Today I worked efficiently, gave additional money in support of racial justice, signed comment letters and petitions, meditated, walked, shared calls to action on social media, picked beans, cherry tomatoes, and herbs in the garden, and made soba noodles in spicy peanut broth with herbs and green beans.
I am taking off most of the work day so that I can attend a special three-hour asana practice at Willow Street Yoga with Desiree Rumbaugh. In order to get done things that should not wait until Monday, I chose to start working at 6, so I could forget about work when I left for Silver Spring at 9 am for the workshop. I needed my usual practice time to get done what needed to be done in the time allotted.
I noticed that I felt just a little edgier and less grounded this morning. Was it just feeling the pressure of needing to get things done or was it not having done my usual practice?
As I contemplated this question, I invited into myself the feelings I get from practicing, which I could do precisely because it is the first morning in a couple hundred mornings I have not sat for meditation.
What is important, though, is not to be addicted (with the side effects that come with any addiction when deprived), even as we are wholly committed to practice to have its benefits keep growing.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
There is a profound difference between being detached, being separate, and not participating fully or at all and being fully engaged in activities but not being attached to the outcome. Sometimes, after I have a fantastic time, I remember the suffering that can follow from longing for more, and I wonder whether it was worth it. I have such thoughts only fleetingly. The more I practice yoga and the attendant non-attachment to particular future outcomes based on past experience and desire, the more I am able to exult in what the present has to offer.
