Howdy! Howdy!

Here's my recent attempt to update the only blog that has been stable these past years that I've been blogging.

Happy Holidays! – 2007

Dear Family & Friends:

2007 – The year of the summer that almost didn’t happen - the year of the summer that never was. Wow! Unprecedented coolness and wetness in Central Texas. My lack of excessive utility bills was the bonus, but fields of standing water were everywhere. Now we have an above average, warmer than usual Fall. Go figure!

2007 was/is another year of travel as Tommy and I visited San Diego, California, Round Top, Texas, the Rainbow Gathering in the Ozark National Forest in Arkansas, Palmetto State Park near Luling east of Seguin, a cabin in New Braunfels and soon to be in San Francisco for the week of Christmas. I also got to several Yoga retreats near Brenham.

2007 – The year I taught Kundalini Yoga at the Texas State Capitol. I am now a certified Yoga Instructor and hope to be teaching yoga classes in my studio at the house on Monday evenings at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at noon. After each class, I will serve yogi tea made with ginger, cinnamon bark, cardamom pods, cloves and black peppercorns and a bit of soymilk and sweetness using agave syrup. Yummy! As good as any chai tea.

2007 - Oh joy! We are here again celebrating and imagining our lives together. I am remembering holidays past spending time with family and friends whether it was in front of a fireplace watching the logs burn and feeling cozy and warm, in a Catholic Church, at Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill in San Francisco, visiting relatives near Big Foot, Texas, or at any beach (my favorite place to commune with nature) on the Gulf coast, the West Coast, in Hawai’i or on Harbour Island, Bahamas.

One Christmas when I still believed in Santa Claus, I remember Mom & Dad taking my sister and me out to fill gas in the car. When we arrived back home, Santa Claus had arrived and brought us a 33 rpm record player with Andy Williams and Tennessee Ernie Ford singing their hearts out.

I am reflecting on what I would like the holidays to be – my perfect holiday season. No rushing! And not so much food! When I was growing up and still in the aura of my parent’s home, I imagined how my lifestyle would be. Getting up early in the morning was part of that vision. After 57 years of searching I’ve finally found that semblance of a lifestyle. For the past 3½ years, I have been getting up around 3:30 a.m. and joining the people who may or may not have shown up at 4:30 to do yoga at the Westgate Yoga Yoga studio. We pray, do some yoga for 1 hour and then chant for another hour. I lead the group on Thursday mornings. The benefits of doing this “sadhana” are immense. It keeps me going all day long without getting dragged out and tired.

One immediate result of sadhana is the remembrance of "who we are" rather than "what we are". Repetitively remembering our inner essence nature is at the heart of all spiritual growth. One day we will all remember our spiritual essence in every moment. Sadhana is whatever you do consistently to clear your own consciousness so you can relate to the infinity within you. I choose to do it through my daily discipline of meditation at dawn.

On a final note: We finally got rid of the upstairs neighbors when we heard way too much fighting going on and found one dead a few days later. We called the exterminator and they sealed up all the ways the critters could get in the attic and gave the squirrel a decent burial.

Happiest of days yet to come, Love to you all ~ Cynthia Good