A Photo Essay on Llama Medicine & The CSC 1/2 Year Review

My son, Oakley, celebrated his 15th birthday last Thursday, just one day after his Grade 9 graduation.

Oakley’s grade 9 year was the best year of his school life and we are so thrilled he courageously went out of his comfort zone to land in an ideal school for his last year of junior high. 

Now for the llamas.

For his birthday, Oakley received this card. 

Then on Saturday, I pulled the Llama card from my animal deck as guidance for the Yoga for Divine Alignment class I taught online. The message of Llama is to be unbothered. Little did I know I was going to get to practice being unbothered in just a few hours' time.

Later in the day, whilst taking my iodine supplement, I spilled that very dark amber liquid onto our white marble counter. For a few moments, all I could do was stare as the iodine puddle spread. Thanks to Llama’s energy, though, I remained unbothered.

Since iodine is quite pricey, I wondered if I could somehow direct the puddle back into the bottle (a lofty idea indeed).

“My funnel! My metal scraper!” I thought. “I’ll scrape the iodine to the edge of the counter where the funnel will be waiting to pour it back into the bottle!” (Probably you can already see the flaw in my idea but at the time, it still seemed pretty clever.)

While I did save a few drops with my scheme, what I also did was make the stain double in size. Plus I spread the stain to the cupboard below in a lovely dripping motif. Oops. Still, I remained unbothered.

Next up? What (environmentally friendly and safe) cleaning products did I have that would counter iodine stains on porous surfaces? (Only did I notice that pun while editing. Since I like I good pun, I left it in.)

I pulled out all of my cleaners, brushes, sponges and cloths, trying each one in succession. Here are the results after my various attempts. 

For good measure, I decided to spill the cleaning paste all over the floor. I have no idea how I remained unbothered, but I did. The mounting humour in the situation helped.

Prior to the iodine spill, I had been planning to go outside, sit on my lounge chair and read a few pages of my book in the sunshine. Well, that didn’t happen. 

Once I abandoned my kitchen stain-removal efforts, I felt freshly invigorated and ready for more cleaning adventures. I decided to go out to the car and work on the unfortunate smell that had developed from a giant water bottle spill the week prior (and when I say giant water bottle, I mean the kind that's shaped like a dumb bell and weighs at least 10 lbs when full of water... it's Oakley's pride and joy).

I had great success with that purifying endeavour and turned my car-cleaning efforts into a Fathers’ Day gift for my husband that had the whole family raving about how nice the car felt. 

When my husband came home, he also tried all the cleaning products back in the kitchen and I’m happy to say that the countertop is almost back to white. We’ll just keep trying. The cupboard will likely require paint and that’s fine too. 

I’m so grateful that Llama showed up in such a significant and obvious way to help me focus on the humour in the fiasco rather than the anger an older version of me certainly would have felt. 

Three cheers for personal growth! Hooray! Yippee! Huzzah!

May you also carry the medicine of Llama with you this week and remain unbothered by whatever arises. 

(Llama also helped out when our Friday night plans to go see the new Spider-verse movie as a family had to shift last minute because Zoe hurt her ankle quite severely at martial arts and Paul took her to the hospital. It’s not broken! Yay! And Oakley and I got still got to see the movie. Yay! Llama certainly helped me go with the flow. We even got an easy refund on the two extra movie tickets. Yay! Thank you Llama.)

With relaxed love and tranquil courage,

Christina

>Creator of Courageous Self-Care

>Teacher of some pretty spectacular and effective online yoga classes (whether llamas are involved or not)

>Hopeful to get some lounge chair time soon… by August for sure

PS - The Courageous Self-Care 1/2 Year Review is coming up this weekend. Join us live or watch the replay to get celebrate your growth so far this year in a meaningful way and to get clarity on where you’re headed for the rest of 2023.

It’s that time of year again… We’re almost halfway through 2023 (can you believe it?) and that means it’s time for the creatively titled (drumroll) Courageous Self-Care 1/2 Year Review. (At least you know exactly what it is.)

If you feel like:

• you’re always on the go 
• that your life is very busy and stressful
• there don’t seem to be enough hours in the day 
• you kind of have that ‘wind-blown look’ 

… then this workshop will help you get a handle on things.

One of the key teachings in Courageous Self-Care is to create a better relationship with time, and one way to do that is to look to the past with gratitude (rather than regret and doubt) and towards the future with anticipation and excitement (rather than fear and worry).

During this 90-ish minute done-with-you session, you’ll get practical experience in honouring what has already happened so far this year, and then we’ll set some intentions for the next quarter of 2023 so that you know what to do next. 

You can expect to leave the call with: 

• Increased clarity (so you can make plans that align with your values and thus feel more fulfilled - three cheers for feeling fulfilled!)
• More energy (because we’ll be doing fun things like dancing and celebrating)
• A sense of refreshment (because we’ll be taking a break from all the go-Go-GO!)
• The realization that you’ve had more success than you gave yourself credit for (and it’s always so good to be even more kind and gentle with yourself)

You’ll feel so organized and proud of yourself for taking action toward the life you really want to be living.

The Details

Date: Saturday June 24 (replay available if you're already booked)

Time: 8am Pacific/ 9am Mountain/ 11am Eastern

Duration: 90ish wonderful minutes (possibly closer to 2 hours if we’re really rockin’ it)

Cost: $47

How to Join: click the registration link below and you’ll get all the important details by email

I’m really excited to share the powerful process with you (if it’s a fit, of course). If you’re like “Um, no” then you can trust it’s not for you right now.

And if you’re like “I would love to come but I’m already booked,” then please register anyway and I’ll send you a link to the recording. Because I’m nice like that.

Yes! Please!

Right before I found out that Zoe had injured her ankle, I was sitting in the car, waiting for the kids to finish their martial arts class. I had been on the go all day (and all week, really). My mind was trying to determine the best way to use the 5 minutes I had to wait when it occurred to me that I could just listen to some music and chill out. Great idea!

This song popped up on my shuffle and it was so relaxing and exhilarating at the same time that it prepared me for what I didn't know was coming next. Thank goodness I took a few minutes to unwind. Maybe you'd like to do that too with this gorgeous operatic aria sung by Maria Callas. It's like a little trip to heaven. 

Listen to Catalani: La Wally on iTunes

Listen to Catalani: La Wally on Spotify