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!

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.

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!

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

Lisa with Sunflower Mask

I just returned from a magical week of Storytime/Mythic Yoga training with Sydney Solis, in Boulder, CO. It was much more than training, it was a beautiful life experience.

Each day was filled with the most delightful people, stories, yoga, nature, and experiences that I could ever imagined possible. I also came face-to-face with some personal challenges, working through a complex story, experiencing the ups and downs of a challenging mask-making project, and dealing with altitude sickness! Sydney is an amazing and inspiring woman and teacher, a gifted story-teller, yoga teacher, and artist, as well as a wonderful mom and friend. To have an opportunity like this was something I will always cherish. The other women who studied with me were beautiful, brave and amazing women who are now my friends.

I created a mask that at first did not seem like the thing I wanted to create. I battled with the image, wanting instead to do a cute animal or bird, and finally I surrendered to the Sun idea, which turned into a Sun that was also a Sunflower. At one point in the process I felt like giving up or even throwing it away, but with Wendy Rochman’s guidance and encouragement, I stuck it out and finished my art. Later on, I was happy with it, even though it didn’t match up with what I’d thought it would be. In some ways, it was even better than my idea because it was more of an expression of what I was experiencing in my life and my practice.

When I returned home from Colorado yesterday, the first thing I saw was a long-awaited package of Ukrainian books sitting on my bed. I had ordered them a month ago, and now here they were, sitting on my bed. As I opened the package and took out the first book, I fell in love with its beautiful purple cover. I opened the book and on the very FIRST page was the Ukrainian legend, “The Sunflower.” I could hardly believe my eyes. And the story seemed to be the very same thing that happened to me, with my life, my art, the mask…the sunflower was the son of the Sun, it came from the Sun.

Here is the story of The Sunflower:

The Sunflower (from A Garland of Legends and Folk Tales from Ukraine – adapted and retold in English by Oleksandra Stratiy)

In the beginning, none of the plants on the Earth had flowers. Can you imagine? All the plants were just green. One day, the plants decided to make a request to the Sun, their god, and to ask him for flowers of different colors. But the Sun, high in the sky, replied, “I take good care of you, I think. I give you light. I give you warmth. You can live without flowers. Anyway, I am too busy. I have the entire solar system to worry about.”

Their conversation was overheard by the Sun’s son, a golden-haired Prince. He was eager to be of help. “May I go, Father, and do this job? I would be glad to travel to Earth and assist the plants,” said he.

“No, it’s a very long way from the sky to the Earth, and it is dangerous. You may never come back home,” was his father’s answer. Some days passed. The Prince came back to his Father with the same request. This time, the Sun sighed and shook his head sadly, but he agreed to let his son go.

To the Earth flew the son of the Sun. He roamed around the world. Nature trembled in anticipation of the most beautiful miracle. Wherever the Prince went, the Earth bloomed. Beautiful flowers appeared in the jungles and in the deserts, in the forests and in the meadows, in the mountains and on the waters.

Soon, beautiful, colorful flowers of every size and shape covered the planet. On seeing the results of his work, the Prince beamed with satisfaction. He was so proud of himself, so excited to share his happiness with his Father! He was ready to go home.

The Prince rotated his great wings and struggled to rise from the Earth to the sky. But he could not! He had given his power and energy to the Earth. He could no longer fly. He could not return to his Father, the Sun. The weak Prince fell on the ground, weeping bitter tears. His Father cried in the sky.

At dawn, the Prince managed only to raise his head to look at the Sun. He became the Sunflower. Ever since that time, a golden-headed flower raises his head to gaze at the Sun. His Father promised him homecoming in the next life.

My Sunflower Mask:

The Sunflower

This week, while the losses got me down, I rejoiced in the new connections. While I grieved for my cousin who died this week, and for her family who will miss her, I found hope and joy in being reunited with relatives separated by time and distance. While I felt the loss of a favorite supervisor leaving, I was met with the promise of bright, new opportunities ahead of me. It is all life; of beginnings and endings and in betweens.

The Dog Days of summer continue, even as I know they are coming near to an end. Each week, I enjoy my kids in the YMCA Day Camp, and I get to know them better, to watch them grow as they create amazing things. Often there are new faces, or the reluctant kids join in when they see the fun we are having. This week’s them was Jungle Safari, and on a whim I decided to try our hand at the same Animal Finger Puppet project I did with my teens in our home school group. It was a great success, as the kids came up with the most creative ways to express themselves with clay and the many goodies I brought with me. It was interesting to watch how they learned from each other and began adding accessories to their animal puppets, such as hair, capes, hats, guitars, bows, and cups. Very cool!

