Rainbow Dreams and Art Blog

A week has already passed since I had this experience; however, I believe I will recall it fondly and often for a long time to come. Spring is now upon us, and while the first day of the new season is here, the earth still looks a little brown, muddy and in some places devoid of life.  The death and rebirth is a process. Just today, we saw the final remains of a huge snow pile, in the Target parking lot!

A week ago, I was feeling kind of down. Some unfortunate things had happened that brought me so much disappointment, and it was hard to face that certain aspects of my life, or things that I had know and loved, were gone from my life.  I didn’t know if I would ever get to enjoy those things again. My daughter’s knee injury seemed more serious than I’d originally thought.  That same day, I discovered that my sister’s much-loved cat had to be put to sleep. I felt so sad about the death and loss, that I was in tears as I was driving my son to our YMCA.

Just then, I looked to my left and there in the pastures near the Y, were the sheep I always look forward to seeing.  All at once I saw the newborn lambs frolicking in the pasture! They were leaping, kicking up their heels, and thoroughly thrilled with life and the sunny day! I could not have imagined anything more joyful and beautiful if I had dreamed it up myself.  I felt myself smiling and feeling so grateful for life and the rebirth that spring brings.  There will always be winter, deaths, loss. pain and disappointment. However, the lambs frolicking reminded me how much is new and beautiful in life, and even death doesn’t diminish it.  I just had to open my eyes to see, and it was there in front of me in all it’s beauty and enthusiasm. Thank you little lambs, you were just what I needed!

Tags: Personal Storytelling, Storytelling by Lisa
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This past week or so, I have enjoyed experiencing my world beginning to thaw. Everywhere are signs of spring, which begins tomorrow. As I drove to the YMCA to work, I was excited to see a pasture full of sheep grazing, and amongst the sheep were these little, white lambs, with their mothers. They were so cute. I heard the sounds of the ice melting and breaking up on the lake at Stony Creek Park…it looked like giant glaciers melting. The little pond on my way to work had ice melting too, and yesterday I heard the peepers for the first time this spring.

On Sunday, my daughter and I ran in the 4-mile St. Patrick’s Day race in Detroit. Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, and seeing all the green, reminded me that spring was even closer than I’d realized. The day was so warm and the sun so bright, that we even had sun burned cheeks! It felt so good to run in my first race ever. I felt like celebrating, as I had spent so much time frozen with the pain in my knee, and then to be able to run, free of pain, was like the first day of spring.

My classes schedule is busy, and I am looking forward to new experiences in the spring and the summer. My new yoga classes with Fill in the Blanks workshops in Ferndale, have gone well, and I am beginning another session of family yoga classes in a couple of weeks. There have been many ups and downs, but it seems as though the kids really do enjoy yoga, even more than I’d expected. I love working with kids and seeing them try new things and learn to listen to their bodies.

Tags: Articles, Creative Writing, Personal Storytelling, Yoga by Lisa
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Autumn is definitely upon us…you can tell by the spectacular colors of the trees…but to me it doesn’t feel like October, especially not today. It was SO warm and sunny, a day I will remember when the colder autumn winds begin to blow.

It has only been about a week, but a month of ups and downs, leaving old things behind and finding new. Old friends reappearing and some newer friends disappearing. These changes bring with them both joy and sadness. But today, the warm sun melted away any sadness, and I felt as though I could begin anew. There are SO many new opportunities each day when I awaken.

I am back to painting window murals at the North Oakland YMCA, a project that doesn’t pay anything but satisfaction. Sometimes for me, meeting the challenge and having it turn out the way I want is the best payment there is. I can only hope the work I did has been a great advertisement for our upcoming YMCA Halloween events! We will see! Today I also began painting aliens on the windows at the Y, with more alien invaders on their way…fun! Our theme for HAY (Halloween at the Y) this year is Alien Invasion! Any day that I get to make art, is a wonderfully satisfying day for me.

The best part of my day was spending at least a good portion of it with my girls. I know they enjoy being with people their own age, but today we seemed more like girlfriends and it was fun. We met at the Y after my volunteer work (and their volunteer work) was finished, and we went and had an early dinner. We came home and did some much-needed work around the house and the yard. Then we all went on a bike ride which turned into a real adventure (for me). For some reason they took me on this adventure into a world I didn’t know existed, until now, and it was cool. Also, it was a nice workout! We also saw deer galloping all around us, rabbits, birds, and many wonderful autumn colors. The weather was perfect and the afternoon felt perfect. We laughed together and I wanted to write it all down, or paint it in a picture.

