Student of the Month

I am the featured student of the month at my yoga studio, Gratitude Yoga. I answered some questions for the newsletter and I wanted to share what I wrote with you.

About me:
I am from San Antonio and moved to Mansfield over a year ago to attend physician assistant school at UNT Health Science Center. I am married and have two cats. Besides yoga, I love to read, play the piano and travel.

What brought you to Gratitude Yoga?

Several years ago I was in a car accident and broke my back. I had been having a lot of pain due to two bulging disks and my doctor recommended yoga to help. I had never done any yoga or even seen anyone do yoga when I came to Gratitude in January. 

How has yoga impacted your life?

Yoga has completely changed my life. Before yoga, I was suffering from pain on a daily basis. Now I rarely, if ever have pain. I feel so much stronger and more flexible. Along with the physical benefits, yoga really helps me to relax, feel less stressed and be happy. I have so much fun, if you are in a class with me more often than not I am laughing.

Advice for other students:

Enjoy and celebrate your practice. I love yoga because it’s not a sport or competition. It’s a moving, breathing practice. Every day it’s different, some days the simplest poses are very challenging and other days I am able to do things I never thought possible.  

Acro yoga fun

Shock and Awe

I recently finished reading Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann.  Some of the book is centered around the tight rope walker, Philippe Petit, that "danced" across the world trade center towers for 40 minutes on August 7, 1974. I can't believe I had never heard about this before. The book tells stories of different characters and describes their reactions and interpretations of this event. It was so interesting to me how everyone experienced it differently. For example one character is a mother who just lost her son in the Vietnam war so she is angered and outraged that someone could be so careless with their life. Some characters thought it was an ultimate act of defiance. Some people thought it was an insane person possibly after fame and fortune. I think the book is really about how our past experiences define us, our thoughts, ideas, and interpretations. I am sure today people's reactions are influenced by the 9/11 attacks. The book was incredibly well written and gave profound insight into the human condition.

I still had a lot of questions about Philippe Petit and how anyone could go about accomplishing such an impossible task so I watched the most recent documentary called Man on a Wire. He is quite an eccentric and energetic artist. When he was telling the story I felt like I was reading a book. He includes all the small details that really bring a story to life. It took him six years to plan and there was an unbelievable amount of obstacles such as breaking into both towers simultaneously, how to run the wire across, etc. Every interview I saw, the witnesses broke down in tears when describing it. It was such a powerful and overwhelming event. Philippe didn't just walk across the rope, he ran, jumped, danced, even laid down on the wire. It is a pretty amazing story. Philippe gave no reason why he did it, to him it was art. He got the idea when he was 17 while reading a newspaper article about the world trade center towers being built, he did not rest until he accomplished his dream.

In the documentary, they ask him if he was afraid of death, his response was "If I die, what a beautiful death. To die in the exercise of your passion."

"The world is run by brutal men and the surest proof is their armies. If they ask you to stand still, you should dance. If they ask you to burn the flag, wave it. If they ask you to murder, re-create." -Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

 “She was tired of everyone wanting to go to heaven, nobody wanting to die. The only thing worth grieving over, she said, was that sometimes there was more beauty in this life than the world could bear.” -Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

“He might have been naive, but he didn't care; he said he's rather die with his heart on his sleeve than end up another cynic.”  -Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

“Literature can remind us that not all life is already written down: there are still so many stories to be told.” -Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

NOLA Favorite Things

These are a few of my favorite things...we did in New Orleans.

My sister wanted to go on this bicycle tour for her birthday and I am so glad we did. It was just Sarah, Josh and me plus a cute Australian couple. We biked all through New Orleans and we had the BEST tour guide. It was so much fun, I am now shopping for a bike.

The tour was by Confederacy of Cruisers (website)

Our tour guide with NOCCA in the background. The school of performing arts.

The bike tour stopped at the house my grandmother grew up in on Royal St. It was flooded during Katrina but survived.

I just love how the asphalt crumbles away to reveal an old brick road, sometimes cobblestones. 

I love my great Aunt Dot. She reminds me so much of my grandmother. So smart, witty and hilarious. We are constantly laughing. I can't wait to visit again.

Max watching football with Uncle John. Geaux Saints!!

We visited William Faulkner's old house and now the front room is a book store. The current owners who live there told us sometimes you can smell fresh pipe tobacco, maybe Williams ghost.

