No Home Email, No Internet, No Phone (Again, How Annoying)
Apparently it’s a phone company/DSL provider problem. But they won’t be sending a technician until next week. In the meantime, please expect only intermittent posts and responses to emails.
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- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Body | Miscellaneous (blog matters, etc)
Thanksgiving Schedule and Greetings (Web Version of E-Letter)
Dear Friends ,
This weekend I will be celebrating our local Anusara community at the weekend workshops in College Park, Maryland with John Friend. I look forward to seeing many of you there. My good friend Jane, who in honor of Thanksgiving donated the sub fee to S.O.M.E (So Others Might Eat)., will be covering my gentle/therapeutics this Saturday at Willow Street. It’s sure to be full of gentleness and nurture, so check it out if you’re in town and won’t be at the weekend workshops.
On Thursday, I will be leading my ninth annual Thanksgiving Day yoga class for the benefit of Oxfam. It will be at Willow Street’s Takoma Park studio from 10-11:30am. The more the merrier, so bring yourselves, your family, and your friends. For those of you who remember the days when you brought a check and I mailed them in, my matching donation of up to $200 still applies even with the convenience of being able to register and pay on line at Willow Street. Registration in advance is appreciated as it helps us get ready for you, but drop-ins are most welcome, too.
I’ll be teaching all of my regular classes next week and not only celebrating Thanksgiving, but also sharing the abundance of energy from the weekend with John Friend and all of our wonderful Anusara community. Stop by on Tuesday night to set your intention for the holiday or complete it with gentle/therapeutics at noon on Saturday at Willow Street. As always, friends and family are welcome to drop in.
I hope to see many of you for some of this outrageously abundant yoga feast. If you will be traveling, may it be safe and joyous.
Peace and light,
Elizabeth
- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Miscellaneous (blog matters, etc)
July Greetings–Ultimate Freedom (and Some Free Yoga) (Web Version of E-Newsletter)
Dear Friends,
It is Saturday morning of Independence Day weekend. I have sat for my morning meditation, watered the garden, pet the cats, and done a few errands around the house. In an hour or so, I will be heading up to Willow Street to teach my noon class. As I take the time to care for garden, cats, house, and prepare to teach, I have been contemplating the concept of freedom.
In the tantric shaivite tradition, we are taught that one of the key aspects of spirit is svatantriya — ultimate freedom. We are also taught that we are ourselves inseparable from spirit, just as a drop of ocean water is no less part of the ocean for being a drop. Spirit chooses, out of its freedom and play (lila) to embody itself in forms that are limited in space and time. One of our greatest sources of suffering is feeling bound, thinking that we are stuck with who and what we are in the constraints of this mortal body, with all its quirks, forgetting our own auspiciousness.
I could get grumpy about the need to do errands and to teach on a holiday weekend. I could feel constrained from my usual activities around town by the combination of single-tracking on the Metro and the influx of tourists for the activities on the Mall, the combination of which will likely add an hour’s communiting time to teach today and to do volunteer work in Georgetown tomorrow at the Lantern Bookshop. I could choose instead to be grateful that I have a house that needs caring, a garden to water, a class that gives me great joy and abiding satisfaction to share the incredible yoga principles that have so enhanced my own life, and volunteer work that I have enjoyed for over 15 years.
I am not going to be telling anyone that we are without limitation, being as we are in time and space. We are always and perfectly free, however, to choose to turn towards the auspicious, the light, the good, the uplifting, the highest or we can turn away. We can act in ways that bring us ever more in alignment with spirit , or we can act in ways that take ourselves and that in our orbit farther from the good. The more we exercise our freedom to turn towards the auspicious, the happier and healthier we will be, regardless of the fact of life in a mortal body. That choice is our true freedom and the way to our hearts.
To help you experience svatantriya, to choose freedom of heart, there’s nothing better than some free yoga. The weekend of July 15-17, Willow Street Yoga will be offering it’s summer free class weekend. I’ll be offering gentle/therapeutics at noon on July 16th in Takoma Park. Preference is giving to new students and to returning students who have brought new students with them.
For July at William Penn House, I’m offering a two-part freebie: (1) brand new students get first class free; please invite your friends and neighbors; (2) if you are an existing student who brings a new student with you, you get a free class when the new student comes back for a second class.
Have a wonderful Independence Day, however you choose to celebrate and see you soon.
Peace and light,Elizabeth
This Saturday–Summertime Yoga Extravaganza (website version of emailing)
Dear Friends,
I’ve just returned from a wonderful meditation retreat with Paul Muller-Ortega out in Sedona. Every time I go on retreat, I am reminded of how essential it is to take time out from my busy life to rest deeply so that the inner light can be sweetly revealed. (If you want to see pictures from the week, check out my blog entry “Outrageous Light”).
When I got home last night after the hectric travel home day and before returning to work this morning, I took time out for restoratives, so that I could bring back into my home and self the sense of renewal that I had before the travel. Sometimes, there is nothing like a good session of restoratives to bring back a sense of balance and harmony with life.
Needing a retreat yourself? Please come join me this Saturday afternoon, July 31st at Willow Street Yoga in Takoma Park for a mini-retreat from the summer heat with a “Summer Restorative Extravaganza.” For more information or to register in advance, please visit: www.willowstreetyoga.com.
Looking forward to seeing many of you.
