Inspiration/Perspiration Friday

Time to Smell the Roses

LaFitterina: I’m kicking off the weekend with a morning Hatha yoga class, followed by lunch with a friend to celebrate her birthday, and a visit to Filoli Gardens. Whatever is in store for your weekend, be inspired to find time to stretch, smell the roses, and treat every day as a reason to celebrate your birth-day!

Let Go of the Mind

St. Swartz: Savasana is the final resting pose in any yoga class I’ve ever been in. I assume it’s that way for all the different types of yoga out there. I’m a master at it. Some teachers will give us the option of doing one more pose before lying down for savasana. And people will roll around catching and eking out one more asana. Not me, man. I arrange myself so my spine is lengthened and finding all it’s natural curves. My chin is not higher than my chest. Hands over a foot away from my body so that my armpits can breathe, palms facing up. My legs a little apart with my feet rolling out towards the corners of my mat.
Conscious relaxation. No falling asleep in corpse pose. Let go of any tension- do a whole body check. Let go of attention to the breath. Let go of the mind.

Mini-Adventures=No Procrastination

Ms. Bockle: As I was driving around the beautiful hills this spring, I was so happy to see the mustard flowers all in bloom. Not only that, there were oak trees – I spotted a good old gnarly one that was leaning into me, asking to be photographed.

By nature I’m a procrastinator, so I had to make an assignment with myself to go back with my camera before those dazzling mustard flowers dried up. When I followed through with my project, I parked in the ‘No Parking’ zone, since the perspective was better there. I walked back and forth snapping photos, changed the lens, then noticed that if I just got down into the ditch, the angle would be even better. So, down I went—into the mud, slipping a bit and getting my shoes caked with the stuff.

This small adventure was an accomplishment for me. I got out of my rut by not thinking about it, but actually doing it—completed my own personal test, and now I’ve got a series of photographs to make a new painting: yet another assignment that I’ll start this weekend. Maybe even today.

Chariots of Putting Fire in my Tennies

Mizzfit: I’m including this clip because I concentrated on improving my running speed, not because I like the movie/am British and a toffee-nosed Eton/Oxford alumni with let’s face it centuries of English-oddness – [plus, there’s the whole not being a dude thing] I just remembered this flick from back in the day, yo! Sheesh. Plus, after my run, no one’s throwing scarves or strange small collegiate caps in the air, and there’s certainly no champagne! – it’s just me and the dry morning air, sucking down oxygen & blowing kisses to my peeps. Enough heehawin’, let’s go!

[Georgia O’Keefe painting: Lake George, 1922. SFMOMA]