Voting in your underwear...

Mary from Austin reminded me that we get to vote in a state where our vote can actually make a difference, while she gets to cast her vote "into the McCain/Palen abyss". Yeah! for a vote that counts! Now if we can just get the college kids to turn in their ballots...

One of the odd things about life in Orygun is voting by mail. We receive a ballot by mail, and then we can return it by mail or in person to boxes in a number of places. So, one could easily vote in ones birthday suit. That would be a good slogan: VOTE NAKED!

However, voting in private makes me long for the South Austin voting experience. We always ran into friends and neighbors (often, friends and neighbors were the same people!) and chatted while coming, going, and waiting in line. The Democratic poll worker was often a neighbor and got to chat up lots of familiar people, while the Republican poll worker appeared to rival the Maytag repairman in popularity. The Republican table was a solemn affair, while the Democrats partied at the polls (even though we usually lost the big races in a red state). One recent election, I guess it was the last presidential election, the line was almost a block long, and I got to chat with people I didn't know. People of varying political persuasions: an older Republican lady who was friends with LadyBird, and a more libertarian leaning young man in law enforcement who worked at the state capital. Everyone was nice and polite while we discussed issues that the politicians tend to skirt, and we trod carefully around each others differences.

Coho Halloween party

We had an afternoon Halloween party for the kids here yesterday. I had hoped to do a more organized dance activity with the kids, but it didn't feel quite right in the space, so we had a parade around the circle in front of the common house. I got to dance with a few of the hard core dancers near the end of the party. I haven't quite figured out the ins and outs of dancing with 3 year olds. Mostly we just dance and twirl (they are heavily into Duncan Dance), sometimes they pile on me (kid contact improv?). My fairy/butterfly wings were such a big hit that a couple of cute kitties (see photo) asked me to go trick or treating with them. I felt honored. I have not been trick or treating in years. The kitty in front, Smudge, is fashioned after a kitten of the same name who was part of a litter that was fostered by one of our neighbors. Susan likes to take in foster kitties for the Humane Society. The kittens were a big hit, they got a LOT of kid and adult visitors over the 7 or eight weeks they were here, so Susan could truthfully claim that the kittens were well socialized. They all found homes. Mama is still awaiting adoption.

Enjoying autumn... missing Texas folks

Autumn has been doing its jazz dance with blazing colors set against blue-blue skies in the afternoons, and softly smoldering in dense foggy mornings. October is a beautiful month here in the Willamette Valley. In town, the colors run from burgundy to bright red, orange, yellow, and glow-in-the-dark variations of all of the above. When we drove through the costal range last week, the colors were mostly yellows, golds, and greens. We went looking for a salmon run, and did not find any salmon, but did see some whales. You can see the view from my office in the photo to the left. Yes, it looks out on the parking lot, with the cemetery in the distance, but I'm usually looking at the sky and trees. The Right photo is the view of a play area from our kitchen window and front porch.

It’s been a while since I posted. In truth, I fell into a hole. When school started, the numbers for my daytime class dropped as teachers returned to work, and I started hearing that if the numbers did not improve (they want an average of 10 per class, and my classes are at non-prime hours) then they would cancel the day class. I was hoping my Zensation workshop would spark some interest from new students, but it didn’t. (Zensation is a newer Nia routine that dives more deeply into the nine movement forms that make up the Nia Technique – and I had fun playing with the material.) At the same time, I was working hard on a project for the landscaping team here at Coho. I like hard work, but at one point, it became clear that, while my work was appreciated, my creative energy was not, really. I had a big meltdown a couple of weeks ago and spent the next week coming to the realization that my heart was broken. This is a common theme for me. Other times in my life I have come to the realization that the needs of the group do not always meet my needs, and it sparks a period of withdrawal and reassessment of where I am and where I want to go. (The periodic Scorpio crash and burn. It is my birthday today.) Those periods have always felt nurturing, and alone; it’s a space to nurture myself into the next stage.

