Categories
Healthy Activities Healthy Living Yoga

So taken aback to see your thoughts captured so well.

cslewis

Ayn Rand may think otherwise and everyone has a philosophy on life death truth … Always loved Narnia stories…first volume read in Japanese maybe in 4-5th grade? Dreamed of a wardrobe to walk into to meet Aslan so maybe that’s why I love Lion’s Pose:

lion Photo found of BKS Iyengar … still feel the energy emanating and it’s from a photo 50+ years ago. Amazing.

Roar!

then roll over laughing silly … we look so funny!

Benefits? Said to eradicate disease but on a cosmetic superficial talk last weekend – said to eradicate that double chin if you offset with a counter-pose.
And … clears the mind by relaxing the facial tension.

Categories
Beautiful Things

Beautiful Broken Things II

Sort of proceeds the post entitled the same which spurred me to write a poem of my own – everyone has a story to tell or an imagination to share.
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Despair Not

Clad in armor he was
an aspiring hero-to-be
victorious armor of protection
against brutal forces that
turned out to be
No match against the
fragile delicate thing … baring the soul, naked and vulnerable
Broken, she says, I am broken.
Wearing a smile, throbbing pain override
with not even a grimace,
wicked to see a smile of a person lying on a bed of
thorns… as if.
sticking needles and brewing herbal tea can remedy
what’s broken…
like cocktails of elixir
she claims is the cure.
for the broken, there’s
faith hope a little witchcraft

if a yogi should levitate through air and hop into side crow,
the broken buried her head deeper under a turtle shell
melting softly onto the
earth as if to pose as a puddle on the earth surface,
one with the molten volcanic earth center…surrendering
quiet and soft – quiet as in quiet before a storm or …
cleansed and purified like that moment
that stillness after that storm when
all were flooded washed away and gone,
storm has passed leaving
vast emptiness
it’s a quiet death we do not fear as
… life is detected with each inhale
her turtle shell rose; each exhale her turtle shell sank closer to earth, hovering over the bed of flowers
in full bloom … from nowhere comes
a curled tail
licks away the streams of oozing blood
streams of salt water dried over glistening eyes
like the moon reflected on a pond where the thousand petaled lotus blossoms
cuts and scars no longer raw but a tattoo, an artful design etched …in somatic memory
stabs turns to scabs and once again, smooth skin reclaimed
blue-black marsh lands of bruises and rock crevices in peach-grey scars fading and fading into
oblivion

Broken once or twice maybe three times
each time fused together – stronger
so despair not.
Strength & flexibility returns with ease over time
for time … heals all.
Broken fused things infused with light
reflect light differently – beautifully – despair not.
Beautiful Broken Things.

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Categories
Yoga

Bitter Sweet

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Rare for the fickle minded, I decided to commit to this teacher’s class after reading his books and felt compelled to learn more. So I have started to go relatively regularly especially because the schedule is perfect (for me) and … because … I learn so much from this true yogi:) Teacher’s teacher’s teacher? Like, Judith, anyone teaching for decades effectively is … a rare find these days and a true professional. Perhaps because it was a new place or new schedule, first class had only a handful of students – at one time, I was the first one to show up and was a bit worried that it may be a private session – wishful thinking:) next class was even fewer; and normally maybe 5-10 or so students so I was actually VERY HAPPY. I mean, to have this incredible teacher in such cozy setting, I was all smiles, thanking the Universe for my good fortune.

Well…

What’s that Buddhist teaching of impermanence summed up in two words
by late Shunryu Suzuki?

“Everything Changes”

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Last weekend, I was startled to find that the class size more than doubled, tripled as I rushed in … it was a “what happened?” twilight zone, double-take moment for me. I looked over to my favorite mat space – um, that piece of real estate was already staked out … oh, no ~ We use the wall so found an okay spot… NOT the best Feng Shui but no choice. The room was full with some without the needed wall space. I could not tell if he was happy that the class all the sudden mushroomed or if he cared … I actually prefer smaller classes when I teach too where I can better remember students’ names – more personal and cozy is what I like. But for him? This sudden big class of his, for me, was a bitter sweet feeling of a loss. As Judith described, I recognized this small “loss” but then I also recognized the gain, the joy to share with more students. Still… Is it going to now be like a crammed Bikram class where you are identified not by your name but by the color of your shirt? “Hey, girl in the pink top, front row” – hate that. Train of thoughts trailing off the tracks…

– I guess the word got out…(that he’s awesome) or maybe the studio did some promos & marketing as they seem so IT savvy OR he consolidated other classes into this one …

– Whatever the reason behind this sudden change… miffed as an outsider… reminiscing the small cozy class, sigh…

– I can’t keep him a secret serendipitous find – a sage for me and the few … what an illusion (or is it a delusion?) I got attached to.

– I hope this blog did not contribute to his popularity – sorry – I am so selfish and full of it – ashamed.

Yet, as to makeup for this bittersweet feelings of loss, a gift was bestowed to the unexpected …

He says at 9:45, oh, by the way, this class is ending 10:15 not 10:00 – but you can leave if you have something better to do (no one left…)
So he increased the class time to one hour and 45 minutes or 105 minutes from 90 minutes ! It’s not a loss after all – it’s a gain:) I am elated – Yeay! What A gift:) I mean in a world when some yoga classes are just a blip of 60 minutes or less during lunch for the same price, he’s willing to extend the time – because he knows as much as I know – this:

You have to give it time – you have to give it time for the fruits to ripen:)

Then he goes on to say – I want to make this NOT all levels class but intermediate-advance class, so, it that okay?

Yes, yes, YES

!!!

Felt waves of gratitude wash over me. Blessed are dedicated teachers with so much knowledge he can bestow to those who seek it.

AND

Aren’t we all ‘that’? Seekers … yogis are … seekers.
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*Speaking of twilight zone … photos at dusk taken by me… overlooking San Francisco Bay. Love this place where the setting sun glistens on the surface of the water.
It’s “magnificent”:)