



Rina Baraz Nehdar was born in a bad idea. Actually, the idea was probably a good idea when it transformed from thought to words but because of a lot of human blunderings, in the way of greed and discrimination, it was already a bad idea by the time she arrived. Her parents realized what a mess it was and decided to spare Rina the pain of having to live through the headaches and inconveniences bad ideas often produce, so they pulled roots and moved to a better idea.
It’s hard living in a good idea, not even a perfect one, just a good one. The neighbors can get jealous and want to steal the idea (which is okay because there’s no end to the supply of love in good ideas) but what happens more often is that the neighbors want to destroy the good idea to make their own ideas, which may actually be bad, look better. Sometimes, people are even willing to kill and die for their ideas. This got a little worrisome for Rina’s parents as reports often surfaced of kids Rina’s age being blown up by bombs disguised as teddy bears. So, they up and moved again to an idea that was being heralded worldwide as a very strong and workable idea.
As Rina grew up, she realized that a lot of the fairy tales she had grown up hearing weren’t actually applicable to real life. This was true even living in a good, strong idea. After taking many self-destructive detours to combat the pain of awareness, she resolved to use her position of strength, supported by the resources the good idea offered, to help people whose voices were weakened or even strangled by the multitude of conflicting interests battling to be heard.
When I was in college, I read an assigned book in my women’s psychology class, written by Erica Jong, called Fear of Flying.
She used flying as a metaphor for the limitations we put on ourselves. I’m not saying I don’t do that anymore but I do it a lot less than I used to at the age when I read it.
I’m not sure if I can alter the metaphor and proclaim that I love to fly but why not? It’s my essay. I do love to fly, literally, and sometimes, during those journeys, from that experience, and the ones that follow, I get to fly metaphorically too.
The best thing about flying is that I get to see new places, that I get to meet new people, that I get to see them living in a way that’s different from what I’m used to. I get to explore parts of the world that are completely unfamiliar, yet, I find, are still connected to me, the very existence of our lives miraculous and finite and a complete mystery, even though we think we know.
Leading up to that moment is exciting too. I don’t love to pack because the mood I’m in when I fill my bag won’t be the mood or circumstances I will find when I arrive at my destination. I do the best I can between the fighting kids and my domestic obligations and know if I forget something, I can always buy it wherever I am.
As long as I’m sticking to a nice pace time wise, even the drive to the airport is a treat because it brings me that much closer to the excitement already building in my middle.
The airport, usually hectic, maybe a little confusing, between all the lines and which is the shortest or moving the fastest and will get me through security that much quicker and will they be in a good mood and let me keep moving or will they detain me and make themselves feel powerful for that moment. And yet, you hear about the threats they’ve actually stopped and you feel grateful, even though you know you’re not one of them.
The world inside an airport is it’s own little world, not quite here but not there either. Calories obviously don’t count because you’re flowing in the land in between and calories can’t find you. Or so you tell yourself as you munch your extra crispy French fries followed later by a visit to the Coffee Bean for foamed sugar to top the gluten-full hot sugar before you get on your plane.
Walking down the hallway onto the ramp that extends to the fuselage of the plane, you know you’re almost there: the vessel that is your conduit to lands beyond. You arrive to the seat meant just for you, to take you on your adventure and you try to cram all the things you brought to distract yourself from the long flight into an area meant for a toddler but you make do and clean around your new home and rearrange a bit of the furniture as you settle in and hope that your new neighbor won’t be an actual toddler.
Finally, the push-off. This is the last time you’ll see your city and that’s ok. You know it’ll be there when you’re ready to return. If you decide to return.
The wheels slowly turn down the runway jockeying for position in the line-up. Finally, the ding overhead sounds and flight attendants are warned to strap in and the plane starts hurtling forward, but you don’t see where it’s going, only the things that are passing by and that’s ok as the force of gravity pushes your lower back into your chair and the ground beneath gets bumpier and the roar of the engine pushes every other sound out of the cabin and suddenly the ride is smooth and now it’s your butt that is being cradled as the metal transport tube pulls your body away from the ground and into the air, into the unknown, into the awe and wonder of discovery where there is no fear.
