On the Way to William Penn House for Tuesday Night Yoga Practice


I was contemplating today the Anusara yoga principle of “opening to grace,” one aspect of which I always understood to be seeking to pause and listen in and from a place of luminous spaciousness before acting or responding to what one does or encounters. Ideally, the intentional practice of yoga opens the possibility of doing all this simultaneously and immediately, but most of us need to reduce the speed at which we approach or take in things if we are to experience and engage the fullest and most nuanced relationship with the wild extraordinariness of what is in and around us.
If we move too quickly or push effortfully or immoderately past our limitations, we are at risk, as I have recently reminded myself in a rather clumsy way. When through our own actions or happenstance we are pushed past our healthy capacity, it is time to slow down, to pause, to reflect, to reinvite and reexplore the basics and seek a deeper level of understanding and capability if we are to expand our capacity to live with grace.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
In the middle of this chaos. She reveals my privilege. Self care is not adequate without community care.

It was already hot when I went out into the garden after I sat for meditation. I try only to water every third day it does not rain and have used soil supplements such as “soil moist” to make that possible, but it was critical that I water so that the plants survive today’s blazing heat.
Before I went out, while listening to the weather forecast, I drank my second glass of filtered tap water. I thought how lucky I am to have fresh drinking water from the tap, shelter from the heat, ice if I want it, and water for the garden. All those warnings to stay inside, keep cool, and drink plenty of liquids are meaningless unless one has access to those things.
I am grateful, too, for my practice. I know that a slow, quiet practice helps keep me cool and rested, and that I can get extra enjoyment from the way the heat warms my muscles without any effort at all on my part. In the heat, stillness is so welcome that sitting is as sweet an activity as I could know.