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    Signs Around Town

    ByElizabeth

    Not just rubber surfaces, but muscles, bones, and ligaments. Please don’t wear heels or if you feel you must, then only while sitting, reclining, or attending costume parties. By choosing not to wear high heels, You will stave off not only much pain and suffering, but also potential surgeries and their attendant environmental, social, and personal financial costs.

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

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    Sometimes 15 Minutes Can Make All the Difference (Web Version of E-Newsletter)

    ByElizabeth

    Dear Friends ,

    As I went through the airport in each direction last week on my way to and from San Francisco to play and to visit with friends, I thought about how much our experience even of something as relatively ordinary as a trip through the airport can change by the difference of 15 minutes.  On the way there, we got to the gate just as the flight was boarding.  Had we been earlier, we would have sat in a crowded area, perhaps wondering whether the flight would actually leave on time or whether we could leave from home a little later next time.  If we had been 15 minutes later, we would have been among those frustrated and harried late boarders whose bags end up over some seat 15 rows farther back.

    We each have our own tolerance for sitting and waiting or being at the last minute, respectively.  We go through life more easily if we pay sufficient attention to what makes us feel challenged and what makes us feel secure and grounded with regard to how we navigate time and space and figure out how to act in ways that are most supportive (without dulling awareness or denying how we could benefit from change and growth).

    An important aspect of meditation and asana practice is how they can deepen our understanding both of how we tend to relate to things in our time-space continuum and how to optimize those relationships.  For example, part of learning to sequence a practice is learning how the parts of our body fit together and how to change the order of movements to expand our strength and flexibility beyond what might otherwise have been possible in a safe and joyous way.  In all my classes, I emphasize how to structure and sequence your own practice because I think it makes such a difference on and off the mat.

    What triggered all this thinking about what a difference 15 minutes can make was that students have been asking for a later time for the Friday night gentle/therapeutics class at Willow Street Takoma Park.  Starting this Friday, September 14th, class will begin at 5:45pm and end at 7:15pm–15 minutes later than it has been in previous sessions.  The extra 15 minutes later start time can make all the difference in being able to get to class without feeling pressed.  Ending only 15 minutes later still leaves open much of the evening.  The class is a lovely way to transition from week to weekend–a Friday yoga happy hour and a half that is designed to heal and nourish.  Although it is best to sign up for a class to get all the benefits of the progressive teaching method at Willow Street Yoga, drop-ins are always welcome.  Do feel free to invite friends or family to join you.

    New students of all experience levels are always welcome at the Tuesday night, William Penn House practice.  Come by some time and join a wonderful, welcoming group of yogis.  For more information, please check the classes page of the website.

    Hope to see or speak to many of you soon in person or in the ether.  And remember:  spending even 15 minutes a day in meditation or yoga practice can make quite a difference in your relationship to life in time and space.

    Peace and light,

    Elizabeth

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    Sometimes When the Complexity

    ByElizabeth

    Sometimes, when I step back in awestruck wonder at the complexity of human society and what it means to be engaged in rulemaking in that complexity, I like to take a moment and look at pictures from India, a whole other version with much the same and much different.

    I invite myself to  think about being human in this time and place with this many billions of others.  And then I return to my work, confident that my work is both absolutely essential and completely meaningless in the grand scheme of things.  In other words, I try to do my best, but still keep in perspective  stumbling blocks to completing some mission in the way first intended.

    Bridge to Rameshwaram I took this photo when we stopped on the bridge to Rameshwarum.  I doubt I have either the fervor or the fortitude to have gone without the safety and comfort cushion of the bus.

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    Gifts of Onions (and Eternal Truth)

    ByElizabeth

    A couple of weeks ago, a good friend gave me a box of perfect vidalia onions.  She had been given two boxes.  She said, “These onions were so good; I wanted to give them to someone who would truly appreciate them.  I first thought of you.”  I was delighted, “yes, I’d love some vidalias.”  They are exquisite.  I’ve been making delicate sautes, grilling them, dicing them into salads, and marveling at their sweetness.  I passed a few on to others that both would fully appreciate the onions as a culinary matter and also know my friend, who is a former co-worker.

    Last night I went to take class at Willow Street and was talking a little with the work study students at the desk after class before heading home.  “Would you like some onions?” asked one of the work study students, who does great work with the Fresh Farm Markets around town.  “Oh, how lovely, no, no thank you,” I replied, “A friend just gave me a box of vidalia onions and I have shallots, baby leeks, spring onions, and garlic chives in my garden.”  “I think you have enough in the allium family already,” she agreed, “would you like a cucumber?”  “A cucumber?  Yes, that would be great.  I’ve only gotten one ripe one so far; they aren’t liking the cool wet.”  She gave me a cucumber and a zucchini from a farm visit she had done that morning, which made my evening (I am so easily pleased).

    This morning I wondered about these offers of onions.  It is not as though it is a regular thing for me twice in a space of a couple of weeks to be given bounteous offers of exquisite onions.  Did it mean something?

    Onion comes from the same latin root as “union.”  Unlike garlic, in whose family onions belong, onions grow a single, undivided bulb, which is the likely reason for the development of the word onion.  From sketchy researching on the internet, I find onions are also the symbol of “good” and fullness — hence the onion domes in architecture.  The ancient Egyptions thought the onion a symbol of eternity (layer upon layer of being) and truth.  Yes, I like thinking these onions (those I took home and those that were gifted instead, no doubt, to some other appreciative soul) were meant to bring me to think of good, of union, of the eternal truth in gifts and shared pleasure in sharing delicious, healing, fresh food with friends.

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