Renewal

We need quiet to examine our lives openly and honestly.....spending quiet time alone gives your mind the opportunity to renew itself and create order. ~ Susan Taylor

As many of you have gathered, I've been on a break from blogging for a short time. With a great deal going on in my family's life right now, I realized I needed to step back and focus on life as it's happening, rather than writing about it. I will be back before long with, I hope, a renewed spirit, invigorated energy and original thoughts for the summer. As I gain inspiration, I hope that I'll be able to pass those ideas along and generate some joyfulness in the lives of Preppy Yogini readers. Additionally, I hope to come back with an enriched sense of creative energy. So...how do I hope to gain all of this renewed vivacity? By living in the moment with my family, by continuing to put my heart into my Yoga classes and by reading wonderful books. I remember, with great delight, my summer reading lists that would come out at the end of each school year. I looked forward to them as being books to read on the beach, in the hammock or at camp. Each book seemed to draw me a little more deeply into the magic of summer.

I have been reading quite a few novels recently that have been designated as "Young Adult" books. I'm not sure how each one has crossed my path, but as I read, I have found that these stories are brilliant for readers of all ages. I find it unfortunate that bookstores and libraries need to label them for teens because this list I will share below contains, what I believe, is wonderful writing and amazing storytelling. So...instead of just browsing in the regular fiction section, take a glimpse at the Young Adult novels....in both the classics and bestsellers. You may find that your next source of inspiration...or even just a deeply moving read...comes from this area. I have put this list together to help animate and encourage you to move out of your literary comfort zone. My only advice is not to label these novels in your mind...but read them with the open heart of youth. I hope you enjoy!

Young Adult Books for all ages:

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Reality Check by Peter Abrahams

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headly

The Coffin Quilt by Ann Rinaldi

The Summer of Naked Swimming Parties by Jessica Anya Blau

Maggie's Story by Dandi Daley Mackall

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

So....curl with one of these great books and enjoy your summer reading list.

Rainy Days & Mondays

Being a child growing up in the 1970's, I can clearly remember my parents playing their Carpenters' records. These old albums still evoke strong memories every time I hear one of the songs come onto the radio...on the oldies station. When I hear "I'm on the top of the world", I can imagine my father singing along in the car. "Close to you" never failed to bring happy tears to my mother's eyes. However, the song that seems to be playing on perpetual loop in my head this summer is "Rainy Days & Mondays". The refrain from this song is:

Hangin around, nothing do to but frown

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down....

Nostalgia can be a wonderful feeling. However, even though I can remember this song on long car trips, playing in the background of my parents cocktail parties, and simply as a piece of the memory book that creates my mental pictures of my childhood, I have to say that these lyrics have rung far too true this summer in Maine. It has rained 26 days out of the past 39 days. It hasn't just been foggy or simply disappointing summer weather. It's been a utterly, miserably soggy summer. When weather forecasts predict a minimum of ten more days of downpours, it can be very disconcerting emotionally.

What is a yogini to do? Drown herself in her swamp-like backyard? Or, soldier on and find rainy activities to keep our spirits up? As appealing as sinking up to my ankles in what used to be a beautiful lawn sounds, I vote for soldering on...and finding ways to keep my happiness factor up, even if the weather is choosing not to cooperate. One of the most wonderful ways I've found to break the rainy day blues is to switch up our usual schedule. As simplistic as this sounds, just moving around, experiencing our every day life in different ways, is an effective method for chasing off the blues. Although my children are now older, I can vividly remember swapping out the kitchen table for the living room, for evenings in which picnics are rained out. They enjoyed nothing better than throwing a blanket down on the living room floor, lighting a fire in the fireplace and creating a camping feeling by even letting the kids roast marshmallows over the fire to make S'mores. However, this last activity did require intensive burned marshmallow removal from the hearth. Regardless, we were able to break the wet doldrums, have a great deal of fun, and get out of depressing funk. We still play games in that same spot, put on music that lifts us all up and change the mood from sarcasm to sensational, on the very worst afternoons. Even if you're on your own, imagine how much more pleasant it will be to sit on the floor, eating picnic food, than to stare out your kitchen window at gray skies.

