Sacrifice

Today I got my life back.  For the past several weeks I’ve been consumed with Thing 1′s 8th Angry Birds-day party.   I survived two hours of 17 kids, green pigs, red, blue, black, yellow, and white angry birds.  It seemed like I was preparing to sacrifice my life to defend the country.

So that’s what it seems like.   All I heard was “wow!  that’s a lot of time to sacrifice for a birthday party.”  Or “yea, I remember all the sacrifices we made for our kids.”  Or “My hubby and I just got our lives back.  The kids just moved out for college.”   Or “I’m not sure I’m ready for kids…. that’s a lot of sacrifice.”

I see it differently.  When you really come from Love, there is no need to sacrifice anything.  You don’t need to sacrifice your time or your life or your freedom or yourself for anyone or anything or any cause.  If your intentions are purely from Love, there is no feeling of surrendering or giving up of something for something else.

I see my yoga practice the same.  I don’t need to sacrifice the way I live my life to do yoga.  Some students (note:  especially students who want to teach) perceive they need to give up their way of life to do yoga.  For example, they have to become a vegetarian before they can be “good” yogis.  They have to give up coffee.  They have to chant.  They have to speak sanskrit.  They have to get the perfect pose… have to have to have to…

I say yoga helps me live my life. Yes, when you start to practice yoga and become keenly aware of your actions, your body, and how you connect with others, there are things you start to consider to let go of.

Being the force behind other’s happiness helps me find happiness within myself.  Spending my time offering Love to others challenges me to find more Love within myself.

“The sacrifice which causes sorrow to the doer of the sacrifice is no sacrifice.  Real sacrifice lightens the mind of the doer and gives him a sense of peace and joy.  The Buddha gave up the pleasures of life because they had become painful to him.”  — Ghandi

Offer it all up!  All your LOVE!

 

It took 7 hours to sew these plush toys

blue angry birds chocolate truffles for cupcake toppers

Red angry birds for cupcake toppers

And a chocolate slingshot is a must!

Cake will be flying in the air fairly soon

Birds waiting for their guests

We're angry!!!

The leader of the flock

The enemies

Pinata... he was a tough pig to defeat... look at that helmet

NOTE:  NO pigs were actually harmed during the celebration

So good to be back in blog land again… read you soon!

Remember When…

Remember when…

you

skipped and galloped?

climbed a tree?

jumped rope?

swung on a swing?

and tried to touch the sky with your feet?

made your hair stick up from sliding down the slide?

ran through the sprinklers?

blew bubbles and tried to catch them?

finger painted?

sucked on a lollipop?

wanted to go barefoot everywhere you went?

cried and then laughed and then cried again all within a minute?

jumped as high as you could on the couch and didn’t care if you fell down?

cause if you did fall down, you’d just brush that bruise away with a band aid that you’d later peel off within minutes?

spontaneously told someone you loved them and actually meant it?

Great memories, eh?  Well aren’t we always so good at letting our past memories haunt us and rule our lives?   All those workshops you attended and money spent on self-improvement books and trying to get rid of your old self was all worth it, I’m sure.  But for this time, how about letting your old self return?

image: http://www.more4kids.info/726/parenting-tip-accepting-kids (some tips we could all probably apply to our selves too)

It’ll take 10 years off your age and put a smile back on your face!

10 Things I Learned This Week And Name My Dog

1.  Just cause I want it doesn’t mean I need it.

2.  Have a back up plan.

3.  Self promoting is actually pretty challenging.  It feels weird to talk about me me me all the time.

4.  It’s flattering to receive a tip as a teacher, but accepting it feels awkward.  I don’t know why…

5.  It’s amazing what I can get done when I do it for others who are counting on me.

6.  Hmmm maybe I should start counting on myself for myself more often.

7.  It’s easy to get off track and believe it or not just as easy to get back on.  The challenge is to stop thinking about how hard it’s gonna be to get back on track.

8.  Practice makes improvements (love this from last week’s youtube on hooping)

9.  Just make it happen!!!

10.  I never thought naming a dog would be so challenging.

We decided that Diamond was not the right dog for our family.  Although she was the perfect dog, she was much too big for the kiddos to handle.  So she went back to her foster parents    I do miss her high energy, but I know I wouldn’t have had the time needed to train myself, the dog, and the kids (throw in the hubby too) in order to keep her growing into the good ambassador of the breed that she already is.

