Tears welled up this morning in sadness and honor with the news of Ted Kennedy, an incredible example of a life of service.
I am looking forward to February’s meeting of the Willow Street Book Club this coming Sunday, where we will be discussing David Frawley’s, Spiritual Secrets of Ayurveda: Tantric Yoga and the Wisdom Goddess. Especially since many of us will likely have been to hear some or all of Professor Douglas Brooks’ discussion of the great goddesses last weekend, the meeting promises to be full of lively, thoughtful, and insight-provoking discussion.
One of the things I have been pondering on this latest read is how I can fully imbibe the wisdom that is offered with the imagery and stories of the goddesses, without getting caught up in being troubled from a feminist perspective. Many yoga practitioners I know rely on the call in the texts to worship the “goddess” as a way of saying that women are not diminished in the classic texts. My conundrum is that when one looks at the texts and the images about the goddesses, all the stereo-typical notions of beauty and youth are inextricably intertwined. Like the Western fairy tales I gobbled up in my youth and their entrancing but insidiously prejudicial archetypes, the sweet, loving, desirable goddesses are the young and fair; the fierce and powerful goddesses are the ugly crones.
A little before 6pm my cell phone rang while I was sitting at my desk at work in the throes of a complicated task. It was a friend and fellow yogi calling. “All you alright?” he asked. “I’m in the middle of a horrible assignment and I have cramps, but I guess I am OK” I replied, “why do you ask?” He told me about the metro crash. He didn’t see me at Willow Street and was worried that I was on the train. Had I gone to class instead of staying late at work, I well could have been on the red line at the time of the crash.
I was grateful for my friend’s call and warmed by his concern. I am busy checking in with the many people I know who could have been on the train. I know many friends, neighbors, Willow Street colleagues and students, and co-workers who themselves or whose friends and loved ones may have been in the crash.
I am filled with concern and compassion for those from whom I have not heard and those who were injured, trapped, and afraid. I will spend much of the evening practicing and holding all in the light.
Please all who commute on the red line, comment, post on face book, and send emails to let us all know you are OK.
A bit bedraggled from the freeze and still effulgence with spring beauty.