Another wonderful way to beat a case of rainy-day-itis is to create a movie festival. With older children, or even on your own, it's fun to create a Oscar nominated (or Oscar winning) film festival. We have done this with great success, and this past weekend was a bonanza of movies that were all nominated in the past year's Academy season. Slumdog Millionaire, Defiance, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and others graced our DVD and helped us create an entertainment atmosphere. On nights that we would normally be heading our separate ways, or even just outside, watching high quality movies can be an enriching experience to share as a family...or to treat yourself with. If Oscar fare isn't your cup of tea, why not try an action packed weekend, featuring heist films, or a family marathon of Disney's best? Why not invite your closest friends over for Cosmopolitans and a "Sex & The City" retrospective"? Have fun with creating an atmosphere that creates a mood for your theme...knowing that your friends and family are just as wrung out from the weather as you are. By creating a movie fiesta, you will not only be entertained, but have a great deal more fun than mindlessly flipping through the channels. Cook treats that can enhance your theme....a Vegas-like buffet spread for an "Oceans 11" theme, canapes and champagne for chick flicks or peanut butter & jelly, cut out with Mickey Ears cookie cutters, before you sit down to a night of the Little Mermaid and The Lion King.

As a yogini, I must also add that rainy days, as depressing as they can be just as July is beginning, can be a wonderful time to deepen your yoga practice. Yoga is more than exercise. It can help ease your state of mind. Practicing at least 4 rounds of Sun Salutations can be a powerful method of getting your endorphins moving, allow the heat to rise from your belly and to create energy out of doldrums.

Sun Salutations have a proven impact on stimulating the part of the brain that helps us feel incredible joy, so the more rounds you can practice, the more stimulated that region of your brain will become...and the better you will feel. In ending Sun Salutations with Lightening Bolt pose, as seen in the picture to the left, you can channel the activity outside into a dynamic asana inside...and also gain definition in your quads and shoulders to boot. Lightening Bolt can be held for as long as your body is feeling mighty, or can done in sequential flow. However your practice finds its path, adding in elements from the 'outside in' can bring a natural link between the world outside your door, and your practice on the mat.

Reading your way through a series of books you've wanted to tackle, window shopping in catalogs, trying new recipes to cook, visiting museums, and volunteering at places like your local library (who are often swamped on rainy days) can bring a sense of vigor to the gray sky slump, too. The key to overcoming "rainy day and Monday" melancholia is to find ways around it. Shaving cream fights, water balloons (the kids are wet already!) and slip and slide in the rain can get even surly teenagers out the door and into a spirit of laughter. Most of all, take just a few moments at the beginning, and end, of each day to count your blessings. Rainy weeks or not, there are an infinite number of things to be thankful for. Gratitude can be great mood elevator....and it can also help you to see that rain, while inconvenient for our short summer season, can also bring opportunities we wouldn't have had otherwise.

The realist sees reality as concrete. The optimist sees reality as clay. ~Robert Brault

100th Blog Post: Inspiration & Gratitude

"Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation and a pinch of creativity." ~ Bo Bennett

As I begin my 100th blog post, I am compelled to reflect upon how very much the Preppy Yogini has meant to me. This outlet has been a defining influence on taking the next steps on the path of my life. I have been immeasurably blessed by the love, interest and thoughts shared by readers (even those I'm related to!), and want to express my thanks to any and all who have taken an interest in my random, rambling thoughts. As I've been reading over my previous 99 posts, I'm not only thankful I've had this medium for learning to write more fluently, but for what I've learned about myself...my own history and my thought processes. Writing this blog has been a window that I'm grateful to have to gaze along my psyche. My humble gratitude aside, I would like to touch on just a few areas in which I have found my own personal growth and on which, I am continuing to discover my voice.