I have spent a lot of time in the past seven months getting moved in, and integrating as much as possible into this community. It is a small village. It takes a long time to integrate into any small community. So my challenge right now is to integrate on my own terms. For now I am in a period of withdrawal, and that will probably change soon, when I find a fit that meets my needs. (And maybe not, we’ll see.)

I so miss the connections I felt with Austin folks. People are nice here. They are very intelligent, politically savvy, and caring (this community is so concerned about providing for the food needs of the larger community that they are holding meetings with our neighbors about it). There is just a good bunch of people at Coho, and in Corvallis in general. I guess I miss the special warmth of being around those who have seen me go through all my crap and love me anyway. I miss the physical warmth and sensuality of people from warm climates. I love the physicality of people who dance and express from the heart and soul without words. I do get that in my classes, I just want more of it outside of class. I so appreciate the beauty, courage, and grace of those who do Nia, I want an even bigger group to share that experience with.

While my daytime class is ending, and perhaps, the connections with many of the special women I have met there (though I hope not), the evening class is doing better than it ever has, in spite of many people telling me that they can’t come because it is too late for them. I’m missing some beautiful students because 7:00 to 8:00pm is so late, and others are coming and discovering that this is what has been missing. I am seeing men other than Austin, in class. This is new for Corvallis – men in Nia.

I also decided that now is the time to reach out to people outside of Coho to get more of that sense of connection that I miss from so many of you in Austin. (And I am following through and learning more about life in Corvallis.) Of course, I would love it if you Austin folks would move here. It is unbelievably gorgeous. You can drive for an hour and be at the Pacific Ocean. Drive for an hour in the other direction and you are in the Cascades. Drive for 10 miles and see the most amazing wildlife sanctuary full of party-down Canada geese right now. Drive 10 miles in the other direction and hike in old growth forest. Drive an hour and a half and be in Portland. And, this is a big bicycle town, so no need to drive everywhere. It is heaven, but it would be even more so with friends and family from Texas. I miss you and your warmth. You can always come visit… You’ll see that I’m not exaggerating the beauty of this place.

summers end...

I discovered that it is possible to eat too many raspberries. Many of the berries in the patch we picked were too mushy to put in the bucket, so they were eaten on the spot. I never wanted to see another raspberry. But I was over it by the next day! We throughly enjoyed eating our treasure trove of berries. I have never had such an abundance of raspberries! Alas, it was the end of the season, so we did not get to go back for more.

The blackberries were coming in by the bushel, just beginning to peak in sweetness, when we had record rainfall (a half inch - it never rains here in the summer) and the berries all turned into masses of mold. But blueberries are still in season! We plan to go picking again this evening with some of our neighbors.

I just finished reading the new Abraham Book and feel pumped about starting new Nia classes somewhere in the community. I have a lead on someplace I really want to teach, and a couple of people who work there to advocate for me. It's quite exciting! Will write more when I find out more (it is kind of magical, the way this is unfolding). So far, this small town does not appear to have a lot of larger spaces for a Nia class. I will keep exploring. I will finally present a modified Nia class here at coho. The lack of a good sized space with a clean (non cement) floor has been a hinderance. I can probably do something in our space if I work it out with the downstairs neighbors (and it is a small space compared to a studio). We just got a beautiful new mirror in the living room and some (but not all) boxes cleared out of the way. The mirror really adds light to the space and seems to open it up.

So, I am puzzling over how to reach the Nia population that has not yet discovered Nia. What makes people who do Nia so beautiful? We all have a desire to feel better and we are willing to sweat and play together to get there. For that hour of class we share the best of who we are with each other. It does not require words, in fact, words get in the way of sharing who we really are. So, dancing together without conversation seems to allow the beauty of spirit to shine through without obstruction. And it all happens with seemingly no effort! At the end of class my skin is wet and covered with a layer of salt, but I do not feel tired. I feel cleansed, released, wholesome, and connected. The sense of connectedness is so palpable, we have to touch hands at the end of each class to honor that feeling. I want to expand that network of people I love THAT MUCH! If any of you who read this have ideas about how to find these lovely people like yourselves, please share them with me.

