Summer... almost gone..

Well my friends, it seems as though are wonderful Summer season is coming to a close. The fall equinox is tomorrow, and pretty soon the leaves will be changing, the apples, winter squash, cabbage and all sorts of root veggies and greens will begin flooding the farmers markets, Thanksgiving and Halloween decorations will be abound, and our brother Sun will go to bed earlier and earlier until late December.

I love fall. I welcome the fall. I am the fall, the changing of the leaves and the shedding of form, the harvesting of planted seeds and wilting of old flowers worn. I am that. I am constantly changing, I thrive on it--releasing old concepts and complexes, re-integrating shadow parts of myself... Constantly shifting the matrix, the programming. I am that. I am fall.

I'm grounded in North San Juan, CA, up on "the Ridge." That's what this area is called in the North San Juan, Nevada City, Grass Valley locale (all neighboring cities/area). "The Ridge." And who lives on "the Ridge?" Ridge folk. Ridge-ites. Ridgers and Ridgians. Good people up here I tell ya. I walk, bike, and hitchhike every with ease. And Nevada City is a solid 12 miles away, so I definitely rely on hithchiking there and back at least a few times a week, but lately almost every day! And it's like a taxi service around, a highly evolved publich transportation system. The rides are so consistent, if I wait for 5 minutes I start to wonder what's going on! It sure is a blessing. And maybe its the energy I putting out? Sure. That aligns with my view of things (my concept of life or matrix, as it were). But it's also the openness and kindness of these Ridge folk. The Ridgites. A really nice community to be in.

I've been continuing my morning practice with great consistency, which has been a really nice discipline for me. And I believe I am going to start teaching yoga classes up on the Ridge very soon. I connected with the director of a local community center, and she said I am welcome to teach there! So that's exciting. I've been eating really well, working in eating out of the garden where I live and doing work-trades at various local farms for additional produce. I've been doing a green cleanse the last 2 weeks, which means I can eat anything as long as its green. I've had a lot of green smoothies, really spices ones too! I put chard and kale and zuchini and cucumber and cabbage and celery and such things, and then garlic, onion, ginger (not "green," but more like spices, which is ok), jalapeno, green pepper, tumeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, spirulina flakes, lime, and the one key ingredient: avocado. Avocado turns the conconction into a creamy amazing spicy goodness. It really has been very delicious, I must have had a dozen of these things already. And they are so very filling.

I went to this farm party last night at Mountain Bounty, a nice local farm with a CSA about 4 or 5 miles away from me. I brought a green salsa for the salsa contest, and then proceeded to go and eat lots things the were green, and some that were not.

Take the peach cobbler for instance. Nothing green about it. But boy was it good and worth it!
So its ok, I feel my morning yoga discipline is enough. Sometimes I have to step outside the structure a little bit to taste the peach cobbler, ya know? Wow, delicious.

It was a fun party too! A bluegrass band, lots of other amazing farm fresh food of course. I made a corn kernal knecklace. And met a lot of really nice people! Ah, what a time.

I'm really happy about where I am! I think I probably won't do too much moving around until December, whereby I hope to go to a yoga retreat and then see the family for Christmas! We'll see how that all works out. I'm not too, too concerned at this point. For now I hope to just keep the practice up, embrace the fall from without and hold the energy of the fall within, stay in my heart, and dance to the rhythm of the changing seasons and moment by moment shifts. Dance with balance, and grace, and clarity, and humility.

Love!