YOGA, it will come as no surprise, has been a defining aspect of my life. I began taking yoga classes almost 10 years ago, when a dear friend begged me to come to class with her. This invitation was given at a dinner party, over a glass of wine. She wasn't positive that Yoga was going to be 'her thing' but wanted to have me along for moral support. As fate would have it, my friend became a serious and dedicated runner, and I fell in love with Yoga. I began to study in earnest, and found extraordinary teachers to aid me in my quest to learn more. I found a confidence in myself and, for the first time in my life, began to look at my body without self-criticism and disgust at my lack of perfection, but with appreciation for all I could learn to do. When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2003, and then again with another serious illness that landed me in intensive care in 2007, Yoga was the single most critical part of my life in helping my recovery. Not only was I in excellent physical condition to withstand the harsh demands my weakened body was making on me, but my mind knew calming, restorative and peaceful techniques to aid me in some of the most invasive time and procedures. After my initial illness 5 years ago, I began my Registered Yoga Teacher training, and I have found it to be the best decision I could have made. Not only has this enabled me to give back and teach many of the thoughts and techniques that have blessed me, but I have discovered that in teaching, in sharing what I've learned, I myself have been incredibly blessed in return by my students' own journeys.

READING WONDERFUL BOOKS has been a touchstone in my life from the time I could pick up my first Dr. Seuss book. Being able to share and review books that have inspired me, entertained me, taught me lessons or simply made an impact on me, has been a large part of this website. In my mind and heart, a book that touches my life changes me forever. I carry that story, those characters and those ideas with me, and they become a part of who I am. As a lifelong bibliophile, I believe I embody Webster's definition of "a lover of books". I am a passionate, voracious reader. Like a connoisseur of fine wines, I enjoy basking in the moment of each high quality literary novel I read. My love of books has seen me through many moves throughout my childhood, my years being away in schools far from home, as a new Army wife in a foreign country, and throughout each new phase of my life. Books have been my companions, my friends, my teachers and my inspiration. I have discovered that, just as my quest for elegance and eloquence in yoga has spurred me on to keep movitated in my learning process, so has the hunt for extroardinary novels. It has been an unbridbled pleasure to be able to share what I've learned from those I have found exceptional.

From the moment I could pick up a pencil and scribble my first thoughts onto a piece of scratch paper at my little next next to my mother's, I knew I wanted to write. I had thoughts I was compelled to commit to paper. My mother and grandmother bound my first little books themselves and started me on my quest to learn how to truly express myself WRITING. Although I have never been a professional writer, it's always been my life goal to establish a career as one. I've been fortunate to have had the chance to incorporate writing into every other position I've held. As a teacher and Director of Education, I wrote and produced plays for my students, using historical events as the jumping off point. I discovered what many good teachers know: that children learn by *doing*. By acting in plays written about a specific area of significance, these students remembered what they learned because they made the play their own. Writing has also given me a philosophical and emotional outlet during both difficult times and joyful ones. By expressing myself through the written word, I've been able to share the passion I feel for meaningful subjects in my life, and I've been able to work through painful emotions during times of great stress. To quote Arthur Polotnik, "You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke." Writing has given me a map of my life, that I'm able to read in both directions.

And, so I feel profoundly grateful for my first 100 blog posts. I look forward to writing more, to reading more, to deepening my yoga practice. I look forward to all of the wonders that await me, and am fully prepared for the tears and laughter that lie ahead. My thanks, my best wishes and my undying appreciation for being such patient readers.

What things there are to write, if one could only write them! My mind is full of gleaming thought; gay moods and mysterious, moth-like meditations hover in my imagination, fanning their painted wings. But always the rarest, those streaked with azure and the deepest crimson, flutter away beyond my reach. ~Logan Pearsall Smith