We did find another dog at the shelter this weekend that has been perfect so far.  He is a 3 year old Dachshund mix that came to the shelter as a stray.  A little shy and very mellow.  He did amazingly well his first night in the crate.  Haven’t heard him bark, whine, or had an accident once yet (knock on wood!).  He doesn’t pull on the leash and likes to snuggle up against legs.  The only problem we have is that we can’t decide on a name for him.

Name options:   Beamer, Barley, Marley (like Bob Marley), Koa, Smores  (Our previous dogs were named after cars, Boxster and Bentley, so that’s why Beamer.  Koa is a tree in Hawaii and it’s wood is brown and used in many applications.  Koa also means brave and fearless.. something that this dog needs to grow confidence in.)

Help name me

What would you call me?

Four Legged Furry Friday

Say this 4 times:  four legged furry friday   That’s what today is all about.   We decided to give a four legged friend a try this weekend.  Brought Diamond home on wednesday night and so far so good.   She is rather larger than we wanted, but very smart and kind for being a pup.  The true test will be this weekend when I have a trainer coming out to show us a few tricks on training her.  It’s been a while since I trained a dog so while I was reading up on establishing myself as a pack leader, this is what dogbreedinfo.com says:

“When you are around your dog avoid emotions such as fear, anxiety, harshness or nervousness. Your dog can sense these emotions and will see you as weak. This will escalate your problem as your dog feels an even stronger need to be your leader. Think Big and Powerful and be calm, assertive, and consistent. Remember, there is no hiding our emotions from our dogs. They can in a sense, read our minds, in reading our emotions. This energy is the universal language of animals. Talk less, using more body language. Picture yourself, in your own mind as big, powerful and very sure of yourself. Pull your shoulders back and stand up straight. Your dog will feel this…”

Tadasana in action, I’d say!  Now off to meditate so I can remain calm and patient as I get trained

ahhhh the life!

Loving Kindness: Some Hair and Meditation

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair…” goes something like that of the fairy tale princess who was locked up in a castle tower and let her hair down for the prince to enter.   I could hear The Daddy saying, “Oh hell no if I’m gonna let some prince climb her hair to get to her room!”  Well that was 10 inches and 3 years ago.

For The Daughter’s 4th birthday, we agreed to chop her locks for Locks of Love and eliminate any possible future love affairs.  At that time she didn’t fully understand the meaning behind the donation except that she was going to give some kid who didn’t have hair some hair.   At least that’s what I thought she understood…

Fast forward 3 more years and 10 more inches and viola… Jazpunzel:

The Daughter still remembers the good deed she did and was very happy to do it again.  We look through Locks of Love’s website and browse through their gallery.  She was ready.  As I comb her long locks, we began to chat about Locks of Love and how they are going to use her hair to make a wig for some lucky kid.  The conversation diverted to her pondering about what her friends were going to think about her hair now.  “What do you mean?” I asked.  “Well… last year some kids would say that I had the longest hair in the class and some kids would ask why I always put my hair up and some would play with my pony tail and this year I definitely have the longest hair in my class,”  she said.  “How does that make you feel?” I asked?  “I don’t know… I don’t really care what they say,” she says and then goes on to ponder about, “I wonder what other kids say to the kid that is bald.”  “What do you think?” I asked.   “I bet they get teased a lot,” she says.   “You’re probably right,” I tell her.  “Well I hope my hair is going to make them feel beautiful so that they won’t care if people tease them ever again,” she says.   Can you guess how W I D E my heart was smiling?

Here we go… 10 inches.  Snip. Snip. Snip.

We are so blessed to have a girl with lovely locks… her hair when bunched together is more than 2 inches in diameter!  But we are more blessed to have a girl with lovely locks who understands with compassion!

Beat this Rapunzel!  30 inches total!  Love (and hair) is meant to be given away.

Jumping for JOY!

I can actually jump higher now that I’ve lost 30 inches of hair

Look at that bounce!  Shampoo commerical?

Love.  Laugther.  Joy.  Purely!

She wouldn’t want to be called a princess, but she’s my princess.

I’m the luckiest mom ever!

