After 20 years and thousands of meals for our family, friends, and community members, I cleaned our old stove one last time. Reflecting back on its purchase, I remembered our president at the time encouraging Americans to spend money as a way to offset the economic disaster brought on by 9/11. Much has changed politically and in nearly every way since then. I thanked it for its loyal service as the delivery of the new stove replaced it.

I look forward to whomping up some excellent nutritious vegan meals for us as we reopen July 1! You might be interested in my cookbook. I call it Whomp. It’s available digitally at kitohappiness.com. I pick up the hardcopies today!

What needs to be replaced for your reopening? Are you getting ready? Ki to Happiness is getting ready for another 20 years of Whomping up great meals for all of us at Hatha Yoga Center.

We open our windows in the heat. Without screens, a few flies entered. Our 3 cats were enjoying hunting them. Paca jumped up on the counter to capture the insect and knocked a lamp over.

I was standing right in the doorway and happened to catch the lamp before it hit the ground. My husband was there and witnessed my reflexive action. We were both amazed. All the years contemplating cats, meditating with them, and caring for them has rubbed off. My own cat reflexes kicked in or we would’ve had a broken Tiffany lamp and a mess to clean.

What have you been contemplating? Who do you meditate with? Ki to Happiness knows we become what we attend to.

I read the wrong day’s offering on one of the tools I work with. It sent chills up and down my spine with the synchronicity of its words and my experience this morning: All my pens ran dry so I reached for a treasured keepsake from our son’s Alma Mater. I’ve held onto it for him as a reminder of all our years together and the efforts required.

The tool I was working with referred specifically to holding an object that seems worth saving in order to meditate on the gift I carry from what is gone. I set the pen down and felt the energy moving throughout my body, connecting me to the writer and now to you, dear reader. Then I saw I was a day off in using my tool. Or not… Perfect mistake!

Can you see the perfection in your mistakes? Are you willing to extract the good from what appears bad? Ki to Happiness is made of composting the past experiences, nourishing the present soul soil for future sustenance.

We enter into the month of June! Here in Seattle we think of it is Junuary. Any given day could be cold, dark, windy, and rainy. I arrived here in ‘99 in such weather. I moved here from Guam, and felt like a tropical bird far from of paradise. I bundled up in a vintage pea coat and a long sweater dress with gloves and boots to warm up.

Instead, today dawns clear, with a promise of nearly 80°! You know I’ll be saluting that sun and teaching later! Thrilled to be here, safely reopening, delighted by fresh air entering in through the open windows after a resourcing morning practice.

How will you welcome June? Can you enjoy the beauty of this day? Ki to Happiness welcomes June with yoga and gratitude.

Today we remember those fallen who have served our country. Without them we have no idea what our country would be like. While I am a hippie peace-nic, I am also the sister and daughter of men who served. I appreciate how we are all connected.

I like remembering that. I am fortunate to not have had to serve in that way. My blessings come on the back of those who have. I continue to feel the privilege of being born at a time and place in which I have been able to choose.

Who do you remember yourself to today? How can you best memorialize those whose sacrifice resulted in your privilege? Ki to Happiness wishes you all a Happy Memorial Day.

Safely and slowly Hatha Yoga Center reopens. Faces not seen in in months return atop bodies in need of guided yoga practice. I love seeing all of the features of the human face and form. Welcome back!

Soon an abundance of financial support will flow in with the current of returning students. We will make through this pandemic, as many others have not. I am grateful on this Memorial Day weekend for all efforts toward abundant freedom and safety.

How are you making it through this pandemic? What is needed next? Ki to Happiness needs to thank you and welcome you back in right timing.

The first morning in hundreds, I awaken to the light. I’m usually up long before it, as if it’s necessary for me to help the sunrise. Instead today, I slumbered until nearly 5.

This required I shuffle the order of my practices. The ritual devotional sequence I work with has had to change before. Many times while traveling, especially overseas, flexibility needed to be packed first. It helps to know the practices inside and out, forward and backward.

How flexible are you physically? Mentally? Emotionally? Spiritually? How strong are you on these different planes? Ki to Happiness balances flexibility with strength.

When I exited the beautiful garden of our dear community members, one said “ see ya!” Impossible to know when that may happen. After over four years of nearly daily interaction, it may be weeks, months, or lifetimes before our paths cross again. As I left, I came across a dog I know, but haven’t seen in years. He was off leash and alone. I walked him home and let him in the open door with a quick hello to his elderly companion.

When I was a kid, my grandmother would never say goodbye. Only “So long.” She passed away when I was 22. At age 60, I see her everywhere. At the Goodwill, her favorite store, in the perfectly cool clear weather like moments on my walk which she always said were “like Lake Michigan,” and in big blue eyes looking at my “grape eyes” as she named my coloration.

Do you say “goodbye?”Can you embrace the mysterious comings and goings in your life? Ki to Happiness loves the mystery running through all.

I went to bed last night happy on our 19th Seattle wedding anniversary. A couple of long term students and community members returned to the Hatha Yoga Center for classes. We all observed Covid restrictions, relieved to be slowly reopening in our Healthy Washington program.

We saluted the sun and the moon with the full lunar eclipse. We meditated on ways to make use of this huge creative expressive energy. This morning there is a very large man yelling as he wildly gesticulates in the middle of our rainy and windy intersection. I see he is doing his best, also, to make use of the creative and expressive energy. My felt sense is he’s trying to complete some trauma.

What trauma do you need to complete? How consciously can you make use of these creative and expressive energies? Ki to Happiness witnesses spontaneous efforts toward healing.

This morning’s eclipse pattern is in Sagittarius. Together with the super full pink moon, it’s a time for going big or going home. Through all the challenges we have been facing during the pandemic, there is so much to be for which to be grateful. I suggest we express our gratitude in new and big ways!

Eclipse patterns effect us for the six months, coloring the frequency in which we live. From now until December, a pink tinge may emanate from all new activities we are drawn to explore and learn. It’s rosy hue may amplify all you intend to create. The full moon brings unconscious material up for conscious processing. Use it toward your truest desires for expression of your vastness.

What would you like to shout from the rooftops? How can you give expression to your biggest and most cherished values? Ki to Happiness sends BIG love and gratitude to all who’ve shared in my life, contributing to my growth and presence.