Gingkos After the Storm
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Leaves windswept off trees–
A magic golden carpet,
Harbinger of snow.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Red
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Fall is a time of reds and oramges, reminding us of the need to go to ground, to root, to delve into the deepest, earthiest part of ourselves.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Fine Weather for Walking
Filed Under Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice, Community and Family, Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc), Gardening, Meditation, Photos | Leave a Comment
The past several days in DC have been perfect for walking. The mornings, for me, require a winter coat and gloves and a hat or scarf. At the warmest part of the day, the air is refreshingly cool, and I can shed some layers. In spring and fall, there is little I want to do more than take long walks. And so I take to the sidewalks even more than the usual walk to work, to the Farmers’ market, to the metro, to visit with friends, to teach, to go to the nursery or the grocery store, to go to the bank and post office, to go get a massage. I make no effort to be efficient and consolidate errands; every errand is an excuse to take a walk. I add a block or seven onto an errand walk. I walk and think and then my attention is seized by the beauty of the color and the light. I have to pause and drink it in.
Precious Are the Mornings
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Precious are the mornings when the light is soft
And the air is gentle–for those who consciously clothe themselves
With respect for the intermarriage between
Their body and the day–and when the play of shapes and colors
In the sky and upraised trees dances visions
Of the vast creativity of Being. No doubts arising
Until one reads the news and, once again,
Must reconcile in heart and mind what is there with
The teachings that all is one and full of joy.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Sculptures Around Town
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I love the tree sculptures by Roxy Paine. This one is in the Sculpture Garden on the National Mall. They are exquisitely beautiful and beautifully crafted. In addition to just appreciating their form, though, they make me think of the perils of society preferring the shiny, the seemingly permanent and indestructible, and the constructed over the breathing, shading, nourishing, life-sharing presence of real trees.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Web Version of Fall Newsletter (Free Yoga, Annual Thanksgiving Fundraiser for Oxfam, New Props at Wm Penn House)
Filed Under Art and Culture, Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice, Community and Family, Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc), Gardening, Meditation, Miscellaneous (blog matters, etc) | Leave a Comment
Dear Friends,
Happy Samhain, All Hallow’s Eve, Halloween. We are slipping into the time of year that is good for dreaming and introspection, while things get wild and windy outside. I can always tell when it is drawing to the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Autumn Equinox because the Christmas cactuses (which always bloom at Thanksgiving) start to bud. When I went to bring in the tropical plants because of the pre-Samhain winter storm, I saw that a few of the orchids were spiking. It is almost as much fun to watch the buds emerging and growing and taking on color as it is to see the flowers, which only last so long before the flowers must die so that energy can go back into making the whole plant healthy and ready to flower again. Inside and out, my garden invites me to a deeper appreciation of the dance of dissolution, creation, and maintenance.
It takes only modest intention, commitment, and nurture to have plants blooming through winter. Just as we can cultivate gardens indoors in winter, yoga and meditation help us cultivate inner beauty so that we are at ease with our being regardless of what storms rage and how we are impacted in space and time and material body by the storms. My solution: practice of all kinds, and this November is going to be a wonderful month for yoga..
Just as maintaining a garden in winter calls for props–containers, heat, indoor water source, etc., cultivating the fullness in our bodies, particularly if we are working with a challenge of embodiement, can benefit from the assistance of various props. I am pleased to announce that we now have lots of blocks and straps for everyone (and some tennis balls, though we could use a few more for when the class is big) at the Tuesday night all levels yoga class at William Penn House, making it an even more supportive environment for those new to yoga or with challenges of embodiment. As always, a portion of the fee from every student supports the work of William Penn House.
I will be leading the Friday night free community yoga class at Willow Street Yoga’s Silver Spring studio, which I will be teaching this coming Friday, November 4th. It is an all levels class that will include discussion of therapeutic applications of yoga alignment, and it’s a great way to bring a friend along with you to get introduced to yoga or to Willow Street.
If you are in town for Thanksgiving, please join me to support a great cause. From 10:00am-11:30am, Thanksgiving morning, I will be leading my ninth annual fundraising class to benefit Oxfam at Willow Street Yoga’s Takoma Park studio. 100% of the profits go to Oxfam. I look forward to seeing many of you, both those coming back and those joining us for the first time. Friends and family welcome, including children 12 and over.
Veteran’s Day weekend brings Todd Norian to Willow Street Yoga. On Sunday, November 13th, the focus of the workshop will be therapeutics. Todd is an incredibly loving and knowledgeable teacher, and I am planning to be there to assist. You can sign up on-line or in person at Willow Street.
I am looking forward to the weekend workshops with John Friend in College Park, MD on November 19 & 20. Both Mixed Level and Intermediate/Advanced workshops are offered. This is the first time John Friend has taught in the DC area since 2007. Apply today to join your fellow yogis. There are several of us going from the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Feel free to contact me if you are looking to carpool, and if you can either offer driving or are looking for a ride.
