each small thing:::::: on getting rid of what isn't you (on being a self and what has changed me, in recent)

still feeling new-yearsey! and thinking about self and things of the self on that kind of grand scale.

so i wanted to make a list of things that have changed me in 2010, all in good ways i think, for better or for worse:

1. yoga nidra (a sort of yoga focused on meditation; a class was offered during the holiday season and part of the advertisement for it was that 20 minutes of yoga nidra could feel as refreshing as 6 hours of sleep!)

2. the goddess pose in yoga (it opens one's hips in wild ways. for me, it was where so much tension and emotion had been stored for the past 2 years--since the tug-of-war i did with my midwife and birth team during the pushing part of labor. . .but, wildly, doing this pose in the class i took over the holidays released so much of that. now i do it everyday.)

3. the john o'donohue interview on the american public media radio show "On Being"

4. yoko ono's song "rainbow revelation", which i always think about (the idea of the transference of emotions--seems so hopeful like "bless you for your jealousy it's a sign of empathy")

5. finn's becoming his 2-year-old self;;;my subsequent turn-change-burst into being an actual parent, that of a 2-year-old. it took awhile for me to find my footing here on this parent-mountain but i will say slowly, slowly it starts to feel smoother; as others have said, i think it is all about keeping your sense of humor and silliness intact. . .it is also about being a good person, which is really really hard.

6. the Rosemary Wells book "Carry Me" (i think this kid's book is beautiful, tender, and amazing--"little blue light outside my door. . .")

7. reading poems to Finn from the book "Switching on the Moon", edited by Jane Yolen

8. thinking a lot about immanence, about being yourself, about acceptance, about postive parenting, about the idea of honoring each other. i get this idea of immanence from starhawk--it's the idea, as i read it, that the inherent value of the world is the world--that what is here, what we are living, is what we need to honor and value. (and, i might add, enjoy!)

enough listing! here are photos from the recent visit to grandma & granpa mcgregor's house:;;;like finn playing with this long-armed turtle--