Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
asked Mrs. G, a neighbor who is nearer 90 than 70. “Not too bad yet,” I replied. What we really meant was “Mornin'” and “Good morning to you too.” It was not the time to say that I find the heat, when I listen to it, helps me get perfectly still, and when I follow the directive to stillness I’m easy in the heat.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Thanks to my friend Dan Harper for sharing this quote from Alice Walker, along with his own cogent thoughts This morning, when I was thinking about how to address some of my current challenges, I decided it was important for me to remember that one of the reasons I keep my job is to be able to cultivate generosity. I went on-line and became a monthly, rather than an occasional donor, to “So Others Might Eat.” I stayed with the emotion of how it feels as a small, middle-aged woman to walk, as I do a few times a week, past a homeless shelter on the way out of the office towards home. I thought about what it would be like to be homeless and food insecure, especially in the unseasonable months. I thought about how hard it is to be so many humans so crowded together.
I thought about how helpful the yoga and meditation practices have been for me to be present in the tangle of society. Though after tonight’s class at Willow Street Yoga, I will be teaching only one public class (the William Penn House class on Tuesday nights), I will be writing and practicing and studying and exploring. One of the many intertwined threads leading me to limit my public teaching is to give me more time and space to pursue other creative outlets, even as I continue to deepen my explorations of the yoga and other practices and teachings.
On our last day of the intensive, many of us ended up talking about different upcoming events and opportunities for study, practice, and exploration. We all had many things that we would love to do. I do not think that I was alone in feeling twinges of longing when friends shared what gatherings or courses they were planning to attend or considering attending. We knew that we could not possibly fit it all into our lives.
My lovely and witty friend Emma said, “it’s just f.o.m.o.” That’s an acronym I had not heard even though I live in a town that flourishes on acronyms. “It’s ‘fear of missing out,'” Emma spelled out.
We never want to miss an opportunity to discover the secret, to learn the perfect piece of wisdom, to experience the most exquisite of delights. The reality is, though, that if we get caught up in the fear of missing out, that we undermine the possibility of experiencing the greatest possible happiness with what fits into our lives.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
When I get the studio ready for Wednesday night yoga class, I pick a puja card. I shuffle the cards and then pick a card from somewhere in the middle of the stack. More often than not, the card is aligned in some way with the activity, thought, or emotion that is most present in body-mind. Tonight, the card that came first out of the shuffled pack was krtajnata — gratitude.
I am deeply grateful for my teachers, friends, and family–extensively overlapping categories–and wish a happy thanksgiving to all.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
I spent much of my day divided between errands and home repairs and checking the latest news. Before beginning my day, I got deeply immersed in Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, which I cannot recommend highly enough for more perspective on the current state of our society.
It was sticky walking about the neighborhood, and things are lush. Easy to pretend everything is ok and for now, it is for me. From that privilege, what can I give? Amidst sharing that I am again reviewing what time and resources more I can offer, sometimes I want to connect through offering beauty.