Peace and light,Elizabeth
6:50am flight from BWI (I’ll be off of the computer until Monday)
I am lucky to have a non-stop. The storm is supposed to have passed through. So I can enjoy myself know matter what travel brings, I pack up a variety of reading materials — philosophy, handouts for the workshop, and fiction. I switched my ankle warmers to bamboo knitting needles so I could get through security and knit (the ankle warmers are on size 2 needles, so it is taking me as long as a sweater). I have my journal and a pen. Best, I am traveling with two friends (all different flights, but no one waiting alone in the airport) with whom to visit, who are going to the same retreat. Takes the edge off of the early wake up time. Starts the retreat when I leave the door instead of when I arrive at the retreat center.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Miscellaneous (blog matters, etc)
Autumn Greetings–Web Version of E-Newsletter
Dear Friends,
Yesterday, after I was done working and back on my personal computer and before I went to lead the Tuesday night yoga practice at William Penn House, I wrote to President Obama. I write to the President and others in power on a not infrequent basis. How can one not participate in the conversation if one spends so much time engaging in energetic and spiritual practices that reveal at an elemental level just how intertwined and interdependent we are with each other and the environment?
I told President Obama that I would be one of the over 800,000 workers who would not be permitted to work while work needs to be done and probably not get paid if we were furloughed due to an impasse on the budget. I wrote that I’d rather he stand strong on the Affordable Care Act and a budget that takes care of the environment and those in need and emphasizes diplomacy over military action even if that might mean I would be furloughed. Relatively easy for me to say. By good fortune, I have not had any major family or medical expenses that would significantly impact savings and budget. By careful planning and persistent living within my means for all of my adulthood, it would be some time before I would be seriously detrimentally impacted by not working. I know that many of my colleagues have family or health challenges that would make the loss of even a few days pay a significant budget issue. My heart goes out to them, and I hope that they are speaking out about how the situation impacts them and that it doesn’t come to that.
Considering the issues presented by the budget impasse led me to contemplate again how we decide when and and in what manner to weigh in on decision or action by the communities of which we are a part. I’ve also been asking myself how do we find the most insightful and generous balance of self and collective interest and live most gracefully in these turbulent and frightening times. How do we best engage and also take care of ourselves? It would be pretty great to have a diet steady in healthy nourishment, enough sleep, love for ourselves and our loved ones, fulfilling work, basic safety of life and limb, access to healing when we are sick or injured, sufficient education to make informed decisions as to our own and our collective well-being, and the will, time, and opportunity to take care of our body and mind through meditative and physical practices or otherwise that suit our temperment and physical make-up. It would be even greater if the hundreds of millions with whom we are in relationship also had these things.
Most of us don’t have all of these things, even those of us fortunate enough to have them if we made different choices. How do we find more energy to act and engage in a way that supports the healthiest outcome for all when our own well-being is strained by repeated challenges and how we deal with the limitations of time and space? For me dealing with my own recent challenges, yoga asana is feeling especially good right now. Asana feels embracing, energizing, grounding, balancing and is definitely helping me make it through the day. I hope that whatever life is bringing you at this time you are making time to practice and that what you’ve studied and what you are practicing serve you well.
For the company and the encouragement, to learn new skills and to refine basic ones, and to support those in need in a unique way, please come join us when you can for the all-levels Tuesday night group practice at William Penn House. Since late this summer, 100 percent of the proceeds go directly to support William Penn House’s workcamp program–a wonderful model for service (in yoga — seva), On Wednesday nights, a small more experienced group also gets together with me to practice in my home studio. Email me if you are interested.
For those of you who like to plan ahead, I want to let you know that the annual Thanksgiving Day Fundraiser to benefit Oxfam is back on Capitol Hill this year, and I am delighted that William Penn House is hosting the practice:
When: Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 28, 2013.
Location: William Penn House, 515 East Capitol Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003.
Time: 10:00 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
Yoga Details:
- All levels class. Just how we will align and flow to get the energy moving and supporting us will depend on who comes and how many, but be sure that it will be designed to be simultaneously soothing and energizing to help you bring your best self to the formal start of the winter holidays. Alternatives will be provided for those working with challenges of embodiment. Advanced variations may also be offered to expand the experience of the abundance of the day.
- For Most Ages–Children old enough to pretty much stay on their own yoga mat and enjoy trying the grown up poses–depends on the child–are welcome, and then it’s all ages up from there.
- Props. We have plenty of blocks, straps, and chairs; a modest supply of blankets; and a limited number of loaner mats. Please bring your own mat if you have one and any other props you may need (such as multiple blankets). Donations of your no longer used props are welcome.
Benefit for Oxfam: Suggested donation $20. As in most of the previous years I have offered this class, I will collect checks made out directly to Oxfam, America (preferred) or cash; you could also make an on-line donation before the class. I will then forward 100 percent of what is contributed to Oxfam, America. I also will match any individual donations over $20 up to $200. As always, the amount is suggested; whatever is within your means is a sufficient amount.
No Advance Registration. Just show up at the door. Though I enjoy the spontaneity of teaching whomever appears, the more the advance knowledge I have of who plans to attend and how many, the better I can design the class to suit more of your needs and desires. I welcome your letting me know by commenting on the Rose Garden Yoga page on Facebook or by sending me an email (click here to go to the welcome page of the blog and then click on “contact Elizabeth”).
I look forward to practicing together or otherwise being in touch and hope that all of you are as well as is possible.
Peace and light,
Elizabeth
Computer Sabbatical (and Happy Holidays)
I am planning to be unwired for the next couple of weeks, though if there is an opportunity for a wireless connection or to use hotel internet, I may check emails. I will be in touch when I go back on-line. In the meantime, this is to wish you the best of holidays.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.