Here are some images of our art. Click on thumbnail images once or even twice to enlarge!

On Thursday afternoon, we did a fun yoga session where we began with a Seashore Warm-up, and ended up crashing our boats on a Jungle coast. We each had a favorite jungle animal and we made up our own tale using those animals, and inventing poses for our animals. Of course we included some old favorites too, such as cobra pose, lion’s pose and crocodile pose. We had a great time – the kids have such great imaginations! We ended with an activity for meditation that the kids really enjoyed. I brought in fabric, and we created Yoga Animal Flags. It was a lot of fun to come up with symbols for our flags, and show the animal friends we wanted to represent on our flags. We simply used permanent markers on fabric, and the results were very nice. This was a project that seemed to appeal to all ages and to boys as well as to girls. As always, the time seemed to go by way too fast.

Finally, as the week came to a close, I truly enjoyed my adult classes on Thursday. We have so much fun in our Thursday evening class at the YMCA, and it feels so sincere and heartfelt that we not only learn and grow together, but we share so much of ourselves in the process. It is the most joyful yoga class I have ever taught. I leave there feeling so uplifted that it stays with me, and I think again and again how lucky I am to be there. We have a recent Gulf War veteran in our midst, and it brings to my heart how much this person was willing to give for us all, and how he now needs to be cared for and to feel safe and that he can at least relax. When you see first-hand what war does to our bodies and minds, it makes you realize how precious is PEACE. In my heart I dedicate my classes and my teachings to this man, to my cousin Audrey who died a week ago, and to us all, that we can at last know peace.

May we all know peace,

Lisa

Then, I ended my time with them by doing some more body painting as I had done the day before. On Wednesday we had made Fireworks paintings in our art class, followed by me creating original Fourth of July tattoos on their hands or arms. Some of the kids wanted the same tattoo again. It was red, white and blue stripes with a white star, kind of like a shooting star! Some kids wanted their ankles painted and most of them wanted their faces painted. I painted a red, white and blue butterfly on one girl’s face. All were red, white and blue, and they went home looking really awesome. What was SO cute was hearing them all talk about how they were NEVER going to wash these off, and how they hoped their moms would not make them take a bath that night or they would have to take it with a bag on their arm or hand. So very sweet. A couple of the little girls came up to me and hugged me and snuggled against me, thanking me for what I had done. It was a joy and a pleasure to spend time with them, and to see them so happy.

This week at the Y, the theme is King Tut’s Exploration. Yesterday, Wednesday, I brought a painting project for us to do for Art Day. We painted a King Tut’s death mask, but we could do it like a self-portrait if we wanted to. We left borders around the edges of the page to write our names and other messages in hieroglyphics. Our paint was gold, blue and red metallic paint. I loved the look of the metallic paint! Some of the kids even used silver. These turned out WAY better than I could have expected and the kids were all so absorbed in their work that when their parents came to pick them up, they wanted to stay and finish their paintings. One girl wrote, “I love Lisa” in hieroglyphics on her painting. When she told me this, I felt happy and grateful to share this love and positive experience with her. I can’t really describe that moment in words, of feeling that connection, that appreciation of one human being for another, except that it was mutual. It felt as though we had known each other all our lives. She is a sweet and appreciative child, as are nearly all of the kids that come to this program each week. I adore them! So many kids thanked me for coming to spend time with them each week that my heart felt very full. They are so special to me and I appreciate THEIR time. Their love makes me want to do many special things for them, to try even harder to tell wonderful stories and come up with amazing art projects.

All of this abundance that I’m feeling, is so striking in contrast to what I feel about the job situation and how the economy is heading here in Michigan. Many companies attempt to cut costs by cutting pay and benefits and then we all suffer. So many of my friends and families have been getting laid off or losing benefits. The stinginess flows all the way down to the kids, who feel it too. I try not to let financial pressures affect the way I approach my life with my own three children, or with my children at the YMCA. If we skimp on kids, they feel it and how can we expect their hearts to be in it? My prayer is that somehow I can support myself and find income from other areas in my life, in order to keep doing the work I love to do with these kids. I am breathing right now, praying and calming my mind and my heart so I can continue to create abundance in the life of my own children, and those whom I spend time with each week at the YMCA.

With love and gratitude to ALL my kids!

Lisa