Today, I Am A Tree!

Today was all about trees. I started my yoga practice amongst the trees, then I walked through the most beautiful neighborhood full of trees. I felt their amazing energy. Trees are the quintessential observers of life. We are very much like trees. We stand up tall, we have a crown at the top and we

I Am A Tree Today

View this post on Instagram Today was all about trees. I started my yoga practice amongst the trees, then I walked through the most beautiful neighborhood full of trees. I felt their amazing energy. Trees are the quintessential observers of life. We are very much like trees. We stand up tall, we have a crown

Talk To The Animals

I’ve always spoken to animals as if they’re my closest friends. Most all animals will like you more when you just BE who you are toward them. Treat them like a living breathing BEING, not a pet and you’ll feel the fullness of connection at its best. Ive been opening my heart to animals since

Their View Mirror

I have noticed something that I just keep getting clearer and clearer about it.  Every time I get down or go into a depression, it is almost always because I am viewing my life from someone else’s view of me. To say it another way, I love my little life.  I live in a funky

Their View Mirror

I have noticed something that I just keep getting clearer and clearer about it.  Every time I get down or go into a depression, it is almost always because I am viewing my life from someone else’s view of me. To say it another way, I love my little life.  I live in a funky

Safe and Secure? Not So Sure

Security is an illusion.  “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.”  Helen Keller These are the words that ring in my mind when I think things

Presence Is Power!

Did you know– Gratitude is THEE most powerful spiritual practice to cultivate.  I spend my days looking for beauty and I always find it!  I am grateful I can see beauty everywhere I look. Recently I had lunch with a friend and her sister.  I really wanted to get to know her sister better since

Envy in Malibu

I have the privilege and honor of caring for people’s homes and animals while they are away.  One of the questions people always ask me is: “Do you ever become jealous or envious when  caring for other people’s homes?Do you go into the comparison mode and wish you had more of this wealth and abundance.”

Feeling Freedom

I’m having a hard time finding words for all of the feeling–I caught a glimpse of it this last week.   I felt safe and secure, deeply safe and secure, yet all the indicators in the physical world would not convince you of my security. I live week to week.    I have no savings

Lessons In Time

Originally posted on Hiking Los Angeles, Malibu, Santa Monica Mountains:
My mom will be 80 years old this year.  Anyone who knows my mom, knows she is one strong woman–she had to be!  As a single parent with 4 kids, she had to be strong and responsible.  It seems she never missed a beat. It’s…

20 Years of Epic! (Well, now it’s 25 years)!

This month marks my 20th year of mountain biking!  I’ll never forget the first time I rode up Palisades Drive on my mountain bike–my former husband was way ahead of me and all I could do in my mind was beat myself up! “Sure, he’s way ahead of me, his father was a 9 Letterman

Learning A New Body Language

If your body could learn a new language that could supersede everything you’ve ever believed about health and all the limits we set up around it, would you want to know about it? What if you had an energetic intelligence within you that would allow you to transcend all of your physical ailments?  Would you

Being Bliss

I had the most blissful day today.  It wasn’t anything I did in particular, it was just one big   bliss filled day! I think the reason was because I wasn’t really in my head, I was in my body–feeling! If I were to rattle off all the activites I did during the day, you’d

California Dreams–Letting Go!

I remember my second visit to California, I was 18 years old and loving this place!  Near the end of my trip, I read some graffiti on a freeway overpass, “Tourists GO HOME”!  I remember feeling really bad when I read it, almost like I had been personally attacked. I couldn’t understand how someone would want

Dilapidated Dreams

Originally posted on Hiking Los Angeles, Malibu, Santa Monica Mountains:
Have you ever driven by a business that was once thriving and now it is dilapidated because of neglect?  In your memory,  it was busy and successful– the place was always maintained with the utmost care and cleanliness; there were  customers bustling in and out …

Giving Feels Good!

I just spent time with a newer friend–I’m finding out so much about her that I hadn’t known before. She’s a giver. She helps so many charities– homeless shelters, foster children and  more. It’s funny, I just gave a little of my time with a warm heart.  She wanted to start writing a blog, that

Money For Nothing

Growing up I never had any anticipation of receiving an inheritance. There was barely enough to get by week to week let alone receive anything more–my mom worked 2 jobs and my father was not present.  My father had another family and if there was any sort of inheritance, I’m sure they would be receiving

Too Young To Learn From?

I invited a friend to come with me to  yoga.  The teacher of the class is  20 years my junior.   When I invited him, he said, “No, I won’t go to her class–what can I learn from her, she is too young.” I sure am glad I didn’t have that attitude when I first

Get A Glimpse– No Ego In Sight!

