Hello Yogis,

It was a lovely, relaxing holiday and extended weekend. We have had a cold few days and that made it easy to stay inside cooking, resting and warming up by the woodstove. With the help of my yoga baking friends (thanks Laura & Donn), I successfully made my first homemade apple pie. Greg has been processing 80 lbs. of organic apples and dehydrating them, so we'll have apple chips for many months to come. Each morning we've been boiling a couple kettles of water to warm up the chicken's water, and when I go sit with them, I have 4 to 5 of them snuggle up on my lap to warm up and take little naps.

I'm happy to be returning to our classes this week and I'm looking forward seeing you! I hope you found some moments of contentment and gratitude during the holiday. Perhaps we can choose those qualities and presence to carry us through the rest of the year. It's never too late to slow down for a moment and become present. Here's a poem that reminded me that any fear of missing out, can be released by recognizing that I can trust that I'm arriving wherever I am, at just the right time. 

"Too Late?"

By the time we arrive at the cliffside
to watch the sunset, the darkness
has already come. But because
of the ink-ish sky, we see thousands
of yellow lights glitter across the harbor.
And moonlight on the water makes
the blackened surface shine. How often
do I think I’m too late, only to find I have
arrived at just the right moment,
the moment in which there is a beauty
beyond the one I knew to wish for.
Like how, when I thought it was too late
to forgive, forgiveness arrived with its
soft and generous hands. Like how when
I thought I was too late to love, love
bloomed like a sunset, radiant and blazing,
and stayed, the way sunsets never do.
Like how I believed I was here to adore the light,
I came to learn how exquisite, how
lavish, how astonishing, the dark.

—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

With Lovingkindness,
Heidi