On This Boxing Day
On this Boxing Day, day after another Christmas with no tree on which to perch, the Christmas tree top angel, looking more like a fairy godmother, found a dance with Shiva Nataraja and his cohort.

On this Boxing Day, day after another Christmas with no tree on which to perch, the Christmas tree top angel, looking more like a fairy godmother, found a dance with Shiva Nataraja and his cohort.

A gate might be an obstacle or it might be a way through or it might be that which is containing something that would otherwise be detrimental to our well-being. One of the key things that we do with the various yoga practices is explore how an apparent barrier is serving us or how a locked gate might turn our path in a more auspicious direction.
We will learn little and live less fully if we just lament the locked gate and unreasonably expect from the practices the removal of challenges or barriers. Ganesha–who is often invoked as the remover of obstacles–is less one who just opens all the gates for us than one who empowers us to discover gateways regardless of whether gates are meant to stay locked or whether they seem to block our path.
I didn’t buy a coffee mug, but I did take the picture. If only remembering was as easy as buying a souvenir. Memory, though, it much more ephemeral. I’ll remember this day. Sometimes I will deliberately recall it. Sometimes, images will come unbidden as something triggers a memory, just as the solicitation by a friend last week to support an orphanage in Peru brought back the thought of 9/11. I had been in Peru at the retreat center that supports the orphanage when the planes hit the World Trade Center. I hope for news tomorrow of the imminent closing of Guantanamo to start reshaping our relationship to 9/11.