On the way home from Willow Street Yoga Center after a work shop with Maria Christina Jimenez.
What might I be able to do more to serve to make a more just society?
My friend Dan posted a blog entry earlier this week talking about getting distracted by a rainbow. He wrote that he was sure that other “grownups” did not get distracted by the rainbow. As I was observing the way people were commuting this afternoon, grimly looking down, hurrying along, texting and phoning, and apparently completely disconnected to the beauty around them, I thought of Dan’s blog. I thought not seeing the sky or turning away from its beauty is not being fully “grown up.”
Part of my friendship with you, Dan, is sharing the wonder of looking at rainbows. It is the “distraction” perhaps that is the invitation, at least in my own practice, for more skill. In seeking to live the life of a “householder yogin,” I am trying to be the grownup who always sees the rainbow and takes time to see it, but has the skill to illuminate even the most mundane of daily activities with the wonder of seeing the rainbow.
As if–like chanting–you are saying the names of the divine. For if there is anything such as divinity, it is the spark in each and every one.
I feel compelled to make clear that I have avoided going to the tidal basin. All the blossoms I have visited have been in my neighborhood at times when few enough were outside that I could maintain full social distancing.
The continuing disregard for the need to social distance–whether out of willful selfishness or ignorance or both is truly alarming.
Look very closely on this wintry day, with ice still caking the sidewalks and the news full of the next winter storm, and promises of spring are visible.
I have not seen any bulbs coming up yet, though with the rain and higher temperatures on Wednesday, a few may start to appear in warmer spots.
The buds that set up last fall are starting to color and swell; leaf nodes on early trees are forming. Some of the maples have reddish leaf buds already.
