Laughing Ladybug Yoga

I’m feeling really grateful this week. I have a wonderful life that’s filled with great friends and family. I’m married to the sweetest and most supportive man alive. And I have TWO jobs that I enjoy! Life is good.

My husband Weldon and I have some wonderful neighbors all up and down our street. We have become especially close to Scott and Dana, who live across the street from us. They are kind and quiet and always ready to lend a hand when something crazy happens (sofas stuck in doorways, car batteries giving out, etc.). Scott and Weldon also share a similar intolerance of speeders, traveling “salesmen,” and other neighborhood nuisances. We enjoy just talking with them in the front yard. I remember one hot day sharing root beer floats together in our front yard, just because it was fun.

The theme for my July newsletter is going to be Friends and Neighbors. For some reason, this time of year, when we’re all outside barbecuing and weedeating and sitting still drinking lemonade, always makes me think of neighbors and how important they are in our lives.

Our neighbors ultimately make up our community, and each of our communities makes up our city. So being a good neighbor helps us maintain a friendly city.

Send me a story about your favorite neighbor. Or if you have a favorite quote about neighbors or friends, please share it with me. I’m gathering things for my newsletter now and I love to have contributions from readers.

Today marks my 105th month smoke-free. I smoked for about 12 years and was up to over a pack a day when I quit.

I quit 4 months before I got married. I couldn’t imagine myself smoking in my wedding dress! And I wanted to start my married life without this habit, with clean lungs and a new outlook. It was so, so, so hard. But with the help of a little pill called Zyban and endless support from my finacee, Weldon,  I was able to do it. (Weldon, of course, is now my wonderful husband of 8 1/2 years.)

I’ve been smoke-free ever since and I celebrate the day I quit, September 11,  2000, every year with a cake from Weldon. I acknowledge the 11th of each month as a milestone for another month smoke-free.

I’m reading a book right now called, My Stroke of Insight, by Jill Bolte Taylor. Dr. Taylor is a Harvard brain scientist that had a massive stroke in 1996, when she was 37 years old. Within four hours, she lost her entire left brain, which is the center of logic, language, and sequence. The constant chatter of her mind was completely silenced. This left her living only in her right brain, where she felt a sense of complete peace and oneness with the universe. She could no longer sense the boundary between her body and the rest of the energy in the world around her.

The book takes us through the morning of the stroke and through her 8-year recovery. This is a fascinating story on so many levels!  She, a brain scientist, got to study the stroke from the inside out, and her findings are astounding. To physicians, recovering stroke patients, their family members, and to us as a human family.

When we meditate, we try to achieve the quieting of this right brain chatter. We are searching for that moment when our true selves expand into the universe and we experience it not as a separate “I,” but as a collective and peaceful “we.” This is what Dr. Taylor experienced for weeks! And the impact on her is profound. It’s as if she died, went to heaven, and was sent back to tell us all about!

I encourage you to take a 20-minute break to watch this video of Jill Bolte Taylor talking about her “stroke of insight.” I promise, it will captivate you.

Jill Bolte Taylor, on how it feels to have a stroke. . .