This is Maia. She’s 95.
Maia: My secret for long life is simplicity, work and enjoyment.
I love this video.
It’s breathtakingly beautiful. She is beautiful. Graceful. Embodied.
This speaks to me on so many levels, in so many ways. At the core, it is the simplicity of life, the green of the trees, the breeze and sunshine, cooking good food, wise women, friendship…the clear beauty of the human soul.
Life is an altar.
A post for #365Altars
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About the video:
“Shot in Fire Island, New York, this film (4min. 23 sec) captures the secrets of eternal youth as Maia Helles, a Russian ballet dancer turns 95 but still remains resolutely independent, healthy and as fit as a forty year old. Made by Julia Warr, artist and film maker met Maia on a plane 4 years ago and became utterly convinced by the benefits of her daily exercise routine, which Maia perfected, together with her Mother, over 60 years ago, long before exercise classes were ever invented.” (2011)
Film by Julia Warr | Music by Lola Perrin
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Absolutely beautiful and precious. Thank you for sharing this inspiring portrait 🙂
i love this video, and i sigh as i watch it. i sigh with satisfaction and gladness for maia, and i sigh with a blush of envy, too because i long for this pared-down, focused-down existence. i fantasize about how i want my days to look: wake, dress, cereal, yoga, medication, write till noon. lunch, a brief walk, then back to spend a couple of hours connecting with my friends in the ethers. a dance break around 3 or 3:30, cook between 4:30 and 5. supper, followed by stitching, reading, then sleep. i relax and smile just writing that down. but these days, there’s an endless stream of paperwork which just drains me. and for another 2-3 days, there’s no way for me to parcel it out into 1-2 hour increments spread over the course of a week. it’s all paperwork, all day – period. i haven’t stitched in weeks. write only the quickest blog post. my soul shrivels. parts of it are breaking off in brittleness because vicarious creativity does not equally hands-on creativity. and so i slug through another 2-3 days, then try to create the daily rhythm i long for. why does it seem so simply when i see maia’s video? why does it seem so simple when i see how other women are living?
last night i went to bed sensing that i could easily spend the rest of my life catching up with all these things that surely have to be done now, but gaze at the magnificent big picture, and they don’t seem nearly as important. i can’t imagine my friends and children will be gleeful because my files are in order. i rather imagine they might like to open a journal and see something besides dust dance across the pages.
soon – very, very, very soon – i will stop this embarrassing whining, push my sleeves back up, shove business and paperwork aside for a few hours each day, and bar the door so my soul can sing. it has to be me. others can encourage and nudge, but in the end, it’s up to me to make it so. and i will.
so there, y’all.
Yes
Thank you for sharing Maia with me. I needed to be reminded. x
perfect on this sick day! so healing and simple and fresh- like you!
How precious, so serene & inspiring. thank you for sharing.
I am fortunate enough to have (ok I created it) the luxury and pleasure of a daily sacred space of 2 hours or so in the mornings. And yet, this video has me aware of my desire for more and more of that time – call it simplicity. I think of it as the alchemy of spaciousness and intimacy.