I am a writer, artist and a yoga and meditation teacher.

My most recent visual art, and my creative non-fiction about it, is here.

During the pandemic, and with my 60th birthday looming, I began writing fiction. I have been blessed with good teachers and good writers who are helping me learn and grow. Links to my published short stories are listed here.

Teaching:

I received my 200-hour yoga teacher training certificate in April 2012 and completed my 500-hour training in October 2018 at Tranquil Space in Washington, DC. My 300-hour thesis, Dissolving into Radiance: A Vanaprastha Practice for Older Adults, focused on what needs to change about a yoga practice as one ages. In 2022, I completed the Vishoka Meditation Teacher certification (Level 1) through the Himalayan Institute.

My current teaching schedule:

Creative Calm: Come join our cozy art studio, where you can find the healing and tranquility of art making on your own terms. Together we have delved into block printing, collage, painting, drawing in the past year. Join us at St. Alban’s on Wednesdays from 12:45 to 2 pm. Register through Iona Senior Services’ Lunch Site Program at St. Alban’s.

Gentle Movement and Guided Meditation: Thursdays at 11 am in person at St. Alban’s (register in person at St. Alban’s) and at 1 pm on Zoom both through DC Around Town.

Yoga, a one-credit class for the students of George Washington University on Fridays from 2 – 3:30 pm.

Vinyasa: Refresh Alexandria in Old Town Alexandria (in studio only) Saturdays at 8:30 am.

If you’d like to sign up to receive infrequent emails from me about classes or with art or writing I’m sharing, please sign up on my mailing list:

Why I Teach Yoga

I was fortunate to have a physician recommend Hatha Yoga to me over 15 years ago as a way to navigate a chronic illness. Since then, I have navigated through Stage 1 breast cancer. (I have documented my journey here, here and here among other blog posts.) I went from sober curious to wanting to live out my life with the clarity sobriety gives me (and have documented the beginning of this journey here.) No matter what I have faced in my life, my practice has not only brought me healing; it has also brought me joy, community, and a deeper sense of purpose and service. I teach from the sense of connection to my true self, to others, and to the community. I believe that yoga is for everybody and every body.

Yoga and Art

I had lost my artistic mojo.  After a burst of creativity, sitting down to paint had been almost painful.  Nothing flowed.  I was just grasping for ideas that would fade before the paint reached the canvas.  Occasionally I made myself complete a painting but eventually I didn’t even bother squeezing the paint on the palette, since I would lose interest and waste the paint.  But I had my yoga, my family life, things to do.  I was as empty as these dried seed pods.  (I completed this painting during this time — it took me, no kidding, a YEAR.  Every time I look at this painting, I’m amazed at how tortured it was for me.)

On the advice of some very wise people at Tranquil Space, I picked up Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way:  A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, (Penguin/Putnam, 1992) and I am now recovering the joy and spontaneity that my creative life had been until I got in the way of myself. And I’ve come to see that to become found, you really must be lost in the moment.

Practicing art and practicing yoga demand that you turn yourself off — get yourself out of your own way.  My art had become all about ME.  What did I think?  What did I want to say in this painting?  What did I think was interesting?  It’s just like how a pose becomes all the more difficult when I find myself thinking about what I look like or how much better I am at this pose now than I was in the past. The lesson is just to be in the moment.

Just practice. Come to the mat and find it.