It is ok to think you are the center of your own world as long as you remember and behave with the awareness that the world is filled with a collective of individual consciousnesses.
Voting is still open, see The White House Farmer. (Pretty sure this is a non-partisan position).
It was hard to hold the incongruity of setting off on a beautiful morning to go to a child’s birthday at the Zoo, followed by a leisurely walk to Dupont Circle to get a haircut, with the news of devastation from too many places at once and my concern for friends and acquaintances and their families and for those who will be impacted the most severely.
The Zoo is doing a good job educating about animals that are threatened with extinction, how human civilization is contributing, and how we can shift behavior to co-habit more gracefully with other species, which made visiting the Zoo less unequivocally uncomfortable.
I got to the Zoo early, so I could walk around. I went into the great ape house for the first time in a decade, possibly two. One of the apes had figured out that if he leapt at the dividing glass with a thump, the humans right on the other side would squeal and jump. One little boy stood still, calmly holding his hand, with fingers spread open, on the glass, reaching and waiting to see.
There were two bald eagles that had damaged wings. There was no roof over their space. They seemed happy enough to be in a place with excellent, regular meals.
I am pleased and excited to announce my first public, in person practice since the inception of the pandemic. Is it any surprise that this yoga offering is an invitation to the garden, which is a place dedicated to creating and sharing joy, learning, and nourishment throughout the community for over 50 years?
Come get out into beauty and into your own body and into the dirt on Tuesday, June 6th, from 9 am to 12 pm: at the Washington Youth Garden, on the grounds of the National Arboretum. After the welcoming yoga practice, we will all join the staff and the regular volunteers (I’m one of them), in the garden. Throughout the time, I will be available to respond to individual questions about yoga and about optimizing physical alignment/orientation to make it more sustainable to work in the garden, especially for older bodies. Here’s the link to get more details and to register: Yoga and Volunteering at the Washington Youth Garden
Think this sounds great, but you’re hoping for a different time or location, please feel free to reach out.
It continues to be drier than normal and hotter than average, even with the few below normal days and the intermittent violent thunderstorm.
A good, deep watering once a week is better than more frequent shallow waterings for trees during a dry spell or drought.
If your neighbor refuses to take responsible care, take care of the trees adjacent to your own. Well-tended trees make great neighbors in the city.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Three or four weeks ago, I came out of my morning meditation thinking about the teachings of Krishnamurti. (I read a lot of Krishnamurti when I was in high school, so his teachings have influenced me with varying degrees of subtlety). Two or three days later, I was “spammed” with Krishnamurti’s Daily Thought. Someone, apparently somewhere in Europe, somehow got access to an email list to which I subscribe. As I had just been thinking about Krishnamurti, though, instead of hitting “unsubscribe,” I read the thought for the day. I’ve been reading it since, and I am exploring how much my readings in high school have been part of my foundational thinking.
When I was volunteering at the Lantern yesterday, one of the other volunteers called and reminded me that there were books put aside for me. It is not my habit to put books aside, and I had no recollection of so doing, so I was curious to discover the books were there. One of the two books was a slightly water damaged paperback of Krishnamurti On Right Livelihood. The universal energies are obviously suggesting I examine this early influence. I am contemplating what the following question means for me in today’s current context of multiple wars, a deep recession, and burgeoning environmental degradation:
Is it not necessary for each one to know for himself what is the right means of livelihood? If we are avaricious, envious, seeking power, then our means of livelihood will correspond to our inward demands and so produce a world of competition, ruthlessness, oppression, ultimately ending in war. Krishnamurti, Ojai, July 1944
This murti of Nataraja has been in the window of a store near where I work for at least 20 years. I often walk past is and just as often stop to admire it. I have never really considered taking it home, lovely as it is. The murti is simply too large for any of my rooms. I have mentioned its needing a home to a couple of different friends, who were looking for large murtis of Nataraja, over the past few months, but none have followed through.
Today, when I was walking past it on a lunchtime walk to the bank, I noticed a “commercial property for rent” sign in the window. I will miss having this resplendent image in my work neighborhood, but not enough to buy it and bring it home. I decided, though, to take a photograph. I know the owner only very casually, but well enough to know he is retiring, rather than being driven out by rising rental costs or the recession. The neighborhood has gotten trendier since Nataraja first appeared in the window. Nataraja might be replaced with a delicious restaurant or a fabulous store purveying things that entice me. Or the space could stay vacant or be used for something that holds no interest for me whatsoever.
Nataraja–lord of the dance of concealment and revelation, of dissolution and manifestation–is dancing here. The murti will be sold or transported away when the shop closes and will physically be gone.
I will have my memories of the image, a photograph I took with my BlackBerry, and will have had a sweet opportunity to observe the lord of the dance dancing away his own image.
