What Olympic sports do you enjoy watching the most?

Probably the winter ones. Skiiing. Idk

How would you improve your community?

Just reading over all the responses has been inspiring. You all have great ideas!

I have always enjoyed being part of community building events. They seem to put everyone is a good mood. Usually there is some art or design needed so I get to do something fun and interesting and within my skill set.

Next week I will be reading my book in classrooms and teaching kids ages five to eleven a simple breathing exercise. I hope there’s a little community building element in that. (It’s actually marketing research, so nothing altruistic at all)

I liked the blogs I read about being kind and paying it forward. These are things I can do every day and on my own. Improving our community can be simple or complicated. Offen, as was pointed out, it’s a lot of little things that add up to big differences. still the big ideas sounded really good.

(I do hope, one day, that teaching simple concious breathing techniques will improve the lives of kids and teachers and families and therefore communities. For now Im just grateful for the opportunities to try it out!) A huge thank you to my teacher friends!

How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?

It’s been four years since the shut down. That was a weird time. The first day everything in our life closed. Oh my! Work. G is a contractor. I was staging homes and working at a yoga studio which closed its doors forever. The gym. The beach. We were used to being pretty active, but suddenly there was no walking or running or surfing at the beach. No yoga, no working out. All of our mental health hacks seemed to be gone in one day.

Liquor stores stayed open. We started walking in our hilly neighborhood. I had a small group of yoga friends who I walked with. We wore masks and spaced ourselves six feet from one another. We got the idea to invite our favorite yoga instructors over to teach in our back yards. Trevor started filming and putting his classes online. From there we established a daily yoga practice.

Our little group of yoga girls grew in number. We walked, we listened to talks, we celebrated birthdays. Did art projects. We became a kind of lock down family. we gave ourselves some structure. We kept our spirits up. We encouraged and championed each other.

One day I was sorting through my dried up art supplies and unfinished work and there scattered with other paintings were the beginnings of my book illustrations.. My favorite paints were used up or dried out.There was no money being made. I thought that I would revisit the project when life improved.

As the weeks turned to months and those months became years, I realized that waiting for a better day was possibly not going to happen any time soon. On day I hauled out the paintings in all their many stages of completion and started working on them. I was hearing stories of kids losing out on social interactions, many for most of their life. Teens getting slammed by social media in place of in person friendships. It was a stressful time for many young families and many children. I personally was trouble shooting for my own mental state and was in part saved by breath to movement yoga and meditation. I wondered if kids could be introduced to breath work.

The text and the pictures worked themselves together like a little miracles of sorts and slowly I had a story that reminded me of the world’s metaphorical cocooning.. Beatrix Butterfly was a covid metamorphosis story. I morphed, my friend’s morphed, the whole world morphed and so did Beatrix.

The pandemic changed nearly every aspect of my life. Many things not for the better, but the different life I have now, has unfolded with many interesting miracles. I miss our old yoga studio. I miss staging homes, I miss things from before 2020, but life does move on and I couldn’t help moving with it. I’m happy to have this nearly completed book now. It’s a triumph. Im surprised , yet not surprised by how its ending. Much the same as Beatrixs story, mine is still unfolding and I’m still breathing through it all. We all came out of the pandemic. And here we are.

What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?

It depends on the day. Hydrate, Coffee, intentions, gratitude, yoga, a walk, a shower. Blog. Meditate.catch up with texts from friends and family. Read… In no particular order.

Today I woke up in this magical time warp of a place. Before opening my eyes I do my gratitude exercise, I set a few intentions for the day. Then a long, hot shower, long enough to smell coffee brewing and wafting around the hotel room. Already I’m having the best morning ever. I can see the ocean from the bathroom window. A little yoga, some breath to movement squats and planks.

I really have no idea what today will look like, but the morning so far, has settled me into a good state to start.

Which aspects do you think makes a person unique?

I think we are unique for all different reasons. Specifically, genetics, upbringing, and perspective to name a few. I’m fascinated by the way each person approaches life. I love differences. I realize there’s a strong human want to make everyone see things similarly. Maybe so we can all be part of the same tribe? Myself, I prefer the Biggest Little Farm approach to diversity. The more the better. How many varieties of stone fruit ARE there? Let’s plant them all! In nature, diversity is advantageous, I like to think it is among humans too, but I know it’s hard. Diversity, division…uniqueness. Hmmm…