Tue 9 Mar 2010

Yoga: A Joyful Reunion

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Many years  ago, Cece wrote a poem called “The Reunion.”  The poem spoke about the parched earth and the river and how, at points in the river , it dried up to a trickle.   All were yearning for rain.   Here is part of that poem:

“”….The river herself

Is joyous

As she is reunited

With her other half

Who had been

Separated

For oh too long

By a reef of sand……

And I,   as I

Encounter

know that this river

is me.

A reunion

is occurring.

The selves of the self

Are embracing

We are joyous

We are whole

We are one.”

This is precisely how Cece felt tonight as she took her first yoga class in 2 years…she has not practiced yoga since the shoulder injury from the car accident.

In yoga, there is a term called “avidya”   which means veiled  or clouded thinking.  It is a term that is used to call our attention to beliefs that we hold to be true…but perhaps are not true.  It calls us to look at things from different perspectives and to see things from various angles…to challenge them to see if what we believe to be true HAS to be true….

Years ago, yoga saved Cece’s life.  It taught her to confront the ideas she held about her physical , spiritual and emotional self…and her ideas about food and eating…and helped her to get off the couch and become a more healthy active and well rounded person.   It helped her to get more balance in her life.

So tonight, Cece began again… the practice of yoga.   She entered the

Atmabodh Yoga  Studio of Anil Poovadan….in Bernalillo and smelled something delicious cooking!  She felt comforted and right at home.

Later,  as she was adjusted in trikonasana, she felt and breathed in that new perspective…and breathed in that new breath…her eyes opened wide….her body start humming…and she got a little high from all the extra oxygen that she was putting into her system!

As she drove home from class, she was not surprised when she started to cry.  Yoga always open her up…it makes the river flow….the blood flow…the breath to  breathe again…it makes what seems so impossible…possible….it makes what we cannot attain…attainable….

Each one of us can have a different way  to find a  ”home that we belong”  in.  It is worthy of rejoicing  when we find the one that opens our heart and mind to the greater world and reunites us with our true self.  Tears are worthy of shedding… as are  our  old beliefs.

“Bye for Now”  from The Two Whos

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Mon 8 Mar 2010

The End of Hope? Is this Absurd?

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Cece sent Yun an email with the same old SEO attitude: “Please go do something about this stuff I dug out from cyberspace!”   This time, it is about the popular topics people search.  Not sure what Cece’s searching algorithm is, but the top one that came back is: “The end of hope.”

Cece thinks of the Academy Award nominated actress Sandra Bullock in her movie “Hope Floats” and wonders if Cece and Yun will ever end the hope for true love!  Off course not.  But is this the end of hope that the searches are worrying about!

The TwoWhos  blog is full of hope for change.   The Gift of Beauty is solely hope based: we hope to see beauty in everyday life!  Our SEO venture is impossible to understand, but we are hopeful one day  we will master it.  The single mother’s dance is all about hope:   hope  in the mist of a challenging situation.  The list can go on and on….

What is the end of  hope?

For optimistic Yun,  hope is a mindset, not an objective state like the state of 0  or 1 in the digital world.  The beauty of our  mindset is that a mindset can be changed whenever we want to.   Empowerment means  that we get to choose which mindset we want to adopt that serves our livelihood  better.  It is never engraved on a stone.  So, the end of hope is absurd, it is like saying the end of human thinking….

…or Cece says the end of human being. ….. Cece knows of someone who recently committed suicide.  Certainly THIS is the end of hope. There is no return from this, no change in mindset.  It is final. When the woman worries that her abuser will get out of jail and kill her, certainly there is a hope that the  police will let her know when he gets out of jail..but is that a realistic hope?   There will be no worries about grey hair here …just the finality of  the choice making.   Sometimes there is no hope.  No hope that the abuser will change.  No hope that the child rapist will not re-offend living  in the community across from a school…no hope in recovery.  No hope in change.  It is very difficult to change the mind set…and this only happens if the person works hard to do so and gets lots of help and support in doing so.  More often that not, certain hope is not restored.

 Cece is a realist, Yun an optimist…both are  different types of thinkers. Different perspectives are very important in life to provide clarity and possibilities.   The end of hope can really be hitting the stone wall, or just encountering a raining day.   By listening to different points of view, we might have hope of change even in the darkest of moments…

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

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Sat 6 Mar 2010

Saturday Morning Rendezvous With: Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution!

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Childhood obesity has become an epidemic  in this country.

• Nearly one in three (32%, 23 million) American children are obese or overweight.
• In total, 17% of kids of all ages are obese, but this rises to over 25% in all but three states for kids aged 10-17.
• Most obese children (over 80%) will also be obese as adults.
• Today’s generation of children are predicted to be the first to die before their parents, due to obesity-related bad health.

After revamping the school lunch programs in England,   Jamie Oliver, renowned British chef, has started a campaign for healthy eating here is the US.   He is passionate about modifying the school lunch programs in the United States to include more whole foods and vegetable and less junk and processed food.  He has a television series coming up that details his campaign in the most unhealthy city in the country. It begins on March 26, 2010 at 9pm  on ABC.

