Birthday Blue Orchids

Turning 43 has just helped reinforce what I felt when I turned 42 – I’m so happy in my 40s. I love it here! My brain works well, my physical body has never been healthier and I no longer worry so much about what other people think about me. That has been a long time coming.

IMG_5572

For my birthday this year, my daughter, her fiance, my son and my husband all put on a game night in my building’s rec center. Some of my friends and extended family showed up and we hung out and played games. It was completely low-key and perfect. I may have made about 10-gallons of Mac-and-Cheese for everyone.

IMG_5565

Alex picked these blue orchids for some of the table decorations. I can’t stop staring at them. There is something very silky and sultry and full of passion about them.

They are totally and uniquely themselves. They embrace their variations of vibrant color and show it off with pride. And in the recesses, way in the centers, you can see the deep, still wisdom that lies there.

I suppose that’s what I’m going to be aspiring to this year.

Speaking near Salt Lake City on Dec. 19, 2013

leah_karenwalrond2I’ll be speaking on healing our bodies and minds holistically in Orem, Utah next week. I’m really excited to share what I’ve learned these past three years. When I started this journey, I had no idea how intricately our mind and bodies were connected and how healing our guts and changing our lifestyles could change how our minds worked and felt.

Healing from a chronic illness is no joke and I know many of you struggle with it. If you can make it, I’d love to meet you face to face.

Email me for details.
xo

Photo by Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks.com

Dogwoods

You guys. Here we have – weird orange cloud cover, flowering Dogwoods, early(EARLY) Spring in San Diego, and date night with my husband. It’s pretty much as good as when you peel an orange and you get those little baby slices in there and you’re all hey! Baby orange slices!

Bus

I took this while on Christmas vacation at our son’s home in San Francisco on my iPhone w/olloclip. Why do the buses and the houses look cooler up there?

High Kick

There is something so enticing about a quiet backyard coffee joint where they have old, framed black-and-white photos hanging right on the fence. Wherein one person is Matrix-style avoiding a high-kick swipe to the the jaw. And in another one, the dude is just being, you know, a Dude.

OB Pier

This is what people think of when they think of San Diego in March (or February, when this photo was taken). What you can’t see: the cluster of homeless people just to the left that yelled at me when I walked past. One guy had just puked. There was a dog among them. My friend said, “Let’s go by them together. Better to walk by that way.” I hate that what she said is true and I hate that this is a very real part of what San Diego is now.

But you can’t see any of that in this shot. Just look at how blue the sky is.