Today's Emoji

There's the perfect emoji for when you're just killin' the game and it is

This lady thoroughly expresses what it's like when you're on fire for your first day of teaching class.

...Also can be used when you're going to go out on the town and shake a leg.

...Or when you're wearing a very hot red dress. Now I just need the dress. 

It's a beautiful day

Got a lot behind me and much more ahead, but for now...it's a beautiful day!

Children's Books

I love children's books! I love the colors, the stories, the illustrations, the succinct and simple way that a deep point can be made about life with talking animal characters. I just spent an hour at the library perusing the picture books and really enjoyed myself! I like to think about art projects that connect to the books. For a while I even wanted to write a children's book, which I may still try to do, but for now I just want to read all the children's books ever written and think of all the ways the books could be used to make fun crafts.

What job lets you do that? Definitely a teacher. Or maybe I should just have a child so I can read them all the books and vicariously experience the wonder through my offspring...I guess I could always do both.

Fun on the Coast

One of my favorite things to do in Oregon is to day trip to the coast. It is a very different type of coast than that of NC. There is no swimming, no people, and no Britt's donuts.  No anything really... but it's always a good time nonetheless. 

Like many places in Oregon, it is a hodgepodge of climates, terrains, and natural features. It's kind of like you're in the middle of the desert... with an evergreen forest...next to the ocean... on another planet.

The nature, quiet, and proximity to the ocean is always revitalizing.  Here are some pictures from our little day hike on the Tahkenitch Creek Trail near the Oregon Dunes (I think that's what it's called...I'm just going to always call it the Takahootchie Trail because that just sounds better to me).

Jason making his way up a little hill

Crossing a creek. The water was cold!

To the top

King of the dune mountain

Now my turn

So many shells on the beach. This one looks like a butterfly.

Lots of driftwood too. Jason has a moment on this log.

Getting in touch with his inner Pisces

Getting in touch with my inner Cancerian Crab. I'm remembering lately just how much I love the ocean. 

Balancing Stick on a stick

Looking to the South

A throne of driftwood

Standing Separate Leg Stretching pose on a bridge, because why not?

Not pictured: A really cool sand dollar that Jason found and possibly the best breakfast burrito that I've ever had

Blogging about my blog, learning about life

A nice reminder of what an awesome ESL teacher I was

It's the calm before the storm, I feel. Starting March 31st I will be insanely busy for a 10 week stint. Between teaching a course at UO, supervising student teachers, working part time as an assistant researcher, and teaching yoga who knows when I will have time to even think about how much time I don't have. Aye!

But for now, I'm feeling a brief calm and instead of using my time wisely to prepare for my class, I'm finding myself re-reading old blog entires which in it's own way is very useful for reflection and self-growth. That's the cool thing about having been blogging (relatively) consistently since January 2010.  That's 5 years! A lot has happened in the past five years and it's kinda neat to relive it all through my blog. Some things I read are embarrassing, some hilarious, and some even heart-breaking. 

 I think the greatest lesson to be learned from reading old blog posts is, ironically, contentment (santosha). This idea of contentment is something that I have wrestled with for a long time, hence me naming my blog Santosha. I don't suppose this to be the end of my wrestling, but maybe now I've just been ushered into a new class of wrestling. I've got some insight based on my experiences and how I can now reflect upon what I wrote.

Most importantly, I am amazed at the shift in my happiness or contentment during my time as an ESL Teacher. I started out bright-eyed and bushy tailed, excited about my job and life and somewhere down the line I became disillusioned. I let a desire for more (more money, more education, more degrees, more life experiences, more places to say that I lived in) cloud my vision of just how truly good my situation was. If I remove those desires from the equation, all of which are materialistic or ego-driven (aside from the desire for more life experiences, of course) I can reach the conclusion that I always had everything that I ever needed. Unfortunately, it took giving up those things to realize how truly perfect they were. So, in this sense, I believe it to be impossible for a human to understand contentment unless they have once abused their own understanding of it.  Or like Joni Mitchell said "You don't know what you got till it's gone".  

But, hey, at least now I'm cured of my grass is always greener syndrome.   

Art Game

I believe it is true what they say...whoever they is...that art imitates life.

Or is it life that imitates art?

Most likely it is both. Particularly in the case of these portraits that were drawn last weekend by a bunch of yoga teachers with margaritas. 

We decided to play a game and the game was this:

1) Get a piece of paper and a writing utensil.

2) Set a timer for 30 seconds

3) Sit across from a buddy and make eye contact with them 

4) Draw the buddy while continuously making eye contact, no looking up or down or anywhere except into their eyes.

Maybe it's just because we are yoga teachers and we are gifted at truly being able to "see" others, but I think these portraits are spot on. We somehow found a way to capture certain things about the person in a very Picasso-esk way. These renderings felt deep and insightful to me. Who knew a game could so meaningfully capture and depict people in such a carefree way?

I highly recommend trying this at your next gathering. You may not transcend the universe, but you will at least get a good laugh and maybe learn something about yourself in the process.

My portrait

A collection of portraits or Truth with crayon and 8.5x11 white paper

How I Like My Skies

Very blue and bright, with a smattering of puffy white clouds.

Trees, mountains, rocks, and/or bodies of water are optional.

The Power of Sandwich

A sandwich may not be able to pay a parking ticket for you, nor could you pay a parking ticket in sandwiches. However, a sandwich can soothe the rage felt toward parking officials who unfairly site you when you LITERALLY JUST RAN IN FOR A SECOND!

Yogi photo shoot

It really is the Apocolypse

At least until Wednesday...

The sun!

I love the way it cascades through the blinds, casting shadows and illuminating the mundane. 

Happy Birthday, my love

You say poTAYto, I say poTAHto, you like to wake up at 4:00 am to carry couches up mountains on your birthday, I like to sleep in and eat good food on my birthday... PoTAYto! PoTAHto! Carrying couches!

You get the idea. 

For Jason's 31st birthday, he desired a good old fashioned misogi, which I'm still not quite sure what it is, something about waking up early and challenging yourself and your friends to do something really hard like carrying a couch 7 miles round trip up a mountain and back. 

So we did.

Happy Birthday, Jason!