Piece of a Cake

from La Dolce Vita

    Last night as I was winding down to bed, I was frustrated.  You know, you say your prayers, offer your day to God and then apologize that the day was such a poor offering.  I've been working for days on a YouTube video and am having difficulty putting it together (lets just say, it's still not posted).
    So in the free association that happens before bed, I remember this horrible cake my sister and I made for our mom one birthday. In our minds we were making a beautiful offering like the Amaretto cake pictured at left (my personal favorite cake ever made).  This cake, however, was a yellow cake, straight from the box.  We had mixed it up according to the directions and set it in the oven to bake.  Sounds like a great beginning, yes? Well, let's just say the end did not live up to the beginning.

from Breezy Cheetah Pop

      As we removed the layers from the oven, one was dropped.  We took the good layer, then spread the bad one on top.  It looked a bit like freshly mixed cement.  Then it was time to decorate.  This was long before the advent of Wilton's concentrated coloring, so to make a frosting of the lurid red I remember, it must have taken two bottles of food coloring.  To complete, we added multi colored sprinkles.  Of course we did not take pictures, but the cake at right has the same feel of our sorry cake.
      My thought last night was how gracious my mother was in accepting her ugly cake, then it came to me how much I would enjoy it from my kids as an expression of love.  Maybe the day was not such a waste.  Later, I told my husband about the different ways to see the day, he said "Who cares, it's still cake!"  I guess we could restate it as "Any day above ground is a good day."  Hope you all have many more good days, and I promise, the video is coming.

Happy Thanksgiving!

from Blacksheepsite

2012 first pie

      Happy Thanksgiving! As I sit to write, the first pie is out of the oven with more to come. I just love a holiday all about food and family, from the families we were born in to the families that we create.   I was blessed to be born into a large crazy family.  My Grandma, Henrietta, lived with us 4 days a week, and this Norman Rockwell painting shows how she would cut the edges of the crust off the pie.  It was one of the great goals of my life to be able to hold that pie up and cut off the edges.  Thanks, Grandma.  Here is a picture of as her with the grandkids in 1973 (yours truly is sitting front and center in the yellow dress).

     Those families we create are next on my gratitude list. My little family began in Cincinnati (with just me), but over the years has grown.  I have cooked turkeys in Annapolis, the Philippines, Sicily, Florida, Cincinnati and Florence.  In each place there has been a wonderful gathering of people to share it with.  My favorite turkey was one in Sicily.  It was the first with one of those red buttons that pop to tell you the turkey is finished.  The darn thing stayed firmly in the turkey after three or four hours (it felt 5 hours...).  I actually called Mom back in the States.  Calm and collected, she said stop worrying, just shake the leg, see if it's loose.  Can you imagine getting a call from your frantic daughter six time zones away?  Thank God for my mom.

from Timing the Perfect Turkey

I also give thanks for all of the things I have learned this year and especially to my teachers:

•  JoAnn, Wendy, and Sianna in various classes
• my friends at bible study who continue to expand my mind
• my students; yoga, reiki and others
• most of all, my family, Greg, John, Daniel and Joan

My teachers also come to me through books.  From Pavel Tsatsouline, who teaches how real men stretch, to Steven Pinker, who proves the decline in violence, to Susan Cain, who taught me that I was an introvert, I am truly grateful. (By the way, her book got me interested in the Meyers Briggs personality test.  Turns out I am an INFJ which is only one percent of the population.  It explains a lot of things and frees me to be myself.  What a gift!)

from Carlos Flores, USNA class of 1988

     My next offer of gratitude is for those who serve our country in the military.  The definition for veteran: someone who has written a check, payable to “The United States of America”, for any amount up to, and including, their life.  This post from August is about our gift of Thanksgiving to the country of Grenada by invading in October of 1984. I am especially grateful for those who continue to serve, keeping our family gatherings possible through your service.
      A small side note of gratitude goes to my internet.   I have been having problems until this morning.  Let's just say I have 13 draft posts and four more rough ideas caught in the files of my computer.

From Tewksbury Rod and Gun

     One final note of gratitude goes to the beloved American Turkey, who gives his life annually that we might have a great dinner.
      If you would like the pleasure and health benefits of adding a bit of gratitude into your life, let me recommend Happy Rambles.  It is an online gratitude journal.  Each day they send and email requesting your entry and store your replies online. It makes you realize there are things to be grateful for every day.

P.S. I am truly grateful for my boys who are in the kitchen pealing and chopping potatoes so I can post on my blog.  I have been showered with blessings!  Happy Thanksgiving!

The End of an Era

    Tomorrow is the last day of business for Shine Yoga Center.  This has been the "date day" destination for my mother and I for years.  Once a week we meet for class, then go to my mom's house for eggs for lunch.  It seems like such a small thing, but what a powerful effect.
    We all were asked to write a special memory of Shine in a beautiful yoga book of poses.  The first few times it was mentioned, I thought I had nothing to offer.  I have learned a lot, that (hopefully) I've passed down to my students, but nothing that might mean anything to someone who only knows me as a student in a class where movement, not talking is the focus.

  I wanted to contribute, but was lost.  Finally I resorted to flipping through the book.  There were no partner poses (though I did love the two pages with the balasana (child's pose) facing one another.  It seemed to represent Mom and I, the eternal beginners).  Finally, at the end of the book, I found this pose, Garudasana in Sirsasana ( or, for the rest of us, headstand with eagle pose legs). Now, Mom and I both have a headstand, but neither one of us has eagle pose (my legs are too tight and she doesn't like balance poses).  But when I saw it, it fit.
   Here is this woman, looking at the world upside down (yes, already a good fit), but also with the legs wrapped closely together.  Since Mom and I have had the good fortune to spend so much time together, we fit together.
    We are not the same.  We are not two right legs, but each of us complements the other in unexpected ways.  Just like eagle pose legs, we are entwined but separate, reaching ever upward on our own path while guided and lifted by the other.
   What made the realization even more special was that this very thing is the reason for the owner to move on.  She has three young children and would like to give them the gift that she gave us, the gift of presence.  My blessing on this wonderful woman is that she find in her life what she gave me, children close and involved, but realizing their own life. What more could a mother wish for?
      My deepest gratitude to my teachers at Shine and hopes for a successful future as myyogaco.com.   See you next Friday Mom.

Happy Saturday!

                   Here is a little gift for your Saturday from the site  http://icanhascheezburger.com/.  On this site, black cats are called basement cats; all of them have slight hint of ruthlessness.  After the uber-mom week I've had, this lovely black mamma cat feels just right.