Full circle

Last week my filmmaking partner and I did a short northern California tour with our film Mad City Chickens. While there we drove through San Rafael....

10 years ago I was also in San Rafael and I happen to eat at a really excellent chinese restaurant. My dinner consisted of a wonderful plate of fresh garlic, spinach and rice. It was so good that I've remembered it and dreamt about going back to eat there quite a bit in the 10 years since then.

Well while in CA we decided to try and find that restaurant again. It was a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. No map. No name. After driving around a bit and not remembering much about the landscape. We decided to follow a gut feeling about where it was. A few random turns later, we suddenly recognized the greenhouse we had walked to...then the hotel we stayed in. We were getting warmer. (ever play that game?) Starting out from the hotel we had a general direction. A few more minutes of driving we found a street that looked vaguely familiar.
"House of Lee. That's it!!!" I shouted.



10 years later I've come full circle. The garlic roots and spinach were still on the menu! The waiter said it was even the same owner/cook!

Me - the happy camper.


About to have my first bite.



Was it good?



It sure was.

In 10 years

Ten years ago I took a belly dance class. Since then, while I have done some learning and practicing on my own with "electronic instruction" (DVDs) I've never taken another live class. Now looking back and realizing it's been 10 years, I'm feeling a bunch of regret that I didn't stick with it. I could have been darn good after 10 years!

At the time, the reasons for not signing up for another class seemed important. My friend was not continuing, not a lot of time, money for dance lessons, dinky little apartment (How would I practice moving around?), shyness. Dance in public?! "Everyone will see how bad I am."

So what? 10 years later, these reasons seem trivial. Maybe I'd never be the one to dance solo in a restaurant with all those people looking and eating around me. A lot can happen in 10 years? Who knows. I could have thrived on that experience.

It's not too late. I'm 10 years older but I'm not bedridden. (Thank you universe.)
Do I want to try again? Absolutely!

Are the issues of the past gone?

* I've got a larger living room to practice in. Its not huge, but it will do.
* Unfortunately, I still don't have bunch of extra money for dance classes. I do however have some DVDs. That's a start. Two days of following one and I'm already sore. I'll use those while I'm saving up for the lessons.
* Am I still shy? Well...Yes. Not as shy. I still can't see myself doing a solo in a room full of people. BUT I'll dance with a few others. Who knows once I feel more confident the whole world could be my stage. OK, not really...maybe?

Regret happens.
I've found it is only debilitating when you don't or can't do anything to fix the situation. Ten years from now I want to look back and say "Yes, I did that." However it works out, at least I tried and didn't quit because I was afraid or thought I couldn't scrape up the money for lessons.

(The picture is me in a hip scarf that I got for my birthday 3 years ago.)

Impossibilities

Two quotes today because I like them both and couldn't decide which one not to use. ;)

"We forfeit three-fourths of our self to be like other people."
- Arthur Schopenhauer

That's a lot people! Let your true self shine. No one else can bring to the world what you can.
and the second bit of wisdom...

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
-Walt Disney

Walt was told many times in his life that he couldn't do what he wanted to do. He succeeded because he never gave up.

Pigs with Wings

~
This is my "tribute" to the impossible.
I felted him this past spring and plan to do some more this winter. He currently flys over my kitchen table to remind me that what is "impossible" changes with each hurdle surmounted.
~

Sliding into home

~
Unfortunately, some of us detest Mondays.

If you don’t dig your work find something else.
This may take some quiet time.
If life leaves you empty, fill it with something satisfying.
Live like you mean it.

I forget that sometimes we have to find our passion again. Drag it up from where it fell. Shine a healing light on it, and tend it like a fragile seedling for it to continue to grow and blossom into the giant beanstalk that it was meant to be.

“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Chocolate in one hand, strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO-HOO! What a ride!”
~unknown

I'm not a religious person but I just have to say "Amen" to that!

Quote of the Day

~
Sometimes you must become simple, strip away all ambition until you are bare, before you can build from the true design in your heart. Some pieces can be recycled, re-used, reincorporated. The other things, that took away your strength and energy, are ready to be discarded into the void, to be transformed by the mystery.

~Unknown

Powerful Women

~
To the powerful women – keep the faith!

Live your life in such a way that when your
feet hit the floor in the morning,
Satan shudders and says:
“Oh shit, she’s awake.”

~unknown