Thoughts

I've never worn a two-piece bathing suit before, but on Thanksgiving Day, at age 48, I decided to give it a try. As soon as I had it on, th

Notes from House of Tarot rehearsal: There aren't enough veils to go around, so a helpful dancer loans me one. The costume veils are long

The office team: "And then we'll give it to Angie, and she'll work her magic on it."

Thirty minutes at Honeyfest: A neighbor whose property faces the festival hung a giant banner that said THIS IS ULTRA MAGA COUNTRY," but las

<p>I got an insane sunburn yesterday, which necessitated me going to an antique store to get this $12 black hat, so I spent today&#8217;s hikes looking like a widow. We visited two waterfalls that were basically being used as selfie stations. I was bothered by people walking where signs asked them not to walk. I [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Complicated feelings ahead: Last month my Facebook timeline was full of pictures of bellydancers performing at Pride, all decked out in rainbow gear and using rainbow marketing. Most of these dancers were straight, to the best of my knowledge, and that&#8217;s fine. One, I believe in allyship, and two, no one is required to give [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I just did a hilarious yoga class where this skinny teacher and her skinny assistant laid down on their backs with straps under their lumbar curves and made a big fuss about how hard they had to work not to pull them out. &#8220;Can you feel how hard your abs have to work to hold [&hellip;]</p>

<p>How to survive a forty minute MRI 1) In your head, run through all your current accordion songs to the beat of the machine. It will be like a very weird accordion industrial party. Don’t accidentally squeeze the emergency alert ball, even if you get caught up thinking about bellows directions. 2) Then run through [&hellip;]</p>

<p>If you take a tour of my college, they show you two gyms. They describe one as the gym for “more chill workouts” and the other as the “serious free weight gym.” These descriptions annoy me whenever the tour comes through the chill gym and I’m standing there panting with my red face and calloused [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Why Tribal Bellydance matters to me: Yesterday in class, a dancer was having trouble with her balance. Because of her health concerns, a fall could be very hazardous, so it&#8217;s really important for her to stay upright. At one point, in quartet formation, a turn we were practicing almost knocked her over, and the dancer [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A friend asked me what words I prefer to address the concept of fat bodies, and this is my response after thinking about it overnight. 1) I don&#8217;t like to use the word &#8220;overweight&#8221; because it implies that there is an ideal weight for a body, an ideal usually determined by someone else, often a [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Sometimes paying the bills means you go teach meditation to teenage boys even when your head hurts, your stomach is in knots, and the possibility of panic lies within every breath. In the car, a 78-year-old Buddhist sings from the radio about saving a particle of light, and you cry until you are gasping, then [&hellip;]</p>

<p>This morning I made the ridiculous mistake of weighing myself at the gym to check for &#8220;progress,&#8221; insisting on an arbitrary measure for a body that feels remarkably stronger and is miraculously pain-free. This sent me into a tailspin of self-loathing that walked around with me through my whole weight lifting practice, making every rep [&hellip;]</p>