Jai Durga
Why would we celebrate “goddess ” only once a year, but be expected to be devoted to “god ” every day.
Every day is women’s day.
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Walk to William Penn House for Tuesday Night Yoga Practice
I turned the corner
Glowing in the rain and wind
The earliest pink tree.
Every Life a Universe
This evening I attended a gathering at Meridian Hill Park with several hundred Jewish people and a some allies and a few dozen police (not sure whether the police were there intentionally to be threatening or to be of supposed protection).
The gathering was to mourn the 1200 killed on October 7, the 250 taken hostage, and the tens of thousands killed and millions displaced since then. Whether the speakers were Jewish or Palestinian or Christian or Hindu, they were unified in their belief (relying on the texts and teachings that informed their faith), that no lives are more precious than others. The rabbis were emphatic that continuing to bomb and displace Palestinians and now, Lebanese, makes no one safer.
We must stop the relentless funding of war, the destruction of life and communities and the ecosystem if we and our companion species (flora and fauna) are ever to thrive.
Om shanti, shanti, shanti.
Shalom.
- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
After the Exhileration, Work
We all (or at least most of those who would be reading this blog) have heard the Buddhist-inspired saying: before enlightenment, the laundry. After enlightenment, the laundry. The question is whether after the moments of enlightenment can we infuse doing the laundry with more joy, acceptance, and peace. A young adult acquaintance asked me the other day whether I was readjusting ok. I did not know to what he was referring, and he had to explain that he was asking how I was doing on my return from my India trip. “It was just a vacation–albeit an extraordinary one,” I replied. “Life continues.”
“The good experiences just slip away like dry sand through my fingers,” he made a motion of letting something slip away.
“When you practice and when you get older, it will be easier to bring the temporary, good experiences into your life without feeling they are lost when you have moved onto the next thing,” I said with hope that would actually be true for him, he seemed so bereft.
The yoga teaches us neither to be out searching for the highs nor actively avoiding the lows; the dance of grasping and avoiding is what makes us suffer. That does not mean that the highs, the times of wild abandoned joy, the experiences of utter fulfillment, of exquisite understanding are of no value. What brings joy is a thing of wonder and an opportunity to deepen our ability to love and be generous. They are only a problem if we ruin our time by vainly clinging to or trying to repeat the sensation. As our practice (and our understanding of a life well-lived and loved) matures, we understand that there is no readjusting in the return to the day to day. We welcome what we have had, try to remember what we have learned, including how much joy and delight we are able to drink in, and approach each day as another opportunity to seek and share connection.
A Favorite Sculpture (and the missing mentor)
I have been walking past this sculpture regularly ever since I was a judicial clerk in 1987-1988. It is in the plaza between the Federal and DC court houses. It is dated in the subject matter. The partner-associate relationship has shifted over the years, both from the inclusion of women in the law place and the changing economics. The shift in economics to assume that most associates will not be partners because the firm simply does not have the space for more partners and because the associates feel freer to move around and for a whole host of other reasons, some more benign than others, has left new workers bereft of the support of a mentor. In the disruption of the continuity of the workplace, those who stay are less motivated to serve as mentors and lose the delight and strength that comes from the action of mentoring. Those who come into a workplace without a mentor never learn the way they could. Although some of the changes are good, the missing mentor is indeed a loss.
Though the sculpture reminds me of something lost, I love this sculpture, especially where it is set. It is absolutely suited to its location and was made with great skill and love.
Honor Your Ancestors
Lights for Liberty, Lafayette Park, July 12, 2019
Advice Around Town (and Aspects of Sauca)
Surely, given some of the promises of hatha yoga–health and longevity–making disease prevention into a spiritual practice would be efficacious.
It amazes me how few of my colleagues follow this simple tip, though there are signs everywhere. What would be a better motivator than scientific evidence that washing your hands well helps keep you healthy?
