the life we're currently having

it's a funny thing that we have to learn to be present in our own lives. and humbling how difficult it is to remember. jeremy and i are doing a really good job this year at kicking the winter blues in the nards and it's definately thanks in part to my concentrated efforts in staying presently aware.

this is easier now that i exercise, and exercise is easier now that's it habit, and healthy habits are easier to apply to everything else (food, drinking) when you see their obvious benefits seeping across all aspects of your being like a pleasant, pervasive ooze. maybe more like a fruit smoothie spill.

i do ballet, we do yoga, i walk 10 kilometres every day. i lift weights, i run full tilt for short distances, i dance modern interpretive numbers in the living room. if a day goes by and i don't do any assortment of these things i can actually feel the difference in my body. my head longs to be upside down and my legs long to be stretched forward and backward in some combined motion of dance and circus performance. movement, i think, is one of the secrets of the good life.

stillness is harder but the pathway might be the same. isn't that the point of yoga? inner calm through body connection? something like that? you could say that anything that engages your body and your mind together is something endangered in this life and wholly good and important. i saw pina with jessica on wednesday, that film about the modern dance composer pina bausch, and thought what a worthwhile and noble challenge - to express one's self fully through dance. i can close my eyes and recall the viewing experience, still.

when we aren't pumping iron or practicing our shoulder stand, we're listening to new ideas on TED talks or radiolab. we like our CBC app for iPad - quirks and quarks, stuart mclean, canada reads. classical music on radio 2 because julie nesrallah makes the experience approachable and enjoyable even if you understand only shining bits of what she's saying. mountains of books from the library - right now on our learning table we have a van gogh picture book, walton ford's pancha tantra and the stargazers galaxy atlas.

we paint and sculpt and look for truths in non-fiction books, we write down big ideas on big paper and the chalk door in the kitchen. we're learning the art of massage.

last night we watched mary and max and i highly recommend that you do the same. the story of a young australian girl and her middle aged new york city pen pal balances whimsy with deeply dark truthfulness. that's my favourite blend. i cried in jeremy's lap as the credits rolled and thought about how my tears of sadness carried chemicals of release from my body. leaving me both lighter and heavier with emotion and truth.