Health

Yellow is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair: Pine Pollen Season in the South

accidental goddess1 Comment

Working in my yard this weekend, pulling weeds and mulching the flower beds, I found myself humming this old folk song “Yellow is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair”. Not because my love’s hair is blonde in the morning (it is salt-and-pepper all the time), but because EVERYTHING was yellow, dusted with a thick coat of what my botanist friend calls tree sperm. Pine pollen—we all more or less hate it.

pine pollen coating

Everything looks dull. It clings to all surfaces; cars seem to be a particular magnet. With a small gust of wind, you can see it billowing in sulfurous clouds of gold. Despite our general annoyance—guess what?  Pine pollen is supposed to be good for you!  Seriously.
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New Year Resolutions: the Worst, Best, and Latest

accidental goddess8 Comments

New year, new you!!
Calendar showing January 1
Ah… if it was only that easy.  New Year resolutions are a common way to set an intention and work toward it….at least for a while. My friend John once posted  “I’m opening a gym called ‘Resolutions.’ It will have exercise equipment in it for the first two weeks and then it turns into a bar for the rest of the year.”  It is funny because it rings true. Statistics vary, but most show that a very small percent actually fully achieve their goals and many quit trying within a month or two.  I have often been among this group.
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Teaching Yoga on Zoom: My Path to Acceptance

accidental goddess8 Comments

At the start of 2020, I was teaching two yoga classes at a local dance studio and was about to start a new weekly series for Duke University employees. My calendar was as full as I liked it, with room for other yoga gigs that periodically came my way. This all came to a  Covid-19 dead stop in March. Pandemic-mania meant time for me to take a break. I was not interested in moving my classes online, either with YouTube videos or scheduled Zoom sessions. I felt the Internet was already flooded with good content, much of it affordable or free. I thought “I’ll just wait it out, resume in-person classes when the situation improves.”  Are you laughing along with me?

Teaching yoga at home

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