The Budding Optimist

I hung out with a friend recently at Oktoberfest. I realized exactly how long it had been since I'd seen him when he informed me that he'd been living in the Pacific Northwest for over a year already (which I had failed to notice prior to the request to hang out while he was "in town.") This very drunk guy came up to us in the beer hall tent and asked us if we knew that Jesus and God are the answer to everything that ails the entire world? (I'm not going to lie, it reminded me a teeny tiny bit of several experiences in my yoga class.) "Only in this area," I told the man soberly. Then he wandered off. Appropos of nothing, Theo told me that in his dating adventures, he has discovered that FOBO is a real thing. I had never even heard of this. I'm familiar with FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. But apparently, FOBO (Fear of Better Options) is a malady that particularly affects the newly divorced. Having never been newly divorced, I'd apparently missed out

                                                    The Sanskrit word for sun is sūrya. Sūrya Namaskāra A is "Sun Salutation A" and Sūrya Namaskāra B is "Sun Salutation B." If sūrya were a human being, she would be my friend Abbie. She has been many different people in her life: coach, stylist, Lululemon drone. But for me, Abbie is a ball of sunlight challenging me to think differently.      Two weeks ago, after my ankle had mostly healed and before my milkweed hunt ended in poison ivy welts, I went to one of Abbie's yoga classes in the city. Afterward, we went to the TG Farmer's Market and talked life and philosophy.      Abbie is really big on manifesting things... like just  believing  things into being. If you've read  The Secret by Rhonda Byrne,  you know all about manifesting things. If you haven't, don't. It's not all that great. (Srsly, how self-aggrandizing do you have to be to claim to have "revealed the great mystery of the un

  The 7th limb of yoga is Dhyāna. It's basically meditation, to hold oneself present in a given moment. That's the goal anyway. Here's how the meditation aspect of yoga currently works for me: Start time: 8:00 pm 8:00  I shouldn't have eaten all those fruit snacks, I can feel them in my teeth. I wonder if I'm getting cavities. FOCUS! THINK OF THOUGHTS LIKE A LEAF FLOATING BY IN A RIVER! I think autumn is on the way, I've definitely seen several leaves falling already. I wonder if it was stupid to put mulch down on my plants because now it's just all going to get covered with leaves. 8:01  At least mulch isn't expensive. I cannot believe the yard waste people won't collect mulch, though. It's got to be the most biodegradable thing in the world. FOCUS!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, THINK OF THOUGHTS LIKE CLOUDS AND WATCH THEM PASS BY! 8:02  I am clearing my mind. I am sitting in a state of being. I wonder when my ankle will feel better enough to go back t