oo oo here i go..

The Real Work

by Wendell Berry

It may be that when we no longer know what to do

we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go

we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

  

ok so it's all a little scary!  i thought i had a place to stay when i got to Berlin so that i could then search for a more permanent thang, but it turns out that we weren't on the same page, and i don't.  i thought i was going to go to Greece for six weeks including my fortieth birthday, and now i heard that that also isn't going to work out.  i sit here bouncing back and forth between the celebration of being free and then on the other hand freaking out because there is no obvious place or person where my heart wants to go !  it feels weird to so clearly want to continue teaching yoga and painting, to want to do 'the work', wanting to participate  and feeling completely a loss of where go!! and where will i be for my birthday and who cares?!   and just to add to the uncertainty and mayhem mercury goes retrograde in the first week of october (even as i write that i can feel some of you rolling your eyes)!  and despite wanting to dismiss it and make fun of people who talk about it (fucking hippies) i have observed and experienced its effects so .. yeah... this cosmos effects me!

my ultimate dream would be to live on a farm in the middle of a city!  i would love to have a huge room that could serve as my studio, class room and gallery.  i want to live in community and be  surrounded by makers, whether making a difference, making a new door or making art!  i want to be around people who value and celebrate the differences in each other as a source of wealth and i want to share a big kitchen so i can cook for everyone!!  amongst the doubt and the fear and the angst, when i think about finding a place that is right to call home, my heart starts to light up again.  so i am stepping out into the unknown with very little security and let's see what happens!  

some works in process and my sussie inspired rainbow bookshelf <3

it's really hard to love books and travel!!  not to mention how awkward it is to be an artist and travel light!   but for now,  everything is packed away in boxes.

even though it's my traveling altar its staying in a box for a while

ah, the pier on a stormy afternoon i will miss you

We must eradicate from the soul

all fear and terror of what comes towards man

out of the future

and we must acquire serenity

in all feelings and sensations about the future

we must look forward

with absolute equanimity to everything that may come

and we must think only that whatever comes

is given to us by a world directive full of wisdom.

It is part of what we must learn in this age,

namely to live out of pure trust

without any security in existence

trust in that ever present help of the spiritual world

truly, nothing else will do

if our courage is not to fail us

and we must seek this awakening within ourselves

every morning and every evening.

Rudolf Steiner, Nov 1917

open letter to berlin with love

dear friends,

i hope this email/blog  finds you happy and well and doing work that you love! 

i once heard that when you are asked to take significant steps towards your destiny it is very much like stepping towards the foggiest part of the path!  as i find the time for me in järna coming to a close, i am looking to move to berlin.  my reasons are vague and range from simply 'i love the city' to odd experiences  such as arriving on a bus from hamburg in berlin and  hearing the words in my being 'this is where my heart is'.  i also don't feel ready to move back to the united states and want to live for a while in germany to improve my german (and yes, i have noticed how much english is spoken in berlin these days)!  

first of all i will be in berlin starting the second week of october and would love to meet up.  i would also love to find a place where i can offer a yoga workshop, preferably a place where i can offer it as cost as self determined (donation like). 

the bigger search is i am looking to find a place to live and work.  my dream would be to find a place where i can have room/studio to paint large paintings and also live.  

i know that y'all have busy full lives, so i am putting it out there to see if something sparks and if it doesn't no worries.

lots of love and may the force be with you ;)

xo, rachel 

rachel j miller

www.raestar.com

raestar@raestar.com

the punk rock and soil yoga camp!!

  Järna, Sweden August 11-21, 2014

the beautiful disa representing our punk rock and soil yoga camp  love!

once upon a time there was this idea to have a yoga camp at under tallarna..  there were just a couple of things we had to make, like a place to do yoga!!  so per and jacob started to build a floor!

some of the yogi's arrived early and helped finish the floor!

our camp

and oskar's teepee, which he used as a shinning example of how to be generous with your space and super hospitable.

the floor was beautiful and worked !!

breakfast... o the food..

we help with the harvest for under tallarna's csa <3

alex practicing the coy girl farmer look for a future  farming is the new sexy calendar ... ;)

oo the food was amazing!

o the food, oskar and ossian skillfully made magic in the outdoor kitchen <3

some times it rained and one of those days we had class in the barn.  probably the first yoga class where the fear of being poohed on by a dove was add to the list of inner work!  we escape with out a dramatic incidences :)

lenki and cornelious playing at the yoga space!
part of the practice of being amazing of course includes flying and other such joyous behavior!

alex, stephanie and julie also practicing being amazing and playing with gravity!

and we had a huge party!  the yoga crew helped host it along with the  incredible crew of under tallarna!  we are not sure how many people came but it was epic, lovely and a glowing addition to part of what make up the punk rock yoga course.. even with world music ;)

the morning after, satisfied sweet exhaustion  <3

and then there was an amazing dinner party at the close of a flower arranging workshop!  the food the whole time was great, and this dinner was over the top!  notice ossian is serving soup with the watering can!

for a while we had a roof made out of sails

the gift wrapping from the yogi's gift to me!  notice how noticeable the cock is and think about all the graffitied penises you've seen and maybe  join in adding vaginas to our tagging habits!!  o my gods and goddesses! 

our group!!  cornelious, jule, lenki, per, disa, stephanie, nola, me, katha and alex!!

we got the tour on the last day right before we left!  it was magical and really fit into our experience there... at under tallarna they are experts at doing, so we got to know the farm through activity and then the tour ended up being the story behind the actions <3 

under tallarna sent us all off with a piece of their heart .. i mean earth.. and a tomato to seed and then plant at home <3 respect!

thank you to all of you who made the 2014 punk rock and soil yoga camp possible <3