Meditation Days 6 and 7

A quick note that I haven’t stopped meditating yet… naturally days 6 and 7 have been focused on a loving kindness meditation.  Without getting too deep (save it for another post), loving kindness meditation helps sweeten habitual negative mind patterns and cultivating selfless and altruistic love.

The practice involves reflecting on 4 different people. Try this:

Begin in a comfortable seat.  Sit tall without strain or too much effort.  Close your eyes.  Take several deep breaths to create and clear your space.

Feel your heart beat and within that rhythm is a conversation.  What feelings emerge if your heart were to express any wishes it would have for you today, tomorrow, and any enduring time?  Wishes that are general enough to evoke feelings of warmth and comfort for yourself, for your friends, for your family, for anyone and everyone in general?  For example, “May I be free from anger.  May I be free from pain.  May I be free from sadness. May I be free from all suffering.  May I be healthy.  May I be strong.  May I be happy.  May I be really really happy. May I be at peace”

You can now put these feelings or wishes into a mantra (or phrases) and repeat them over and over several times.  Notice how you feel when you repeat these phrases?  Do you really want them for yourself?   When you’ve lost the moment, don’t worry too much and begin again.  Repeat these phrases until you can really rest your mind in the heart of these mantras.

Then call to mind someone who you care deeply about like a good friend, someone who inspires you, someone you love.  Bring their being into your presence by visualizing them and saying their name silently to your self.  Then repeat the mantras for them.  For example:  “May you be free from anger.  May you be free from pain.  May you be free from sadness.  May you be free from all suffering.  May you be healthy.  May you be strong.  May you be happy.  May you be really really happy.  May you be at peace.”  Repeat until you can rest your mind in these words.

Then call to mind someone who you don’t have any strong feelings for or against.  A neutral person is someone you might see regularly like the person who checks you out at the grocery store, the school crossing guard, etc.  Bring their being into your presence and repeat the phrases above to them.   Repeat until you feel you can rest your mind in the phrases.

Then call to mind someone who you are having difficulties with.  Bring their being into your presence and repeat the phrases above to them.   Repeat until you feel you can rest your mind in the phrases.

Then repeat the mantra for all beings everywhere.  For example:  “May all beings be well, may all beings be happy, may all beings be free from suffering.”

It’s also appropriate to repeat the mantra for all animals everywhere.

After you do this, bring the awareness back to yourself.  Your heart center.  Feel the pulse of the heart beat and any feelings attached to it.  Imagine your love radiating from your heart.

Then simply let go of your act of wishing others well and notice your breath.

Sit until you are ready to open your eyes and end your meditation by actually bringing this loving kindness into the world.

Yoga in 3 Minutes

I’m officially declaring a friday flip and flop on the couch day…. so perfect to end this crazy week.

yum yum yummy
yum yum yummy
yum yum yummy

Too cute!

