Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

What a great day!

11 inches of snow! I was invited by two separate groups of friends to go sledding once the nor'easter was done, and I took Cliff and Tzyh up on it. We sledded! We flew! We inadvertantly knocked over lots of little children who didn't heed our "look out below!" warning! I particularly liked the gal who used a NY Lotto sign as a sled. (Hey, you gotta be in it to sled it!)

The parks department was giving out free hot cocoa and Cliff had the wherewithal to bring a flask of Carribbean rum which made the drink of the day, "Happy hot cocoa." (Ah, yeah!)

C & T have been living in Australia for the last 2 years so we had some catching up to do. I spent a few hours with them before I brought up the braces and they said that they hadn't even noticed them at all. I'm beginning to finally believe that they're not as horrible looking as I think.

I watched a documentary last night called Enlighten Up!

which was about trying to prove the transformative power of yoga. It was a bit petulant and the thesis was a bit lost, but I liked seeing how the "subject" Nick Rosen was open to learning about different types of yoga and never became cynical about it. His questions were always good, respectful and guileless.

I was particularly moved by his conversation with Gurusharananda, head of the Karshini Ashram in India, who gives wisdom, insight, inspiration and blessings to those who seek him. What I liked about him, was his kindness. It emanated off of him, and he explained that the highest form of enlightenment is to simply be the truest expression of oneself. This sounds overly simplistic, but I don't think I really understood this until I heard it from his lips, because he was being so obviously himself. There was no artifice, no razzle dazzle. Just pure joy and kindness.

I think I needed to see this, and realize once and for all, that external judgement really doesn't matter when one is being truly oneself. It doesn't penetrate the solidity of what is within. It simply can't. The truest expression of me wants to laugh and dance and be sassy and live out loud, the way I was before the braces...and the breakup.

In the film, they touched upon laughter yoga which I had heard about before. It's a bit silly and makes one feel dumb initally, but after a few minutes, it becomes genuine, and who cares how you look when you feel so good after bringing joyful energy into your body so viscerally?

For whatever reason, this is appealing to me with the new year soon upon us. My father made a plaque that read "Today is the first day of the rest of your life," which hung in my parents bedroom when I was young. Starting all of my todays off with a belly laugh would have made him very proud.