I am pleased and excited to announce my first public, in person practice since the inception of the pandemic. Is it any surprise that this yoga offering is an invitation to the garden, which is a place dedicated to creating and sharing joy, learning, and nourishment throughout the community for over 50 years?
Come get out into beauty and into your own body and into the dirt on Tuesday, June 6th, from 9 am to 12 pm: at the Washington Youth Garden, on the grounds of the National Arboretum. After the welcoming yoga practice, we will all join the staff and the regular volunteers (I’m one of them), in the garden. Throughout the time, I will be available to respond to individual questions about yoga and about optimizing physical alignment/orientation to make it more sustainable to work in the garden, especially for older bodies. Here’s the link to get more details and to register: Yoga and Volunteering at the Washington Youth Garden
Think this sounds great, but you’re hoping for a different time or location, please feel free to reach out.
I do not do the poses as an end in themselves. I practice moving my body mindfully so that I can move as best serves my life. Among other things, I like to be sufficiently flexible and secure in my balance to maintain a vertical garden.
Last night I dreamed that it snowed a couple of inches and then turned to rain, which melted the snow. As happens more and more often with my dreams, I was conscious that I was dreaming and knew that the snow still fell madly outside. As I practice more and more over a long period of time, I am experiencing a growing ability to discriminate between dreaming and waking. Yoga talks about the principle of viveka, the ability to discriminate between the real and the unreal. Being able to distinguish among the four states of being (waking, dreaming, unconsciousness, and turiya — the fourth state) is part of this practice.
As I practice more, I have experienced that when waking, with this type of discrimination, I am more subtly able to discern the difference between empty wishes or anxieties (so as better to release them) and what are possibilities (so to be able to expand my boundaries and awareness). Cultivating such discrimination can bring greater personal peace by allowing for a combination of fuller acceptance and growth.
Although I was disappointed the snow did not turn to rain, I will do my best to enjoy it. I’m not going to be able to melt it anywhere but in my dreams.
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 am not sure how much longer it would have taken me to notice this little bit of street art if we had not been sent out of the building for a fire alarm. We knew it was not a drill because the Secretary was to be offering cookies and photo opps next to the “holiday” tree — the one that looks just like the trees the Christians coopted from the pagans — and having everyone exit the building would interfere with those plans. Me, I am not particularly interested in desserts before lunch, and I already have a photo of me with the Secretary. I had time to grab my hat and coat, so I am enjoying the enforced break. The theory–since the fire department sent only one truck, and they let us start returning almost as soon as we evacuated, is that they burned a batch of the cookies for the party. Maybe this is an appropriate moment for the phrase “it’s all good.”