Please don’t say you’re sorry for my loss or give me your condolences. You don’t have to say anything. I’ll still be where I am and feel the suck of my soul regardless of these words you use, which are society’s assigned phrase to help not the grieving but the dispassionate deal with the grieving.
They are generic attributes of the most heartbreaking and fundamental part of our lives and are an insult to the grieving. They say you are distant from the pain. They say you’ve chosen to remain apart and not open yourself to connect, even for a second, with that part of life that rips the most precious people from your world.
If you do want to help, even a silent touch or a heartfelt hug is better than the meaningless banter of those hollow words. Just say you’re so sorry. That’s enough to let me know, even if you don’t feel my pain, that you wish I wasn’t feeling it either.
If you go even deeper and tell me what a good daughter or mother or friend I was, then you’ll be forced to share in my pain of knowing how simple it would have been to have done more and maybe, if I had, then he’d have been happier and made a bigger effort to get stronger and fight to heal his body and chase the demons from his mind.
If you say I was lucky to have had him at all, you would be right and I could feel the gratitude in that. His memory is my reality and right now it’s less a blessing than a feeling of emptiness that it’s now just a memory.
I wish we could take it all back, Papa, and you could be here again.
LA Parent Magazine recently brought on two cute correspondents
to share with readers and viewers what they thought of the hottest new toy robot trend, Cozmo. Mommy had a few things to share too in this 6 minute video.
Well….to be honest, I’m not sure what a rocker I really was. I did date a couple boys who were in bands when I was in college.
Does that qualify me? But I was never a crazy Courtney Love type. Well. At least not THAT crazy. Though that’s a pretty high standard.
Regardless, I did spend a lot of time at the beach….
One thing I did not think was cool was minivans. Even today I think, to drive a minivan, is to pack it all in. Good bye good times, good bye spontaneous adventures, good-bye (semi) cool girl.
Yet, my kids have been begging me for a mini-van for years. Begging. WTH?
I don’t understand. My surfer-girl SUV isn’t good enough for them? Didn’t they realize their mom would have to give up that part of herself that still believed she was edgy and young to drive that mini-van? Didn’t they know I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to that girl who still looked forward to the unknown and dreamed about the future with her girlfriends, all driving around, looking for parties and cute boys? No. No, they didn’t. All they know is they want to be comfortable while their chauffeur drives them to their myriad of activities.
Turns out the gas mileage, which I thought would be dramatically different between the two models was actually closer than I expected. The Sienna minivan gets 18 city and 25 highway, while the hybrid Highlander gets 27 city and 28 highway. A difference, yes, but worth the extra ten grand for the hybrid? Not sure.
I don’t have time to read an owner’s manual to operate a car and this one, I found, is intuitive enough not to need to do that.
The dashboard reminders are really helpful for a busy, distracted mom.
We don’t want to have to have the kids pushing the car into a gas station now, would we? Though that would be a Facebookable moment.
On Day 2, while the kids were in school, I had an assistant help me test out the car.
Here, Lily is making sure the windows work properly.
I don’t know what it is about this minivan. It doesn’t seem that different from my SUV on the inside except that there is, actually, a whole lot more legroom everywhere. The leather seats were plush and cozy, really more like a recliner than a car seat.
It actually can seat a combination of 10 big and little people.
Some great mom perks include easy smartphone integration so you could listen to the music stored on you phone or a streaming device like Pandora. You can call all your peeps through a seamless voice command system.
The guidance system is fantastic. We were able to easily navigate to a coffee place when we had to arrive at the soccer tournament at the god-awful time of 7:30 on a Saturday morning. No owner’s manual required for any of it.
The video monitor for your backseat theater includes a wide screen monitor, Blu Ray format, and wireless headphones.
