EASE Day 12, 13 & 14

On Monday a long walk, tulips on Tuesday and Flow magazine in my mailbox today. I´m at ease. 

EASE day 11

I´m often amazed by the amount of free content available on the internet. Today I googled the word "ease" and found this amazing picture which led me to "The State of Ease" by Doc Childre, view here for free.
This year I´m inviting more ease into my life which is easy on the one hand because my children have all more-or-less moved out. On the other hand it´s proving difficult because others assume that now I have more time in my schedule to fill. I´ve had 3 weeks of work over the holidays and tomorrow is my first full working day. I´m a freelance english trainer in a language institute run by one of my best friends. It´s a job I love and do well and over the past few years I decided to concentrate on this task rather than making one of my other hobbies my occupation. It was a good decision.
This job enables me to earn enough money to support my lifestyle and my children and also have a large amount of flexibility. I don´t need more and I want to make sure that there´s still enough time to just "be" as well though, and not just on the weekends. Am I being selfish?
Looking to Doc Childre for some insight.

EASE Day 9 & 10

In the colder months, with more time to dream and think about spring and the sowing season, I start thinking about my vegetable garden. I have a few frozen veges from last year´s harvest in the freezer and we have a wonderful Demeter shop in Wolfsberg where I buy organic root veges, kales, winter salads and cabbages to get us through the winter.  I´ve been a vegetarian for over one and a half years now - and I´m still surprised that it has been so easy. I cook tastier and healthier meals now and our food is not boring at all. 

Here´s an interesting article to read at Zen Habits, if you´re considering becoming a vegetarian. 

Some easy and wonderful recipes from Taste Australia. 

A few words from River Cottage´s Hugh Fearnley, and a series of videos as well.

The above vegetable garden is not my own but I hope I can achieve something like it when I gain more experience. It´s the farmer´s garden in the nearby city of Klagenfurt, more photos here.

EASE Day 8 Going Grey

Ease for me really means feeling comfortable. For a long time I didn´t feel comfortable with my hair because I always wanted what I didn´t have. I have tried many different colours, styles and lengths - now, at 48 years of age, I can finally say I am at ease with my hair. I found a wonderful, local hairdresser a few years back and I have a shorter style that is manageable with my thin hair. One year and 3 months ago, I also decided to go grey naturally and I thought I would have more grey strands than I do but only a couple of friends have noticed. Here are some inspiring articles and photos on the subject. Woman´s Day, Decided to go Gray in 2015 and THIS gorgeous pinterest page.

EASE Day 7

I have been practicing Yoga for about 5 years now and this article on striking a balance between effort and ease really sums up what Yoga has helped me to recognise in my own life.  I go to a class every Wednesday morning here in my town and practice at home once or twice a week as well, mostly I follow instruction videos from Esther on Eckhart Yoga because I love her friendly face and voice. If you haven´t tried Yoga, these videos may spark your curiosity.

EASE Day 4, 5 & 6

 This is a photo of my sons (from left to right) Stefan, Markus and Daniel when they were 4, 3 and 6.

And here they are today, 16 years later. In the last 3 days Stefan has gone back to Graz to start a new job, Markus has moved to Graz to start his 9 months of social work and Daniel has left for a 3 month trip to Indonesia and Australia. It´s been an emotional few days for me but I am proud of them for being so grown-up, responsible and independent - time to start easing into the empty nest.

EASE Day 3

Goodbye Christmas tree Hello altar!
I followed these instructions.

Ease Day 2

Day 2: Clean up your work space.
Pay bills, throw away unnecessary papers ( business cards, notes, articles, lists, advertising etc.), write appointments for January into planner, organise computer desktop. Done!

2015

My word for 2015 is EASE
I´ll be looking into how to bring more ease into my life.

Starting with reading about the 3 essentials for living with ease.

Happy 2015!

Thursday´s with Ali

Taken last Thursday at my friend Ali´s place.

Monday

Courage to be who we are and do what we want to make a life we love. Regardless of our past, our body size and what others say. I am 47 and I officially accept myself, as I am today, take it or leave it. Amen.

Berlin

Berlin is an amazing city! It´s multi-cultural, lively and a little broken, I immediately felt at home there. The public transport system makes it so, so easy to get around and I loved sightseeing by bus and train, just looking around at all the buildings and people - wondering what life was like while the wall was still up around West Berlin.

Tomorrow afternoon my husband and I are flying to

for 3 nights. That means we have tomorrow evening, Friday and Saturday and Sunday until lunch time to explore the streets and sights of this city. I have never been there before and I´m really excited. I´ll post photos when we get back. Auf Wiedersehen!