Wednesday, May 23, 2012

gardening, Ellis, and an anniversary.



There are only a handful of things that succeed in slowing down my churning brain. Walking or running, painting, cooking, reading, sex, gardening. I spent all this morning with my bare hands in the dirt, planting rosemary and chamomile, tomatoes, purple peppers, basil and watermelons. I squeezed the dirt into wet clumps, like clay, then broke them apart by rubbing my fingers together. I did not have a single thought in my head, good or bad. I just was.

This past weekend I was in Philadelphia with my husband, visiting my artist friend Nina. We met up at Burlap and Bean Coffee, and eventually was able to hear an amazing musician and songwriter, Ellis. As amazing as her music was (is), what I was really struck by were her words, her conversation with the audience. She talked a bit about a song she wrote called "Let's Go to Yoga", and described the obvious difficulty in learning the poses and disciplines of the practice. But she also talked about how spacious she feels at the end of a class. How we do all these things, our computers and screens, and everything is right up in our faces. How often do we allow ourselves to stretch out, to take up a bit more space for just ourselves? I just loved that she touched on that, loved how she did it.

Important bulletin: Vince and I will be married seven years this Sunday. Seven. I mean, it isn't a lot compared to fourteen or twenty or fifty, but still. It's a lot for us, for how hard we've fought to be together.


2 comments:

  1. Happy lucky seven!!! :)

    I just planted some seeds too, and it's the silver lining to all this rain we are having, that I don't have to water them!

    And ~ as to reading a single book at a time, yep, I have to overlap, so I can pick up which one I'm in the mood for, and it also lessens the sadness of finishing a good book ~ to have another to turn to. You might say I read a lot on the rebound. :)

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    Replies
    1. hahaha i think we are very much the same. :)

      i came across some wild german chamomile while walking. the husband and i went out this morning with a shovel and took it for our garden. woohoo!

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