Inspired By:
Steven Pressfield’s idea of the muse. Like a goddess or Santa, the muse floats around checking on artists every day to see if they are working. If you miss a day, the muse cuts you some slack, but if you’re absent from your studio, easel, or computer for too many days, she’ll cut you off from ideas and breakthroughs. That’s why I show up and write every day, even when I’m not feeling it. The muse needs to know I’m serious.
Watching:
Shrinking on Apple TV
A grieving therapist starts to tell his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his training and ethics, he finds himself making huge changes to people’s lives – including his own.
So good! Acting, writing, everything.
If you’re on Instagram you need to follow Sean Oulashin because he will save you from Instagram He will save you because he will make you aware you’re on Instagram, and have been on Instagram, for oh, the last hour. As soon as one of his videos appears in my feed, I take his advice, put down my phone and go do something productive. You’ll love him because he’s so sweet. Follow him. You’ll thank me when you see your weekly screen time drop.
A guy with a lawn care business goes looking for the most neglected properties he can find and offers to clean them up for free. Sean (another one) films himself (in speeded up time-lapse) edging, weed-whacking, and mowing until the property is unrecognizable from the utter disaster he first encountered. I find his channel fascinating, compelling, and oddly relaxing. Don’t judge until you’ve watched it.
Reading
Nobody Wants To Read Your Shit by Steven Pressfield (finished) Pressfield always gives me hope that I can be a better writer.
Clarity and Connection by Jung Pueblo (going through this one slowly) Poems.
Phosphorescence: On Awe, Wonder and Things That Sustain You When The World Goes Dark by Julia Baird (just started)
The Substack of Anne Helen Peterson (the first Substack I ever subscribed to. I started with her free newsletter and wanted more.)
Listening To
A Man Called Ove (Audiobook) I loved this and didn’t think I would. Old curmudgeon with a heart of gold? Please. But I was deeply touched and cried for a very long time when it ended. I want to see the movie starring Tom Hanks, (A Man Called Otto) but because you can never judge a book by its movie, I needed to read it first. The narrator, J.K Simmons is the Farmer’s Insurance guy (among other roles) and is the perfect voice for Ove.
The Yoga Lounge Book Group picked David McCullough’s The Wright Brothers this month, so I also downloaded the audiobook for that one..
Thinking About
My word of the year is Muscle, but I am totally boinking on my resolve to strength train three times a week. I am going to the gym once a week though, and it’s only because of Linda. She goes every Thursday at 2:30 and I told her I’d meet her there. I’m an Obliger, so I need an accountability partner, and she’s it. If Linda can do it at 80 years old, having had a double mastectomy less than six months ago, I can do it. She’s a tough bird. I admire her.
Just now I hit 100 Days in a row of writing a thousand words-a-day in Scrivener, and here’s the puzzle: How come I don’t need an accountability partner for this? Maybe it’s a Don’t Break The Chain thing. Probably. Anyway, Gold Star for me.
Spring! I am thinking about spring. And pining for spring. And whining incessantly, “When is spring ever going to come!” I can’t wait to open the Gazebo and have coffee outside, and Happy Hour outside, and a little fire on a chilly evening, and all the things. I am waiting for this:
Eating and Drinking
I am not inspired by cooking dinner lately. Smoothies have become my go-to. Currently I am making this concoction of Bulletproof Collagen Protein Powder in oatmilk, augmented with chia seeds and flax, and some days I’ll put my scoop of AG-1 into it too. Lotsa ice. Bruuzzzz! Done. Breakfast/Lunch.
Cupcakes
For Valentines Day G ordered us a bouquet of flower cupcakes. OMG.
There is a woman in our town, Erin de Los Rios, who is an amazing baker and decorator of baked things and she made these cupcake flowers.
Her business is called The Wandering Barista LLC. She has a truck with an espresso machine in it and a tiny kitchen. If you are local you should check her out on Facebook and Instagram. She takes orders for birthday cakes and anything else your sweet-tooth is craving. Ah-mazing!
Grateful For
There’s alway so much, but lately, it’s the people who are live-streaming into my classes. I love a live class, and the bigger the better, but it’s winter and I don’t want to go out into the cold and dark, either. But when I go to the studio at night and there are people Zooming in from Wisconsin and Florida and faraway counties in Pennsylvania and last week even from St Johns in the Virgin Islands, the sight of them melts my cold, bitter, winter-hating heart.
I see their dogs and cats and their tanned faces in their flowered shirts and I feel so grateful for these people. I love them so much. Main Street Yoga will turn nineteen years old on March 1st. Nineteen years! What in Shiva’s name is going on here!!
Inspiration Location 