I am a woman and  sometimes when I look in the mirror I notice a little too much of what’s wrong–all the flaws.  Sometimes I see too much fat, too many flaws in my skin, blah blah blah!  Sad, but true.   Most of the time, though,  I am just in a state of BEING

Take Time To Play–It’s The Secret To Perpetual Youth

Something about those words that just sit easily with me–take time to play it is the secret to perpetual youth–that is the truest statement I know. My life is always lusting for play. Play is ease and joy and fun and light. Not enough people take the time to do it though. Most people seem

Voice of Reason

Recently, I’ve been sharing with a friend some of the worst voices in my head. When the words come out into the airwaves, they are harsh and my friend is somewhat horrified by what she is hearing!  “Tara, I’ve never heard you talk this way about yourself!” The ego that lives inside our heads is

Your Body–Built To Move!

As I’ve been recovering from straining some ligaments in my foot, I haven’t been exercising very much at all.  My yoga practice is not happening because that involves lots of foot work.  I haven’t been huffing and puffing up the hiking trails and the biking I’ve done is pretty tame.  I’ve just really wanted to

Lifted Up

I was out walking the dogs and was deep inside my head with lots of chatter. Sometimes the chatter is really blissful and empowering and other times the chatter is somewhat dark and disempowering. I’m aware of the chatter while it’s happening and most of the time it’s easy to turn it down or off,

California Dreams Come True

I remember my second visit to California, I was 18 years old and loving this place!  Near the end of my trip, I read some graffiti on a freeway overpass, “Tourists GO HOME”!  I remember feeling really bad when I read it, almost like I had been personally attacked. I couldn’t understand how someone would

Lessons In Time

My mom will be 83 years old this year.  Anyone who knows my mom, knows she is one strong woman–she had to be!  As a single parent with 4 kids, she had to be strong and responsible.  It seems she never missed a beat. It’s no surprise that us Jeter women are all very strong,

Outstanding

As I am becoming more and more appreciative and grateful for everything in my day to day living, I am noticing more and more people in my midst who are extremely appreciative and considerate.  It is so fun to watch the unfolding as it occurs. It’s good news to me, since I am a firm

Yoga–Open Heart Surgery!

I’ve been meeting many people who really want to develop a yoga practice.  Their first couple of experiences, though, have been challenging. When I hear this, I always ask them, “how bad do you want to practice yoga, what are you willing to go through, are you up for being annoyed, how about feeling frustrated?”

Santa Monica Serendipity

Santa Monica was once the Mecca of Bodybuilding–or wait, maybe it was Venice.  These days, Santa Monica is the Mecca of Yoga Studios. There are literally 6 studios within 5 blocks of each other. As I wrote in a previous post, I was once a yoga whore. Yoga whore,  meaning I never seemed to stay

Good Bye 40 something!

Today is my last day of being 40 something.  I started it out by going to Jerome Mercier’s Yoga class at 7am. My health is my greatest wealth and I am so grateful to have listened to my inner voice and continued on my path for all these years. Anyone who has had the pleasure

Diary of A Massage Therapist

I feel fortunate to have learned the skill of giving massage.  I am a nurturing,  compassionate person so being a massage therapist is in sync with those natural qualities. I am so very impressed with people who trust enough. When you think about it, a perfect stranger is entrusting their body to me, another perfect

Yoga Twists and Turns

I’ve been practicing yoga in Santa Monica for 15 years. I’ve considered myself a yoga whore for most of those years. Yoga whore, meaning I just jump from one teacher to the next and never really stay with one teacher on a weekly basis. Except for a few months practicing with Scott and learning the

Dog Days

Live LIKE A DOG! If you don’t have a dog or a dog that you can walk for someone else, get one or find one.  There’s something magical about being with dogs.  More than something…many things. Just stepping outside and starting to walk with dogs is invigorating.  Dogs are so thrilled to be getting out

See For Myself!

I went out on a spectacular Saturday morning mountain bike ride.  I was riding through the canyon, when someone going the other way said, “the trail is closed ahead”.  “Oh”, I said surprised.  I continued on about 10 more minutes when a man who works for the gas company stopped me and said the trail

The Life You Envisioned?

Is your life everything you envisioned it to be?  This is a question someone asked me the other day.  My guess is he was looking at my life and wondering how I could possibly be happy. I admit, I am a woman and I do think too much, but I was left feeling a little

Define The Moment

DEFINE THE MOMENT I saw those bold words on a T-shirt as I was passing 2 guys riding my mountain bike.  I had been in my head about life, love,  and friends and that phrase just hit me hard at that moment. I decided to DEFINE THE MOMENT. There I was on a Sunday morning