The Sadhana of Something so Simple

Sadhana is one of my favorite Sanskrit words. It means a spiritual practice, but the meaning runs much deeper and has a thousand variations. My own interpretation of this word is much richer. To me Sadhana means bringing a sacred awareness to the ordinary. In other words making your sadhana your daily practice of living. The ordinary things you do every day have a beautiful sacredness to them. It can be something as simple as washing the dishes, making your bed, taking a bike ride, preparing food. If we do these things with an attention to the richness they bring in to our lives....they become a form of sadhana.

As the beautiful harvest from the garden has unfolded this year, I have noticed the richness it has brought to the food I prepare. I couldn't help taking pictures of these beautiful lunches I prepared over the past few weeks. The gorgeous colors of the food, the freshness of it all (no 10 day trip in a truck), the various tastes and textures. It has brought me into a wonderful awareness of how nourishing and life giving our food can be. We can infuse even more nourishment into our food by preparing it with Sadhana. Enjoy!

The Full Moon and The Autumnal Equinox

The Harvest Moon

Oh what a beautiful night it was for the full harvest moon and the autumn equinox.  We just had to celebrate!  Jeanette (my sis) and I headed up the canyon to our favorite quiet spot.  We wanted to light a fire and just take some time to meditate and talk and review our wonderful, tumultuous year, hasn't it been something?    When we arrived someone had laid out a fire ring and stacked some wood beside it.....it was as if they knew we were coming....it was glorious.  I love serendipitous events like that!

We laid out our blanket and chairs and lit our fire and sat by the river......oh, the gorgeous sounds of rushing water, there is nothing to compare.  We talked and talked until we were all talked out...no interruptions, no tugging from kids, no corrections from husbands....just the two of us.  Peace.  Bliss.  Reverence.  Sadhana.  We decided to scribble the things we were done with in our lives down on paper and then we simultaneously threw them in the fire!  Done, finished, lessons learned!  We watched as the flames engulfed them and turned them into tiny little specs of ash.

The Moon and Saturn

We took some time for quiet meditation and enjoyed just being there among all the earth elements at once.  Solid and grounded by the earth, lit up by the full moon, soothed by the rushing water, smudged by the smokey fire and caressed by the wind.  We looked up into the trees surrounding us like a wise old group of ancient spirits, swaying too and fro with the wind.  We sang every song we knew that had the word moon in it!  And when the last embers of the fire finally died..........we drove down the mountain.  Beautiful and peaceful....ready for the transformation into Fall!

We Worked Hard at Our Spa Vacation!

Tennis Court Galore!

A View of our lovely room!

We were hiking girls!

One of many Pools

The Roses!

Miriam our personal trainer!

The Petrified Sand Dunes

Just so you know that we weren't just sitting around enjoying the scenery, here's a list of the things Amanda  and I did on Tuesday at our spa resort.  Up early 6:30am breakfast, 7am hiking, extra long because we were faster than the others and so we got to go longer...ha,ha, thanks Kim!  Back in time for the water aerobics where we first met Miriam.  Who continued to politely kick our little tails for the rest of our vacation.  After water aerobics, lunch and then meditation class at 1pm, 2pm was gentle stretching class but we took a nap instead.  We did show up for the 3pm Circuit Workout and wanted to shove cute Miriam in a closet before it ended, she is so full of energy and always up, up , up!  Jog it out, now lift  100 lbs but just for 3 minutes, 8, 7, 6, 5.....now back to jogging!  And 1, 2, 3, 4...... Switch!  At 4pm we went to yoga, the only class not taught by Miriam, it was Ali and she was fantastic, but of course Miriam came to yoga and did it with us!  Then at 5pm Miriam taught a class to show us what type of exercise we should be doing for our body type!  Apparently a lot more cardio than I have been doing!  Then 6:30pm dinner!  Yes!  Then we crawled to our room and were too tired to crawl out again until morning!  But our beds were so cosy with down feather beds and comforters and down pillows and oh, it was heaven!