With Gratitude to CHY

ByElizabeth

Tonight I will teach my last class at CHY’s current space after having taught nearly every Wednesday night for 5 1/2 years.  I am deeply grateful to Marianna, Leyla, and Julie for having pulled together the community and continued yoga in the space when Dancing Heart moved, and to Stacey for joining them and keeping the fire brightly burning.  I feel deeply fortunate for having been given the opportunity to teach at CHY while I went through my teacher training.  I am also deeply thankful to all my CHY level 2 students who went through the Anusara certification process with me; the class that led to my ultimate certification was taught at CHY on the 10th anniversary of Anusara yoga.

I extend my gratitude to all the students who were with me on this path of expansion, exploration, and delight and who have taught me so much and shared of their hearts.

Although I feel a profound sense of loss with the Stanton Park studio closing — how will I know when to end class without Wilbur the dog letting me know it is time to end savasana? — I look on this as an opportunity for the community to coalesce in new ways, and for each of us to deepen the community and our practices.  I regard all of you at CHY as my friends, as well as students and neighbors, and look forward to seeing you in yoga classes on the Hill in new spaces and at other events in the neighborhood.

E

Similar Posts

  • | | | | | |

    Furlough Week Two — Sutras

    ByElizabeth

    First too hot, now cool.

    It wasn’t until the weather cooled and the reality of a second week of work not being done that needs to be done to meet deadlines that the impulse arose to make the first batch of homemade granola of the season.  This batch could be called maple nut granola with raisins.

    Harvested last of the sweet banana peppers and a fire engine red cayenne pepper.  Also picked as a baby one last eggplant before pulling the plant to make way for tat soi.

    Most of the tomatoes I found on the ground still unripe.  With a generous portion of red wine and nice herbs, and the traditional way of cooking them for hours and then running through a food mill, and then reducing until reaching the desired thickness, it won’t matter that the tomatoes ripened on the counter.

    Assorted apples from the farmer’s market.  Dried fruit is different when it goes into the dehydrator within a couple of days of having been picked and early in the season when the apples are best.  An upside of being required to stay around home is that I have been able to experiment with the dehydrator that was a most generous birthday gift.

    There’s a bunch of difficult stuff going on, but there is no need to write about it anywhere except possibly in my journal, for much of it.  And as for the shutdown and its impact on real people around the globe (and all that interconnectedness stuff), I prefer today to write about granola and stuff from the garden.

    Anyway, I’m thinking I would just be preaching to the choir if I wrote another blog post about the importance of trying to keep up and understand as much as possible, speaking with others to shape your understanding and your voice, being in contact with your elected officials and signing petitions, and reaching out to friends and family open to such discussions to invite them to be engaged.

    It is times like these when I think of Patanjali’s sutra:  heyam duhkham anagatam (the pain that has yet to come can be avoided.)  I have contemplated this sutra much over a long period.  It is a good one for when I am reaching into the yoga teachings for insight into how I might respond more optimally under the circumstances at hand, especially that which is entirely out of my control.

    furlough 1a furlough 1b furlough 1c furlough 1d

  • |

    A Black Rat Snake

    ByElizabeth

    I have not picked up a snake since junior high when I was old enough to begin working and the days playing in streams and ponds pretty much came to an end. It’s not something one forgets. And today, there was a black rat snake in the garden (Note: they are harmless and eat small rodents.)

    By the time I noticed what was going on, it he snake was completely terrified from having been pulled out from under some heavy farm equipment with a rake. The goal was to bring it to the woods behind the garden, but first to make sure it did not get caught in the machinery.

    I invited myself into the fray, gently and securely held the snake about an inch below its head, invited its release from below the rake, and then gave it my other arm for it to wrap around, and it hugged me around my back and to the top of the arm that was holding its head.

    Someone else opened the garden gate and I went into the trees and released it into the underbrush. I doubt it helped that I talked softly to it, acknowledging its fear, and apologizing for dislocating it.

    It felt like an honor to have this short dance. The musky odor was not so nice; I also appreciated it as a very cool super power.

  • | | |

    It Takes a Snowflake

    ByElizabeth

    It is almost inconceivable to my limited mind how many snowflakes it took to whiten our world yesterday morning.  This weekend, there will be far more snow (alas, it will be too cold to stick to the trees and create such a beautiful canopy; instead we will have howling winds and heavy going).  I might catch the first of the snowflakes tomorrow morning on my walk to work before the storm really comes in with all its wild fury.  When there are only a few, it is easy to see the individual flakes.  Once there is a storm, though, we tend only to see the storm.

    Just as it is hard to remember that the snow is about both each individual flake and the whole snow fall together, we forget about the simultaneous place of ourselves as individuals as part of the whole, or we get caught up witnessing ourselves as individuals and forget that we are all a part of a much vaster energy.  The reality is that we are all both all of the time — we are completely individual and part of a vast, interconnected web.  When we can remember and witness both aspects of ourselves, then we can most deeply witness, participate in, and appreciate the extraordinariness of being.

2 Comments

  2. thank you for your devotion to chy and teaching yoga to the community. you were a huge source of support- last minute subbing, sharing your insights, organizing the upcoming gathering, and many other supportive acts of kindness. so a big thank you to you!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.