I’m finding reentry more challenging than I first thought. I thought it might be helpful to remind myself of my travels–and that I travel to come home with more capacity to participate as much and best I can. The Garden of Endurance was at the Madhuban retreat center where I spent most of the trip.
Deferring gratification may make sense for all sorts of reasons–pursuing a goal, keeping on a budget, sticking to a healthful diet or lifestyle. But even if you are with discrimination (in yoga terms viveka) choosing to defer gratification…
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
When my friend Mac asked if I would let my readers know that his dance group Human Landscape Dance will be performing at Dance Place on Saturday and Sunday, July 9th and 10th, I agreed without hesitation. As I was contemplating what to write, I found myself thinking about the koshas–the energetic sheaths of the body. The yogis claim that the individual has five koshas. The outermost, the annamaya kosha, is the “food body.” “Food” in this context encompasses everything that comes into our body through all of our senses–touch, taste, sight, hearing, smell. I thought about what it might mean to “eat local” if eating meant everything that we encounter with our senses.
I am not a locavore (I too thoroughly enjoy avocado, coconut and, in winter, citrus), but I do try to emphasize local food as the mainstay of my diet. I do it mostly for energetic reasons. I want fresh food to have been picked as recently as possible and not to have grown weary from travel. I want as few hands as possible to have touched the food I buy, and those hands to be those of a person who is happy with farming and is paid a living wage by the sale of the produce. When your food growers, transporters, and preparers live nearby you are getting to know your neighbors and community, and not just getting food from a faceless corporate entity. Over the years, you get to know each other a bit and learn what friends you have in common. More threads are woven into the fabric of your community.
Just as knowing the person who grows and sells you food means you can be more certain that it was raised and offered for sale with nourishment intended at every stage, so too having the art and entertainment we bring into our senses be created within our community creates a network of connection and support that we do not get when we only consume commercially prepared entertainment (though I cheerfully buy music from my favorite “stars,” go to the movies, and enjoy trips to Lincoln Center,and London’s West End, etc., just as I get avocados and citrus along with the greens from my garden and the fruits from the local farmers’ market).
I feel blessed to be able to connect with Mac as a neighbor (Mac, his wife Jennifer Mueller, who is a student of mine and fellow yoga teacher on the Hill, and their delightful daughter live several blocks from me) and others who are performing next Saturday as fellow dancers at the Sunday Contact Improv Jam. My dancing and personal explorations are raised up by the company of the wonderful dancers and friends who share that space, including those who will be performing next weekend.
Why wouldn’t I want to both support my friends and learn more about them by going to Dance Place to receive the dance offering they are so lovingly preparing for all of us? Such is the nature of feeding mindfully the annamaya kosha to help lead us to the opening and nurturing of our innermost spirit, finding and creating more bliss in ourselves and in the very essence of our community.
FYI. I’m looking for company to carpool or walk together to and from the Brookland Metro (for safety on the way home). Perhaps Sunday CI Jam, dinner on the Hill, and the Sunday night show?
Photo courtesy of Human Landscape Dance.
Basil, persimmon tomatoes, plum tomato, saqweet banana pepper, turenip and greens, tricolor carrots (the white are maturing much faster than the orange and the red), anaheim peppwer, okra, jalapeno pepper. (Not shown: grapes, kale, and the three cucumbers I had midweek, one of which still needs to be eaten).
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Dear Friends,
If your inbox and your schedule has been anything like mine, you don’t need another email to read during this busy season, so I’m keeping it short.
Last gentle/therapeutic class of this session at Willow Street is Friday, December 14th. Make-ups and drop-ins, friends and family, warmly welcomed. We’ll do some strengthening and stretching and then stretch out into a series of restorative poses to honor the Willow Street tradition and to get ready for the holidays.
No William Penn House classes on either Christmas Day or New Year’s Day. Classes run through December 18th and start again on January 8th. As always, please don’t let means keep you away. The already favorable pricing for the class, with a portion of the proceeds from each student going to benefit the work of William Penn House, is just a suggested amount. The more the merrier.
Classes start again with me at all locations Wednesday, January 2nd. I’ll be offering the Friday night gentle/therapeutics again at Willow Street. First class of the year is January 4th as part of Willow Street’s new $5 preview class week. To buy your $5 passes on-line and to check out the whole preview week schedule, please visit the Willow Street website. Registration for the Winter/Spring session is now open for the Friday night class; the first night of the Winter/Spring session is January 11th.
Wishing you the best of holidays–may they be full of both joyous connection and sweet time for yourself. I look forward to seeing many of you in the New Year. If the outrageous pulsation and dance of being–whether challenging or fulfilling or both–is keeping you from class, do send me a line and be in touch.
Peace and light,
Elizabeth