Jamie’s Food Revolution is all about replacing junk, snacks and processed food with freshly cooked nutritious meals – in schools and at home. After three months working in Huntington, WV, Jamie has seen how a little bit of confidence can change people’s lives and their health prospects. He believes that American people have the power to halt the obesity epidemic.

Here’s what you can do right now:

America’s food revolution – be a part of it!

Great revolutions happen when the people get mad enough about a problem to do something radical. If you believe in your right to better food and health prospects for your children, join America’s Food Revolution now. You have the power to change America, family by family. Here are some things you can do:

*  Sign the petition  (click on logo above to do so)

* Get your family, friends, and everyone you know to sign the petition too.
* Start a food revolution in your child’s school.
* Start a food revolution in your community.
* Pass on your knowledge and show your kids how to cook.

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

The Saturday Morning Rendezvous will be a place to stop in and meet up  on a weekend morning.  Have a cup of tea or coffee, a special breakfast,  and relax and catch up from the week’s fast pace.  The Two Whos will focus Saturday’s content on physical wellness and fitness of all types.  Come back and rendezvous with us!    See you next  Saturday!  Thanks for visiting.

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Fri 5 Mar 2010

The Gift of Beauty is Everywhere!

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Sometimes, we can get caught up in mundane  things and forget to see that the beauty of life is everywhere: a kind gesture, an appreciative note, an open door, a beautiful flower, or a container of left over food…  We give the gift of beauty everyday to each other; beautiful heart, beautiful action, beautiful food, beautiful words, beautiful flowers…  The gift of beauty can come a full cycle…

Cece calls Yun  and marvels at the flowers Yun brought for her over the weekend: “They are so beautiful,  The unopened buds are like the music notes, bouncing ups and down like they are dancing!   Thank you so much!”  Cece is a visual artist, so you know.

Yun equally has things to marvel at except she is not so visual arty: “The beef soup you send home with me is so delicious, even Patrick likes it.  Now I know that he likes gourmet authentic food.  The 9 year old?  I am in trouble, but thank you!”

The flowers, the soup are the chain of gift of beauty from one human to another….

Cece always goes out of her way to help people, including her employees.  Not to go into details,  she has given the gift of a beautiful heart to one of her employees.

Last Friday morning, Yun got a phone call from Cece: “Wow, my employee brought me a big pot of Vietnamese beef soup with the rice noodle enough to feed an army.  She knows how much I like Vietnamese soup, and this is her way to thank me for helping her…. “  The wonderful lady has given Cece the gift of a beautiful home made meal.

Cece said: “Come on over and let’s have a feast on this wonderful most delicious meal.  I will call Stephanie….”  Here, she open her home and spread the gift of beautiful friendship…

Yun wanted to surprise Cece with some beautiful flowers.  Cece was greeted at the door by Yun who announced “I will arrange them for you.”   While Cece was preparing the food, Yun was arranging the big bouquet of flowers into three vases: small one for Cece’s bathroom, large one for the living room and medium one for the alter…  She watched in amazement as Yun meticulously cut the tips and trimmed the leaves as the cats looked on with joy!  If  Cece had done this, she would not have done it with such beauty and caring.  She would have plopped them into a vase and called them “arranged!”

Later, the gift of beauty, came full cycle when Yun went home with the left over beef soup that makes her pizza-hamburger-addictive young son fall in love with Vietnamese beef  soup!  Talking about the best cultural education!

Beauty is in the eyes  of the  beholder.  We  hope you have very generous eyes for beauty,  and a very generous heart to give and receive beauty, so you will see the gift of beauty even in the mundane things…

“Bye for Now” From The Two Whos

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Wed 3 Mar 2010

Mid-Week Symphony:This is Where I Stand!

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We live life in a spinning world full of values, standards, rules, common senses, expectations, dogmas and many shoulds…  Sometimes, some of us can feel out of place and do not quite fit into the mainstream of things.  It takes  courage to know where you stand and to be able to ”… look back with firm eyes, saying: “This is where I stand!” “

Self Portrait - By David Whyte

It doesn’t interest me if there is one God
Or many gods.
I want to know if you belong — or feel abandoned;
If you know despair
Or can see it in others.
I want to know
If you are prepared to live in the world
With its harsh need to change you;
If you can look back with firm eyes
Saying “this is where I stand.”
I want to know if you know how to melt
Into that fierce heat of living
Falling toward the center of your longing.
I want to know if you are willing
To live day by day
With the consequence of love
And the bitter unwanted passion
Of your sure defeat.
I have been told
In that fierce embrace
Even the gods
Speak of God.

=====================================================

About The Mid-Week  Symphony: Since Wednesday is hump day, we have decided to take this moment and bronze it and have a bit of down time from the writing.  We thought each Wednesday  we would like to bring you a symphony of ideas, a harmony of thoughts, beauty, silliness and all things that make the fullness of life.  When we started this blog we wanted it to reflect our entire personalities and interests..and that means yes…. Cece loves  the Far Side Cows and Yun loves the mumble jumble philosophical books.   Yun and Cece have many interests and we would like to share some of them with you each Wednesday.

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