Jai Durga

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.
One of the practical applications of meditating–of the yoga practice of looking within–is to be able to find beauty when things are ugly or challenging or enervating, etc.
Knowing how to find that beauty may not change what comes at us, but it can change our outlook and approach.
I am easier with the freezing rain knowing that I have invited an orchid to rebloom.
When I decided to make strawberry towers part of the new sleeping porch garden extension, Niraj Ray of Cultivate the City told me to remove all of the flowers until mid-May to allow the plants to develop leaves large enough to support sizable and sweet berries. He also suggested feeding them every time I water.
It has been a pleasure nurturing the plants and finally watching plump, juicy berries redden in the sun outside my study window.
Might this delicious lesson in the benefits of being patient be a lesson applicable to how and when and why to re-emerge post vaccination, but before the end of the pandemic?
