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    Responsible Shopping

    ByElizabeth

    If you are already thinking twice about when and what to acquire (and generally acting on your thinking), this information about “responsible shopping” provides helpful information when you are challenged by those who think it doesn’t matter what one person does.  It also provides some useful information that is new or we might not have thought about before.

    Given that I do not have an elected representative in Congress (a non-voting one does not really count), it is especially important to me to vote with the dollars that I have.

    ps Yes, I know that in terms of being green, the best choice is to live with much less than I do–say, for example, live in just a room instead of a house, but I am not ready to go there.

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    Durga Slaying the Water Dragon

    ByElizabeth

    At the Rubin Museum (which graciously does not forbid photos). I regard that as a desire to have visitors expand the invitation. It is one of my favorite places to go in N), especially when I only have a few hours before heading back home.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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    Web Version of E-Newsletter: Holiday Greetings and Schedule

    ByElizabeth

    Dear Friends,

    I hope you are all doing as well as possible in the midst of this holiday season and that you experience much peace and joy through the coming year.

    I write to you in the midst of preparations to leave for a return trip to India, part of the preparations being to let people know what precisely is the holiday schedule for Capitol Hill Group classes.  I will be gone the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s and William Penn House will also be closed during that time.

    There is William Penn House practice this coming Tuesday, December 17th, introducing the wonderful Craig Haas, long-time asana student, fellow walker on the path, friend, neighbor, and all around delightful person.  Regular time and place.  I will miss being there with you, but I will be on my way north for a night in New Jersey en route to southern India for a return journey.

    I’ll be back full of stories and contemplations from the journey–how could I not–and will begin to share them on the first Tuesday in January–the 7th–when the regular schedule resumes.  Do come join the practice for your own nurture and also because the more people who come the more we give to support the work camp program at William Penn House. 100% of the proceeds of the practice contiue go to benefit that work.

    If you want to be in touch in the interim, I’m planning to post some pictures during the trip; do check in with me at rosegardenyoga.com or find me and rose garden yoga on Facebook.  I don’t know yet how often I’ll be online and posting; I expect that I’ll need a few days here and there free of communication devices.  But I will enjoy sharing with you all at least a few times.

    Peace and light,
    Elizabeth

    wreathed dome

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    The Power of Mantra (and “Alice’s Restaurant”)

    ByElizabeth

    Yesterday morning, on the listserv for the Friends Meeting of Washington, someone shared a link to the original recording of Arlo Guthrie singing “Alice’s Restaurant” as part of an email about Thanksgiving festivities.  Usually, I scan listserv emails quickly and delete, especially when they relate to events that I am unable to attend. I saved this one for later, though.  I’d woken up from some anguished dreams that were hard to shake, and on being reminded of it, I was sure that when I could make the time, listening all the way through Alice’s Restaurant  (it’s long) would cheer me up.

    This morning I did indeed listen, and remembered why we (at least those of us who attended Quaker Youth Camp in the early 1970s) memorized most of Alice’s Restaurant.  It spoke to us and inspired us and invited us to feel that we were not alone in thinking that things could and should be more gracious and peaceful.

    And the refrain is catchy and easy to sing.  This morning, at the end, when Arlo invites the audience (the 1967 album version was a “live” recording), I started singing along just for the delight of it, which led me to think about the power of mantra.

    Chanting or silently repeating mantra is one of the key yoga practices.  The purpose, roughly, of mantra is to replace one set of thoughts with another.  Repeating even just “om,” the simplest mantra, over and over again is meant to shift you from whatever mind state you might have been in (at least to the extent that you are having repeating troubling thought patterns) and into or  towards a more beneficent state.  In my own years of practice, I have found much power in practicing Sanskrit mantras, but many of the songs we have been singing for years, especially those that we associate with ritual can serve similar purposes.

    If you’re so moved and feeling that you’re having thoughts around this Thanksgiving holiday that you’d rather replace with more cheerful ones, invite the power of mantra and perhaps sing, along with Arlo  for the refrain in  Alice’s Restaurant.

    Oh yes.  Happy Thanksgiving.

     

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