Eleven Eleven Make a Wish!

I'm not sure when I learned that when you "catch" 11:11 on the clock you make a wish, but ever since I've been the girl who yells "Eleven Eleven Make a Wish!" where ever I am as loud as (socially) possible.

I then close my eyes and wish. I repeat over and over again for that  minute, 30 seconds, 10 seconds, however long I've been blessed to catch the moment for what I want most at that time.

Oddly enough, this has worked more than once for me. On different ventures-love, career, creativity, etc. Now, whether it's the magic of 11:11 or just knowing what I want and focusing on getting it. I still get excited when I catch the clock.

Apparently there are some crazy theories based around 11:11 but quite frankly, at this time, my brain cannot start to work through the scientific mumbo jumbo behind it! Luckily I have found a YouTube video that breaks it down a bit. Enjoy!

                                                                Be as you wish to seem.
                                                                                                     -Socrates

Let Go

"She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.

She let go of the fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the 'right' reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.
She didn't ask anyone for advice. She didn't read a book on how to let go... She didn't search the scriptures. She just let go. She let go of all of the memories that held her back. She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.

She didn't promise to let go. She didn't journal about it. She didn't write the projected date in her Day-Timer. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn't check the weather report or read her daily horoscope. She just let go.

She didn't analyze whether she should let go. She didn't call her friends to discuss the matter. She didn't do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment. She didn't call the prayer line. She didn't utter one word. She just let go.

No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations. No one thanked her or praised her. No one noticed a thing. Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.

There was no effort. There was no struggle. It wasn't good and it wasn't bad. It was what it was, and it is just that.

In the space of letting go, she let it all be. A small smile came over her face. A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore."

- Ernest Holmes

Quotes

If you've been reading along for my posts, hopefully, you've noticed I end them with a relevant quote.

I love quotes.

For me there is something invigorating about summarizing concisely into a few words (or sometimes a few short sentences) an idea, a feeling, a dream. SO I started a quote blog where I post a quote each day that seems to summarize my day, how I'm feeling, or just ones that hit me for no reason at all.

Here is the link dear friends! A Quote to Get You Through Your Day by Kats Meow.

It is a good thing for an educated man to read books of quotations
                                                                                    -Winston Churchill

Living Your Moksha

So May 1st marks the start of the Living Your Moksha challenge.

I registered today in hopes of getting out of the rut I've been in. I love Moksha. I fell in love almost a year ago and it's kept me grounded and centered-when I've let it, so this challenge is to get me back to letting go, loving the moment, and taking things as they come.

I'm hoping while working through the next 7 weeks and the 7 pillars I'll be able to reach a new level both on and off my mat.

The 7 Pillars which will each have a challenge are:
Be Healthy: We work to support lifelong health of the body and mind.
Be Accessible: Make real the idea that yoga’s benefits are limitless and accessible to all.
Live Green: Live to protect and serve our natural world.
Sangha Support: Believe in the power of community.
Outreach: Use creativity and energy to help others locally and abroad.
Live to Learn: Commit to always learning to stay humble, open, and inspired to serve.
Be Peace: We offer the benefit of our practice to the benefit of all beings everywhere.

 Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.
                                                                                                                     -B.K.S. Iyengar

Revelation

To say that 2012 hasn't been eye-opening, enlightening and a huge year for me at the start of its 4th month would be an understatement.

Alas, we don't choose (wholly) which years impact our lives the most, who comes into our lives and who leaves and I'd be lying if I said as wonderful as it's been there have been some very hard realities about life and myself I've had to face.

The bright side? It gave me a blog topic. ;)

This weekend I've been having a Dawson's Creek marathon. A bit ago I had a Ringer marathon. In December, I watched all the season's of Gilmore Girls.

When life gets hard for me, I turn to television, and more importantly television I watched when I was young, that meant something to me then.

I always wanted to be like Rory, have her mother and her boyfriends, and her life. She knew herself and she always held onto that. But she still allowed herself to change and grow and try new things.

Dawson's Creek will always bring me back to grade 4 and my best friends and I discussing it and using it in projects. And my secret hope that someday I'd be Joey and my best friend would realize he loved me.

