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First Thing In The Morning?
The other morning, Facebook put into my feed the answer given by a one of the many yoga teachers among my friends to the question, “what is the first thing you do in the morning?” The answer was “meditate.”
Besides again wondering why people answer these questions and why Facebook would put this in my feed, I questioned in my head, “really?”
I empty my bladder, feed the cat, make the bed, brush my teeth, drink some hot water, and move and stretch a little before sitting down to meditate.
And when I do sit, I first do a body scan and 5-10 minutes of pranayama. I cannot imagine sitting before meditation without most of that except in unusual circumstances.
My morning meditation is, though, before I start engaging in projects or eating breakfast or leaving the house.
What do you do first thing in the morning?
When do you meditate?
State of the Garden

It is wonderfully healthy to grow some of our own food, and taking care of ourselves with diet today became that much more important. But we still all need access to medical care too. Please, if you have one, pick up the phone and call your senators to defend the Affordable Care Act and move towards a single payor system that would cover more people not fewer and would respect the rights and health needs of women.Intention
When I came out of my afternoon asana practice and meditation, I picked up the John Friend Teacher Training Manual to look up one of my favorite passages. In describing the “attitude” that brings us to our deepest practice, John Friend writes that there are two reasons to practice yoga: “1. Co-create in the art of life. 2. Realize and awaken to our divine nature.” John Friend, Anusara Yoga Teacher Training Manual (9th Ed., Anusara Press 2006). He explains that sometimes we come to our mat because we are happy and we want to celebrate. Other times, we are sad or confused and we want to remember our essentially divine, blissful nature. This particular teaching has continues to resonate for me. I find great comfort in it because it recognizes that we do forget; we will not always act perfectly. All life, though, is part of our practice, and we can keep trying to co-create and remember the light in all beings in our daily lifes just as we keep can coming to the mat.
Ganesh Chaturthi
It’s Ganesha’s birthday. Never hurts to make offerings to the one who would help us navigate more skillfully the obstacles that life has in store.