I always enjoy hearing from you by email or comments on the blog. If you haven’t already, click here to be taken to the subscription page. For short thoughts about yoga and meditation in your Facebook news, please “like” my public page for Rose Garden Yoga.
Looking forward to sharing more of the yoga with you.
Peace and light,
Elizabeth
Approaching Samhain
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The space between the spheres thins and the wind creates passageways.
The spirits are outraged; how could they be otherwise? Their dance tramples
And blows things down, but still cannot help but create beauty.
The leaves–green, red, gold, brown from the drought, that distant memory–
Hang listlessly with the weight of rain and a bit of slush
Hardly even dancing in the wind, but still becoming perhaps
More extravagantly lovely by the storm’s grey light.
Today In and From the Garden
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It is time to pay attention to the garden, to watch closely whether it will be a warmer fall or whether there will be an early frost. Yesterday, there was a chance of temperatures in the mid-30′s F in the next few days. Now, the first day below 38F (which is when I bring in the hardiest of the tropicals–they like to get nights in the 40s F, but not the 30′s F) is toward the end of the 15-day forecast. I gambled that temperatures would stay warm enough until the next time I would be able to spend the hour and a half moving plants inside. It is best when I can do it on a weekend, but in a pinch I have done it first thing in the morning instead of my regular practice before starting the work day. I wait until the last minute because the plants are so much happier outside. They don’t mind four months inside, they are ok with five, and they start really suffering at six months. This means I watch closely danger of first and last frost to keep the plants outside as long as possible.
Some things, such as the impatiens and begonias that I was taught by my paternal grandmother to bring inside as cuttings to root in winter and then replant in spring start struggling outside when lows are steadily in the 40′sF, which is why I did the cuttings today. The tomatoes are still producing, so I have not yet switched the raised beds from tomatoes to hardy greens, but the seeds I planted when I pulled up the peppers and the eggplant are starting to come up.
Today’s harvest included: Cherokee purple, roma, and cherry tomatoes, green beans, baby butternut squash, thai hot chili peper, white and orange carrots to eat now; sweet herbs to dry for infusions–stevia, licorice mint, lemon balm, lemon verbena, spearmint. Coming up: spinach, chard, turnip greens.
Prasad (and Opening to Grace)
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During one of the sessions at the workshop last weekend in New Jersey, John Friend made a passing reference to the difference between receiving and taking. He did not go into any detail because it was not central to the theme of the class, but it led me to contemplate on my own about the difference between taking and giving in the context of yoga practice. In so doing, I thought about the concept of prasad — which is food that has been blessed and is offered to those who have participated in worship (puja).
When offered prasad, one does not take it. Instead, the cupped palm is turned up to receive the prasad. The recipient does not get to pick through the basket and choose which sweet looks the biggest or the tastiest, but simply receives with gratitude the sweet or fruit that is infused with the intention of spirit. The active part is the showing up with openness and receptivity to the offering, the blessing, the nourishment being offered.
Coming to yoga class or doing our own practice (asana or meditation) should be, I think, like preparing to receive prasad. What is primary in the practice of Anusara yoga is being open to grace, but we can no more force openings or enlightenment (grace and insight always elude grasping), than forcing any particular physical posture or goal really yoga practice. The point of effort in yoga to improve and expand alignment and knowledge is to enable the practitioner to receive more fully all the potential gifts and grace of practice, and then in turn make fuller and more complete offerings to others.
Below: offerings at the Chelsea Farmers’ Market
Health Care Crisis in Progress
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At “Taste of DC” here come (not in any particular order):
1. Respiratory diseases from air pollution resulting from cooking methods, factory farmed meat, manufacture of packaging, and food transportation.
2. Antibiotic resistance from factory farmed meat.
3. Diabetes from refined sugar and carbohydrates.
4. Cancer from food additives, food cooking methods, manufacture of plastic food packaging, and air pollution.
5. Heart disease from fatty and high cholesterol foods.
5. Foot, ankle, knee, and back problems from ill-fitting high heels with a narrow toe box.
6. Tooth decay from refined sugars and carbohydrates and later gum disease and heart conditions from poor dental hygiene.
6. Waterborne diseases from air and water pollution secondary to food manufacturing and packaging and attendant waste and unnecessary medication, surgeries, and other medical treatments for illnesses resulting from food and clothing choices.
And don’t forget lost productivity for sick time. I do not think anyone needs to be rigidly any kind of diet all the time (not raw, not Ayurvedic, not vegetarian, not vegan, not local, not slow), but wouldn’t it be nicer to eat well most of the time (and if you have even the most modest of kitchens, healthy meals are in fact cheaper than packaged junk food–assuming one knows how to cook, which I know is a big assumption), wear comfortable clothing, and have more time, strength and money for creative and loving pursuits?
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