We’re not big wireless people because of the uncertainty of developing brains and radio frequency transmissions being blasted into them, so we wouldn’t use this feature much. There is an option to plug in wired headphones and have a very similar experience, minus the risks but this one time, I let the boys go at it.
The climate control is also very easy to operate . In my Honda Pilot, I feel like we’re always guessing (after 7 years you’d think we’d just know) how to operate the backseat heaters and cooler to adjust the temperature to a different setting than the one we have upfront. In the Sienna, everything is clearly marked.
The middle console has a very large flat area which is the perfect place to put your french fries when you can’t wait to eat them until you get home.
During the week, the minivan took me from Zumba
Well. There you have it. In a nutshell, why we make those sacrifices for our kids.
In August, my family and I had the awesome opportunity to go to the Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa in Rancho Mirage, CA. If you don’t know where that is, it’s right outside Palm Springs.
It is affectionately known as Splashtopia by many families in Southern, California and beyond.
In a nutshell, it’s both super fun and enormously relaxing.
The resort itself is set on 240 acres and includes a full service spa, 2 acre water park, a 27-hole golf course, and 444 guest rooms.
I went with my three boys and husband, so I have to admit that I did not set foot in the spa. I wish I did, however, as it includes 20,000 square feet of facial treatments, massage and body treatments, hair, nails, make-up service, and more fun stuff. It also has a separate pool. But I will have to come back someday on a girl’s weekend.
What drew us there was Splashtopia. It is a dream for both kids and parents. For the older ones there are two, 100-foot waterslides, a 425 foot lazy river and a pool to swim around in.
Here is a fun video featuring the waterslide.
For the little ones there is an actual sandy beach and a play zone with fountains and sprinklers for them to splash around in. The other great aspect of the beach is that it included a shaded seating area. I definitely appreciated it as when we went in August it was hotter than hot!
I’m including a few little details here just in case you are considering Splashtopia for your family.
We stayed in a room that was not off the pool. It costs a bit less and only required us to walk about 2 minutes to get to the pool. The room was clean and big.
The only thing I wished it had was a place to hang up swim suits. There are not ample hooks in the bathroom. And I don’t know about you ladies, but I have more than one suit!
There are several options for eating at the resort if you want to dive in and not explore the surrounding areas.
The Splash Grill is the restaurant that you order from while playing at Splashtopia. It has kids meals, sandwiches, burgers, tropical drinks and a variety of other things. I thought the food was ok. It certainly wasn’t bad, but it was far from gourmet. It’s more pricy then eating out, but the advantage you get is not leaving the pool. That was worth it to us. Sandwiches are $14 to $16, smoothies $8, salads $12 to $15, and alcoholic frozen drinks $12 to $13.
We did not eat in the main restaurant Blu Ember. I asked other families about it and everyone seemed to like what it had to offer. They have a kid’s breakfast that got rave reviews from the children I spoke to. They serve nutella and that made quite an impression. Kids under 12 eat for free at dinner time with the order of an adult meal. Main meals are $24 to $39 each. Even with our kids eating free, we could pay less off the resort.
There is also a Palms Cafe similar to a Starbucks or Coffee Bean and an R Bar that we did not go to.
In our opinion Palm Springs has so much to offer in the way of restaurants that we preferred to venture out. This, of course, was much less expensive than eating at the Resort and frankly, I preferred the food options much better. Within minutes of the resort is every food chain you can imagine as well as many other great restaurants.
If you can tolerate the heat, The Living Desert, is a must see. It is one of the most impressive zoos I have ever seen. The giraffes have over 5 acres to roam on as do the cheetahs.
There is a whole program of Zoo Talks that you can hear as you visit various sections. The speakers are well informed and clearly love their jobs.
What I love the most about this zoo is that all of the animals have ample space to roam around. I won’t give you the whole list of animals, but in addition to giraffes and cheetahs there are snakes, amphibians, coyotes, gazelles, big horn sheep, bobcats, and more.
For those of you that are in love with miniature trains, the zoo has a Wild West miniature train track which is very impressive.
They also honor memberships from several other California Zoos. As we are Santa Barbara Zoo members we got a nice discount.
