Bon Voyage

Sitting here at the Seattle airport with a moment to blog before my flight to Hawaii. It's been a hectic few months and I can't tell you how happy and free i feel.

In the past few months, I've been working on inverted (upside down) poses at my anusara yoga class. I was petrified when the instructor told us the first time we were going to do them. There was something about the uncertainty of it, and the fear of falling that I didn't want to confront.

We built up to it slowly. We did lots of push-ups and downward dogs to get strong and deeply rooted down into the earth. We practiced kicking up against the wall to get a feel for being upside down.

When I finally managed it (with the help of a partner - I can't hand stand yet on my own), it was strangely calming and exhilarating at the same time. It was addictive. I loved the feeling of finding stillness in a pose that could be so unstable, and it was as much of a mental challenge as a physical one.

What I take away from it is, well, a lot. I learned that things I told myself I couldn't do, I could do. I learned that in unstable and uncertain situations, one could still find stillness and grounding. I learned that if I came crashing down, I could be ok. I learned to let go and play.

I wish you all a wonderful time over the Christmas holidays and Santa's good to you. I'll try to blog whenever I can in between surfing, eating, sleeping, and all that other goodness life has to offer.

Life is Good

I'm chilling at a TuffBeans in Tofino, enjoying their wireless as my cottage doesn't actually have wireless as advertised (boo). Hence the reason for no posts the last few days.

My feet are brown from the sun, and I can't seem to wash the sand out of my ears. I've been blessed with sunny weather, and I can't remember feeling so much like I'm on a foreign holiday ever in Tofino. I like this.

Hubby and I have been doing quite a bit of surfing, and mostly eating and chilling. We had a nice lunch at one of my fave spots, the Botanical Gardens. Darwin's Cafe serves really fresh and simple food with an emphasis on herbs plucked right out of their garden. The Botanical Gardens is a slice of eccentricity in this hippie town - 12 acres of brambling gardens, forest and shorelines accented with sculptures.

Modeling a DIY deconstructed t-shirt below after lunch at Darwin's. The shirt is actually something quite symbolic to me - it's part of the Raise Your Hand campaign, a project that I've worked on for 3 years. Sponsored by WorkSafeBC, Raise Your Hand raises awareness about young worker safety - you can read more about the campaign here or check out the website and make a button to show your support.

I basically cut the shirt in the front and back, cut up the sleeves, and cut out the collar. Then, I stretched out the slits for a distressed look. There's lots of great videos on youtube about t-shirt deconstruction, and I'll share some in upcoming posts.

I also found a very cool shop in Tofino that sells tees and hoodies made out of bamboo and cotton blends. it's incredibly soft! i picked up this purple hooded top with pointed sleeves.


I'm really excited for tomorrow as I'll be joining in a surf yoga session by Eoin Finn. Then, it's another afternoon of surf and a seafood BBQ to end the day.