. . . Batman!
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Meditation | Miscellaneous (blog matters, etc)
Another Opportunity to Practice Yoga
Another opportunity. Another opportunity to soften, another opportunity to open to what is possible within limits as I attempt to work with yet another interface for the same blog. If the machines did not tell you, would you be able to tell the difference between an entry done on the laptop, the Blackberry, or the IPad? I have the most functionality on the laptop. The Blackberry and IPad apps are both missing key functions. As I start learning the IPad, I try to stay with a sense of openness and wonder at what technology offers instead of getting frustrated by learning curves and limitations. It’s yet another opportunity to practice yoga off the mat!
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One Person’s Trash
One person’s trash is material for another person’s art.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Signs Around Town (Temporary and Best Taken Out of Context)
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Signs Around Town (Seasonal)
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Precious Are the Mornings
Precious are the mornings when the light is soft
And the air is gentle–for those who consciously clothe themselves
With respect for the intermarriage between
Their body and the day–and when the play of shapes and colors
In the sky and upraised trees dances visions
Of the vast creativity of Being. No doubts arising
Until one reads the news and, once again,
Must reconcile in heart and mind what is there with
The teachings that all is one and full of joy.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Sculptures Around Town
I love the tree sculptures by Roxy Paine. This one is in the Sculpture Garden on the National Mall. They are exquisitely beautiful and beautifully crafted. In addition to just appreciating their form, though, they make me think of the perils of society preferring the shiny, the seemingly permanent and indestructible, and the constructed over the breathing, shading, nourishing, life-sharing presence of real trees.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Gardening | Meditation | Miscellaneous (blog matters, etc)
Web Version of Fall Newsletter (Free Yoga, Annual Thanksgiving Fundraiser for Oxfam, New Props at Wm Penn House)
Dear Friends,
Happy Samhain, All Hallow’s Eve, Halloween. We are slipping into the time of year that is good for dreaming and introspection, while things get wild and windy outside. I can always tell when it is drawing to the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Autumn Equinox because the Christmas cactuses (which always bloom at Thanksgiving) start to bud. When I went to bring in the tropical plants because of the pre-Samhain winter storm, I saw that a few of the orchids were spiking. It is almost as much fun to watch the buds emerging and growing and taking on color as it is to see the flowers, which only last so long before the flowers must die so that energy can go back into making the whole plant healthy and ready to flower again. Inside and out, my garden invites me to a deeper appreciation of the dance of dissolution, creation, and maintenance.
It takes only modest intention, commitment, and nurture to have plants blooming through winter. Just as we can cultivate gardens indoors in winter, yoga and meditation help us cultivate inner beauty so that we are at ease with our being regardless of what storms rage and how we are impacted in space and time and material body by the storms. My solution: practice of all kinds, and this November is going to be a wonderful month for yoga..
Just as maintaining a garden in winter calls for props–containers, heat, indoor water source, etc., cultivating the fullness in our bodies, particularly if we are working with a challenge of embodiement, can benefit from the assistance of various props. I am pleased to announce that we now have lots of blocks and straps for everyone (and some tennis balls, though we could use a few more for when the class is big) at the Tuesday night all levels yoga class at William Penn House, making it an even more supportive environment for those new to yoga or with challenges of embodiment. As always, a portion of the fee from every student supports the work of William Penn House.
I will be leading the Friday night free community yoga class at Willow Street Yoga’s Silver Spring studio, which I will be teaching this coming Friday, November 4th. It is an all levels class that will include discussion of therapeutic applications of yoga alignment, and it’s a great way to bring a friend along with you to get introduced to yoga or to Willow Street.
If you are in town for Thanksgiving, please join me to support a great cause. From 10:00am-11:30am, Thanksgiving morning, I will be leading my ninth annual fundraising class to benefit Oxfam at Willow Street Yoga’s Takoma Park studio. 100% of the profits go to Oxfam. I look forward to seeing many of you, both those coming back and those joining us for the first time. Friends and family welcome, including children 12 and over.
Veteran’s Day weekend brings Todd Norian to Willow Street Yoga. On Sunday, November 13th, the focus of the workshop will be therapeutics. Todd is an incredibly loving and knowledgeable teacher, and I am planning to be there to assist. You can sign up on-line or in person at Willow Street.
I am looking forward to the weekend workshops with John Friend in College Park, MD on November 19 & 20. Both Mixed Level and Intermediate/Advanced workshops are offered. This is the first time John Friend has taught in the DC area since 2007. Apply today to join your fellow yogis. There are several of us going from the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Feel free to contact me if you are looking to carpool, and if you can either offer driving or are looking for a ride.
I always enjoy hearing from you by email or comments on the blog. If you haven’t already, click here to be taken to the subscription page. For short thoughts about yoga and meditation in your Facebook news, please “like” my public page for Rose Garden Yoga.
Looking forward to sharing more of the yoga with you.
Peace and light,
Elizabeth
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Approaching Samhain
The space between the spheres thins and the wind creates passageways.
The spirits are outraged; how could they be otherwise? Their dance tramples
And blows things down, but still cannot help but create beauty.
The leaves–green, red, gold, brown from the drought, that distant memory–
Hang listlessly with the weight of rain and a bit of slush
Hardly even dancing in the wind, but still becoming perhaps
More extravagantly lovely by the storm’s grey light.
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Art and Culture | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos | Poetry | Quaker
As I Read This Poem
This morning, as I read this poem by Janet Hoffman, which is collected in Plain Living–A Quaker Path to Simplicity by Catherine Whitmire, I thought of friends and family and students and colleagues who are living with loss and illness and other struggles.
I wish sometimes that I could heal or make happy everyone I know. Knowing that is not possible or even right, I wish for myself and those in need to know strength and courage and joy even when faced with causes for deep suffering.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.