Yoga House

The Evolution Of Surfer Dude Jim

Jim took two surf lessons back in May when we where visiting Costa Rica with “Surfer Mike.”  Since living here he’s taken three more (two of them with his dad). In the beginning, Jim borrowed a board from our friend Mark. Just after we had decided he was going to buy himself a board his dad gifted him some Christmas money to get himself one. He got a board, leash, wax (called sex wax), and two pairs of board shorts (the old swimsuit was getting to be too big for him anyway). A couple weeks earlier he had got himself a rash guard. Jim has been very diligent about practicing and has surfed Bejuco, Esterillos Oeste, Jaco, and even Hermosa. All the paddling and pushing up to get on his board is transforming his body (as well as the walks he takes with me, the push ups we’ve started doing daily, and changing his eating habits). Since we arrived here in September he’s lost over 15 pounds and is gaining a lot of muscle. Here’s some of what I’ve been able to capture. Clearly, I need to take more photos of him actually surfing as he’s improved so much!

And the evolution continues. Stay tuned!

My Mom Said I Was A Fish

This is the pool I’ve started swimming in. I LOVE this pool. It’s warm and beautiful. Seriously, it’s such a pretty pool to swim laps in. I’ve gone 4 times so far and have swam a half mile twice and a full mile twice. I alternate breast stroke and freestyle (using hand paddles half the time) and throwing in some freestyle kick board work too. I must say though, it’s takes a while to swim a mile when you’ve got friends around that you want to talk to. Nice to have the company though and so nice that my friend Michelle lets me use her incredible pool. Have I said how much I love this pool?! Swimming is one of the two best types of exercise I can do for my scoliosis (yoga being the other). It helps strengthen me symmetrically without it being high impact on my bones. Plus it’s so meditative and sometimes I even have the energy to walk the beach after! LOVE IT!

Best of 2009 Blog Challenge: Best Ad

Lately, I’ve  been into listening to classic poets read their work. Dylan Thomas is one in particular. He authored Jim’s favorite poem Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. On Christmas Eve,  Jim, his mom Susy, older sister Meg, and I listened to Thomas tell his story A Child’s Christmas In Wales, which was a tradition in their family. (Speaking of Dylan Thomas, Jim and I recently watched the film The Edge of Love with Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller.  It tells the story of Thomas’ life through the eyes of the two women he loved. Matthew Rhys did an excellent job playing Thomas too!) As an aside, one of the first characteristics I fell in love with when I met Jim was the way he read. Being a poetry major and the son of a mother with a doctorate in literature he had a distinct way. His response is, “You’ve got to read the punctuation too.” (God I love him.)

So my favorite ad this year is the one below. It’s part of Levi’s Go Forth campaign. This particular ad has great images that remind me of Into the Wild, Woodstock, simplicity, exploration, sex and just being a wild and free spirit. The best part is that it is set to Walt Whitman reading his poem Pioneer! O Pioneers!

The Ever-Evolving Life List

On our trip to Nicaragua week before last I wrote a new life list in my handy, flexible, blank paged Moleskine. (I’m really into this kind of stuff and have a dream board as the wallpaper on my laptop. What can I say? I dig visuals.) Here’s my beauty of a list:

Learn to sail and sail the Aegean. Write a collection of life stories about love and things appearing to be love and get that book published. Research my and Jim’s family histories and find a sick way to store the information online. Stay in a hotel on stilts over the ocean. Learn to surf. Get 100 subscribers to SamAhern.com. Write a cookbook and have it published. Finish the family favorite’s cookbook and give is as an Xmas gift. Sell my baked goods again. Become as confident in my vegan/gluten free/refined sugar free baking as I am in my “conventional” baking. Volunteer at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Buy a house in Boulder, greenify it when needed, and have it be a gathering place for friends and family. Throw an Alice in Wonderland themed tea party in my garden. Cultivate a flower and vegetable garden with a fruit bearing tree. Host my family for Xmas and Thanksgiving, but not in the same year. Become the best partner I can be to Jim. Travel internationally at least once a year for the rest of my life. Continue to cultivate patience and self-kindness. Have/adopt children and teach them the importance of kindness and responsibility. Own a cafe with my sisters and name it The Bedouin Sisters’ Bakery and Cafe (don’t steal that OK?!). Sit every day. Make a quilt for each of my god children. Have one photo of mine in a magazine. Keep traveling. Get my scuba certification. Get back to receiving a monthly massage. Get my yoga certification to strengthen my practice and maybe teach every once in a while. Take my whole family on a trip. Pay off my school loan in my name. Pay off my school loan in my dad’s name. Love up on Sasha and Lita as long and I’m blessed to have their crazy hairy bodies in my life. Buy my dad a house on a body of water, or at least get him the jet-ski to go with the house. Own my home and car outright. Live close enough to the grocery store and other places I like to frequent so I can walk and bike easily. Have a herd of goats and let children come over to play with them. Have five rental properties, with renters in them, paying rent (and then give them to my god children and children). Express my love and appreciation for people and their efforts, often. Read over twelve novels a year and a bunch of other non-novely books. Know that nothing outside of me is going to make me happy. Have a TV (or a good monitor) only for movies (preferably foreign flicks, con films, or musicals…and maybe some Fraggle Rock) and not as the focal point of the living room, if at all in that room and most definitely never in the bedroom. Finish my ngondro. Keep my math/science mind buff and develop my writing muscles. Become an early riser. Travel back to Saudi at least one more time before my dad retires, but hopefully more so I can bring my kids there if possible. Find a fulfilling way to earn a living that contributes to my family. Split my years between Boulder and somewhere by the ocean (with lots of other added trips). Plant a tree when my children are born, on my own property. Do the November Course at Kopan. Be She-Ra for Halloween (gold cuffs and all). Drive along the west coast dipping into Mexico and Canada. Take a train trip across the US. Become a certified vegan chef. Pose nude for an art class. See Coldplay again live (preferably multiple times). Enjoy a chocolate croissant in Paris (that I ordered in French). Travel to: Thailand, India, Nepal, Tibet, Vancouver, San Francisco, Halifax…the list goes on and there are many more specifics. Revisit: Turkey, Italy, Spain. Drive to Alaska with Jim and the girls in a truck. Have grey hair and rock it. Be a swimming yogaing machine at age 60.

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