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Circa 2007, Maybe 2008
Found this in a pile of papers when I was cleaning out my work office the other day. It’s pretty free of extraneous paper, but miscellany will creep in. My recollection is that a co-worker brought me a copy of the City Paper because she was excited to see the picture of someone she knew.
I have not felt any calling to get myself into such positions in recent years. My body just doesn’t want that kind of rigor any more. It was joyous at the time.
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Found Exhortation
Recognizing what a privilege it is to be able to do so, I daily educate myself about what is happening outside the walls of my house and ask myself is how can I best increase safety, health, and joy for all and not deplete my health. The answer is changing and expanding in response to the growing horrors and bravery. I am doing more of the practices to increase my capacity to stay engaged in the most healthful and mindful ways.
I wish for a world in balance, for equipoise. BTW, one of the meanings of samadhi, a key component of yoga practic Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, is equipoise.

- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Quaker
A Cookie and a Note
Last week, a co-worker stopped by my office to chat. Not surprisingly, the conversation turned to current affairs, and I voiced my every day growing anger and grief and disgust and commitment to seek more ways to have positive impact. My co-worker essentially responded that as a yoga teacher, she thought I ought to know that I shouldn’t get so upset, things weren’t so bad.
As should not be surprising to those who know me or practice yoga with me or read what I post on social media that I explained that my yoga calls for lucid and engaged citizenship and not escape from challenges and difficult emotions. My co-worker demurred, still wanting her own comfortable silence.
The fateful weekend passed. When I returned to the office this week, I found a note and a cookie on my desk. The note basically said, wow, Charlottesville, I hope you’re feeling ok, I thought you might like a cookie. Without addressing the substance of the note, (my own conflict aversion coming to the fore or perhaps my sense that in this case there was little point in pursuing the conversation further and my co-worker has been a pleasant colleague ), when emailing about another matter, I said merely thank you for the cookie.
I’d thought that would be the end of it, but my co-worker then stopped by to thank me for saying thanks for the cookie, I no longer restrained myself from passionately though tolerably politely articulating what I really thought, including what a privilege it is to be able to have a bakery cookie whether for hunger or comfort.
I can relate to wanting everything to be ok, and I’m really glad I have plenty of food and a comfortable home, but I also believe that with my privilege comes great responsibility, now even more than ever. I seek to be more aware not less. What about you?





