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    Yoga for Gardeners (a little more detail and a request for questions)

    ByElizabeth

    At the Yoga for Gardeners Workshop, I will be ordering the workshop into (1) yoga to prepare for a session in the garden; (2) yoga pauses to do intermittently while gardening; and (3) yoga post-gardening.  I’m off to enjoy the bright sunny day, to volunteer at The Lantern, and to take care of a neighbor’s cat, but I’m really enjoying getting ready for the workshop.

    Feel free to send me question, as a comment to this post, and I will do my best to incorporate what you want to know into the workshop and/or the blog.

    Please remember that I will be giving a portion of my profits to support the Youth Garden at the National Arboretum.  Even if you cannot come next Saturday, do please consider supporting one of your local, teaching gardens.

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    Spam Poetry

    ByElizabeth

    I am not positive where you are,

    however wow, damm good  Youre so

    cool! I dont suppose Ive anything

    like this before. So nice to find original

    thoughts thank you for

    beginning this up. this is some thing

    that’s needed,

    someone with a small originality.

    valuable job for bringing something new

    i like this  very much

    Not often do I encounter

    both educated and entertaining,

    and let me tell you, you may

    have hit the nail on the head. the issue is

    something that not sufficient

    individuals are speaking

    intelligently about. I am very happy

    I stumbled in my quest for something

    relating to this There is something

    regarding the reasoning behind air flow

    that’s excited nice through the years,

    since the substance

    the future created the encore and

    discovered most people will go

    together with along with

    I much better, but I still feel nervous,

    even if is to be in on me

    before Treasure is pulled

    “That let me feel a few more hopeful,

    I continue to retaining that one power. ”

    is special this

    is special this –

    continuously from.

    “My there from begins to fly ahead,

    I am very happy really

    is special this.

    ghost dome

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    Another Self-Induced India Photo Flashback (Roadside Temples)

    ByElizabeth

    Another self-induced India photo flashback after a long work day reading and writing at the computer with breaks only for shoveling snow and for eating and cleaning up.

    We were traveling on the bus when I saw the Durga temple (the fifth photo–the one with the white glare and flat sky, but an incredible Durga).  I suggested to my seatmate that he take a picture with his better camera.  I recall it quite reasonably and correctly being pointed out to me the flat, white heat of the midday, humid sky and the glare off of the window would make it impossible optimally to show the intricacy and vividness of the temple.

    I snapped a picture anyway.  I was seeing things at angles coming and going and with whatever the light was at the moment.  I likely wasn’t ever going to be there again and certainly not any time soon.

    Sometimes the bus would pause in just the right place for a perfectly composed shot, but mostly it didn’t.  In this, the act of taking these photos was much like other aspects of life and practice.  Our path is not always certain.  Sometimes it is hard to see because there is too little light or too much.  Sometimes we have something obscuring our vision.  Sometimes we are going too fast and only notice just before it would be too late for that turning.

    But even with vision turned or obscured, we are always experiencing something.  How can we make the best of each moment of experience?  For me, it is meditating and bringing the spacious awareness of meditation to what I am witnessing.  Taking photographs helps me witness in a certain way, too.

    roadside temple 1a roadside temple 1b roadside temple 1c roadside temple 1d roadside temple 1e roadside temple 1f roadside temple 1g roadside temple 1h roadside temple 1i roadside temple 1j roadside temple 1k roadside temple 1l

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    Coming Home from Retreat (and Savasana)

    ByElizabeth

    How do you plan your return home from a retreat or vacation?  Do you come home at the very last minute, so that the travel is exhausting and the first day back at work is a struggle?  Or do you plan to have a day — or at least several hours — to unpack, make sure you have fresh food to eat, and have brought the feeling of vacation back into your home life before getting back to work?

    When I was studying on retreat in Arizona, Paul Muller-Ortega took particular pains to emphasize the importance of doing savasana for at least a few minutes after sitting for meditation for a “slow re-entry.”  Without the resting time in between practicing/adventuring/celebrating/retreating and working, it is like eating a loaf of bread right out of the oven, rather than giving it at least 10-15 minutes to rest.  Right out of the oven, the is too hot and the texture is not right, and we cannot taste how good it is.  Give it a chance to rest, and it is exquisitely hot and fresh and perfect.

    We need to rest, to reintegrate, to settle or we can feel like there is no point in going on vacation.  How many people do you know (perhaps you have said this yourself) who say there is no point in going on vacation because it just makes work harder on return?  When I take a shorter vacation/rest/retreat to account for reintegration time, and then fully reintegrate, the rejuvenating properties of getting away definitely last longer.

    I returned very late Sunday night.  Yesterday I practiced at home, did my laundry, cleaned the yoga room, petted the cats, had a massage, did a little reading, cooked delicious food (homemade granola, kitcheree, greens from the garden), and went to sleep early.  Now I am off to work, seeking to bring what I learned into my day.

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