I will own this Jane Austen set one day.

I ended up purchasing this copy of Great Expectations. This was my first book love affair, I read it three times as a child.

Sister slumber parties and our lovely pineapple hair. (another joy of having curly hair)

Jackson square. Such a cool place with palm readers, tarot cards and art galleries right in front of Saint Louis Cathedral.

We went to the hurricane Katrina museum. It is definitely a must see. I was in boarding school at the time of the hurricane and we didn't have cable, newspapers, magazines or internet so I actually missed the whole thing. My cousins who live in New Orleans, were there through everything. Their house was completely destroyed and they took refuge in the superdome trudging through the raw sewage. I will have to share their unbelievable story sometime.

Dinner at Irene's! (twice) I literally cried the food was so good. On my sisters birthday we had a giant three course dinner at 11 pm. The restaurant had closed and we had the whole place to ourselves. All the waiters sang to her and we had such a good time. If you go, you have to get the bananas foster bread pudding. It is to die for.

Birthday kiss

Shopping

Stop taking pictures of us mom.

Another highlight of our trip was Dr Bob's art studio. Dr Bob used to be homeless and salvaged old wood and bottle caps to make art that he displayed and sold around New Orleans. Most of his art features his slogan "Be Nice or Leave". Now he is a famous folk artist and one of his pieces will be featured in the White House library in DC. Bob told us the secret service came picked the worst piece of art he had.

Dr Bob and his dog George. He is such a cool and quirky guy. He even gave Max a lagniappe, which means a little something extra. Sort of a gift from store owners, Bob picked out a piece of art and gave it to Max.

And of course I could not list my favorite things without beignets :-)

The Cure

So far this semester, school seems to be sucking the life out of me. Everyday I feel like I'm treading water, just trying to stay afloat. This past weekend I went to New Orleans with my family to celebrate my sister's birthday. It was only a matter of hours before I was feeling like myself again. This city is definitely one of my favorites. It has such a unique life of it's own, an internal rhythm, a heartbeat. The history, the culture, the music, the food, the art. It is a place I could run away to. I could completely abandon my left brain and embrace creativity. I would read, write and make music. I could trade in my classical piano training for some jazz. So if life is ever getting you down, try visiting New Orleans for a cure.

A daily dose of beignets (that's 4 times in 4 days)

Preservation Hall was an amazing jazz club. As good as it gets. 

I love the street music. It's not just the brass instruments but I watched a violinist, an electric guitar player, I even saw someone playing a kora (African harp) There was also an occopelo group and I loved watching/listening to two guys tap dancing on drain covers in the street.

I was sitting in Cafe du Monde eating beignets and listening to this saxophone player. Total bliss.

This was after a day of biking around New Orleans (more to come)

Gathering around my great aunt and uncle to hear their incredible stories.

There are not very many tourists in New Orleans in August (supposed to be 1000 degrees) And along with the rain, the streets were mostly empty during the day. We felt like we were walking on a movie set.

Bourbon St was still packed at night.

Louisiana Sunset

Plan B

I am only starting the fourth week of this semester and I am not sure how I am going to survive. I have already had two midterms and one final. I have already forgotten to turn in a homework assignment (which has never ever happened to me) I have already lost five pounds due to stress. I think it might be a good time to evaluate my plan B.

A few weeks ago I was talking with some friends at school about what we would be doing if we weren't in PA school. I said I would join whale wars. I have been thinking about it and I think I can make a pretty good case. First, I LOVE whales, specifically humpback whales. I think most people feel a strong connection with a particular animal and this one is mine. Their size alone is enough to take your breath away. They are such gentle creatures, they just eat small fish and plankton. They jump. They sing!  The first rule of being on whale wars is to agree that you would give your life to save one whale. I think I can handle that. I don't think I would want to be on THE whale wars, just a similar, more effective, expedition. The main obvious problem is that I hate the cold, but I think in Antarctica, I would get used to it.

Before PA school, my back up plan was to get a masters degree in toxicology and maybe a phd. I would love to study environmental toxins. But if I failed out of grad school, I think I would like to take a sabbatical from academia and go on an adventure.


Last year when the mother and baby gray whales got trapped in the Klamath River in California I cried. If you don't remember, the baby escaped but the mother died. The following pics are from the event. 

Here is a humpback whale. No one is sure why they jump.