and....breathe

hi lovelies,

i hope everyone had exciting and restful weekends. my saturday flew by.i took another trip up to the ice skating rink and i'm getting a bit better at balancing on ice, but i'm not quite sure when i'll be up for attempting the "inner circle". the most skillful skaters all seem to twirl and twist about the center of the rink as us novice skaters fumble and bumble awkwardly around them. the birds looking down must think that ice skating is some bizarre collective worship dance or mating ritual.

i have to confess that today i am struggling with the blues. i've got the sniffles and i am attempting to make sense of pieces of my life that i have little control over. do you sometimes feel this need to have everything be in order?

so today and tomorrow i will try to:

release, appreciate my wonderful friends, rest, and create...

and drink tea, tons of tea.





photocredit: celestephotography

unseasonly sweet

my coworkers are telling me that ice cream is not in season. i beg to disagree as i find that ice cream transcends seasons. tonight i will make: baklava ice cream!

as a child i had instilled in me a love of honey, cinnamon, walnuts, and pistachios. when my family first immigrated to the US they founded an ice cream shop in boston called Y Brothers' Ice Cream (Y for Yiannacopoulos). they creamed and mixed all sorts of common American flavors, but also brought in their own cultural twist to ice cream. i shall make a simplified version of their baklava ice cream tonight and i suggest you do the same when a sweet tooth next comes knocking! for a wintery twist add a scoop of this to the cardamom coffee i wrote about earlier this week...it's a great way to spoil yourself after a long week!

with the sweetest of teeth,

becca ann

recipe:
take basic vanilla ice cream (as much as you'd like)
add honey to taste
sprinkle it with chopped walnuts and pistachios
finish it off with a dash of cinnamon and a pinch of cloves...
divinity.

flagrant color

this week i bundled up and visited the denver museum of art to see its most recent and temporary exhibit "embrace" . the museum asked 17 artists to make instillations throughout the museum in response to the building's shape and feel. it is a fascinating exhibit and i enjoyed moseying around the museum happening upon the various installations.

one of the pieces was done directly on one of the large slanting walls using spray paint. i turned the corner to find myself enveloped in a sea of greens, blues, and purples punctuated by splashes of reds and yellows. it was truly a flagrant and massive display of color.

perhaps it is because i was raised in the inner-city where graffiti was the most common form of art, but i have to confess that i love the idea of using walls or found objects as canvases. when graffiti is done well it is as if the wall it is painted on is crying out the song of the community in which it resides. admittedly graffiti can be done very poorly and be used as an act of intimidation, but often it is a true and striking expression of a person, a group, a place, a time...

this piece in embrace is not per se graffiti, but it evoked the same emotions. the colors and the way they dance together in the style that only spray paint can create took me to a place of wonder.

do you ever feel this way about a piece of art?
--

crimson on snow

our blizzard broke this morning and the bright colorado sun came beaming out. the roads were slick and the temperatures low. i visited my favorite coffee spot in town, stellas, and sat in front of their incredible mini fire pits sipping chai. it was bliss.

my mind flitted around to all sorts of daily frivolities like, "i wonder if i need more anti-freeze? should i paint my nails red today? maybe after work i'll make a pie, or maybe i'll have a movie snuggle night..." my most favorite musing though was about a scarf that i am trying to make. my fingers are slowly learn how to speak fluently with my needles and yarn. i am hoping to create something like the loveliness pictured above. i'm very taken with red scarves against the bright snow.

do you all have favorite winter colors?

photocredit: smittenkitten at etsy

wonderful world wednesdays: Wangari Maathai

good morning world! wednesday is creeping up on us and it's time for wonderful world wednesdays installment #1. on this january 6th i wish to acknowledge the beautiful Wangari Maathai.

Maathai is a kenyan woman who founded the Greenbelt Movement . She also is a woman's rights activist, an accomplished scientist, a member of parliamentary, and a nobel peace prize winner.

her major environmental works acknowledge not only the inherent value in preserving natural habitat, but moreover explore how people and animals are impacted by environmental degradation. she trained local women in communities to plant trees to battle the massive top soil loss that was happening in kenya during the past few decades. her work has been highly effective. she understands the interconnectedness of all things living and inspires me to think about how small ideas can take root and really make this vibrant place we live healthier for all.

power and blessings to you Maathai!

have any of you ever planted a tree? i am currently trying to keep a garden alive in the winter, but have never actually planted a tree. i plan to when the soil thaws. any thoughts on what type of tree i should plant? i am a complete tree planting amateur...

birthday district

a week ago i wrote about the LA flower district. well this week i'm finding myself in my own little birthday district. three of my best friends are all born within a week of each other. i've been spending many moments in my days reflecting on each of them. the fact that they were born and that i got to meet them means the world to me.

much birthday love v, a, and m!

isn't it funny how people seem to be clustered around certain regions of the year? do you have any times of the year that are birthday blessing heavy?

swing low

there is a storm brewing over the mountains. although it is dark outside, i can almost feel the sky turning purple. on my way home from work tonight i passed a group of homeless people huddled together warming their hands over a small fire. i know some of this group from their frequent visits to my center and so i stopped to say hello. i reminded them about the various shelters and wished them goodnight. it is a daily struggle to not want to have some easy remedy to this issue of homelessness in the winter. i can feel the snow coming on and i know they are out in it. i walked away with that internal "why is this" battle raging. as i opened my car door they began to sing. it was just a little humming and then someone sang out in a smoker's raspy voice the lyrics to swing low sweet chariot.

it stopped me dead in my tracks. this song is so simple and yet means so much. this spiritual references the bible, but moreover the afro-diasporic slave community's struggle for freedom. the chariot signifying the underground railroad. although it is a wildly different time and place and set of circumstances, the music left me thinking about what the people who are living on the streets need empowerment within. what is their chariot? how do they gain access to making their communities healthy? how in the dead of winter do they find their freedom?

there are no easy answers. all i can say is that somewhere between our initial hello and the end of the song i found some piece of strength in each of them. the simple act of expressing and making music with others in the midst of such mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical discomfort speaks to resiliency. it provided a moment for quiet mind space. it gives me hope.

good night day, good night moon, hello pillow...

photocredit: lonelyplanet