The Land of Aloha!!!

I've been here less than a week and so far....so good!!! :0)

This is what you see when you step out of the front door...

 

 And this too, when you look the other way

And lastly, the beach!!!!

ALOHA!!!

Loving your inner child

No matter what age you are, there is a little child inside of you that needs love and nurturing.
As Louise Hay says, " If you’re a woman, no matter how self-reliant you are, you have a little girl who’s very tender and needs help." This child-version of yourself is always present within you and can be triggered through outside circumstances to make herself known.
Lately, I've been feeling some deep emotions- someone looking from the outside could call it "overreacting"- however, what I've come to realize is that it my inner child crying out for attention. Things don't always go as planned. Things sometimes happen that we don't like.
I am able to observe myself, feeling upset, for instance, and as an observer of the emotion (rather than getting lost in the emotion), say to myself: "Wow, I am getting so angry and upset over this little thing. What is going on inside of me to cause such an intense reaction?" And what I've been noticing, just in the last couple of days, is that it is my inner child crying out. She's saying: What about ME? This is not fair!
And she needs a big hug, kind words, and lots of love.
As she heals, the emotions subside.
If she is ignored, situations will keep coming up for me to acknowledge her.

When's the last time you gave your inner child a big bear hug?
How about right now?
Let her know you love her and you really care :0)

With LOVE,
Courts

Travels out West

The Ramm family took our first EVER family trip last week. Can you believe it? It's been 20+ years without a single family vacation until Feb 20, 2014! We've all done our fair amount of traveling...I certainly don't feel lacking in the travel department, but as a family we made our first voyage together last week to California. The only reason it happened is because it was for a very important event: Leandra's California wedding! Hip Hip Hooray!! The wedding was absolutely incredible (check out YouTube for some world-class music performances as part of the wedding ceremony!) and now I'm staying out in California for an extra week until I fly to Hawaii...I've been to LA and southern California before but this is my first time in Northern Cali. Check out the pics for some adventures:

Leandra and me on the trolley

Fisherman's Wharf

Magical Fall

Even in NYC, you can find glimpses of the magic of Autumn....you have to look out for them, but they are there!

From the roof of the Met. museum

This season has been buzzing and very busy for me- with lots of new teaching positions (yoga and Pilates)  and the preparation for two upcoming dance performances:

The first is a works-in-progress showing of a new piece I choreographed, called Logan's Way. It explores the inner world of Logan, my younger brother who is autistic. It's a powerful piece, perhaps partly because it  is performed by real people who are performing their real-life selves. The music is Yann Tierson's Amelie soundtrack, the piano version. Leandra Ramm, with her extraordinary voice, is singing hauntingly beautiful overtones throughout the piece on top of the music, and Adrienne Ramm is in the piece as well, both dancing and speaking. Bita Bell, a young dancer from Iran is playing Logan. She has been very interesting to work with because her training is more in drama/theater than dance, so I have worked with her to utilize her full capabilities as an actress to embody the unique and intense energetic quality of Logan. The fourth performer in the piece is myself, playing....myself! Like I said before, this is a "works-in-progress" showcase, and in the full-length version of Logan's Way, there will also be a male dancer/actor playing David, Logan's father. But for now, the cast is made of up 4 people. It will be performed on Saturday Nov 23rd at the Hatch Showcase, Jennifer Muller Studios on W.24th St. You can buy tickets here: http://conta.cc/1boQsBf

The next performance I am super excited about is "An Evening of Dance and Music", a solo performance of solos choreographed by Isadora Duncan, the mother of modern dance in America. There will be live piano (music of Brahams, Chopin, and Scriabin) by acclaimed pianists Roy Eaton and Mark Fiedler.

