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“Do you have an umbrella?”

ByElizabeth

As I was headed out at lunch, a co-worker in another office whom I know only from the hallway, asked, “do you have an umbrella?”

“Yes, I do, how are you?” I replied, knowing that she was trying to be helpful. So many of us work in spaces without windows, it was not unreasonable for her to think I might not know it was raining.

Another woman who I did not know said, “I heard it might rain all weekend,” revealing herself as one who gets all knowledge of the weather from tv.

I thought, but did not say, “yes, there is that pesky hurricane coming.”

Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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    We did tree pose holding or pressing into the arms/hands of the people on either side of us. Sue invited is to close our eyes and lean/hold more heavily on each other to stay balanced. (It is a lot harder to balance when we close our eyes; try it if it has been a while or you’ve never tried it.)

    One of the people next to me got off balance and fell out of the pose. The instinct to keep from taking anyone else off balance was to withdraw from contact. But leaning farther into me would have increased the possibility of the other yogi regaining the pose and would have kept needed support in place for me.

    A good lesson for these stressful times that continuing to lean in for support instead of withdrawing can enhance the whole support network.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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    Darshan or Puja?

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    The other day I was telling one of my regulars that I’d described the group house practice as starting with receiving darshan — receiving sacred knowledge, sitting in the presence of the divine embodied in a great being — from Uma and Sully, who wait downstairs for the students to arrive and expect a petting before everyone goes upstairs to practice.

    ” Is it darshan or puja [performance of ritual worship]?” my student asked.  The two are intertwined.  We naturally offer our gratitude and worship for those in whom we recognize the divine and from whom we learn to know the sacred.

    What would our lives be like if we treated all our encounters and relationships as both darshan and puja, if we came to each person and being open to receiving a glimpse of the divine and the knowledge the divine imparts and approached each encounter as an opportunity to make puja, to formally act with reverence?  The cats certainly expect it.

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    It’s All Good?

    ByElizabeth

    I’ve never understood the t-shirt saying that “it’s all good.”. It just isn’t. This morning I found myself near to tears reading the news of violence, greed, malice, and willful indifference.

    I do believe that we need to do our best to respond to everything we face with the greatest good we can offer. The ability to respond from spacious, illuminated awareness for the good and to discover the possibility of good in the most difficult and abhorrent is what yoga and meditation–or any other spiritual discipline–makes progressively more possible. No amount of yoga will make me love crisis, but it will make me better able to experience and offer love when in crisis, so I hope.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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    This week, after having let it go for far too long long, I had my cooking knives professionally sharpened.

    How often should I be getting them sharpened, I asked the expert. It depends was the response, along with the question how much time I used the knives. Professional chefs get them done every couple of weeks. I would need something less, but for the knives I use most often, more frequently than I have been doing.

    Then I was offered this: a knife needs to be sharpened when it takes unnecessary effort to cut something with it.

    Same guidance applies, I think, to living in balance. When work/activities are taking more and unnecessary effort than usual, it’s a sign we are run down and need some maintenance.

One Comment

  1. And then there’s me, who has found tracking hurricanes a peculiar interest and checks the path and updated track several times a day.

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