At last we came home and worked on our Halloween decorations. We had a nice time doing that as well, as our Golden Retrievers, Comet and Chili, supervised our work. Then, we had to go to Van Huessen Farm, where the girls had volunteered today, to see the jack-o-lantern display there in the evening. They had carved a pumpkin as well, so we got to see it on display with the others. There were hundreds of glowing jack-o-lanterns lighting up the dark night. It was breathtaking. We walked around looking at the pumpkins, and waited until 9pm had passed so we could take their jack-o-lantern home. It was so much fun. I loved seeing how children and adults had created their beautiful and expressive art on pumpkins! SO many creative ideas.

The funniest part of our evening was our trip to Party City to look for witch capes for the girls. There were these two young guys working there who were dressed up in these outrageous costumes and they followed us around the store, flirting with with the girls the entire time. The one guy had a skirt on, and was asking us if skirts were always this uncomfortable to wear. What a perspective you get shopping with your teenage daughters when there are young men around. So funny. Halloween seems to bring out the creativity and adventurous feelings in people. I love Halloween!

Speaking of Halloween, I am looking forward to telling/singing the poem, The Skeletons’ Ball, translated from Spanish by my teacher, Sydney Solis! I will begin practicing it and my plan is to tell it at the HAY event, Halloween at the Y! I received it this weekend, and it sounds great!

Tags: Art, Art activities, Creative Writing, Personal Storytelling, Storytime Yoga by Lisa
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Today is already the fifth day of October, and my youngest daughter’s fifteenth birthday was yesterday. It reminds me of how quickly time passes. This is one of the reasons I love Storytime Yoga so much. It has really taught me to enjoy my time with my children, and to share as much time and creativity with them as I can while they are young. It won’t be long and they will be grown-up. Time flies, just as this past summer flew, and fall is already upon us. Soon the snowflakes will fly and I will wonder again, where has the time gone? So to be in the moment, in each moment, as much as I possibly can, with my own children and with others. It is all about enjoying them, and helping them. It is SO easy to get caught up in the day-to-day worries, the concerns about the world we live in, worrying about the economy. To teach myself to enjoy my children while they are here, is to also teach them how to live.

I am now teaching Storytime Yoga in our North Oakland YMCA Child Watch, three times per week. I love it. These are children who are at the perfect age to realize there’s more to life than watching cartoons on TV. I love the time we spend together, and I look forward to it each week. I do leave exhausted, but it is worth it! The kids need to feel that they are WORTH spending time with! Learning should be fun. Adults should enjoy them and nourish them rather than tolerate them or babysit them. I am excited this week because I am bringing in my magic wand which I believe they will LOVE. I will give them each some Storytime Yoga Magic with my magic wand before I leave. I believe they will get a lot of joy from it!

On Wednesdays and Thursdays, I am really enjoying my longer Storytime/After School/Tweens Yoga at the Auburn Hills Community Center. I have a nice group of children. Together we are sharing so much. What I love is how they are opening up to me and sharing things that are not always easy to share. We also made our own journals to keep and use for our classes. I think that will be something they will always enjoy having. We are learning some wisdom stories, we are learning some challenging poses such as L-handstands, and we are also learning about poetry. I am going to post our art projects/journal projects in the Art Ideas section so that anyone reading this blog can get some ideas on how to do the great activities we are doing in class. So stay tuned!

Another great love of mine is working with Senior Citizens. I adore seniors as much as I love kids. They are another wonderful part of our society that, like kids, we don’t spend enough time nurturing them and loving them. I love my time with my seniors. I now teach a class that is called Golden Yoga, at the North Oakland YMCA. It has become so popular that they want me to teach a second one beginning in winter. I love that I am finally able to spend time with this wonderful group of individuals. It is so much fun.

So the fall continues, and Halloween is coming. I am hoping to bring many more art ideas to my blog here, to inspire yoga, art and story in your lives too!

Lisa

Tags: Art, Creative Writing, Kids' Yoga, Personal Storytelling, Storytime Yoga, Yoga by Lisa
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