Well before i go giving any excuses for why it’s been so long since my last post and blah blah blah, just know that here I sit, consider my arm twisted and i hope to do this on a regular(ish)basis. Thank you to Melody Meiners for helping me see my light through hers. Todays Blog is Really Entitled “Signs of Life” After a long, hard, cold, frozen, interminable, ( it might seem contradictory to my other superlatives) hellish winter, I went outside in shorts and a tank today. I walked from a place of gritted teeth and pensively pursed lips to a place where I saw the first signs of life. There were five crocus in the neighbor’s yard and it made me pause for a breath. Mind you, I have already breathed over 2 hours worth of conscious breath today, but in between classes and client, it sort of stalled. After a wonderfully rewarding hour of yogic progress with a private client, the actual thermometer went up to 75 degrees. I donned my sneakers and went outside empty handed. I knew I needed to walk it off because for lunch I ate only a large handful of chocolate covered almonds. It’s ok to judge, I had flax seeds and steel cut oats with poached pears and dates with a banana for breakfast and a meeting with a fellow light worker. We agreed that it’s been a dicey astrological period and mercury just out of retrograde has a lot of us teacher types wondering just What For? I had beaten all of the germs that have been barraging me this winter but I had not yet beaten the blues. So I walked on, reminded of the walks I used to take as a child on my grandparents farm, singing at the top of my lungs on the “back 40” to get away from the day that was chasing me. I traversed the treacherous four lane road and made it into the park with determined gait. I kept my eyes cast down searching for the signs I was seeking. Breath In Breath Out I thought, just like everyone else, and low and behold there they were! A field of Crocus- the harbinger of spring. Small but mighty, fragile and hearty, and abundantly randomly placed. The sign the earth gives us to hold out just a little longer, there might be one more snow and a few more cold nights but if these delicate but tenacious beauties can survive then so can we! I sat in full sun to breathe in their message some more. There is always enough they said, we are survivors, our beauty is fleeting so be with it now. All things have their cycles. We look quite small individually, but in our multitudes we can change the color of the landscape. One precious saffron frond per flower. And then they were quiet. The bees came to greet them with namastes and how-do-you-do’s and top-of-the-morning and other such greetings as they touched each one. The bees were quite thin and few in their numbers, but they were no less reverent as they bowed to pay their homage. Finally I moved on toward the little pond and was struck by the beauty of the Red Coy trying to look busy and yet go unnoticed. I found myself trying to count them like the bees and the flowers but there were too many. Five turtles though, and one was waiting for me to stop and visit. We sat for a long time and looked at each other in disbelief that we could be so similar; our appreciation for the sun, for the unspoken stories we could see in one another, and for the few moments we had together just accepting each other for who we are. We discussed at length our amphibious nature. I had a reality check today. I know who my friends are and I know who my friends aren’t. Trust doesn’t come cheaply, and once it’s gone it’s gone forever. Welcome to Worm Moon, the one where things are unearthed and truth comes to light. It doesn’t matter how deeply you dig your own hole because no matter where you go, there you are. Integrity check point. Thanks to the turtle and and the bees, to the crocus and coy. Thanks to all my relations. Blues beaten. Full Moon on Sunday. Between now and then, I invite you to ask yourself, What am I cultivating? And then dig deep. Pick up your shovel and move some shit around. Thanks to you for reading this one. Stay tuned for recipes, mantras, meditations and practices to make this life the healthiest and happiest that you can choose. All love, All Ways, Dianna