Welcoming Our New Neighbor, Nourish Market Mclean

Nourish Market McLean on Old Dominion

We're delighted to welcome in Nourish Market McLean, which opened in early June, 2010, on Old Dominion, heading from McLean to Great Falls, VA.

We've just discovered Nourish Market, and are thrilled that they are offering both vegetarian and non-vegetarian sandwich and soup options. They're easy for pick-ups on the way home to Great Falls.

I stopped by this morning, spoke with Aaron who had helped them since before their opening, and enjoyed learning about their green-friendly approach. They have bamboo floors, bamboo ceiling acoustic deflectors, and LCD lighting around the cool goods display containers. The decor is open, spacious, and VERY clean; it's a treat to walk in! They have a wide range of snacks, to-go items, and even some lovely wines.

Nourish Market is located at 8100 Old Dominion Drive, Suite E, McLean, VA 22102. They are open from Monday through Saturday, 7AM - 7PM, and on Sunday from 10Am 4PM.

P.S. - I tried their gRAWnola bar -- delicious!

What does 2012 Mean for Us?

I stepped outside earlier this morning, and could feel it. It wasn't just the sense of the very longest of the very long early summer days. It wasn't just the heat, the humidity - promising that a lovely morning would turn into a sweltering afternoon. Rather, it was feeling, and sensing, that pivot point of the year.

Earlier today, for the briefest of moments, the sun stood still. At least, that is the sense that we have, here on Earth, in our experience of orbiting around the sun. And now, with a greater sense of acceleration, we start to whoosh towards the other side; towards the shortest days, and the longest nights.

And we will repeat this two more times, and on the third "whoosh" towards the longest night, we will be approaching Winter Solstice of 2012; the time that has been the focus of much attention over the past several years.

What exactly are we expecting? Will the world suddenly come to an end? Will the Apocalypse of John's story in Revelations start coming true, word for word? Will we wake up on the morning of January 1st, 2013, to a world that is remarkably different - if we wake up at all?

Or is there something else?

It's About Healing ...

Inner Healing through Belly Dance

It's been a lovely day. I started with - if not reconnecting with some people - at least getting a few more of those names into my ACT! contact management database, AND my MS Outlook contact cards, so that - when the time comes - I CAN connect with them. Lovely feeling.

I've done a lot of preps for the very technical course I'll be teaching at one of the local universities this fall.

And, because my mind needed something "real" - not just the latest techno-story, but something with a bit of meat - I did some physics. At least identified some articles that were VERY interesting, and did the quickest of little write-ups on a few of them - more just annotating bookmarks than anything else.

And then I went for a walk.

Lovely, almost cool early summer evening. The birds had started singing before 5AM (I was up well before then), and here it was well after eight - and the sky was still light. How I love this season! And just a few days now until solstice - the maximal energy point of the year. I can feel it, and love this time.

But during the walk, something started happening. Actually, it had begun before I left the house.

I was beginning to feel things -- lots of emotional "churn" was coming up. Feelings of sadness, of loneliness, of needing to connect, and of loss. Of remembering people who had died, and with whom I could no longer connect - or not so easily. And feeling the "pain" factor that is the flip side of being highly creative, and needing intensely focused time in order to create. That is the loneliness of these moments.

And it just so happened that there was no one of "like mind" to whom I could turn.

And so, during the walk, it started to happen. Some music came into me -- I was "dancing" in my mind as I walked down the street. I came home, put the music on, and started some improv. Yes, there were some choreography fragments that I'd learned in a workshop - about a year ago at this time. But the music had a lot of "heart-swelling" types of movements embedded in it.

In fact, the music was very "heart-oriented," with a subdued "dub-dub," "dub-dub."

And it was that feeling that I started connecting with during dance.

I used the dance to open my diaphragm, to open my shoulders and pecs (which had become very constricted during all the computer work of the day), and to feel.

And tomorrow, I hope to again do the same.

Unveiling: Chapter 1 (Excerpt)

Unveiling: An Inner Journey

Chapter 1: What Do Women Really Want?

Dear Ones - An excerpt from the first chapter:

"The Wife of Bath was a saucy lady. We find her interesting, even today, as we note her feisty and independent spirit. She held her own among fellow pilgrims when, enroute to Canterbury, they held a story-telling contest. Her story harkened back to the days of knights and dragons, of spells and sorcery, and of damsels in distress.

