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    Taking a Better Look

    ByElizabeth

    When I was walking to work yesterday, I was delighting in watching a pair of red-headed finches cavorting at the very top of a newly blooming cherry tree just outside the Friends Committee on National Legislation’s building, which is across the street from the Hart Senate building.  An impeccably suited man in a suit who was walking towards the Hart building said to me, “it is wonderful to see everything starting to bloom, isn’t it?”

    “Yes, it is indeed,” I replied, and pointed out the finches.

    “I hadn’t noticed them; good eye,” the man said, “look, they’re eating the blossoms.”  The finches were tearing blossoms off the tree and singing with great enthusiasm.

    “You can see them even better from the other side of the tree, because the sun is lighting them up instead of shadowing them,” I added.

    “I’ll have to go back and take a look,” he said and walked back to the other side of the tree to watch the birds as I headed on to work, with my day brightened by this interchange.

    I often get caught looking at the birds or the trees or the sky when walking around town.  When there is an opening, I talk to others about what I am seeing to invite them to pause and delight along with me.  It is a rare day, though, to hear from someone who is clearly busy and has important work to say, “I’ll have to take a better look.”  It is so important to me, and for all of us, to pause and wonder, to remember and recognize the beauty as we go about our day.

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    on the train

    ByElizabeth

    I am on Amtrak heading to the Anusara teachers’ gathering in
    Morrisville, NC. The train is surprisingly crowded and not surprisingly a whole different vibe than the train to NY.

    By day we will be practing and gathering in a hall at a Hindu temple. The grounds are reported to be beautiful and welcoming. By night, those of us who don’t have local friends will be staying at hotels off the highway with cable TV that usually serve the visitors to the big university ball games and events. We’ll then all be driving back and forth to the venue and out to eat.

    I find it of mild interest that I spend more time in cars and more time in a place with TV when I travel to study yoga than at any other time during the year.

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    Nectar of Immortality?

    ByElizabeth

    Whenever I notice this graffiti–ubiquitously sprayed along sections of the Metro’s red line–I wonder if it is meant to refer to the ancient Indian texts, to invoke longings for soma, the nectar of the gods. Even if the intent of the artist was something much more prosaic, I am led to think of the soma about which I have read, and use seeing the word as a spur to invoke the sweetness of practice on my mundane travels.

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

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