It’s easy to add yoga to our ‘to-do’ list…making it yet another thing, like getting our teeth cleaned or taking vitamins, that we should do. Many of us tend to approach our practice that way too. We work hard to achieve a certain posture or certain ‘level’ without really having fun along the way. Discipline is certainly important, but yoga can also be joyful and playful and fun. What would happen to your practice if you approached it as you would have when you were 6 years old? Do you remember what it felt like as a child to climb a tree or do a cartwheel? Can you remember a time when you never worried about looking silly or falling down in the mud? Bring that inner child, the one who is fearless and ready to play, into your next practice with you and notice how much more fun your practice becomes. I encourage you to cultivate a childlike sense of play each time you step onto a mat. (more…)
I know that our nation is plagued with troubles right now. The economy is tanking. Unemployment is high. So perhaps my proposal of a national cream puff day seems trivial at a time like this. However, what would it be like to have a day dedicated to a simple pleasure, like a cream puff?
Each year on March 19th, Sicilians celebrate St. Joseph’s day with feasts and celebrations. Saint’s days are a bit like birthdays. On the day of the saint that you are named after there is a celebration and a traditional food that is associated with the day, in this case Sfinge di San Giuseppe or Cream Puffs. (more…)
Blood oranges are in season right now. If you aren’t familiar with them, they have a slightly sweeter, more concentrated flavor than regular oranges and a beautiful, bright vibrant red color (hence the name!). My dad has made homemade limoncello for customers at his restaurant for years, but is now experimenting with blood orangecello. His first experimental batch was ready for our Sunday dinner this week. It was like drinking fresh, super concentrated blood orange juice but with substantially more kick and a slightly bitter, refreshing aftertaste. We keep it in the freezer and serve it just as it is, but it is great in cocktails or drizzled over fruit or ice cream after dinner. My dad also claims that this can cure a cold if you pour a shot in hot water to make a Sicilian style hot toddy! Not sure if that really works, but it would certainly make you forget your cold. (more…)
“Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are”- Antheleme Brillat-Savarin
In Italy, when it comes to food there are rules. Strict rules. Rules about which food to eat in which season. Rules about what time you should drink your cappuccino (never after 11am!) and when you should grate cheese over a pasta that contains seafood (on pain of death). These rules might seem strange to the average American. After all what harm does it really do to order a cappuccino after dinner? To illustrate the level of passion that this can ignite, I once posed that very question to a group of Italian men….who responded that the mere thought of that was “like a knife to their hearts.” They then proceeded to gesture wildly as they heatedly discussed how this would affect digestion for the next 20 minutes. Again, this might seem a bit over the top, but for an Italian, these rules and are sacrosanct and represent millennia of culinary traditions. Recipes have been passed down and perfected over generations….so why mess with perfection! (more…)
I am looking forward to my upcoming Yoga & Wine retreat to Washington State. This time of the year, when things are grey, it is nice to have something fun to look forward to. This will be my third retreat and I can’t wait to pull off the highway and into the long driveway lined with grapevines that leads up to the Cave B Inn. A weekend filled with the little, primal pleasures of life seems to be just the answer for a time when everything seems a bit shaky. In the quest for the latest blackberry, it can be helpful to remember that the little pleasures of life are often the most simple and, frankly, haven’t changed much over the last 1000 years. (more…)
It might sound strange…but I think that times like these can be kind of exciting. When things are challenging, we learn what we are made of and how strong, resourceful and capable we really are. Change can be scary, but it can also bring new opportunities and take our lives in exciting directions that we never imagined. If we open our eyes and really look…we see that change is a gift. Think back to the first time you stepped on to your yoga mat. Maybe there was a posture that you never thought you could do. Now think back to the first time you did indeed get into it and how strong and happy you felt. Had that posture come easily, that moment would not have been nearly as sweet. Challenges in our life can be that way too. We rarely savor the things in life that came easily to us, but the things that we worked hard and fought for.
“Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging it’s gifts by their wrapping, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the wrapping and you will find beneath it a iving splendor, woven of love, wisdom and power. The gloom of the world is but a shadow. There is radiance and glory in the darkness…could we but see” -Fra Giovanni
