paintbox

It is probably clear to anyone who reads this blog that I love public art, especially works that have an aspect of graffiti to them. In Montreal, I was always on the hunt for interesting art when strolling the streets (see here and here). Walking around downtown Boston the other day, I was excited to notice that some of the utility boxes have been painted.

(This box in downtown crossing was painted by Adam O'Day.)

Then I started noticed painted boxes all around the city! Paintbox, a program through the Boston Arts Commisson, has asked local artists to use the utility boxes in their neighborhoods as canvases. What an amazing idea! There is even an interactive map to help you find them. I am excited to find more of these as I get to know Boston better.

winter beaches

A few weeks ago, Dan and I took a weekend trip to the North Shore. It is amazing being so close to the ocean now that we are living in Boston, and we were craving a little time out of the city. We definitely got that - some of the towns we stopped in were quiet under the snow, without their crowds of tourists searching for lobster and taffy. On our way home, we stopped for a walk at Manchester's Singing Beach - it was cold, but beautiful.

Exciting news!

Being back in Boston after many years away, there is so much to explore. I am so excited to have joined my sister, Natalie, and her friend Melissa at The Boston Day Book, a website on everything Boston!

I think contributing to The Boston Day Book will be a fun way to write in a casual way, be creative, and get to know people and places around Boston. So far, I've written little posts on gallery openings, a museum exhibit, and the closing of a beloved button shop. To my handful of readers at this spot: if you are in Boston, check out the website and let me know if there is anything you think I should write about!

a blizzard

It's been a few weeks since Boston got a blizzard named Nemo (cutest name ever for a storm). I have to admit that before it I had felt that global warming must really be speeding up, since I hadn't yet worn my real snow boots. (While I am still worried about global warming, I did wear snow boots.)

The streets downtown were deserted.

It was a good thing there were no cars on the road.

A walk signal yet nowhere to walk!

Photos from my husband, who ventured out into the storm for chocolate bars and milk ;)

on endings and beginnings

Yoga is the meeting of the drop and the ocean. 

     -Swami Kripalu

One week ago I became a Kripalu yoga teacher!

The graduation ceremony was such a powerful culmination of four weeks spent together with my fellow students and teachers. As each student walked a petal-strewn aisle flanked by our fellow teachers-in-training, we spoke our blessings and well-wishes for the graduate. Looking into the faces of these people whom I have gotten to know in such a special way, I felt so connected to them. Earlier in the week, our teacher had used the analogy of a tapestry - we are forever woven together in an important way, for having been so vulnerable and honest together, and for sharing this time of amazing growth.

While I learned so much about yoga, the teacher training was about so much more. Having that time to consistently go within myself, away from all the distractions of regular life, was so insightful. Emotions came to the surface that had long been buried, and then were washed away. At the end of a day of silence and meditation, I realized how free I felt - I had been carrying around the echoes of the past, and now I had shaken them off, and it felt like seeing the world (and myself in it) in a new light.

The challenge now will be to remember that feeling of freedom and tap into that well of connectedness, calm, and love when things gets in the way. Each ending is a new beginning - now to bring that Kripalu magic home, and hopefully share it with others!

white lights on a winter stroll

Kripalu

A few weeks ago, I packed a suitcase and left for Kripalu, a yoga school and retreat center in the Berkshires, for the first half of a yoga teacher training that I had signed up for quite a while ago. On my windowsill I placed this ceramic bowl - a gift from my sister - and a reminder that the people we love are always with us, within us... (from my favorite e.e. cummings poem)

Being in the mountains at the beginning of winter was beautiful. Our program was so intense that some days there was barely time to get outside, except to stand on the back patio of the building and breathe in the misty air.

 The place has a unique energy - a building full of people from different places, different backgrounds, looking for the same things: to learn, to renew, to feel, to grow.

 Each day brought so many challenges and so many insights that two weeks felt like two months. By the end I felt so close to the other wonderful people in the training - lunch time conversations consistently revolved around "the big questions" so it got deep fast. No matter how I end up applying my teaching certification, I am certain that this will have been one of the most intense, and most enlightening experiences of my life. We'll see what comes of it...