small things...

Any meditators out there?

On Sunday my friend and yours, Deepak Chopra, led us in a meditation.  It was really amazing in a number of ways.  I felt really peaceful and focused - which is untypical for me.  I usually have a very difficult time calming my mind.  The meditation was about 10 minutes in length and somewhere near the end I had a really interesting experience. 

I felt completely disconnected from my body. 

I'm assuming you've had the experience where your arm falls asleep during the night.  You wake up with a cold appendage that no longer feels like your body...?  This was like that only not at all like that.  Nothing was asleep, but I felt outside of my body. 

It completely freaked me out and I started moving my fingers and hands just to re-connect.  And I repeated to myself over and over, "I am in my body, I am in my body."  I think that was supposed to feel good, but for a newbie like myself, not so much.

So I'm curious...anyone out there have a similar meditative experience - or meditations not like this, but crazy nonetheless?  (Jess - do you still read this blog? Would you share your experience from the same meditation?)

My final weekend at IIN

I was ready to be done with my trips to NYC.  Never having fully figured out how to travel well, I often struggled with adjusting both back and forth on these trips.  I was ready for this 8-month journey to come to a close.  The weekend was a celebration of this journey.  The man speakers this weekend were Iyanla VanZant and Deepak Chopra.  Iyanla encouraged us to live in our joy and to BE amazed.  She was funny and inspiring and filled the room with her joy.  Deepak took us down a entirely new path.  I felt honored to be sitting there seeing him and hearing him.  In talking with my friends it seemed we all had different reactions to hearing him, but I felt very connected to what he was saying. And he was FUNNY which may have been the 2nd best part of seeing him, aside from everything else he had to say.

Looking back on this year I'm amazed at the opportunities we had to hear incredible speakers.  From Mehmet Oz to Andrew Weil to Deepak Chopra and many others inbetween.  Somehow IIN is able to draw from the who's who of personal growth and physical wellness.  It was well worth the time, the effort and the cost of the committment.  I gained from this process the confidence to break out on my own, to begin to change my life and to make it what I want it to be.  I was often skeptical of the process.  That's my modus operandi.  I ask a lot of questions and explore all of my doubts before I'm able to accept a new belief or experience.  It may take me a little longer to evolve then some, but I get there. 

While I"ll not miss travelling to NYC ( I think my next trip needs to be to the country), I will greatly miss the friends I made, the friends who put me up every month and the opportunity to hear great messages from some of the greatest teachers.

Here we go, on to the next adventure.  I head up to Wisconsin next month for some further training at the National Wellness Insititute's Annual Conference - so exciting!  Hi, new life thanks for being here!

I'll be the old-fashioned girl...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKJJRnuCwF4

A year and a day

Somehow a year and a day have passed since our mom died.  How a day can feel so long and a year can feel so short I'll never understand.  Last year seems all at once so far away and like it just happened.  We took refuge again in Michigan leading up to this anniversary; a last minute decision to drive up to spend the weekend with the Toomeys.  Just like we did afterwards last year.  Megan and I are thinking we might make this an annual tradition. Way better to spend this time on the beach drinking beer and eating good food then holed up in our separate homes. 

Losing both parents in the summertime is lousy on many levels.  Other then the obvious lousiness of losing your parents at all - the fact that mother's day, father's day, and both of the anniversarys of their deaths are so close together is a bit much.  Mom actually died on Father's day last year which was, of course, not the gift we had in mind for him.  Megan and I discussed combining all of these special dates into one huge shitty day.  We'll see. 

We did, however, spend sometime together yesterday, Megan and I.  We took a late afternoon drive into Lincoln Park.  We bought ourselves lovely things, we had a beer on the corner and finished it off with a great dinner at a cozy french bistro.  Our waiter was cute and the food and wine were delicious.

I left with a buzz and enjoyed the drive home with my sister.  If this becomes a tradition as well - I'd be okay with that.

Maureen Toomey mentioned what a blessing it has been to be around Emmett during all of these difficult times these past 2 years.  And that we will need to tell him again and again how much his cute smile, silliness and wonderful cuddliness gave all of us many breaks from sadness. 

::Emmett at the Sawyer beach (again)Getting buried in the sand

I hope this face brightens your day today as well.

love,

e

The perfect suit

I love this suit.  I'm a curvy girl who needed a new bathing suit.  I have high aspirations for lots of beach bumming this summer and needed to be prepared.  Consider me ready.

::Thank you, Land's End

A good day in Chicago

:: "Obama says knock you out" as seen on Urban Outfitters t-shirt

The news has been good here in my favorite city.  Our hometown hero has won the nomination that should have been his months ago.  AND we've made it into the top 4 for the 2016 Olympics.  What that would really be like, I'm not sure, but it's exciting.

A little Kanye West feat. Chris Martin for your Chicago listening pleasure.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hotjeKvovg

I especially like hearing Chris Martin sing about "Lake Michigan".

Colorado pics

Got home at midnight last night from the 9th IIN weekend. It was a good one. Got to talk to a fellow chicago IINer on the way home which helped the lateness.  I'm pooped. 

But I wanted to share some pics from my trip last week to Colorado.  There are only a few here, but enjoy!:

::Mira Mendez. Kicks ass; doesn't bother taking names

::Barker Reservoir, Nederland

::Raven Yatabe. Lots of sugar, pinch of spice.

::View of the Flatirons from I36's Scenic overlook.  This is the first time I stopped here in all the years I've lived, or visited, Boulder. I'm officially a Colorado tourist

::The gorgeous bride and her stepfather

All in all it was a great trip.  I wish I'd taken more photos...I need to start taking more photos.

See more photos from trip here