And just about any other endeavor or creation in life.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Included in the asana today at Cyndi Lee’s day of workshops at Willow Street Yoga was one of my very favorites: anantasana–the serpent couch of Vishnu. Nataraja, dancing his wild dance, was watching. People outside went about their ordinary and extraordinary lives.
Mint, winter savory, chard, tomatoes, lacinato kale, tat soi, marigolds, cilantro, curly-leafed kale, and assorted odds and ends from nightshade vegetable season picked today
I think one of the most wonderful things about the Anusara principle of skull loop is that it uses the head to bring mind into connection with the body. Far too often, staying in our heads or using our mind can disconnect us from the body. Skillful practice of “skull loop” reminds us that the head is part of the physical body. Skull loop, like all the loops, is a refinement that typically would not be the focus of alignment after not only the major principles (open to grace, muscular energy, inner spiral, outer spiral, organic energy) are set in the pose. It is also the refinement that generally would be done last in most poses because of its distance from the foundation of the pose.
I rarely work skull loop as a focus without also concentrating on shoulder loop and the relationship between the two. Both start in the upper palate. While shoulder loop acts to integrate us and draw us in by hugging the shoulder blades onto the back of the heart as a refinement of muscular energy, skull loop helps us to reach out and serves as a refinement of organic energy — inviting us to extend more fully out of the crown of the head.
Even though skull loop helps remind us how much organic energy — a reaching out with offering that goes all the way from the focal point (more on that another day) out through the periphery, including the head — can empower us, skull loop also has a sweet and subtle reminder to come back to the first principle. Skull loop starts in the upper palate and goes up the back of the skull to the crown of the head. That initial action is what helps with organic energy, and when done powerfully, it can really give a lot more strength and lift to a pose. The second part of the loop softens the forehead and lower eyelids, bringing our inner gaze (drishti) back to the heart. Skull loop thus shows us both that the head is physically an powerful and important part of the movement of the body and that no action of the head is complete unless it brings us back to the heart and the ultimate purpose of our actions and offerings.
It was a beautiful night, so I went for a longish walk after work. I found myself drawn to the two “Occupy DC” locations — Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square (shown). If it had been cold and cloudy, as it will be later in the week, would I have chosen to be out instead of in my nice house with the cats and a home-cooked meal and a good book? Most likely I would pick home, but still I go out of my way to witness every week or so and to remember that these are real people and this isn’t a one-night stand on only a nice night. I go to witness people who are living the courage of their convictions, to be inspired to serve in my own way, and to ask myself what more I should be doing. I know people questioning the way and the whether and the why of this movement, including those who are sympathetic, but questioning is a form of engaging and is a stage in expansion.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
I found the 1934: A New Deal for Artists exhibit at SAAM quite moving. The exhibit was put together for the 75th anniversary of the New Deal; it is merely coincidence that paintings commissioned by the United States government to depict American life in a time of dire conditions happen to be on exhibit at this time. It is a good companion to view along with Robert Frank’s Americans at the NGA West Wing — also on view because of an anniversary, not because of its coincidental timeliness.
The art is not great art, and it is stuck in the period in which it was painted, in part because of the nature of the commission. The depictions of America show any resilience and beauty inextricably intertwined with hardship and struggle. In its very datedness, the art on exhibit raises questions about what are society’s priorities today, how we are responding to the crisis of war, environmental devastation, and economic crisis and how we could enhance and celebrate humanity and the planet rather than continue to decimate the earth and ourselves.
According to the Friends Committee on National Legislation, approximately 43% of your 2008 taxes will pay for war. President Obama’s proposed budget has a smaller increase than previous years, but does not lower in any way military spending. I’d rather my tax dollars were buying art.
I received a half dozen emails over the past week from various sources inviting me to think about what Independence Day, and correlatively, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, mean to me? What does the Bill of Rights mean to a progressive, feminist, environmentalist (contrasted, for example, with someone whose life passion is to prove that true freedom is the right to carry a gun)?
When was the last time you thought about the Bill of Rights? What does it mean to you? Does it have a different meaning for you as an individual and you than as part of a collective?
