Tweet, Cough, Ssssssss....

Please take a moment to notice all the new additions to the sidebar. The blank space was bothering me. While looking at other people's blogs I've come across all kinds of cool widgets that I just had to have, to fill that space. (I'm a follower. What can I say?) One thing that I found very intriguing was the Twitter widget. At first I thought Twitter was kind of silly. Who could possibly care what I'm doing right now? 24 hours later I am totally addicted. My last five tweets are in the sidebar. You can thank a fellow blogger for introducing me to Twitter. She knows who she is.

Last night the "off" feeling I've had for the past few days turned into a cough. On the bright side, the rest of me feels better. The cough was a bit annoying while trying to teach gentle yoga this morning. It's hard to sound soothing when my instructions for final relaxation went "Close your *cough, cough* eyes, let your thoughts *cough, cough, cough* drift away, focus on the *cough* sound of your *cough* breath..." Luckily my regulars know what they're doing.

Yesterday was one of those "everything is going wrong" kind of days when the kitchen floods and a box of straight pins gets dropped down the stairs, among other things. Last night the moon rose full and bright and I said, "Ah, that explains it." The full moon in February is the Storm Moon. Storms blow in fierce and chaotic, flipping and breaking and flattening whatever is in their paths. While it storms outside we hunker down, possibly feeling fear, frustration, or restlessness. This is the energy the Storm Moon brings with it.

Eventually the storm passes and we venture outside. That's when we discover the energy the storm leaves behind. Think of the day after a storm when the sky is brilliant blue and everything has been washed clean. All you look at seems brighter, transformed into something brand new.

After yesterday's catastrophes, I needed to embrace the transformational energy of the crazy Storm Moon. In my gentle yoga class this morning, we talked about snakes. Snakes symbolize transformation because they shed their skins. Wouldn't it be wonderful to just drop everything that has stuck to you over the past year and walk away with a fresh start? In addition to a few rounds of Bhujangasana, we did a meditative snake dance. Try it sometime. Sit with your legs crossed, and press your palms together at your heart. Then close your eyes and, keeping your palms together, move your hands like a snake, side to side and up and down. How you move doesn't really matter; just let your hands be a snake. Don't think about the movement. Let your mind empty and let the snake dance come from your unconscious. Notice thoughts that float into your open mind. Snakes often bring insight. Listen for a message.

This afternoon I took advantage of the unusually warm weather we are having to clean out the SUV, a job that had been put off too long. Digging out piles of fast food wrappers and pine needles, I discovered the answers to two of life's mysteries - the whereabouts of my bluetooth headset and the origin of that funky smell. (Yes, some mysteries are better unsolved.)