grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Use it or Lose it. Ohm….

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Use it or lose it. That’s how the saying goes, right? Well I’m here to tell you, IT’S TRUE. For me, anyway.

Lately, I’ve been lax with yoga classes. Oh sure, I wear my yoga pants all over the house and through the neighborhood. This week I even wore them to…wait for it…

yoga! 

In fact, I went to yoga two-days-in-a-row, three if I go today, but since I probably won’t, I’ll leave it at two. It’s not that I don’t love yoga, because I do. I’ve let travel and writing interrupt my routine, and I hate that.

I’ve lost core strength, and I really hate that.

Yoga works areas of the body and mind not used with other forms of exercises. So any minute now I expect my brain to slip-slide away along with my ability to do an average plank.

During day one of my two-days-in-a-row, I discovered core strength was not the only thing I’d lost during my lackadaisical period. My mat had disappeared from the corner where it had no doubt begun to collect dust. (Students leave their mats instead of dragging them to and from class…)

I checked with the instructor who helped me search everywhere. Maybe it vaporized from lack of use.

I’m gonna miss my cool Lululemon mat. We’d been in a lot of surprising places together.

I hope she will turn up, but I realize that’s what I get for being such a slacker.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

The Slackers: Close My Eyes

Seven Shades of Yoga

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morgueFile Kakisky
Within seven seconds, I chose yoga over Facebook. I hadn’t been to yoga in weeks and was spending way too much time with the other. But I’d been busy. Writing, I’m alway writing. And last month I had strep throat that lingered. Plus we just returned from vacation. 
Yada, yada. 
Excuses, excuses. 
Seven minutes later, I was out the door and into the humid morning wearing my favorite yoga pants that somehow seemed smaller.
After a seven minute drive, I signed my name on the clipboard. “Don’t worry if I spend the whole class in child’s pose—just ignore me, I’m rusty.” I explained to Michelle who teaches Explore the Body. I needed to explore my body. We had become strangers as of late.
Michelle laughed and promised to call an ambulance if I stopped breathing altogether. She’s nice that way.
I sorted through at least seven yoga mats to uncover mine, dusty and abandoned, propped in the corner where I left it in July.  
Seven minutes into shoulder stretches, I felt the squeeze of a Charley Horse building through my arm. I adjusted. Charley eventually released his vise-grip hold on my invisible bicep, but not until I reverted to steady pre-labor breathing exercises. 
Seven minutes later, I floundered into and out of Thread the Needle Zen Pose. But I did it. Sort of.
Seven more poses, and my shoulders loosened, my mind cleared, the nerve endings in my body tingled. 
Seven cleansing breaths into Uttanasana, I could bend near enough to the ground to notice my shabby toe polish. 
Seven shades into final Shivasana, I remembered why I love yoga. 
Namaste.
talya
This was written for the Write Tribe Festival of Words. Prompt: the number Seven.

Promise of Peace Community Garden

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During the month of May for each Grace Grits & Gardening candle sold, I am donating $1.00 to the Promise of Peace Community Garden in East Dallas.

Promise of Peace helps boost high school completion rates in East Dallas by promoting community involvement and healthy living through cooking classes, yoga and hands-on gardening.

On the first Saturday of every month, Promise of Peace hosts a local market with adult gardening classes and brunch. Tomorrow’s event will include grilled pizzas and fresh lemonade made with herbs from the garden. Check out the garden’s Facebook page and website for more information. 

Promise of Peace Community Garden

Promise of Peace is located at 7446 East Grand, Dallas, Texas 75214.

Grace Grits & Gardening soy-blended travel candle burns for approximately 20 hours and smells amazing….
$10.00 each with $1.00 donated to Promise of Peace during May, 2013!

Thank you!

talya

“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.” 
― Thomas Jefferson

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!