The Bitter, The Sweet and Things In between

Hello Hello.  Is this thing on?


My its been a while since I've written and so many things have been happening in my little Brooklyn world.


Lulu is well.  She's had a birthday (now 14), is still deaf and loves to sleep approximately 22.5 hours a day.  Lulu is also enjoying the constant supply of chicken bones on the streets of South Slope, I do not enjoy fishing them out of her tiny mouth.  (I plead to these chicken carcass lovers to stop throwing bones on the sidewalk, it's crazy!!!)


Park Slope is still here, fall is all over the place, the community garden across from my place looks sad, leaves off the willow, flower beds all closed up, no more garden yoga in 2011....sniff sniff, sad face.


My summer friends from Puerto Rico have gone home to school.  I never dreamed I would spend summer evenings playing dominos with 7 & 9 year old in the garden, I don't speak Spanish, they didn't speak English, yet hours of fun were had by all.


Recently my days are filled with fashion, writing music trivia and yoga.  My evenings have laughter, lovely friends and currently a bit of delightful romance (he's admitted to reading my blog, hello handsome...is it Weds yet?). 


Thanksgiving brought my entire family down to Louisville to enjoy time with my new nephew, Benjamin Eli, a not so tiny bundle of joy, he sleeps, he eats, he poops....that's about all.  I realize again that babies are not fun until they start moving around.


Patti Smith's Just Kids rocked my world for two days, non stop read, inspiring and exciting me. 


I've knitted up a storm.  There are some hats and a few scarves that need loving homes.


My first flu of the season kicked my ass.  Four weeks of suffering helped me develop an obsession with Gossip Girl.  Oh Blair & Chuck, can you please just realize you need to be together!  You're killing me!!  


A quick trip out to LA with my friend Kimzo to raise $$ for the animals and a visit with Senor Moby were a special treat.


Most of all fall has woken up my senses.  My yoga practice is in full swing, meditation is connecting me to a power greater than myself and fall fashion, lots of layers and silly furry hats have become my daily dress up routine.  Dearest Mother Nature, please keep the weather cool, I have so many outfits to wear before I don a giant puffer coat in Jan/Feb. 


So before I leave you for the night and begin my big writing session, I give you a list of things that are making me happy at the moment.  


a. Apples (Fuji)
b. Bodies (the exhibit) 
c. Clementines
d. Dogs, Lulu, Matza & Lox
e. Eating vegan! Go Green!
f.  Fred, missing him and gratitude for having 13 years with him
g. Ginger Yogi Tea w almond milk & sugar
h. Hugs from kids in my yoga class
i. Ice cream, coconut base chocolate with brownies and sharing it with someone special
j. Jivamukti Yoga
k. Knowing the movie Foul Play exists
l. Lavender body scrub from Trader Joe's
m. Midnight In Paris
n. Noel Gallahger's High Flying Birds
o. OMG, my fav thing to text because my friends are always surprising me
p. Patti Smith  "because the night belongs to lovers....." & Peanut Chews
q. Q tile in Scrabble, so many points, limited options
r. romance, someone that makes the butterflies appear
s. Sexy texts 
t. twittering with Myriam, Zoe, Kim & Julia 
u. ukulele, playing, listening, singing along
v. Visits from Moby, Myriam & Julia
w. water, cold, hot, room temp, bubbles...it's all good
x.  X Live From The Whiskey A Go Go
y. YSL red lipstick
z. Z Pak, cures the 4 week flu bug

My niece Norah

Lulu on vacation with Uncle Kev

My family laughing, awesomeness

Benjamin Eli

Me and my super fantastic friend Kimzo

And this little guy...I really love him

It's big, it's green, it's THE TREE!!!

Funny Sticker on Prospect Ave & 4th Ave

Sunset over Castle Hall....Perfect Zen

G-nite people of the world.  Thanks for checking in with me.

Be nice to each other, we're only here once and it feels good.

xo

Shan

Beep Beep

Ah Wednesday....hump day.


Yes, almost through the work week, normal people work week.  


Feeling pretty great tonight, my Mom finally has decided to move back to Los Angeles after four years of living in Hawaii.  It's been really hard dealing with her out there.  I feel an incredible sense of relief with her decision.  Plus that means we get the beach house back!! Vacation!


Before she moved to the house I used to travel out there two or three times a year for holiday.  In the past four years I've been there once.


