Tuesday, January 4, 2011

I am. It is. We are.

Hello blogosphere. Yeah, yeah, yeah I'm the new girl. So here goes:

Several years ago on a hike, in a wood, near a river I chatted with a friend who asked: "where'd your joie de vivre go, Baranski?" But my joy had not disappeared. I was hiking in a damn wood near a damn river, does that sound despairing to you?

To be fair, my joy had shriveled, exhausted from a poor diet and lack of growing friendships. Many of my friends escaped Seattle in succession, and the "communities" I had been near no longer appealed to me. I was a fucking hater. I was honest about that and decided to move on in my own way. But everything needs to be fed to survive, and as a part of my own fattening I introduced this blog to my diet. So, thank you Dina and Melissa for sharing your journey over the past year and accepting my arrival. Your words have nourished me and I look forward to eating my own.

*

Melissa welcomed me to kick-off January with a meditation practice, as outlined in her and Dina's original 12 month plan. So I have. (More on this biznahz in a few). I have also decided to tag-along on a 30-day challenge of Bikram yoga mostly because Melissa said she was “Extreme” so I feel compelled to prove that I am “Hardcore”.

Today was day 3. And I'm surprised to be looking forward to day 4. I am more familiar with the Anusara practice developed by John Friend, and, the two branches seem so very far apart. With Anusara I was only going once a week (although I could have gone more), the sequences of the poses varied, and I was rarely (if ever) told to lock my joints. I tried Bikram Hot Yoga at the behest of the Baumgarts prior to the holidays (epic). My first experience was intense (dehydrated) but I went again and immediately aimed for completing a 10-day trial (super cheap). But a cold wrentched my plans. I'm back now, committed for 30 days and drinking more water than ever. I paid for 60 days so in the interest of amortization I might see how long I can last. I'm just going with it. Holding my arms over my head and pencil-diving in.

As far as this mediation biznahz goes I can say that being raised in the Catholic and Lutheran churches I've spent a better chunk of my life practicing prayer (alone and in community) versus meditation. But, I'm willing to give mediation an honest shot. To start, I've chosen a breathing method by Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn. I'm light-hearted about approaching this stuff (if that’s what cracking yourself up means) and am doing what I can like finding space for meditation on my bus rides to work, yoga or elsewhere. Pema Chodron, a Western Tibetan Buddhist nun, said something about meditation helping us "poke holes" in our thoughts, and I could kind of feel that happening...with a subatomic needlepoint...but mostly I've been wandering back and forth in thoughts from what I would write on this blog to my many, many judgments.

In short, here we are. Me, you, the blog (and all these stuttering parentheticals). Now to Day 4.  - Amy

2 comments:

Bob Redmond said...

Love reading your words, Amy! Look forward to more of this all year. PS that photo of you both with the cookie spoons is hilarious.

Anonymous said...

Amy glad to see aboard! You've jumped in head
first, you can so do 30 days. Joyce