On the Way to William Penn House for Tuesday Night Yoga Practice
Similar Posts
Signs Around Town
Odenton, Maryland Ripple Effects (and personal yoga)
Yesterday I looked at the continuing news about the crash. Among all the other stories, it seemed fairly unlikely that there would be metro service between Capitol Hill and Takoma Park by the weekend. This created a complication for me. Living without a car and commuting a number of times a week to Takoma Park to teach and take class, I had to figure out how to get there. It will be easy enough (I think) to get to Willow Street on Saturday to teach by taxi cab and to find a bus combination to get home.
In addition to teaching, though, I had been looking forward to studying with Amy Ippoliti on Friday night and Sunday morning. I could take a taxi and a bus combination to study with Amy this weekend or just forego my tuition. All that would be easy enough. But I had invited a friend to come and visit to take the whole weekend with Amy — which includes another 12 hours of teacher training on Saturday and Sunday, where I will be off doing my own thing. Since my friend and I will have very different schedules for this yoga weekend, and neither of us are much of a driver, renting a car was not really a viable option. I thought about just staying in a hotel in Silver Spring.
Then I got to my personal yoga. One of the hardest things for me to do is to ask for help (of almost any kind). I am good at offering to help and am good at both helping when asked and saying I cannot help (the latter took some practice). What I know from being a “helper” is that I get great joy from giving and offering assistance. My never asking, then, means not giving those in my life the joy of providing assistance. I overcame my deeply ingrained reluctance and asked for help. Not big help. Just is there someone already attending the training who can give a ride from the workshop into the District each night or provide an extra bed for my friend. Fellow yogis were indeed happy to help; there are now a surfeit of options.
The minor inconvenience to me from this tragedy reminded me again to send healing energy to those who are suffering and to see things in perspective. I was given a sweet reminder of the warmth and generosity of my yoga friends and colleagues. I was able to practice with success addressing one of my continuing challenges. I have been blessed, then, in the aftermath. Contemplating these gifts with gratitude gives me more energy to send out for those in need.
For those of you who are local, I think there is still space in the workshop with Amy: come join us for all level hip openers on Friday night and intermediate/advanced backbends and standing poses on Sunday morning. See link to Willow Street above for more information.
Hard Freeze Forecast (Heyam Dukham Anagatam)
My favorite sutra in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra’s is, II.16, “heyam dukham anagatam.” This translates roughly as “the pain that is yet to come can be avoided.” What does this have to do with a forecast of a hard freeze?
My chard, beets, and turnip greens are still flourishing. They can manage with a night or two in a row in the high 20sF, and that is all we have had so far. The forecast for later in the week, though, is for the first true cold snap since 1994 (you may remember that as the year when lots of people’s pipes froze). My winter garden (which does not have a cold frame due to lack of space — maybe I’ll get more creative next year, and I’ll try an experiement with plastic bags on Thursday night) cannot survive lows in the low teens highs in the twenties.
I could suffer today by bemoaning the coming cold, worrying about the garden, and remembering that I don’t like cold. That would be present suffering in anticipation of potential future suffering. I certainly can avoid that. I can also do what I did yesterday, which was harvest lots of the chard and most of the beets, put the beets into cold storage (vegetable bin in the refrigerator) and make pasta with sauteed garlic and chard. Between now and Wednesday night, I’ll harvest most of the remaining greens. I’ll make a big vegetable soup with the beets and the chard, maybe make chard pie or calzones (truly delicious), and eat the rest over the following days. I’ll feel grateful that in the bitter cold, I can be eating fresh garden greens. I’ll be even more grateful that I can just shop at the grocery store or the farmers’ market and don’t need to rely on my garden feeding me year round. I’ll also be happy for the hard frost. Part of the reason the aphids and the mosquitoes have been so bad is the absence of a hard frost in winter.
Some bitter cold in winter in a temperate zone is inevitable, as are sickness and death. We can avoid suffering by not just getting anxious and unhappy and suffering in the present, but not taking action to alleviate potential suffering. With preparation and practice, we can avoid some suffering. Just has preparing for winter in the garden can allow it to be productive for greater parts of the year, so too, with a steady practice of asana, pranayama, and meditation we can avoid some physical and emotional pain and suffering. Most important, with steady preparation (preparing for the potential for difficulties in the future is not the same as being anxious about it), when the inevitable comes, we will likely suffer less, at least in our hearts, if not in our bodies.
