If you haven’t seen it already on the District Kula website, please check out my guest post for District Kula on my Thanksgiving tradition–the Thanksgiving Day fundraising class for Oxfam. Many thanks to District Kula for inviting me to blog as a guest.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
As a nontheist, I’ve not been much called to prayer throughout my life. In these days of social crisis though, in addition to taking concrete action, though not directed at a being, I find myself praying as a mode of personal comforting.
We leave Delhi before dawn tomorrow to go up into the Himalayan hills where we will be meditating and chanting in a place of great beauty.
I’m told there’s WiFi. I will no doubt find myself reading the news, signing petitions, and sending comment letters, as well as posting photos, but perhaps not every day.
Several years ago, when I still had a working art studio in my house, the favorite thing to do of a friend’s child when the family came over was to go into the studio to see what I was painting. I had just finished a piece on which I had painted the words, “Sometimes I have nothing to say.” D was five or six at the time — just learning to read full sentences. He chortled delightedly, pointed to the painting, and exclaimed, “I get it! I get it!”
As I have been studying and contemplating yoga philosophy in a group setting recently, I have been thinking about the tension between saying and not saying, the conundrum of yearning to communicate the indescribable, and the countervailing desire just to experience and not to try and describe or communicate.
By 8:30 this morning, the sky was already an engorged white, thick with heat and humidity. There is no prospect of a thunderstorm for relief. If any come, they will be to the south and east or north and west of the space inside the Beltway. (I am convinced that the pattern of storms parting and dissipating within the Beltway is due to the hot air generated within the Dome).
I walked to work earlier than usual this morning and wore a sleeveless dress, sandals, and a sun hat. The co-worker who shared the elevator was wearing a suit, tie, dark socks, and heavy shoes. A few of the men are brave enough to wear short sleeves or go without the tie, but all are wearing long pants, close-toed shoes, and dark socks. In the cafeteria, people are picking out foods heavy with meat, fat, and sugar. The building is air-conditioned to a temperature for the comfort of those who neither dress nor eat for the weather. In the building, I am wearing a wool cardigan over my weather appropriate dress.
Last year, in response to a call to government workers from the White House for ideas to save money, I suggested that the dress code be changed from “business” attire to seasonally appropriate attire (my sleeveless dress is long and plain and does not expose anything other than my arms; it is perfectly “appropriate” and not beach wear). That way, the temperature in government buildings could be raised a few degrees in summer and lowered in winter, saving millions of dollars in heating and cooling expenses, as well as helping the environment.
It needs to be a policy to wear clothing right for the weather. If it is not policy, those who want to get ahead will continue to believe that there is no possibility of succeeding without wearing the suit and tie/lined skirt and jacket, pantyhose and heels. (Why is it that people believe that our brains focus better when our clothing is uncomfortable?)
I did not get a response. The winner was someone who suggested storing their office’s records electronically–something that is gradually happening every where in any event.
Being seasonally appropriate in our dress and diet can make an enormous difference in our comfort and in our impact on the environment. Same, too, for how we exercise. When it is over 90F, please do not crank up the air conditioning so that you can do a fiery practice. Instead, practice quieter poses. Concentrate on seated poses, cooling pranayama practices, and meditation. Enjoy the invitation to stillness and the fact that by virtue of the heat, you are already warmed up.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
