Yoga for Swatchies

And now for something completely different…

We spent the month of February in the warm, sunny Bahamas, training to be Yoga teachers at the Sivananda Ashram on Paradise Island. The course was great – we learned so much about Vedantic philosophy and the ancient, great yogis.

It was like college and summer camp combined, but with more yoga and at the beach!

It was very spiritually enlightening. We also met some great people from all over the world, and vastly improved our yoga skills.

Here are some of my yoga pics:

This is Savasana, or Corpse pose. It’s also me doing Forward Bend. And Fish.

The backbending series: Cobra, Bow, and Locust. Also Child’s pose.
The piece de resistance: Sirshasana, Headstand.
Mountain pose, Standing Forward Bend, and Triangle. And the Warrior series.

The beach platform

Our Teacher Training class – 64 people, plus the teachers. I missed the picture because I was doing Karma Yoga.

Chillin’ at the beach.

Deep meditation. I can do it with my eyes open!

Our tent – the messy side is Devon’s.

I knitted that yoga bag!

She sure did.

A visitor to our tent.

Getting my Starbucks fix… shhhhhh… don’t tell Swamiji!

Visiting Atlantis Resort, which was right next door to the Ashram. After Week 3, we NEEDED a spa day.

Another visitor – he was the size of ME!

That’s me!! Doing tripod headstand! Which is TOTALLY as hard as it looks, I swear!

(It’s so not)

How would you know? You don’t even have arms!

Swamis Brahmananda and Sadasivananda. Don’t they look great in orange?

Even their SOCKS are orange!

Sunset Yoga class… oooo, ahhhhh….

Check out that TAN! And the Crow, of course. You can’t tell in the picture, but my feet are off the ground and I’m totally balancing.

So overall, it was just a really fabulous experience and we learned loads and practiced yoga (not that Devon has kept it up at ALL) and met cool people and chilled on the beach. In FEBRUARY. Good stuff indeed.

Journey for Max

There are a lot of things that I cannot imagine doing, healthy or ill. One of them is running across Death Valley in July.

But Connie Karras will do just that, and this year she is running to honor a friend with CFS.

Last year, Connie ran her first Badwater Solo and it was her friend Max Gordon who helped her do it. Despite her illness, Max stayed with Connie as part of her support crew. Connie credits Max with helping her finish. So this year, Connie will run another Badwater Solo to raise money for the CFIDS Association.

I've made my pledge in support of Connie's run. Will you do the same?

Remember Me?

Dear Swatchy,

I haven't forgotten you! I hope you didn't think I got lost in the wilds of Africa. I've been living with a wonderful family, and they took me to see the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls in Zambia. I think I'm the first Swatchy to get a ride in a helicopter, too! Wheeeeee! I hope you like these pictures! (and don't worry - they didn't let me get wet at the falls)

Kisses,
SwatchGrrl

Not Again

Remember how I couldn't see the Yarn Harot last fall even though I was less than an hour's ride from her? It's deja vu all over again.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee will be speaking at the Philadelphia Book Festival tomorrow and then signing books. I was hoping that I could go, despite the fact I'm still recovering from the trip to DC. My husband was pretty determined that I should go, and was willing to wrangle the wheelchair and try to get special accommodation from the Free Library folks (who have been friendly).

But I'm too ill. I would be in a full crash before I even got to the room filled with several hundred rowdy knitters. And waiting in line for her autograph would be completely impossible, even in my wheelchair. The noise and crowd is more than I can handle, let alone the strain of the outing itself.

I love Stephanie and I love her new book. She has been so kind to me and the various Swatchys that my friends have taken to her events. I would like to tell her in person how deeply she has touched my life with her humor and kindness. But I cannot.

Once again, CFS has interfered and stolen something from me. Once again, I have to tell myself that I can't do something even though I desperately want to do it. I have to give this up in order to safeguard my health for the next week. It doesn't matter how fun it would be; going to see Stephanie would put me in bed for several days and extend my current crash for a week or more.

My blog-friend Sue recently observed that coping with CFS takes incredible strength. It takes strength to stop yourself from doing something you would enjoy because you know how severe the consequences would be. I don't know, but maybe it is like the strength that is required by an alcoholic to say no to a glass of champagne at someone's wedding. You know you cannot take part in small, happy thing because of the consequences that will follow. You have to tell yourself no, and find a way to be ok with it.

Can you understand what this feels like?

iSwatchy tours San Francisco

I think maybe iSwatchy is getting a little carried away with his new "try anything once" San Francisco attitude.



I've temporarily uploaded a big pile of pictures to my gallery. I'll be sorting, labeling and re-uploading them in a few months when iSwatchy and I are back home.

Swatchy Green's Lancaster Camping Trip

Swatchy got to see a lake,


and some cows,

he found some froggies in the garden,

and camped at Karen's campsite.

He sat in Karen's rocker and tried to knit,

and then it was time to go...

and see some horses on the way home.

Swatchy Green's Ravelry meet-up fun!

Swatchy made lots of friends while waiting....

Carol from Black Bunny Fibers was so happy to see Swatchy that she gave him some of her hand dyed yarn!

For - Casey and Jess (love the dramatic backlight? It's just my horrible camera skills)

And then came the highlight of Swatchy Green's day:

After that, all that was left to do was to chill with some Philly chicks (and baby Clyde)

He looked at some Alpacas,

and then collapsed with his booty.

On the bus ride home, Artsygal gave Swatchy some of her hand dyed yarn!

And then Swatchy got his first Septa ride to Conshohocken.

You would think he was done with travel for the day - but no, he had another adventure coming...