Tomorrow is a pretty chill day filled with yoga and community service, it's my week to handle compost in the community garden and do my garden open hours.  I look forward to it, a small price to pay for 24 hour access to our beautiful garden that is across from my apartment here in the Slope.


Today I discussed another book project with a friend that I'm pretty excited about, that would be three projects I need to get moving on.  Writing makes me happy, yoga makes me happy, feeling fall approach makes me super happy.


Speaking of fall....man, this weather is amazeballs.  I'm thrilled that fall is in the air, can't wait to throw on a sweater although I've been doing it every chance I get.  


My juice cleanse is over, I scarfed today on major rice and beans plus a tofu taco.  oof.


Oh and in more exciting new my friend Mo returns home to NYC for 10 days next week!  Yeah.  


Life is pretty good here at Chaiks-headquarters.  Now if I could just come up with a way to pay the rent....


Aloha.


Shan

Early morning view from my Mom's lani in Maui.

Practice, Juice Cleanse, Earthquakes and The Cookie Monster

Juice Cleanse
I just finished my last juice of a 2 day juice cleanse from The Juice Press in the East Village.  


Day one wasn't too difficult but I did have a headache all day, I'm going to guess from not drinking any coffee.


Today I woke up feeling incredible, after my bikram yoga class I was a bit worn out and drank 2 juices back to back, but I started late in the day so it was ok.


Now it's almost 10pm, I'm full and ready for bed.  I was debating doing a third day of the cleanse but I'm thinking no, if I wake up in the am feeling the need to do it, I'll stop by The Juice Press and go for day 3.  Keep you posted. 


Yoga Practice
The last month or so I haven't been as diligent with my yoga practice as I personally like to be.  So I am very much focusing on developing a home practice and a studio practice.  When you start teaching yoga you don't practice as much, this is something I've heard a lot of teacher say.  I love yoga, I don't want to loose my practice, I will continue to try to practice daily.  Today I rocked a Bikram class at Park Slope Bikram on Flatbush, it's the sister studio to my studio South Slope Bikram.  Really good teacher, I think her name is Michelle, great dialogue, really helped my practice and focus today.  Tomorrow I'm going to home practice along to a podcast I am studying by Eoin Finn of Blissology in Vancouver.  He's incredible.  


Earthquake
OMG, did you feel the earthquake today?  Yes I did, so did my dog Lulu.  I don't like earthquakes or tornados, now we have had both in Brooklyn.  Not happy about this stuff. 


The Cookie Monster
My friend David Jarrett came to visit me this weekend and shared with me this video, it's awesome.  Enjoy

Listen To What The Man Says...

I have a head cold.  It sucks.  Summer colds are the worst you sweat and sniffle and sweat.  No bueno. 

The last week I've been tossing and turning unable to sleep, my mind is racing constantly and I've got pretty nutty things going on in there.

In AA we are being constantly told to turn it over to god for the answer.  But of course I think I'm turning it over to god, but I turn it over the Magic 8 Ball at Baby Cakes that gives me advise as well, then I sit, dwell and drive myself slightly nutty, only it's more like, "oh, I'm nutty, ok, next" in the past nutty was seriously bat shit crazy, now it's a few nights of sleeplessness followed by spurts of wacky thoughts, then I get busy and forget about whatever I was nutty about in the first place until the next morning. 

Once I get over this cold and get back to life and yoga my mind will get out of nutty.

Anyway, a bunch of answers seemed to have emerged today on various topics. 

The one thing I always forget in this journey is my friend Moby gives the best advise.  He has for the past several years of my life, seriously I have no idea where he was this morning when we began emailing at 5am, I really need to remember to listen to him more often.  He's always right, he's a little oracle.  It's like I'm the bratty child who wants a Goose that lays golden eggs and Mo is Willie Wonka telling me to stop, then turn it over and stop thinking what I want is the way.  Once again he was right.  So kudos to my dear friend who once again centered me and reminds me I'm not driving this bus, it's god. 

So with all of these revelations.  Here is what's going on in my little life in a list format.

A. I'll be consulting part time for KO

B. Which means I have more summer time!! Who wants me to come and stay with them at their beach/lake house and teach them yoga??

C. I get to teach kids yoga in the garden during the daytime!

D. I get to do my apprenticeship without worrying about getting to a job

E. Marisol & I are teaching our vinyasa class on Weds nights at 6/15 Green Community Garden at 7pm

F. I'm going to teach yoga at a really cool digital media company this summer, finalizing this on Weds!  Fun!! They have an outdoor space, how lovely.

