A cold walk on a misty day. Avoiding glassy puddles. Watching the steam from your breath create fog. Now that I've been getting back into my practice, even these gray days walking (sometimes running when I'm late) to yoga seem to be imbued with meaning. I don't know if this is the case with all mindfulness practices, but I find that the time just before and just after doing my asana practice just happen to be more crisp and aware than the rest of my day. Maybe it's my brain flooding with happiness chemicals in anticipation of all of the good feels that yoga creates in my body/mind. I don't know. Some people call it the "artists mind." It's the same feeling that I get when I go deep into creating art -- usually music or creative writing. It's this clear awareness that makes it possible for inspiration to fill me, the empty jug, with pure expression. I've never written anything successfully without that artists mind. And since I've been coming to the mat, practicing every day, I feel like I can access it more frequently. If you've ever had writers block, you know the pain of not being able to get into that creative flow. You show up to do your work and nothing comes out. Or you do the writing and it's all sh*t for months. And it feels like some distant memory, the last time you got into that flow. The last couple of years I've barely been in it, but I now realize that part of that is due to having dropped out of my mindfulness practices. And now that I'm back into it, I feel like slapping myself on the forehead. Of course there's a correlation. Of course.

The magic and mastery is in consistency. Show up every day. Do your work. Find that clear awareness. Then let the words come from that place. Then when I find myself in a particularly inspiring moment I can get into that blissful, deep awareness that leads to more & better creative work -- whether I'm going for a jog with a friend up a new-to-me hiking tail, watching the light from the sunset turn one side of the empty forest gold while the other side fades to dark blue; Or I'm rolling cookie dough into rounds in the palms of my hands -- dipping each by each in sesame seeds.

These cookies came out of many hours of searching for a good, original take on blood orange. I fluctuated from wanting blood orange angel food cakes, to muffins, to a citrus salad, to biscuits with jam, to scones and waffles. But sometimes it's good to stick with classics. These tahini cookies, based loosely on Molly Yeh's walnut butter cookie bars, have worked well for me with a number of different nut butters. Almond butter is probably my favorite iteration for a day-to-day cookie to have around (made with coconut sugar). But these tahini babes are probably my favorite thing that I've made with tahini to date (I've been on a bit of a tahini kick recently). Plus this blood orange curd recipe that I messed around with last year has become a Winter classic in my house. These sandwich cookies would be so good with a lemon or grapefruit curd as well.

So I guess sesame is my new obsession.