A Letter To My 6 Year Old Self

About a month ago, I was re-inspired by Suburban Yogini’s post on a letter she wrote to her 12yr old self.  I did something similar to this during teacher training level 1 and have been thinking about what I would say to my 6 year old self since I am turning 6 yoga years old today.

~~~~~

Kindergarten/1st grade school picture

My Dearest Self,

Hello!  This is  a letter from your older self who just turned 34 today.  Please ask mom to read it for you…

Since it is your 6th {yoga} birthday today, I wanted to celebrate you at 6 years old.   Right now I know you are happily clueless of the journey ahead of you.  Do yourself a favor and stay that way for as long as you can.  But knowing you the way I know you, you’re not gonna listen and that’s ok because you’re gonna be given a big wake up call when you stumble upon this ancient practice called yoga.  Yoga is going to take you on a journey back to your younger self.  You are going to be the catalyst for your own transformation to authenticity through curiousity.  You are going to inspire childlike love, fun, and innocence into ordinary everyday life and transform it into a magical adventure.

I love the way you are so responsible, giving, and loving at such a young age but remember that your priority should be to explore your world, ask questions but don’t believe every answer you get and be confident about doing your own thing.  It doesn’t matter if you’re not the most popular kid in kindergarten.  Oh and forget about that boy George.  He’s cute and all but he’s just into popular girls and he’ll never appreciate you for you.  It’s better to nurture the relationships you have with your few friends than trying to be liked by everyone else.  I know it’s hard to be the smallest in the class, but you’re gonna thank me for that later.   Oh and never mind about wearing all those hand-me down clothes cause you’re gonna discover lululemon yoga clothes that you’re gonna look fabulous in.  Trust me.  Nancy, Lindsay, and Sarah would drool with envy if they ever meet you again.

I love your long beautiful hair but start practicing non-attachment right away.   Don’t feel obligated to have long hair because mom likes long hair.  In a few years you’re gonna start noticing your body and start developing your own sense of style.  Go ahead and unbraid that hair and let it down.  The sooner you can shake it wild and get it knotted, the sooner you’ll want to get it cut.  Trust me.  Short hair girls have more fun.  Besides, you’ll discover that you don’t have to hide behind a curtain of hair.

You are so smart and I know you’re smart enough to figure out that grades aren’t everything.  It’s important to study and try your best, but smarts don’t come from a text book.  You’ll later learn to value experiences and failures more than successes and awards.  Your successful career that everyone else has portrayed for you will be questioned (good job!) and you’ll discover that your ideal career will be the quest for life.

Looks aren’t everything, but know that you’ll be thankful for the braces you will get in 5th grade.  Again those popular kids will be envious of you because big cheesy smiles are one of your best features.  I know it’s hard to be railroad tracks, but every dentist you meet will think you should be on a Crest commercial and the first thing random strangers will say to you when you smile and say hi to them is that you have nice teeth.   Since we’re talking about looks, hang in there when you’re the last one to get a training bra.  Bras aren’t that comfortable anyway and you’ll never wear one again thanks to lululemon power Y tanks.

There aren’t enough pens and paper to write everything down and you don’t want to know how everything goes anyway.  Remember to just take things one step at a time and always listen to your intuition.  Don’t waste time doubting it.  Never question how amazing and smart you are and that you deserve everything you could possibly dream of.  Your beauty shines from the place that matters most and people who also shine from that place will appreciate you for you.  There’s no doubt there will be people who will be blind to your beauty and awesomeness but life very seldom gives you the luxury of time to prove who you are to these people.  Sometimes it’s best to end those relationships quickly.  Your family will always love you no matter who you become (even though at times it doesn’t seem like they do, but boy! they do!)  Keep reinventing yourself.  Stay fresh.  Stay present.  Ask questions.  Be curious.  Play.  Play.  Play.  Play some more.  One more thing:  ask mom and dad to take you to swim class.  Trust me, it’s easier if you learn how to swim at this age.

With Love,

Your 34 year old self

Birthday Marathon

I am back in blog land.  I have missed you so and can finally breathe a sigh of “Ahhhhh.”  The only running I’ve been doing lately is the birthday marathon in my family.  From March 10, March 25, April 10, May 8, May 14, and finally today May 17.  I don’t ever want to see another penguin, super mario character  or the beloved red velvet cheesecake again… yes, I said that.  It’s so yum but not to be consumed back to back within a months time

1,547 Delicious Calories

Remember these penguin cupcakes?

Jasmine's Penguin Cupcakes

I had thoughts to outdo these cupcakes and make a Super Mario themed one for Niko’s 4th birthday.  Afterall, everyone who came to Jasmine’s party now expects just as fabulous and cuter cupcakes now that the bar has been set so high.  I checked out many different designs to find inspiration:

photo from http://dragonflydoces.co.nr

Easy peezy mac and cheesy, right? (photo from Sandra - socakes flickr)

I was super excited to see that Michael’s had ready to use fondant.  Even though I’ve never used fondant, I was feeling creative until life took over and I ran out of time.  Actually it was more like procrastinating took over…