I don't typically watch oodles and oodles of television and I love reading. I was the kid who walked home reading a book-walked into many a pole that way- I still carry a book with me when I leave my house. But when things get rough now, I don't read.

I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but slowly I've come to realize that the real reason I do it-and I think the world does it-is because television, movies, they make you feel different than reading. Reading touches people deeper, forces them to feel their own emotions because there's no laugh track, no visible person crying in pain, the subtexts and subtleties of books is raw emotion, and as humans we can't deal with that. We run away to fantasy worlds on screens where we can laugh and just chalk it up to "television."

Even in the most fantastical books there's always some truth, the revenge, the lust, the love, the fear, is real, even if the creatures can't be.

Or perhaps, I'm just philosophizing and books/television/movies all provide the same escape.


“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” 
                                                                           -Charles William Eliot

The Braid

I am in love with braids right now. They are so versatile from a yoga class to a wedding, braids keep your hair out of your face and look ridiculously cute all at once.

The best part is ANY age can find a braid to be "age appropriate" and to suit your own personality.

One of my friends linked our whole group to this DIY Youtube video on a BoHo Twist. It has become one of my standard hairstyles! Simple and lovely.  

Here are a few styles I just think are adorable.

I have been in love with the fishtail braid since Lord of the Rings. It's so much easier than it looks too! Promise!

This one has a DIY on the website which is always nice! 

Rachel McAdams is gorgeous but look how slick her hair is. Wonderful. Not overpowering but making a statement.

I love pigtails and braids so this is just perfect.

Little Red Riding Hood

I'm sure you've noticed that I have a love of Fairytales and often refer to them for various advice and reference. This post is something I would love to take further and by further, I think this would be a wonderful dissertation for when I get to Grad school. That being said, this won't be using academic sources and lots of my own thoughts.

I have been watching the TV show Once Upon a Time and besides it being fantastic and entertaining, I love watching to see how the writers write and rewrite the Fairy Tales they are using. This is the basis of my fascination with Fairytales and why I've been missing my copy of Grimms since I got to Vancouver.

This past Sunday the focus was on "Ruby" in our world or "Red" in Fairytale world. In this version of the tale Red is in love with Peter ("Peter and the Wolf") but Granny is a hardass and won't let them be together, especially during "The Wolf's Time" and is constantly yelling at Red to wear her hood, which as most teenagers do, she rebels against.

So her and Snow White track the wolf during the day so they can kill it while it sleeps and Red will be able to run away with Peter only to discover that the tracks lead to her window! The very window Peter stood under the night before their was a massacre by the wolf.

Red goes to tell Peter that he's the wolf (werewolf) and ties him up with chains and then decides to stay with him all night....not wearing her hood because Snow is wearing it to cover for her.

Granny figures it out and freaks out. Snow doesn't understand until Granny explains that Red is the wolf! The Red Cloak has been enchanted to keep her from turning on the full-moon so they rush to find Red and Peter....but alas, Red has already devoured Peter.

Quite a change from the original right? I'd recount it but most should know the basics and if not click to read a few versions.

So this is what I want to talk about how the story changes due to cultural influences. How the stories evolve and what the folk tales of cultures reflect about that culture.

My quick analysis without any research attached beyond my head knowledge (which we all know is vast and a bit intense) is focused on the sexual aspects of the tale rather than any other focus. Red is known to attract men more than any other colour, yet in the original story the young girl is learning to fear "the wolf" and the sexual advances of the wolf, only to be rescued by another male, warning girls essentially (keep in mind this is a blog so I'm not elaborating) of sex and reminding them of their role in life.

Now in today's televised version the female is told to wear the red hood to keep the wolf away but its when she takes it off that she becomes the wolf...hmm...perhaps commentary on the ever changing sexuality of females and warning men to be careful? It is when she takes the red (known to attract men because they see it as making the wearer more sexually available) cape off that she can pursue and kill those who've hurt her. OR it's a commentary on how females are now taking sex into their own hands and essentially flipping the bird to the old tale. Rewriting it so men are to be warned off of casual and elicit affairs.

They could end up devoured by the wolf.

A gentleman is simply a patient wolf.
                                              -Lana Turner