Oh, a couple of weeks ago, I remarked to Austin that I missed seeing the geese fly over. By the end of that week, we started seeing them again. They fly low over our home honking, especially in the evening as they head towards the wildlife sanctuary. They draw me out of wherever I am and into the sense of wonder. Even the act of looking up expands my chest and makes me feel uplifted. I just love it when the geese are here!
Love,
Leela

July 2008 update from Leela

Hello, lovely people,
I've been thinking of you and planning to sit down and put some thoughts together, and hoping for a little more resolution before doing so. I guess resolution is a moment to moment thing right now. I apologize for the length.

It has been beautiful here. We have no air conditioning because, even though it can (and has occasionally) get into the 90's, it cools off at night. So, we sleep with the windows open and cool the house off at night, then close it up during the day and it stays in the mid 60's to low 70's. Once during a heat spell it got up to 76 inside. Because the windows are open at night, we wake up to the birds and it reminds me of childhood. I drift in and out of dreams during the early morning. Unfortunately, Austin can't sleep once he awakens and has to get up early and go for a walk or bike ride. I'm so lazy, I miss the morning mediation time often, lately. Birds (and light) start around 4:30 here, so he awakens pretty early. It is still twilight at 9:00, so it can be difficult to wind down at the end of the day and I teach until 8:00 on Tues and Thurs (but we do have a hot tub at the club, so I can start to wind down in the tub after class) which means eating a little late. So, we have some sleep issues related to the climate and latitude.

Berries!!! Someone posted a notice on Craig's list that she had a field of ripe strawberries for u-pick at $1.00/lb (she was desperate to get them picked). We ate our way through the ultra-ripe patch for a half hour one morning and got around 10 lbs. Froze some and gave some away. Berries came back to us when our neighbor picked some blueberries at her son's house and gave us some. I've never tasted blueberries like that. They were the best blueberries I've ever eaten! I guess because I've never lived anywhere blueberries are grown. (Update: I went blueberry picking Friday $1.25/lb you-pick!) And raspberries! I feel like a millionaire when I eat fresh raspberries. And they are fairly inexpensive here. (I hope to pick some tomorrow.) Soon, the blackberries will come into season, and they are everywhere for free! They are an invasive species, uncontrollable. In the parks where we walk, they are all along the paths. When we were here last summer, we pigged out on blackberries. I need to locate a u-pick cherry orchard.

Oregon Country Fair: Disneyland for hippies. Amazing. We were completely blown away before we ever got in the gate. There were all these wildly costumed people on stilts in the ticket area, in really wild character, exclaiming, "Welcome to the fair! You're at the fair!" First of all, it is HUGE, covers a massive amount of land, mostly wooded and shady. Lots of music, vendors, food, frequent parades, comedy and acrobatic shows, an alternative energy pavilion, a huge drum circle, kids stuff, some classes. It was so overwhelming that we didn't make it to most of the shows we were interested in. We did see Swami Beyondananda and the Bobs. Ran into someone we know peripherally from Austin, TX. He comes up every year for the fair. To see videos of the Oregon Country Fair, look on youtube. But they don't feature the incredible stilt people. You really have to be there, so it is an amazing time to visit Oregon.

DaVinci Days here in Corvallis last weekend, a big festival featuring music, but mainly a kinetic sculpture race. The sculptures have to be able to traverse a sand dune, a mud bog, the river, and roads. They are all pedal powered. Austin will probably send out pictures of the sculptures. The mud bog was right near our home, so I stayed for almost 2 hours (they were not even halfway through). Because everyone got stuck, it was slow going. Fortunately, they had a funny MC, and the teams for the kinetic sculptures were also entertaining. Each team had to sing a song, so we got a feel for their personalities, which makes cheering them on more fun. They also clowned around in the mud (along with a lot of kids from the audience). Da Vinci days also features a public art event, where the public makes the art. Very few vendors for some reason. They also had a Geekapalooza (this event occurs at the university), and green village.

