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    Curiouser and Curiouser…

    Last night, I took some lovely photos in the rain when I was walking to get a massage (it is pretty awesome to get a massage on a Monday night; try it sometime and see how it changes your perspective on the work week). After I came home and had dinner, I resisted the temptation to curl up on the sofa with a book. Instead, I got on the computer to take care of email correspondence that had accumulated over the day and the weekend while I was at the workshop with John Friend. I uploaded the photos from my walk and tried to post an entry. I got a message when I was in WordPress saying that the photo upload had failed. I exited from that screen and tried to access the file uploader. I could not get in. I then exited the prompt that I had failed. It would not let me cancel. Next, I exited the admin portion of my blog. The computer was not happy about that, but eventually it seemed to close the program. After that, I could not get back either to my public page nor to the admin page. I tried several times, but to no avail. I sent an email to my website designer–could she get in?

    I woke to an email from my website designer saying no problems for her. After I did my morning practice and before heading into the office, I tried again. On my home computer, no access at all to either the public or administrative portions of the site. I reloaded Firefox. That did not do the trick. I scanned my computer, but it showed no errors. I have access to the blog from my Blackberry, my office computer, and my IPad, but not from my home computer–my central place, the place where all my files and photos and bookmarks and maximum computer capabilities are one.

    As Alice (in Wonderland) would say, “curiouser and curiouser.” I am sure with research and trying lots of alternatives, we will find a solution to this peculiar glitch.

    I think staying fully connected to the ultimate loving ground of our being can feel like this strange denial of access to my blog. We get glimpses. We have studied enough to know what it is on an intellectual basis. We feel connected when we are at a big workshop (or sometimes it looks like every one else has found the bliss and we are the only ones who are not tapping in–note to self, usually that’s not true) or are in class or practicing, but not when we get challenged by daily life.

    Two things serve to bring us back to center–the first is to keep practicing and making the effort, just as expanding knowledge and trying different strategies will get me back my full blog access; the second is grace (and being open to receive it). And when grace comes, we then need to keep practicing so that we stay connected and can live in and from grace more and more of the time and remember and reconnect more easily when we get disconnected.

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

  • Music for Asana Practice

    Yesterday the mysterious beeping was beeping again in Studio 1B.  I have all sorts of approaches to teaching with the beeping.  One of them is to switch the attention of the ears to music.  We flowed to Now by Bhagavan Das (because it was already in the CD player and I like it well enough) and listened to selections from Love Reigns by Diana Rogers during final relaxation.  Monty asked me after class to give a list of some good music for home practice.  Here are some of my favorite “yoga” cds in no particular order:

    Krishna Das — Live on Earth; Faith of the Heart

    Wah! — Hidden in the Name; Jai, Jai, Jai

    Jai Uttal — Kirtan (this double CD also has a useful spoken background piece on what is kirtan)

    Deva Premal — Love is Space; The Embrace

    Ragani — Best of Both Worlds

    Dave Stringer — Mala; Japa; Divas and Devis

    Shantala — Sri; The Love Window

    Many of these are available at the Willow Street Yoga Center shops.  Most should be available on-line directly from the artists.  Dave Stringer also has other music available for download.  The rest can be obtained from Amazon.  Also great listening is Invocation, which was put together by Ty Burhow.  It is a collection of different artists offering versions of the Anusara invocation.  Willow Street work studies are raving about MC Yogi’s Elephant Power, which is rap music telling the stories of various deities — funny and delightful.

    Mostly, I prefer to teach and practice without music, but I was a dancer and find music helps to lead me into heart and body simultaneously.  I find bringing music into a practice session especially helpful when I am having trouble getting settled on my mat.   I do not just play “yoga” music, but play whatever gets me into the spirit of play or relaxation and contemplation as I am moved.  My bias is towards chamber music (especially Bach) and Indian classical music for a late evening quiet practice and for an upbeat daytime practice anything that would go with being outside on a grassy field on a bright sunny day with frisbee players around.  Alice Coltrane is also wonderful if you haven’t discovered yet her discography.

    Play what enhances rather than what distracts.  Also, check out the artists when they come to town:  Wah!, Dave Stringer, and Shantala (Heather and Benji Wertheimer) all come to town.  Enjoy!

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