Discussion of physical aspects of yoga (on and off the mat)
Another perfect
Two sweet cherry tomatoes
One yellow. One red.
And some coriander about to flower.
When I was coming downstairs in my building today, I overheard someone say to her colleague, “she said it wasn’t yoga; it was a core workout.”
I didn’t hear anything else. I wonder whether it was the teacher, a student, or an observer who was the “she” being quoted. I wonder what the person I heard speaking and what the person she quoted meant by yoga.
As for the “core workout,”I’m pretty sure, based on the location of the conversation–stairwell in a Federal office building–that by “core workout” it meant a class in the gym focused on toning and strengthening abdominal muscles.
In contemplating this snippet of conversation, I decided that yoga is the best core workout I know, if by core we mean center or essential–the very heart of being. What is yoga other than practicing and applying certain techniques to try and better live and act from the core of our being? Toned abs, if we get them, are just a bonus.
In the middle of another
11-hour work day, not
Counting the time to
commute, the commute
Being the round trip walk
From home during which I
have been practicing japa–
Maha mrtyunjaya mantra–
For dear spirits recently
No longer in this body.
In between the work,
Between those walks,
I stopped. I stopped
and smelled the roses.
Thus refreshed by visual
Beauty and warm sun
And intoxicating scent,
I had the energy to begin
Again–to continue,
To work well.
The polar vortices must have been good for the grape kiwi. After years of being barely productive, it is flourishing wildly.
Sometimes it takes, as we can learn from mindfully practiced yoga asana, a stressor to stimulate growth or needed change. It isn’t stress that holds us back, but distress.
As for the kiwi vine, even if the birds get all the fruit, I still had the delightful scent of the flowers.
If not for the storm
It is unlikely I would
Have cut the roses.
Come join us for yoga on some Tuesday night soon. Things always feel a little more at peace with the yoga. That all proceeds every week go to the work camp program makes it even more full as a practice.
It looks like what was leading to error messages for seeing photos and inaccurate claims my mailbox was full was that I was out of memory for the website.
Overfull, it didn’t tell me what was wrong, but just blocked displaying photos and receiving messages. How often are people like that? When overwhelmed or stretched too thin, it’s possible to see stress and challenge, but not quite what is really the issue.
One of the ways a steady yoga and meditation practice can shift us is to heighten awareness. The error messages we perceive and send are better correlated to the issues at hand.
My apologies. I’ve been alerted that some photos haven’t been appearing (giving one of those pesky and disappointing error messages instead) and email being sent through the website is generating a message (erroneously, I add) that my mailbox is full.
I’m doing what I can and have asked for help. In the meantime, I will do workarounds. That about sums it up.