The Palm Springs Air Museum is a mecca of World War II airplanes. It is also air conditioned so you don’t have to worry about beating the dry heat.
Even if you are not an airplane buff it is worth visiting. Their list of war birds is very impressive and includes a C-47 Skytrain, a P-51 Mustang, a corsair, a Thunderbolt, and a ton more impressive aircraft from both the Pacific and European Theater.
Upstairs in the library, you will also find flight simulators to try out.
We didn’t go to The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway on this trip, but we have gone in the past. It is a fantastic view. Once up top, you can hike around or stay inside and eat at the restaurant.
If you are afraid of heights, you should know that it is both steep and high. The tram is solid though and feels very secure.
Palms Springs is a great place to visit. We miss it already!
Splashtopia was so much fun that we definitely want to go back. My entire family gave it a big thumbs up. My husband said he has never felt as relaxed after a vacation.
You can sign up to receive special deals at the Omni’s website.
You can also check Groupon. We got 50% off our room there. If you get a Groupon, keep in mind that it doesn’t include taxes and resort fees.
Elizabeth Hanson is the mom of three fantastic little boys that she has the pleasure of homeschooling. You can visit her blog www.modernhippiemommy.com to read her musings on natural living.
Sometimes pictures speak louder than words so I’ve made this cute, little 6 minute video to walk you through replanting your Tower Garden.
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You know how when your friend tells you they’re in a rock band and they’re performing in the bar across town and would you come and support them and you sigh internally because you’ve done this before but you go anyway and you smile and pretend to be wowed by the pedantic, slightly off-key music because you love your friend and want them to be happy? Well. This isn’t anything like that at all.
My uber talented friend Julie Gardner wrote a book called Letters For Scarlet.
And it rocks. Literally. This is the payoff from sitting in all those dingy bars while your friend belts old Ozzy Osborne hits while swaying on stage. This is your moment in the summer sunshine, a slice of time to yourself, to get lost in a drama that encompasses friendship, marriage, betrayal and of course love because everything returns back to love.
Since I’m the type of person who closes her eyes during movie previews when they’re showing something I already want to watch, I won’t spoil it for you here. I will say this though – as it won’t give anything away – a horrible thing happens to Scarlet and her two friends at the time of their life that should be a beautiful beginning. Then she is betrayed by her two friends. Oh, did I mention everyone is beautiful in this book? I love reading about beautiful, flawed people because it makes me feel like we’re all connected after all – and not just in our yoga classes.
I have a free signed copy of Letters For Scarlet. You can win it by commenting below. It can be anything: why you love summer, what friendships mean to you, your irritation at having to think of something to say in order to win a book. Anything. At the end of the week (Friday night) I will randomly select a winner based on the comments submitted. Easy peasy. And then you will not be irritated that I twisted your arm to use the annoying comment submission form so you could enter the contest because you will have your glossy, autographed book to enjoy at the beach, or the pool, with your margarita or kambucha.
(This article originally appeared in YogiTimes Magazine – I just added all these groovy pictures)
One thing no one ever tells an expectant mother is the arrival of her beautiful, cooing little bundle of chub will be the departure of her private bathroom time, regular showers and any hope of an uninterrupted night of sleep. There might be a mother who escapes from this reality and we have a special name for her. Lucky.
The rest of us, however, have to find ways to keep our sanity between the coos and giggles. Agoura Hills yoga teacher, Drorit Rudin, had three kids within three years and four months of each other. She tried to take care of herself in between diaper changes and regularly attended gym classes though never really connected with the vibe there. Rudin said her life changed when she found a yoga class that embodied everything she was. “There were no shoes, no one was checking each other out, no competitiveness. There was a space created for peace.” Rudin says the peace she found on her yoga mat extended into her family life. “I was able to be more calm and my kids responded so much better.”