"In the days of King Arthur, a lusty young man came upon a beautiful maiden, and promptly raped her. There was a hue and cry at this misdeed, and King Arthur sentenced him to death. The ladies of the court, however, felt this sentence was too harsh. They pleaded for his life. Finally, King Arthur gave this young man over to the Queen. His life was completely in her hands. If she decided that he was to die, he would die. If she decided he could walk free, he would walk free.

"The Queen thanked King Arthur, and made her decision. 'I will grant you your life,' she said, 'if you can tell me what thing it is that women most desire.' She gave him a year and a day to find out, and to return to her with that answer."

For the rest of Chapter 1 -- Unveiling should be released by early Autumn. Until then, I'll be posting more tidbits and teasers -- enjoy!

It's all about doubling (Blogsite Followers)

Connecting the "Best of the best"!

Dear Ones --

My goal has been to connect the "best-of-the-best," and build a strong resource community.

This is the 43rd day since I restarted my blog. After the first few days, I started asking for "Followers." My goal was to build an online community which connected the "best-of-the-best" - the best massage therapist (hooray, Anna Gordon! Glad you'll be back this coming weekend - starting June 11th!), the best raw foods specialists (see Raw with a Twist, the best breakthrough facilitator (see Julie Rahm as America's Mindset Mechanic), and so on.

I've been thrilled that Joe Williams, the world's leading proponent of the Delsarte Method, has also joined us.

Many of us are small business entrepreneurs.

One way to track how well we are reaching our community is to look at how we're growing our Followers.

In 43 days (and let's take off 3 days for initial blogging and getting some content going), I've doubled my Followers four times: From 1 to 2, from 2 to 4, from 4 to 8, and (just in the past hour) from 8 to 16. That's four "doublings." This took 40 days.

If my math is right - and if we're really dealing with doubling here (this is a geometric progression, not a linear one - for those of us who remember our high school math class) - it is taking 10 days per "doubling."

So now - I'm both making a prediction and asking for your help.

I'd like to "double" again over the next 10 days. That means, go from 16 Followers (the number as I write) to 32 Followers, by Thursday, June 17th.

Let's treat this as a game, and let's help each other "win." Anyone else want to play? Anyone else who wants to double their Followers in ten days? (I bet some of you will do much, much better than me!)

Let's all check in with our results on Thursday, the 17th!

Exciting News! Raw with a Twist opens in DC Area this July 4th Weekend!

Fabulous good news for all of us who desire total life transformation: Raw With a Twist is open for business starting the July 4th weekend.

Fabulous Show last night - WAMEDA Members Showcase!

We had such a great time at the WAMEDA (Washington Area Mid-Eastern Dance Association) Annual Member's Showcase last night! First, congrats to Verna and Jerry of Dancer: The Unusual Store, for hosting such a fine event. Verna did a beautiful job of creating an excellent stage; lovely backdrop and plenty of room - also room in front for dancers who wanted to get close to the audience or take more space for a larger-format dance. There was a cash bar, and WAMEDA provided us with an array of light refreshments.

Verna, I love that you organized a great combination of skilled sound techs and video crew - the two factors most important in making a show go smoothly, and helping it be memorable later! I'm SO looking forward to seeing the DVD!

As usual, Gerson Kuhr (the Fitness Pharaoh)was once again our gracious and impressive host - and a walking testament to his physical conditioning regime. You looked gorgeous, Gerson! And put many of us dancers to shame - we should all be getting coaching from you, or at least working out regularly with your DVD, Core Training for Belly Dancers!

Cleo's Closet was our vendor, and provided a lovely and intriguing array of scarves, hip belts, and jewelry, along with CDs and DVDs. Thank you, Carmen, for giving us such luscious shopping options! And it's good to know that we can shop online with you as well.

Dancers included Amustela, Jaka, and others from the WAMEDA community.

I had a chance to close the show with a Candle Dance, which is part of my summer curriculum.

Alay'nya performing Candle Dance this Sunday, June 6th, in Clinton, MD

Candle Dancing by Alay'nya!

I'm thrilled to present a beautiful candle dance, set to "Mosaic" on Sandstorm by Farzad Farhangi, this coming Sunday at the annual Washington Area Mid-Eastern Dance - WAMEDA Members' Hafla in Clinton, MD. The event will be at the American Legion Hall in Clinton, and will start at 2PM. I'll kick off the second set - which is my favorite; this dance really is a "ritual invocation" of fire energy - and now is the time to bring this into our lives!


Photo by Kriss. Used with permission.

There will be many other wonderful area dancers, including Amustela, who first introduced me to Farzad's beautiful music. She's closed out our last several shows, and always gets rave reviews from the audience!