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by Jacki

Springy Odds + Ends

By Jacki Souza
May 17, 2013
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It’s Friday! This week seemed to fly by. This weekend, if the weather permits, we’ll be painting our deck. Our yard is really blossoming as the weather finally fully shifts into spring – lilacs are blooming, the candylions* are flourishing, the grass (where it actually grows) is shooting up at record speeds and I even saw a hummingbird feeding at my rhododendron bush earlier this week. This week, in celebration of spring, I spruced up the blog a little – new colors and a fresh new header. The functions and layout of the site are the same, but I like the new colors and I’ve increased the font size for better readability (I hope – if it’s not that way on your screen, let me know!). I guess this space will always be a work in progress to some extent. A few good reads from the week … I, like many, was really surprised to read that Angelina Jolie underwent a prophylactic mastectomy earlier this year. Her op-ed piece in the New York Times discussing her decision and the procedures was rather touching. Thought Catalog is pretty hit or miss for me sometimes, but I really enjoyed a few pieces …Read More

This is Water

By Jacki Souza
May 13, 2013
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When you have a few minutes to spend, I highly recommend watching This is Water. Matt shared it with me over the weekend and it really struck home. (You can also listen to the full speech here, or read in essay form here.) A short video adaptation of a commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace in 2005, “This is Water” is well worth watching, and probably re-watching – or re-reading the full text – periodically. It’s not your typical commencement speech, but it’s probably the best I’ve heard, and serves as a powerful reminder to be “conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.” I can’t recommend it enough.

Happy Mother’s Day!

By Jacki Souza
May 12, 2013
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Happy Mother’s Day! … to all you moms, grammies, stepmamas, aunties, expectant moms and other mom-types out there! Wishing each of you a day full of joy and love, with special thanks to my own precious mom. And special love to my friends who are grieving today, for whatever reasons are yours. For children or babies lost, for babies who will not be. I know that this is a hard day for many, and I wish you, too, joy and love – and strength. (Image Credit – Shutterstock)

Cultivating a Personal Yoga Practice – Beginnings

By Jacki Souza
May 9, 2013
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After getting back on the mat recently I started thinking about my relationship with my body and my relationship with yoga. Although I’ve dabbled in plenty of different fitness routines – Zumba, running, kick-boxing, and one four-month obsession with Tae-Bo during my senior year of high school – nothing has made me feel (or look) as good as regular, consistent yoga. And I’ve never enjoyed the other activities as much as I enjoy yoga, either. I know there are lots of different views on yoga. Some people don’t like the word “practicing” and some people don’t want to say “namaste” or dip their toes into anything beyond the asana – the poses, the movements. For some it is strictly exercise and for some it is a more holistic experience. For me, yoga spoke to something in me right away. It touched something in me – a mind/body connectedness, a harmony between my inner and outer selves. I couldn’t practice yoga and hate myself at the same time, and I loved that about yoga. I grew to love the asana, the community of people who gathered in the studio, some familiar faces and some unfamiliar ones each time. I loved listening …Read More

Absence and Presence

By Jacki Souza
May 4, 2013
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I’ve been a little absent on the internet this week and a little more present in real life. Not a bad feeling. Meg Keene’s recent piece about taking a weekly break and being more present in real life – like lying in the hammock with her baby instead of pinning images of other people’s gardens – really resonated with me. That’s not to say I’m planning to totally unplug on weekends, but it’s kind of nice to pull back sometimes. We bought a lawnmower this weekend – which I now realize was our first major joint home purchase! Matt put it together while I raked and pulled weeds and co-supervised E and the neighbor kids as they ran between our yards. It feels good getting back into the spring yardwork groove, and we have a lot to do this month. It’s been fun lately, with the weather warming, to watch as E becomes buddies with T and B, our neighbor’s children – a brother and sister close in age with E, whose dad Matt has known since childhood. Little T is cut from the same cloth as E, and recently told me, “I am FAST! Like a race car!” He …Read More