Malibu resident, Torrie Simshauser, had a similar experience the first time she did yoga. “I could feel the difference at a cellular level,” she said. All the breathing and meditative nature of moving between the poses eased her anxiety, Simshauser said, and after nine months of daily practice, she decided to train to become a teacher. “I wanted to share all the benefits I was getting in classes that was extending outside my classes, like balance, stability and calmness with others.”
Both yogini mommies can thank Sridhar Silberfein for their practice as he was one of the people responsible for bringing yoga to the United States. In the early 1970s, Silberfein opened the first yoga studio in Los Angeles in Topanga Canyon. He introduced Swami Satchidananda to the stage at Woodstock to deliver an invocation in front of 500,000 music fans. Overwhelmed by the largest gathering of people ever assembled in the United States, Silberfein promised the Swami that someday the same number would come together to chant the various names of God, practicing Kirtan, or sacred music.
Forty years later, Silberfein created Bhakti Fest (which means love and compassion, a devotional opening up of the heart) in Joshua Tree where they do just that.
Bhakti Fest offers unlimited yoga taught by the top instructors in the world. Bhakti Fest also has sacred music and workshops where people learn the meaning behind the chants. From that, Shakti Fest was born which specifically celebrates the creative divine feminine. Shakti Fest features additional workshops like belly dancing and hula hoop, classes in tantric and Ayurvedic.
Silberfein, born to a Jewish family, wants to make clear that yoga isn’t a religion, it’s a way of life. “People start to practice and see the difference in their face and body and want more of that. They may decide to meditate five minutes a day. They may decide to eat cleaner.”
Both festivals are Silberfein’s peaceful alternative to what he feels are the angst ridden rap and rock concerts that he says encourage personal destruction through the abuse of drugs, alcohol and relationships. Instead, he offers guests a healthy experience, free of any mind altering substances, based on the return to a youthful innocence which he says we lose at age 8 in response to the ego’s need to protect itself from the frantic nature of the world. “It’s very difficult to live in the world today,” Silberfein points out, “We need a daily practice that keeps us quiet in our minds, that keeps us centered from the hassle and frazzle of everyday life.”
As a young mother, Rudin said, she was always worrying about specific things that might happen to her kids, things that were mostly beyond her control. “After yoga, I didn’t worry as much,” she said. Instead, she started every class by setting a positive intention of peace and happiness for each of her children. It spilled over into her life outside her yoga practice and she was able to feel that peace and happiness herself.
Sometimes, Simhauser said, her kids will practice yoga with her. She wants for them to have the gift of calm that she found later in life. Silberfein says the Kid’s Village at Shakti Fest is designed to give children those very skills at an age where they could grow into them. There is music, dancing and puppets. They learn how to work with crystals and even get to take them home. They create gratitude flags to hang in their rooms. And maybe most importantly, they learn how to sit still for two to ten minutes, a skill most adults can probably use.They learn to center themselves in the face of life’s chaos.
Shakti Fest brings together the most talented female yoga teachers and musical artists. There is a Woman’s Tent, closed to men, run by female elders who discuss sensitive topics specific to women’s struggles. “The idea is to empower the women,” said Silberfein. “They need to have their own space, which is closed to their husband and children. She can tell them it’ll make her a better mommy and wife.”
Empowerment was something Rudin found eight years ago, when she woke up one morning and decided to open up her own yoga studio, now called Agoura Power of Yoga. “I wanted to practice the type of yoga that I loved,” Rudin said, “At the time the closest studio was in Calabasas, so I create my own.” Rudin said she gets texts, emails and cards from women thanking her for helping them to reconnect with their inner power.
“In many relationships, women give up their power.” Silberfein said he disagrees with this. “We should be kissing their feet in gratitude for the things they do.”
Shakti Fest donates a portion of their proceeds to an orphanage in India that is home to 18 girls. “We want to have a festival where we can give back to the people, so after we pay our expenses, that’s what we do.”
Shakti Fest begins its sixth year at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center in Joshua Tree, CA on May 13 and goes from 7am to 2am until May 16. For more information go to: http://shaktifest.bhaktifest.com/ Discounts are given to veterans, military, students and seniors.