As I walk from my airbnb to the location of a weekend yoga teacher intensive, I am given reminder that “spiritual practice” is a luxury that comes only when we have adequate nourishment and shelter.
What we see in front of us depends on where we choose to go and what crosses our path.
What we see reflected depends on what we bring to the picture (including how we look at things).
Inner courtyard at the Freer Gallery.
I paid to take a yoga workshop with Paul and Sommer Sobin back in town for their annual day after Thanksgiving workshop at Willow Street Yoga, which was just delightful. I spent the money for round trip transportation between Union Station and Silver Spring. I had lunch with friends and paid for my share of lunch: green tea salad, ginger salad, and tofu with sour mustard at Mandalay in Silver Spring. I am grateful for what Willow Street Yoga offers me and the community, for easy access to public transportation (I wish we would spend some of our defense budget on public transportation), and for a wide variety of restaurants with delicious vegetarian and vegan alternatives near to my home.
I chose to spend money today to have a refreshing and rejuvenating vacation day before teaching tomorrow and to support people whose livelihood is providing services and goods that make the community a better place to be and that enrich my own life. I express my gratitude by, in the method created by the consumer society, contributing to the livelihoods of those who will, in exchange for livelihood, provide life-enhancing services and creative gifts to the rest of us.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
We may not be able to change much of what we get in life–where and when we were born, certain innate talents and physical attributes, but we have the choice at every moment what we will create with what we have been given.
Will we create beauty and happiness where we can? The point of the yoga practices, I think and have been taught, is to lead us to choose what best serves more and more often.
For example, I cannot create a monumental sculpture if the only art material I have is a point and shoot camera. I could do nothing but lament my lack of resources, or I can still make art.
What do you choose with what you have?
