Power 4 on the Gratitude List

An attitude of gratitude!   As I pass my 10-days-remaining mark, I seek to really integrate this experience into my heart and my head.  Here's what comes barreling through:

#1#1#1: New friends and teachers. At the end of most yoga classes I, following the lead fo the instructor, put my hands near my heart, stretch upwards through my tip toppiest vertebra, but bow my chin deeply towards my heart and say Namaste.  Namaste means that I salute the teacher in you (and you, and you, and you.) It means thank you for being you. It is a reminder that everyone I meet along the journey is a teacher. Each in their own way. 

New Zealand is full of some of the sweetest, biggest-hearted folks I've come across.  I remember the first day I met Victoria, she put everything down to show me the lay of campus: Where the coffee lives, and where the Wifi is strongest. ("Wait a minute. strike that.. reverse it." -Willy Wonka) 

And Richard, who I seem to run into 100% of the times I make it to the library. Conversations with this Irish Samoan are too interesting to forgo for something like a bit of studying. (I'll study when I'm dead.)(JK, I am study enough when I'm alive, I'll become a mental loafer when I'm dead.) 

My flatmates of course have had the most positive influence of this experience. We're all away from home, but our little apartment has become a place of refuge. We sing songs, strum ukelele, tape drawings on the fridge, and cook up some of the most tasty, gourmet foods imaginable!

#2) Living by the sea shore. So I've probably averaged less than an hour of beach time every other week, but oh boy, the sea, she's a strong one.  At this moment the sound of dripping rain praises the windowsill.  It is a constant sound and it feels like the ocean.

I remember one of the first times I really connected at the beach. I laid out my travel yoga mat and came into tree pose. Usually my knees bow in and out, my ankles quiver, and I feel like a lopsided sapling. But not by the ocean. It was so interesting to notice how the element of water grounded me firmly into the sand. The wind was blowing hard, but my body barely wavered. The ocean is incredible. I am beginning to see why epic books often feature her. 

#3) Insomnia. Sleepless nights used to freak me out. I've read too much research about how we're primed to get a certain amount of ZzzzzZZzzs, and how quickly we fall into disrepair without enough REMs. 

But I have come to see sleeplessness isn't really a curse. It has enabled me to watch some really good movies, make beautiful art, and learn more about myself through journaling.  It seems like an opportunity for good rest always comes around eventually with divine timing.

#4) Classes. Two in particular have been hugely challenging. But that whole saying about coming through a struggle stronger (and smarter) really is true.  With that being said, I had better not push my luck: finals begin in 2 days!

I'm grateful to know more about how the Maori conceptualize health. They acknowledge all aspects, including family, physical, mental, and spiritual.

My intro to Maori culture teachers are probably the most captivating, humorous lecturers I've ever met, and I'm grateful that that doesn't come at the expense of learning-- actually it enhances the breadth of the content, allowing it to become part of real life!

Its hard to not group my whole experience here into my momentary feeling about it.  So I'll just say: this momentary feeling about it certainly is part of my whole experience here in NZ.  I feel lucky to be here and so excited to be homeward bound soon.  

Flying Buddha and the Quixotic Autumn

Hi guys and gals!

Hoping that the spring most of you are enjoying feels refreshing and smells delicious!   It's been rainy here too,  but without the promise of hot summer days ahead.  My body doesn't get it.  

The days are getting shorter, yet the flowers continue to bloom. No comprende. 

I'm looking ahead to only three more weeks of classes,  then finals,  then pretty much straight away headed back to the states! 

May is NZ music month.  Check out any of these guys! 

It's probably a little to early to start waxing poetic about how this experience has been,  so I'll save or for a later blog.  In the mean time I'll take note of a few things of varying interestingness.
In my " Maori health perspectives" class I'm learning about the deep importance of family as am aspect of health.  We watched a fantastic documentary about a Maori family with a genetic disorder.  Through very pressing times,  whanau (Pronounced:pheynow) are the well of strength. 

I'm coming to enjoy statistics more every day.  It doesn't come easy to me,  but the examples we use in classes come from real life scenarios,  which is very cool.  I imagine all the ways I could use stats in my own life. 

As always,  food is a favorite subject for discussion.  Purple cabbage is my choice pick veggie right now.  Oh yeah,  I forgot to mention that carrots are very tasty here: always sweet,  never with that bitter taste.  

Is this paleo?! *flexes arm muscle*

I've been taking action to get stronger.  The Rec center offers a variety of free classes every day,  so despite my urge to hermit away,  I just can't pass up the opportunity for free motivation.  Aside from fitness classes,  I went to a Buddhist meditation and also am acrobatic yoga workshop last week. They were both refreshing and interesting!

Proud to announce I was climbing across the wall race champion! 

The only thing better than doing yoga, is having someone else do yoga for you! Heheheh

Flying buddha! 

Wishing you health and wellness in the most robust sense of the term. 
Love,
Darwin

land unlocked

Hi

Lilies by the beach

Oh boy, oh boy.  I am finally coming to understand why all my coastally raised friends balk when I tell them of my land-locked upbringing. 

Luckily in NZ you are never far from mountain or ocean!

I had been back from the great roadtrip for about three days before the yearning to go to the ocean became overwhelming. I made sure to get a solid breakfast in my belly before throwing on my winter coat and hopping onto my bike. What is this yearning!  Be Still my heart! 

What even is this?! On campus. No wonder I yearn to escape.

I tried to bargain for a nice riverside spot that wouldn't require the daunting hour long ride,  but Nay said my steadfast heart.  It made a good compromise where it became still, along with my treadmill mind, only upon reaching the  beach.  

The constancy of the slate gray waves crashing again and again across the shores,  eroding,  cleaning,  making noise just for the sake of making noise.  I like to look out and imagine that I can telescope all the way across the pacific, to the shores of San Francisco, right into my sister's life. It's funny how a big thing like the ocean can seem so little.  especially after I've been making mountains out of mole hills  .

Mole hill? Mountain?

This is one of those mountainsi was really sad to not be seeing every day. Milford sound. 

You can say I'm tapering off of vacation.  I've spent a solid 20 hours perusing the intranets (perusing might not be the right word.  What I'm doing is slightly more obsessive) researching just about everything motorcycle.  I've loved motorized vehicles from knee high to a grasshopper.  I remember begging my mom to bring me to the go kart tracks when I was 9; then looking in the newspaper for a 50 cc dirt bike when I was 12. And more recently,  I had saved up $500 for a sweet little '79 Honda CB360 right after I graduated college, yet ended up with a hand crafted oak horse carriage from the farm auction instead. . I digress.  I have even gone so far as to stalk the bikes at the local Yamaha dealership. And I also feel best when I pretend that my (sturdy,  awesome,  loveable,  but not motorized) bicycle is actually an undercover motorcycle. 

As you can tell,  my rationalization powers are chugging away at full force.  Let's just say it's between this and being a cat lady. 

Other than being slave to my inner mermaid and being myopically obsessed with two wheels and a motor,  I have made a very delicious roasted beet and warmed chickpea salad with feta and herbs (yum),    given more henna tattoos,  learned to drive on the kiwi side of the road (no metaphor), composed my own ukelele song,  and learned that season 2 of orange is the new black gives me nightmares,  so I have to stop it now.

Irish rorschach love henna

I also practiced my photoshop skillz. In the future I don't have to ever go anywhere or do anything;  i will just manipulate a photo to give the impression!

I have been so blessed to receive emails from a few friends back home.  All the little stories and photos are great medicine for the homesickness.  I'm so grateful!    Please send me little notes if anything strikes your fancy ; they're so special to me! 

Xoxo