This is such a special performance for me, because my coach is my incredible mother, who is perhaps the greatest living legacy of Isadora Duncan, who has passed down these dances to me true to their form. The rehearsal process has been so fulfilling and satisfying. There is nothing better than going to sleep at night after spending the afternoon rehearsing these incredibly rich and physically-demanding Duncan solos. On December 5th, 1983, Adrienne performed her (2 hour long!) solo Duncan performance here in NYC, and exactly 30 years later, on December 7th, 2013, I will be performing my own solo Duncan program in NYC! Duncan lives on! (mine is only an hour...things were different back then! haha)

Let's see....what else stands out in the glistening of Fall 2013?

Oh yes! How could I forget the Hay House I CAN DO IT Conference a few weeks ago...!??

I am a HUGE Hay House fan. (You could even say I;m a Hay House junkie)  I LOVE all the beautiful books and teachers and actually bought my ticket back in June, because I knew this was something I could not miss!

To be learning from (and seeing first hand!)  inspiring teachers including Louise Hay, Wayne Dyer, Doreen Virtue, Cheryl Richardson, and many many many more put me in such a high that I thought I entered another realm. After Wayne Dyer's 3-hour Keynote talk, I was literally in such an altered place I could barely talk to anyone. It felt as though someone had gone into my heart, used a wrench and opened it up. In the most beautiful and profound way.

These next few photos are of other inspiring and uplifting moments this Fall. See captions for details:

Central Park, mid-September (it was still warm out!)

Sun setting over the Hudson river, with Statue of Liberty in the background

Freedom Tower

Painting Palette

Painting class!

Speaking to Doreen Virtue at I Can Do It!

I walked by these flowers, and they called out to me to take their photo!

 I'll end this post with a quote from Marianne Williamson,

“Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.”

Thought for the day

If you're doing things to make you happy, 

you're doing them in the wrong order!

RammGrass

I call this grass RammGrass. It is wheatgrass, grown by Ramms. 

Courtney Ramm bought the organic wheatberries from the food co-op;

Adrienne Ramm bought the organic soil from Home Depot

and David Ramm supplied the disposable foil baking tray to grow in.

And in 6 short days....it turned from a tiny seed to whom you wouldn't give a second glance to, to THIS!!!:

 

Oh and I forgot to mention Camel Ramm. He guarded the wheatgrass from bugs and evil sorcerers

RammGrass is ready for a haircut

Mama Ramm and the grass

 Ready for juicing....get excited!!!

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The Wonders of Gardening...in NYC

Early in the Spring, I was walking through the Union Sq. Farmer's Market, and there wasn't so much to choose from...not the big sprawling market that's there now, since the weather was cooler. Anyways, I was walking along and saw one large vendor with tons of plants to choose from- vegetables and herbs of all kinds were just starting to grow in little plastic trays. I remember thinking, "Wow, if I just water a few plants every day, I can supply all my own greens for salads and juicing, without having to go to the market so often!" I spent a lot of time picking out the perfect plants to buy and take home to nurture, and spoke to many people at the market who ensured me that yes, I could grow these plants in my apartment with very minimal effort.

I decided on romaine lettuce, swiss chard, and celeriac root. These came in packs of 6 each, leaving me with 18 little plants to find a home for in the apartment!

The balcony ended up being the perfect spot- the only little problem was that I could not plant each one 30 inches apart like the instructions tab told me to do. Whoever wrote that little tab must be crazy- 30 INCHES apart?! This is NYC! Who has room for that? (hehe)

So, I decided to plant them more like 3 inches apart in makeshift pots including dresser drawers and ceramic bowls I made in a ceramics class a few years ago.

Here's what happened after about a 5 week growth period:

 See all those tall green things? Those are romaine! I think what happened is they were trying so hard to adapt, and instead growing into a head of romaine as intended, they grow into twisting and turney and tall plants!

One is growing straight up, and the others are growing like a crazy roller coaster:

This incredible Romaine is actually growing down, then back up!

Swiss Chard

Happy Plants

My beautiful garden! I'm a proud Mama.

By the end of summer, I'll harvest all the plants and make a yummy salad. But until then, I'm having fun watching them grow in all kinds of crazy ways. This is a garden, NYC-style!