Author: Ki McGraw

As we prepare for our upcoming open house, many details require attention. The cats, our home and Hatha Yoga Center all require maintenance and security as we welcome in any who wish to enter. Then there’s the food and refreshments which are inspiring me to offer their blessings to the event.

Fortunately, all efforts are built around and about the soothing stability of yoga practice. My mornings of pranayama, chanting, meditation and prayer remind me to detach from the outcome of any effort. I serve the Highest, and return to asana, pranayama and prayers in gratitude at the end of the day.

Where do you find stability? Can you allow it to soothe you? Ki to Happiness works for the One in All and lets go of the results.

Welcome, September! With it, comes back to school, the changing seasons, and a return to the introspective time of year in the Northern hemisphere. I feel the freshness in the air this morning cuing my senses to this shift.

We said farewell to our landlords yesterday as we met the new property manager. Our open house preparation‘s are underway. We look forward to seeing many students and clients in September.

How do you welcome the month? Who might you see who you haven’t seen in a while? Ki to Happiness looks forward to seeing who shows up.

Today is the last day of our present location’s ownership by our landlady/lord. Their magical presence in my life will remain even as we shift our rent payments to the new owner’s management. Our few interactions will forever be a part of our transition here.

She invoked for me a feeling I’ve had a few times in my life: a perfect stranger who shows up at just the right time in the exact way needed to bring about a desired outcome. Like a fairy godmother granting my wish, with the simple stroke of a pen, she granted us shelter from injustice resulting in our new happy home and studio. Her husband also radiated that blend of humor, ability, and seriousness required to partner her in order to bring magic back into our lives.

Who are the magical strangers in your life? Can you join me in honoring them today in some simple way? Ki to Happiness thanks her Fairy Godmother for showing up in the form of our landlady this month.

In honor of my friend Steven Spiritwalker Rhodes I post a Reiki infused candle nightly on my Facebook page. I’ve done so in his stead since he passed away. Yesterday’s offering looked to one of my friends of as if a hand were hugging the candle.

I hadn’t seen it until she pointed it out. Then I could see it clearly! She helped me open my eyes to see this little miracle in front of me.

Are your eyes dialed in to see the little miracles around you? Can you feel a little hug around your inner Light? Ki to Happiness sends hugs and miracles to all with eyes to see.

Sometimes in the midst of all that is something insists you turn your attention toward it instead of whatever else you were attending to. Often we do so with the perspective of what must we do to fix it. This easily set us up for failure, as many times there’s nothing to be done, no fix.

One’s presence may be all that’s required. Shining the light of one’s attention on what is calling for it may suffice. Being with it, observe what happens.

What is needing you to be with it? Can you release the impulse to fix it? Ki to Happiness is with you, with it.

What a great day for new beginnings, especially related to habits and discipline. The sun has just entered Virgo and the moon is also in the sign of the virgin. Purity, and the way we uphold it are the order of the energy.

Discernment is the Virgo superpower. I call upon discernment to safeguard my otherwise Aquarius tendencies. In this way, I am protected from myself and make the best use of the energy afoot.

Could your habits use a tuneup? How able are you to discern the discipline necessary to uphold your purest intentions? Ki to Happiness tunes up with yoga.

Bob’s morning class brought up a lot of mirth and laughter for those of us present. We all became giddy and joyous, not even knowing why we were cracking up. Laughing yoga is not only a conscious practice, it’s also what may spontaneously arise.

He had a desire to go out on his birthday to split a vegan burrito but wasn’t up to it on his special day, after that class, he was ready. That was our first meal out in years.

When’s the last time that your practices made you laugh? What deep hunger arises when you do? Ki to Happiness hungers for a joyous abundant new moon to start this new chapter in our lives in Pinehurst.

The blazing heat of this summer exited last night. This morning’s cloud cover and wind stir anticipation of the season to come. My favorite… fall.

I’m not in any hurry for the leaves to change color or the rain to return. When certain, it’s easy to wait patiently. In the midst of great change, including of the climate, I take comfort in the seasonal changes.

Of what are you certain? Does it bring you comfort? Ki to Happiness is certainly comforted by yoga practices in every season.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to turn 74 today. If I’m lucky I’ll find out in another 13 years. So as I celebrate my husband‘s 74th birthday today, I will take good notes.

I’ve learned a lot from being in his presence during the last quarter century. He has demonstrated ways to live and love as well as things best avoided. I’m happy to bake him an apple cake today in celebration of his surviving the pandemic, his stroke, and the most recent relocation of home and Hatha Yoga Center studio.

Whose presence in your life are you learning from? How might that affect yo consideration of turning 74? Ki to Happiness bakes and contemplates.

Yesterday my good friend and I took a walk in our nearby creek park in order to identify plant species. As we live in Pinehurst now, there are many different kinds of pines as well as other trees and plants. Each has its own unique characteristics.

Learning their names gives me a handle on how to appreciate them. Red cedars and red maples line our street. Sitka spruce and ponderosa pine grace our neighbor’s property. Lots of Alders, blackberries, horsetail and sword ferns benefit from the combination of earth, water, air and sunshine in a way that refuses domestication.

How do you appreciate your natural world? Are you comfortable in the realm that is beyond domestication? Ki to Happiness looks up to the trees as elders on this planet.