Swallowed my ego and brought store bought cupcakes and decided to keep Niko’s party simple.  Oh no!  Simple didn”t mean plain for this creative ego.  Found some star shaped candy molds for chocolate stars and simply added eyes.  Paper punches, photo shop, a printer, and voila!

Chocolate stars for my Birthday Star!

Again simple didn’t mean plain.  Two sleep deprived nights later of designing, cutting, and gluing, I had a SUPER “Super Mario” party waiting to be ooohhh’ed and ahhhhh’ed  by kids and parents who wished they were kids.  I mean, who wouldn’t want to get their hands on these goodie bags:

The goodie bags.

The lucky birthday boy, got these special surprise boxes filled with dinosaur wind up toys and what else would you find in a question mark box?   chocolate coins of course!

Niko's presents

I think I might submit an idea to Nintendo to add dinosaur enemies in their Super Mario game

Simple toys = Great fun!

All the sleepless nights paid off to see these faces:

And this face:

But no time to rest yet, cause Darren’s birthday was in just 3 more days.  Fortunately, I learned my lesson after two rounds of crazy birthday planning back to back (at least til next year that simple should just be simple.  Poor Darren who is the last of the birthday round gets a simple, plain, homemade pop-up card and no more red velvet cheesecake.  Just a H A P P Y  B I R T H D A Y! and homemade breakfast.

This is why I love you!  You are simple and plain, but full of L O V E and L I F E that always brightens  my day.   Happy birthday, sweetie!

Now off to think about running again… especially after those red velvets!

Non-attachment (Part 2)

When did non-attachment taste so good?  These little penguins took about 4 hours to complete and were gobbled down within minutes. The process and time involved made them taste even so much better.  Even Jasmine forgot about busting her penguin pinata friend after sinking her teeth into these gooey friends.

The prize is definitely in the process.  No matter how many hours I spent on these, seeing the gratification on the kids faces was well worth it.  I find that cultivating a feeling of gratitude makes our attachment to things or others less intense when we do indeed have to let them go.  Our attachment doesn’t end with things or people, but often overlooked is memories… especially unpleasant memories.  We hold on as tight as possible as if they will not get repeated if we remember them.  Or we hold on dearly to pleasant memories hoping to recreate some of those again.  However, the idea of non-attachment to anything and everything gives us the platform to experience each moment as we experience it in full gratitude.  What a great lesson I’m learning as I try not to hold on so dearly to my children has they grow up right before my eyes.

The easy part - baking the cupcakes

It gets challenging from here - first resisting the temptation to taste them cause they smell so good

Here's the body

On with their heads

Going for a swim in the chocolate frosting

Penguin invasion in my freezer

And they taste soooo good

Off with their heads

Non-attachment can be fun too

N is for Non-attachment (part 1)

(from Himalayan Institute)

“N is for non-attachment, the art of living the simple life, without too many needs or desires.” — Himalayan Institute

This has been the main theme in the Wong household the past few weeks as I organize and plan Jasmine’s 7th birthday party.  The lucky #7 and also the biggest party she’s had so far.  I’ve spent countless hours planning and creating her penguin themed party.  I’ve tried to keep it simple but as it turns out convenience never took my side because everything that I needed (rather wanted) for her party was no where to be found (for a reasonable price that is).  She’s been in love with penguins ever since seeing the Happy Feet movie.  She’s even gone as far as devoting her first entire science fair project to the study of penguins.  Naturally I wanted to penguin out her party from a penguin pinata to penguin games to a penguin cake.  Ended up making everything from scratch. The pinata was the most time consuming because we had to cut all the tissue paper.

We both fell in love with our pinata and the closer it got to being completed, the more attached we both became.   Instead of being happy when it was done, we both became sad.  Jasmine said she would cry if people hit him with a bat.  “I don’t want people to break him.  All the cutting and gluing and we’re just gonna break him?” she asked.

Oh boy!  How do you teach a 7 yr old the idea of non-attachment when the candy doesn’t motivate anymore? She’s getting too smart for me.

Aparagraha, one of the yamas of yoga, or non-possessiveness/non-attachment teaches  us that holding on to possessions or ideas causes suffering.  In trying to explain this concept to my 7yr old, I had to remind myself to not be attached to the idea that she might be sad at what is suppose to be a joyous occasion.  As a parent, it’s hard to not be attached to the kids (like a relationship bond) and at the same time cultivate a love in such a non-attached way when all I want to do is protect them from hurt and injury.

So I explained the best I could about letting go and how all things don’t last forever.  I didn’t want to tell her to “look on the bright side” because I wanted her to recognize the emotion that might be there when the penguin burst into pieces.  For us, the prize was really in the journey and not the destination.  She recognized that the whole process of putting the pinata together was tons of fun and we got to spend many hours working together.  “My friends are gonna love him too,” she says….  More on non-attachment experiences from the party for the next blog

The penguin body that Niko wanted to be in

Giving Mumbo some quads

Giving Mumbo some curves

Had to dress Mumbo since it's a PG13 party