Finding Peace

Where do you find your peace?  Is it in your garden as the flowers wake up or the soil calls your name?  

I love love love it when I have free moments to truly walk around my yard and embrace the moment nature is in.  Today I took my camera outside and realized that if I hadn't slowed down to look for photo taking opportunities, I wouldn't have even noticed all of the things that were blooming around me.

It quickly brought me back to the present moment and I made a point to take deep breaths in and thank the universe for this very minute I was in.  It won't ever return again.  And then I realized, as I have so many times before that we really need to be mindful of our moments.  Because they will bloom around us without notice and we will miss them.  I do not want that to happen.  I want to savor every second.

This year I am once again committed to gardening.  My husband makes fun of me each year at how I begin and the harvest doesn't often produce with the same enthusiasm.  But, I keep trying.  This year I will not have childcare in the summer as I have begun following a teacher's schedule.  My hope is that my girls and I will have more time to spend outdoors together in the garden - free from schedules and to-do lists and free from commitments.  I want to embrace my home, my family and my land.  So I keep on... 

Each year I do learn a little more.  I quickly learned that I must net my strawberries or they would get eaten up by the chipmunks in my yard.  I was raised near NYC where we did not have a garden.  But my Nanny had a patch of land behind her home in Yonkers and she and I would plant tomato plants and other small things.  I remember feeling the earth in my fingers and playing with worms as a little girl, things I didn't do often enough at my own home and I am thankful that she gave me that gift.  It has inspired a love of nature in me and I strive to give it to my own children daily.  

I planted Stevia this year.  Have any of you done this?  I came across it and thought I'd give it a try.  If you taste the leaves it is amazing how sweet they are.  I'm not yet sure if I should grind them up or what but will do a bit of research online before harvesting.  I am curious about the health benefits or dangers.  

We have red pepper plants and zucchini already in the beds.  I also planted potatoes for the first time and onions.  I was surprised to see the onions have already sprouted after only a week of being in the ground. 

Last year my berries got all eaten up by the birds so again, I have learned and covered them with bird netting.  We'll see how they do now.  I have so many seedlings to transplant and I hope they do ok.  That is the part where I often lose a few but I've been working to do a good job hardening them off well this time around.

I love the herbs I've planted.  Oregano and mint... rosemary and thyme.  The mint smells so wonderful when I walk by and it just amazes me that these things can grow from the ground and be so perfect.  How can that not be from something Divine?  Isn't that proof enough?  For me it is.  

Finding peace is not always easy for me with my busy life.  The home is always in need of cleaning, laundry is always piled up... dishes are in the sink and daycare children need caring for.  My girls need homework, dinner and love... and my husband gets upset if there isn't much left of me after doing it all.  Oh and wait... I have books to write, don't I?  So this week I found some time to sneak away to do yoga and find my peace and it was wonderful.  I promised myself to do it more often.

Then, the other night I could not find my fourth daughter anywhere.... finally I found her... up away in a cabinet in her room where I usually keep winter clothing.  She was silent, reading with a lamp... finding her own peace and I smiled.  We all need it, don't we?  I didn't even mind the pile of winter clothing on the floor beneath me.  For a moment.  

xoxo

Yoga for Kids : The Heart Seal with Guest Blogger, Erin Barrette Goodman

Yoga for Kids : Heart Seal
By Erin Barrette Goodman

Many Yogis (that's the fancy word for people who practice yoga) begin and end their practice by gently pressing the palms of their hands together over the center of their chest, which is also known as the "heart center," to form a Heart Seal.

The Heart Seal helps us to bring the energies of the Mind, the Body, and the Heart together to focus on peace and happiness, which is what the practice of Yoga is all about. This lovely, gentle sequence makes a nice transition into/out of rest time or to begin/end the day.

The steps:

Begin by sitting comfortably on the floor. Legs can be folded or stretched out.

Take a deep breath in and think about something that makes you feel very happy (sunshine, snowflakes, your friends, your pet, your family).

Next reach your arms up way over head as you take another big breath in.

As you breathe out, slowly float the arms down and bring the palms together at your Heart Center (right around the sternum).

Repeat this breathing sequence two more times, letting the happy feelings in your heart grow bigger each time you breathe.

After the third breath, hold the hands at the Heart Center. As you gently press the palms of your hands together, close your eyes and imagine that you are sealing all of these good feelings into your heart.

Optional: Invite the children to share (verbally, in writing, drawing, or painting) the happiness and peace that they sealed into their hearts.

Erin Barrette Goodman (www.eringoodman.com/blog) is a writer, yoga teacher and mother of two. She is the founder of the Rhode Island Birth Network (www.ribirth.net), which promotes empowered decision-making during the childbearing years.

Cat Yoga

Doing Cat Yoga poses during 'Cat' week at Little Acorn Learning:

Five Little Kittens

Five little kittens standing in a row,
(Hold up five fingers.)

They nod their heads to the children so.
(Bend fingers)

They run to the left; they run to the right.
(Run fingers to the left and then to the right.)

They stand up and stretch in the bright sunlight.
(Stretch fingers out tall.)

Along comes a dog who's in for some fun.
(Hold up one finger from opposite hand.)

ME-OW! See those little kittens run!
(Let fingers run.)