Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Balancing my Dosha


In Ayurvedic medicine, an ancient practice of India, “balancing doshas” is the first step in the healing of many ills. Based on the concept that all beings are one with the earth and we carry those elements in our bodies, we can find health by finding balance. This has resonated with me over the years as I can intuitively feel when my life and my body are “out of whack”—another ancient Hindu saying. There are three doshas-Vata, Pitta and Kapha corresponding the elements air, fire and earth and water. Me, being a Vata, or “airhead,” spends the majority of my time in the ungrounded world of ideas. When I begin to experience the symptoms of unbalance in my life-worry, anxiety, being overwhelmed, I must turn my attention to balancing the kapha in my life—or turn to the earth to once again ground myself.

O.K. that was a very long explanation to why I find peace and harmony with a lump of clay or digging in the dirt of my garden or sitting in the grass—it helps me to balance my dosha-even though balance on a potter’s wheel is a hundred time harder that I ever imagined. I love Mondays, I love the feel of the clay, I love being surrounded my earthy people in Tevas and dreadlocks, I love having a goal of someday, somehow being able to “throw a pot” that looks the same from all sides. I love coming down from the clouds and playing in the mud—it is just what the doctor ordered.




More about "doshas" can be found here and here--just in case anyone is feeling a little off kilter!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Care of the Soul




I'm an Arizona, Arizona, Arizona star,
And I come from the West where the cowboys are;
I can ride 'em, I can rope 'em I can show 'em how it's done,
I'm a rootin' tootin' cowboy with my six-shooter gun!


Flying into the "Valley of the Sun" is always a going home. A wave of nostalgia sweeps over me when I look out the airplane window and see Camelback Mountain, the mountain that I could see from my bedroom window growing up. Stepping off the plane, I always think of walking through the tunnel and into my Dad's arms as he waited for us each summer. It has taken being a mother myself, to realize how he must have felt after not seeing us for the nine months of the school year. A little pang of homesickness hits me as I look forward to walking through another tunnel someday and seeing him waiting.


Each Spring after a long, long winter my body and soul craves a day in the sun like it craves food. Fortunately, by this time of year Steve usually has a few SouthWest tickets saved up and in one hour all my needs are satisfied--water, sun, dry, green, heat----and a lounge chair


And spending time with Steve and Katelyn and Jake was the icing on the cake (thank goodness, they all love to read as much as I do!)




Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Yesterday

all my troubles seemed so far away....

Today----well---hell----o winter!