I had a long work day, followed by a Board meeting. One of the best aspects of my daily routine, given I am walking distance to work and volunteer commitments, is that I have the opportunity to enjoy things and appreciate the seasons just getting from one place to the next, no matter how full my day is otherwise .
I think snow can be beautiful and enjoy the hush when it first falls, but it’s not my favorite thing, which was one of the reasons I settled this far south (yes, DC is pretty far south for a native New Yorker). Last winter with its record snow falls felt at times as a seemingly endless exercise in looking for the good and trying to respond in the highest. Among other fallout of the snow, the February blizzard grounded my flight to San Francisco where I was supposed to go to celebrate the start of John Friend’s 2010 workshop schedule and to visit friends. Instead, I was home shoveling. With the arthritis in my spine and some other old injuries to groin and shoulder, I had to be extra careful with my alignment so that shoveling could be an enjoyable work out instead of a dreary and potentially debilitating task that I was doing instead of playing with friends and yogis in San Francisco. Being grounded at home and needing to be in alignment with the shoveling, led me to blog about Anusara alignment for snow shoveling. Putting this advice out there led to an editor at Yoga Journal discovering my blog and interviewing me for a short article that (I haven’t seen it yet–waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail, but a friend who was reading the most recent edition at Willow Street’s Silver Spring studio gave me the heads up last night) is in December’s magazine (page 22).
While missing out on a vacation due to weather is not exactly a momentous disappointment or life challenge, this story is an example of how we never know what life is going to bring our way. We cannot choose what life gives us, but we can choose how we respond, and how we respond will change how the path unfolds. I persist in the yoga and meditation and share my teachings and experiences because it has been so helpful in opening my perspective and finding more delight and opportunity in life. In that regard, one of the reasons I challenge myself on the mat, inviting myself into places of discomfort and effort and staying with them until I find ease and even delight, is to help me be able to see the good and to respond in the healthiest and most optimal way on and off the mat. While I love sometimes just to do the easeful poses, what has brought more strength and joy to all of my life is going deep into the hard places and staying with them.
This just in from William Penn House’s Executive Director:
You are invited to attend a potluck and Quaker dialogue at 6:30 PM on Sunday November 6, 2011
Our Program this First Day is presented by Ann Wilcox & Micah Bales
“Occupy…”
The outcry against the political influence of financial institutions that has swept the country in recent weeks has crossed many boundaries, including class, gender and age. “Occupy” events are growing in cities and towns throughout the world. Here in DC, there are two groups occupying different parks. The movement has energy, and is gaining attention. But how much do we know about what is driving this? Are there certain issues and an agenda? Is this a culmination of many issues of our society coming together, or is it something completely different? Is ignoring the movement a good idea? Is presuming to know what is going on too presumptive? These are among the questions we will be exploring and discussing.
Ann Wilcox will be leading the discussion. She is an attorney in Washington, DC, practicing for more than 20 years. She is active with the National Lawyers Guild, which provides legal representation and works on issues of social justice and economic equality. She provides Demonstration Support for many activists who come to DC to advocate for peace, the environment and other issues. She is currently providing legal support for the October 2011/Stop the Machine andOccupy DC groups, and can speak about issues related to the occupations. Ann has attended Friends Meeting of Washington and is currently active at Foundry United Methodist Church.Micah Bales is coordinator of Young Adult Engagement for Earlham School of Religion and lives in Washington, DC.
Micah has been an active presence with Occupy DC since its inception. Micah, a graduate of ESR, is a member of Rockingham Friends Meeting of Ohio Yearly Meeting Conservative.
Bring a dish to share; family members, neighbors and friends are always welcome. Note: William Penn House is an alcohol and tobacco free facility.
For more information, see www.WilliamPennHouse.org
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Last week, when I said to a colleague, “see you Tuesday,” she replied, “where are you going?” It was as if simply to enjoy where I live or rest or quietly take care of house and garden was not within the range of possibility. Is it that I am somehow not worthy if I have not planned to do something I could talk about when I returned to the office? Or is it that pervasive societal sense that happiness lies only in finding new and more experience?
I think that it is important to have episodic time away from doing. I used to get sick when I’d been running around non-stop with work and errands and exploration, etc. Now I try to take some quiet time at decent intervals. It does not need to be a full day. Just a couple of solid hours without engaging in a planned activity every couple of weeks makes all the difference in my mood, my health, and the quality of my work.
