We didn’t get snow except for mixed with rain and not enough of that. Some of the magnolias have already browned. I think about the farmers and the fruit trees; have they been patient enough to still be able to fruit, with this return to winter after the long, false spring?
The snow pea shoots were
Especially exquisite.
And the kale flowers.
Hydroponic tomato from one of the farmers at the Penn Quarter Thursday market and organic avocado, tossed in tahini and then sprinkled with fine balsamic vinager, supplement sprouts grown on the counter and an assortment of tender garden greens.
Cool infusion of peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, and licorice mint.
The season has turned.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
I hope you are practicing something that helps you hold and heal yourself. I wish for you, as I wish and work for myself, some joy and equanimity amidst the global and climatic upheaval and whatever challenges you may be facing personally.
Do not turn away from suffering and also appreciate moments of beauty.
After a day of teaching and more discussion and emails regarding the upheaval, I had a memory of petting one of the temple cows at Chidambaram. I was jetlagged and in sensory overload, and then I petted a most wonderful cow. I dropped into a space where I was perfectly at peace and unaware of the time and all the things going on around me. This space is always there for us, even in the absence of a sacred cow, and we practice so that we can find it more and more consistently, especially when we are being challenged.
I did not photograph the Chidambaram temple cow, although a nice Indian lady asked me if her husband could photograph the two of us with the cow, so she has a photograph of herself with the strange American lady in a sari who was petting the cow. I stopped to pet many cows after that. In one town, a man told me, as I was scritching a cow between ears and horns, that the cow would enjoy a banana.
What do we mean, exactly, when we say a thing is “by” someone? Yes, we are attributing the thing’s creation to that someone. But how is something just by us when it is based on all the input and teachings to which we have been exposed or immersed? How do we give credit when it is due? How do we honor and acknowledge what has influenced us? When is attribution called for?
The yoga sages speak of the parampara, the lineage of teachings. For some the lineage is just that: a linear chain passed on from one generation of teachings to the next, and the attribution is clear. Those in such lineages or who would lead one of their own making often teach that one should pick one path (one style of yoga/meditation) and stick with that form or teacher to succeed (with the mythic goal of enlightenment).
From my unattained perspective, I question who is to say how “enlightenment,” assuming it is indeed something that can be achieved, would or could or should be attained by anyone else? Practice tips for enhancing the experience of human embodiment (is that not the real path?) are nice, though.
I do not know the Elizabeth who drew on the sidewalk. She is quite possibly about the age I would have been when I first read (not saw the movie) Mary Poppins and dreamed of entering another world through a chalk drawing on the sidewalk.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