I started teaching a new class a month or so ago. It is a body/mind/spirit water class, and the person who encouraged me to take it on thought I could integrate Nia into it. Cindy, who designed the class, teaches a class called Better Bones and Balance. I subbed for her last spring, and my daytime Nia class was a result. Some of her students fell in love and requested a day time Nia class. It has been slowly growing (6 to 9 people the last two weeks). Cindy is an amazing teacher, a lot of what she does aligns with Nia. She talks a lot more science in class, and I love it - I learn a lot from her classes. So, she designed the water class for people who cannot move so well on land. Lots of seniors with hip replacements who really need to work the hip joints, arthritis, fibromyalgia. A lot of the movements are things we do in Nia, but she repeats them many times to new age or classical music. I do see a lot of similarity to Nia, but in Nia the patterns of movement are more complicated. WELL, I was so nervous the first class I taught (and I knew I would be, they told me it was difficult to teach from the deck to students in the water) that all that stress, combined with attempting to lift something heavy that evening and I injured my back/psoas/other hip flexors. It just seems to be taking a while to resolve completely. I only missed one day of teaching and I have been teaching 7 classes a week during my healing. So, I'm actually doing quite well, just not as fluid as I usually am. And, I must say, I learn more from injuries than anything else. My classes are getting quite an education about the psoas right now.

My Zumba classes took off with a bang, but I found during learning to teach zumba, that all the fast lateral movement made my knees hurt and I have had a lot more crepitus than I had before (those popping sounds that indicate loose cartilage). So, after learning a couple of new songs and dealing once again with the pain, I decided to quit teaching zumba and told my supervisor. Another instructor got trained and is taking over one of my classes as of this past week. She really loves it, and apparently has not had the knee problem (but she does have a hip replacement). However, with my back/hip flexor stuff, I've had to take it easier and practice zumba a lot less, and I'm no longer having the problem with the knees and enjoying zumba more (one of the gifts of my injury). So, I plan to keep one class a week for the time being. The music and the movements are a lot of fun. The other instructor, Angie is quite the flirt and I need to flex my flirt muscles more - can learn a lot from her. Flirting is a big part of Latin dance and Angie is a stimulus for getting a good flirt on. She is also a very knowledgeable pilates instructor, so I feel I can learn a lot from her in that area, as well.

So, I've been in an intensive learning mode, lately. Waiting for the perfect career opportunity to open up. Lots of great teachers at the fitness center, and I also got to go to Portland recently to audit a day of White belt. To my GREAT surprise, Alisha was there. So, I spent a lot of the day with her, catching up when not in the training. We went back to Portland yesterday for the Day out of Time/25 years celebration. I need to figure out how to take the commuter train, that would make the trip more fun. It is an intense drive.

We are still looking for ways to store our stuff. Lots of boxes everywhere, and we have a storage unit, as well. So we have not yet cleaned up our space. Community life is pretty good. We like our neighbors, they are all nice people who want to know their neighbors. Love the kid energy. Spent part of the morning making bubbles with some of the kids. Some frustration with not being able to get everyone to take on some of the work load at Coho. Some frustration with how long it is taking to get plants growing in the densely compacted soil around our buildings, just takes time and energy. We did have an explosion of color that we did not anticipate. The seed mix that was distributed around the property had clarkia in it, a beautiful flower that someone was calling primrose (does have some similarity to the pink primroses in Texas, but way more colorful). So this one swale that could not get mown was loaded with it. The swale went to seed and now the shady area behind our building is full of blooming clarkia. We have a coho doe who has been eating all the trees in our newly planted orchard. (Just saw a doe with a fawn on the other side of the parking lot this afternoon.) She is so beautiful. Not grey like Texas deer, but the richest, warmest shade of tan, with white underneath. She is not at all worried about us and it takes some yelling and running at her to make her leave (for a little while, at least). So, we can see that this will continue to be a problem, but no one is worrying all that much right now. A fence is slowly materializing around the orchard.

Love to you all,
Leela