It’s unseasonably hot, we desperately need rain in my location, the air quality is poor, the air conditioning broke yesterday, the madness is on so many fronts it is easy to feel overwhelmed, but still, I pause to notice a heart-shaped cloud. And then write another email. And make another donation. And do a few calming poses.
I get lots of emails asking me to engage in e-activism — write letters to Congress, write letters to corporate executives, write letters to the President, sign petitions — and, of course, requests for donations. The requests I get are from a wide range of public interest organizations, including environmental, women’s rights, peace, civil rights, worker’s rights, care for animals and other wildlife, organic food, good science, enhancing education, the list goes on. Sometimes I just hit the delete button. Sometimes I sign the petition. Sometimes I hit the send button on the form letter. Sometimes I edit the letter personally to make it a more powerful statement. Sometimes I give money. Sometimes I both write and give money. Sometimes I learn something that invites me to change how I consume or invest my money, and I try to make a shift.
I received an email today from the Rainforest Action Network asking me if I would make a pledge to help end mountain top removal. I power my electricity with 100% wind energy, now through Clean Currents, so I am not using coal-powered electricity myself at home. I sent RAN another donation; I really believe in what they do. I also agreed to do a blog post on why it is important to end mountaintop coal mining as part of my pledge. It’s utter and nearly permanent devastation is horrifying and wakens me to the repercussions of consumption without conscious knowledge of the impact. Seeing the pictures makes me think about everything I consume (and I am already an overthinker). I welcomed the invitation to pledge to spread the word.
In yoga, the concept of “sangha” or community carries with it the meaning that you become those with whom you keep company (so therefore keep good company). I subscribe to all these activist list serves and seek out those who are more engaged than am I, so that I will be inspired progressively to live with more consciousness. I thank RAN for inspiring me to extend the invitation to look more closely at how we can shift our energy consumption still to enjoy reasonable fruits of our technology, but not in a way that destroys the possibility of a good life for others in the present and for eons into the future.
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra II.48, tatah dvandaha anabhighataha is translated by B.K.S. Iyengar as “from then on [after the yogi through steady practice has absorbed him/herself in the practice of yoga), the sadhaka (practitioner) is undisturbed by dualities.” This sutra follows the only two in all of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras that specifically discuss asana, which Patanjali describes as a controlled and perfect ease and steadiness of mind and body.
I was thinking about the freedom from the “pairs of opposites” — pleasure and pain, etc. — when I read an article in the Washington Post yesterday dividing everyone who was impacted by the blizzard as a winner or a loser. Children off from school were winners, frustrated parents, travelers who were grounded from flying, and politicians sure to be blamed for not having planned in a Southern city to have the snow removal equipment, personnel, and budget of a city like Buffalo, NY, were losers. I am fairly certain (based on the harangues on the blogs) that the author was not alone in seeing everything as winning or losing. To me, though, it feels like one of the “afflictions” described by Patanjali. I was a grounded flyer. I was much looking forward to a trip to San Francisco to see a dear friend from college and then to attend the weekend workshop with John Friend. It would have been great fun to be there. I was disappointed. But it never would have occurred to me to label myself a loser. Do so so would just had me hold onto unhappiness.
Yoga teaches us to look for the good, to accept what we cannot change, and to seek to respond in the highest. In essence, we are changing what we can change, which is how we react. If my only reaction to the storm was pain and sadness from having the pleasure of my planned trip taken away from me, then I would in fact be a loser. If I just accept that no one can anticipate when record-breaking winter storms are going to arrive and then have the best day I can under the unavoidable circumstances, then I am a winner. I am not a winner in a game where someone else is a loser. I am not a winner in that I did not let Mother Nature win. Rather, I have learned that the steady practice of yoga makes life more easeful and delightful even in challenges and disappointments. I am motivated to practice more. The lessons learned from being confined a blizzard when I was warm, well fed, and surrounded by friends are a hopeful prelude for how the yoga will serve when I really face a challenge.
For finer photos, take a look on line at what photographers with big lenses and tripods (or maybe even telescopic cameras) have done. If I’d gone for a walk, I could have taken a picture of a big red moon over the dome. I’m just imagining that I did that (imagination sometimes being as good as the “real thing”), as I get ready to get back into bed under a cat for another hour and half of sleep before getting up to practice.
