start of it. “Begin as you mean to go on” runs…

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  • Happy 2023

    Happy 2023

    Due to a death in the family in 2022, we did not send nengajou this year. However in the interest of keeping the 12 year series complete, I drew one for posting today. Let’s make 2023, Year of the Rabbit, memorable in the best way.

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  • 25 words

    25 words

    Wondrous days at 555 – jichinsai to jotoshiki. 1000 days of yoga. Covid, menopause, heart diagnoses. Traded Tilly for Cow.  Fritter hops, Beryl roombas, Maura guards. This is my 22nd annual 25 word summary of the year. It’s a tradition that helps me put an underline on the events of the past twelve months. Here…

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  • Compose 2023

    Compose 2023

    My word for 2023 is Compose. Some years I struggle to find the right word. I spend time with the dictionary and thesaurus. I get close, but it takes some effort to narrow down to the right word. But this year, it just appeared in my head and here we are. Compose will guide me…

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  • Christmas 2022

    Christmas 2022

    Although I did a lot of baking with a new cookie press over the course of the month, the rest of Christmas season was pretty indifferent. On the day itself, after opening gifts from family in the morning, we took Christmas lunch over to our friends’ minka and had a feast of steak with sauteed…

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  • 1000 days

    1000 days

    Today marked 1000 days in a row of Satoyama Yoga’s online class. It has been a pleasure to lead this class every day. Without it, I certainly would not have a regular daily practice for myself. It’s hard to digest everything that’s happened in this time, but these statements are true: Personally, I taught through…

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  • Jotoshiki, the morning

    Jotoshiki, the morning

    [So much happened on December 9th, that I need to break this into several pieces. Let’s start at the beginning.] I knew I’d start the day early. I was on call for an 8 am speech and toast to launch the work. Loathe to break my yoga streak, I arrived at the genba (site) at…

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  • Desire vs Drama

    Desire vs Drama

    I want to be a good neighbor. But I really don’t understand the method to do so. And I feel like I have created drama in my ‘hood already. Japan’s neighborhood associations – called kumiai – are based on groups of a dozen (give or take) houses in proximity to one another. Traditionally, these were…

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  • Pansies

    Pansies

    Yesterday, I decided to plant some colorful flowers at 555 to welcome visitors and workers. There were some old plant pots sitting around the space and the other day Sakaguchi-san rescued an old concrete pipe that he suggested as a plant stand. With those materials and access to as much dirt as I could want,…

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  • Healing Journey

    Healing Journey

    I do not want to learn about your “healing journey” By observing posts on social media. You reveal self-absorbed, lingering agony When sharing your blessings in the guise of coaching And encouraging others to follow your steps to bliss. I will laugh derisively if you believe anyone else Can ease their despair by tracing your…

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