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    State of the Garden

    ByElizabeth

    After having at long last (years), had the back sleeping porch and deck repaired and improved, the garden has expanded to the sleeping porch. I’m trying beans, cherry tomatoes, and hops as trailing vines. It will be interesting to participate. Everything except the geranium and the strawberries were volunteers or plants outgrowing their space below.

    I’ve given away lots of starts and divides and have plenty more, as well as cuttings. Locals—let me know if you want some. Soon I will be fully vaccinated. If you will be also, we could even do some yoga.

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    Just as I Was About to Get Ready

    ByElizabeth

    to pack up my things and leave work to go to yoga class, a co-worker stopped by my office to talk.  She started by asking me how I was, but I knew that was just an introduction because it was evident she needed some comfort.  It turned out that she had a bad fall off of her bicycle on her way to work late last week and had gotten beaten up something fierce by the way she fell.   One of the things I most respect about my co-worker is that she is someone who always looks for the good in situations and in others.  I found myself giving her permission to be sad and frustrated and angry, which she appreciated.  Just because things could have been worse did not diminish that she was suffering.  I think that is important for all of us to remember.  When we have compassion for ourselves and allow ourselves to react, it is then we can also find the good for ourselves and have compassion for others.

    I did not go to class last night.  It was more important to listen to my friend.  But I had a good yoga lesson by allowing my friend in and a good practice when I got home.

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    Yoga for Our Troops

    ByElizabeth

    It is too far from my current world and beyond my temporal limits at the moment, but if you are interested, please contact my friend Robin through the website link below, who writes:

    Dear Friends and Colleagues,

    As some of you may know, the last 5 years or so I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to take yoga way beyond the reach of a yoga studio and teach yoga and iRest meditation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It’s been a life-changing experience.
    Though its only 5 minutes away from the WSYC Takoma Studio, Walter Reed is a world away in many ways. I’m sure you’ve heard the news reports about the soldiers suffering from trauma, brain injury, loss of limbs, etc. And their families carry enormous burdens that are not all met by military services. I regularly see 22 year old women with a baby on back and toddler beside them pushing a young husband who is seriously injured in battle. And these wounds may be more readily addressed than the wounds that are invisible to the eye — depression, flashbacks, anxiety, sleep deprivation, mood swings and isolation.
    One piece of good news is that the military is now beginning to embrace mind-body approaches such as yoga and bring them into healthcare settings.
    Several teachers, including Karen Soltes, and I have created a training program that helps (200 hr +) yoga teachers to teach safely and effectively in military settings. Our experience shows that one must have a respectful understanding of the culture of the military AND a basic knowledge of the signature war-related conditions and injuries.
    Part One: Fundamentals of Teaching Yoga and Meditation in Military Settings is a 7- week teleconference program that you can take from anywhere with just a phone and email. It runs  Wednesday June 8 – July 20. If you miss a class, we record every one of them so you can listen at your convenience.
    Please visit our website at www.warriorsatease.com.  I’ve attached a flyer, if you feel inclined to post this at your yoga studio. Let me know if you have any questions.
    Also, please pass this message on to anyone in the country or Canada who might be interested in working with the military community.

    Take care and thanks so much, Robin

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    Great Gary Snyder Quote (and Sadhana)

    ByElizabeth

    My friend Dan just posted on his blog a great Gary Snyder quote on the need to do maintenance (of the self) in order to be most creative.  The idea that we need to maintain our tools and toolbox, as it were, in order to be most creative, is exactly what we are taught about the tantric yoga sadhana  — practice.  With our yoga practice, diet, lifestyle, work, consumption, participation in community, we seek to live progressively more in alignment with the undulating fabric of space, time, and apparent world so that we have maximum well-being best to serve ourselves and others with delight. In our sadhana, we include both study and experience (experience includes meditation, asana, and pranayama).  As both John Friend and Paul Muller-Ortega teach, we engage in the practices and studies to learn with ever expanding insight how to see and experience the highest first and live from that place.  Living and practicing with such an intention is, I think, the maintenance done so we can live out all of our lives as a reverential and creative act.

    Dan–I look forward to reading the sermon.

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