G. I can't spend as much money as I have been lately, oof shopping must end!

H. I need to figure out what I am going to do with my life come September....I feel the urge to move out of NYC.  Hawaii, Europe?? Who knows where yoga will lead me.

I. The man I thought I wanted in my life is with someone else now and that's ok.  He wasn't the one for me and as I think about so many things, he didn't really deserve me.  I guess all my visions don't come true, maybe it wasn't him that I saw? Who knows.  Have I written about these visions before?  I can't remember.

That's about all from 15th St & 6th Ave.  Oh there is apparently a rapist in the neighborhood to please be cautious walking around by yourself ladies.

Back to resting for Lulu and I.  

Marisol and I go to kids yoga teacher training beginning on Thursday!  How awesome is that, I can't wait.  

Peace

 - Shanon

Photo Moby sent me of the sunrise in St Petersberg

Birthday, Kirtan, Super Yogathon and The Bhagavad Gita

Very lovely birthday week.  Filled with time spent with inspiring friends.

Weds I had lunch with Luci, we haven't seen each other in a while.  She has made some incredible changes in her life that have inspired me.  There must be something in the air, people are looking to improve their time on earth, be happy, realize that the life they choose in their 20s isn't the life they need to continue living because it's become unsatisfying as they get older. 

I've been reading The Bhagavad Gita, this particular translation is by Eknath Easwaran.  Krishna is telling Arjuna to "renounce the fruits of action" and "you have the right to work, but never the fruit of work"

Basically one way to interpret this is if you have goals and they are not met to your liking, don't be disappointed the end result wasn't what you wanted, there is a reason why the end result came out a different way, it wasn't your will it was gods will. There is a reason this happened, you'll see it on your path and understand it later.

Yesterday I read something pretty wonderful a quote from Gandhi that relates back to this idea.

"...you must not worry whether the desire result follows from your action or not, so long as your motive is pure, your means correct.  Really, it means, that things will come right in the end of if you take care of the means and leave the rest to him."

My faith in a high power or god for a lack of better term is very strong.  There is something bigger than me, something that creates the sunrise and sunsets that I watch daily, something I can't explain.  Having faith in something bigger than myself helps me move through this life without fear.  Yes I am a normal person who has moments of fear, the unknown, but I don't dwell in them and they pass.  I can't control the future and I don't regret the past, I've learned from it, it's behind me.  I live in the present, I do the next right thing and although the result may not always be to my liking it's the way it's supposed to be.  Sometimes I don't realize it until time passes and I can see the situation with better understanding. 

These are things I didn't fully understand until recently, the past 7-8 months of my life I have really had a huge growing period.  Time has passed and I see why things have happened the way they have and I understand the results.  

A good example is becoming sick in January 2010.  I wanted to originally take yoga teacher training in Feb 2010.  When I became sick I couldn't do it and wasn't able to attend until Feb 2011.  I now see why, I wasn't ready, spiritually, mentally, physically, I met important people through this training, my life was very different when I attended I had been through a lot.   But it took time for me to understand all of this, at first I was resentful at my illness for postponing my goals.  Now I am grateful.

Anyway, my birthday was wonderful, my office bought me Babycakes!  They are the best!  I ate two, my friends and I attended a wonderful kirtan and spent two hours singing and dancing that evening.  People sent me birthday wishes from around the world.  Pretty outstanding.

Yesterday my friends Marisol, Jimmy and I attended the 5th Annual NY Dance Parade, man, this was one long parade, but there was a few cool things.  It went from 21st St and Bdwy down to Thompkins Square Park in the East Village.  So the three of us watched the parade come down St Marks in front my old apartment.

Here are a few pics from things I enjoyed in the parade

Roller Blading Butterfly

Belly Dancers

I'm starting a Bikram 30 day challange.  Today is day 3, I'm going to Robin's 5pm class with my neighbor.  Yesterday I took a Bikram class in the morning and a wonderful class called Lotus Flow Hour at Laughing Lotus with Marisol in the evening.

On the walk from the East Village to Laughing Lotus we unfortunately saw all the religious crazy people waiting for the end of the world in Union Square.  This is a photo I took, I had to get out of there quick, it made me so uncomfortable.  And to quote myself "Marisol, we need to get out of here, if the world ends I don't want to die with these freaks, I'd rather be surrounded with luxury at ABC Home & Carpet"

Off to Target, I want to buy hot pink sheets.  

xo  Enjoy your Sunday

Shanon