Inspiration

The weather is only half the heat we are contending with this summer. If ever there was a time to learn about ‘turning the other cheek,’ it is now. And what, pray tell, does that phrase conjure? If I slug you, do you ignore me? If I patronize, or lie, do you then roll over? If I, as your best friend, drunkenly crash into your car, do you not press charges? Just what is that other cheek? We are going to have to come to terms with an inability to do what is right. All too often we either over-react, or we do nothing in fear of standing up for ourselves and being heard, or worse, disliked. The oh so fine and difficult line down the middle requires great heart, perception, and follow through wisdom, products in seeming short supply. The impersonal, and the profoundly personal changes the world is offering are going to present themselves ever more furiously. Our talent to separate chaff from wheat, past from present, and inconsequential from profound will mean we will survive this time with Self, family, and friends intact, or not. The spiritual, emotional, physical muscle we have been strengthening these past years is going to have to be flexible enough to bend at many moment’s of irrational demand. ‘What now?’ Is all that counts. What are the consequences? How huge the price? The present choice holds and forms past and future. The stakes are high, higher than we think, and turning the other cheek may be the worst decision in our life. It might be the best. We will not know until it is our cheek, until it is our ego assailed and humiliated, our child maligned. Then the question must sit in the heart of our wisdom-muscles to know if the……

Today, in honor of my birth, I’m doing a most difficult task, I’m taking time out to honor myself, to question how/if this year has created essential changes within, and question yet once again; What meaning does this life have? Have I risked enough these past months? Am I on the correct path? Is there a ‘correct path?’ Where is it going? How much control do I actually have? I am not holding my breath. I remain nonplussed, that is to say ‘confounded’ by life. I do understand that it is a process in which ‘becoming’ is the job at hand. To that end, the important things I have witnessed from this year are: I am becoming Yoga, rather than doing Yoga. More and more I’m allowing it to live in all parts of my being, not just the teaching, or doing Asana. It is becoming the breath, the bread, the balancing sustenence. Through the practice of Daily Breath, I am willing to wear the mantle of writer, whether published or not. I profoundly feel my connection to earth, to her cycles, her brown heartbeat, her golden moon and silver stars, her warmth of sunlight, the weight of gravity… I open my eyes wider to see her multitude of gifts offered in any moment. I’m acknowledging that my greatest choreography is the dance of love & friendship. Pointing my toes is grand, but dancing the light fantastic with someone I love is the greatest dance there is. Asana: Visvamitrasana/one arm, one leg full side extension. Standing in a ‘short dog,’–Adho Mukha with hands 4-5 ‘ in front of feet, lift R leg up and over R arm. Turn and open torso to L, placing L arm on side, then lift it up, gaze up. Press L soul of foot down,……

Getting ready to be ready, sounds fun, as if packing to go on vacation. Getting ready to be ready for anything is another matter. If we approach that with the same enthusiasm and excitement we do packing for a smashing holiday, we might face present uncertainty with greater skill. Being human animals, uncertainty makes us nervous, and in trying to be ready for all the surprises now being offered, we shrink. There is no glow of anticipation. Worse, fear jumped in the suitcase, under the new cocktail heels. Stepping out with confidence in 6 inch stilettos, through high, and low grade insecurities requires élan, if not bravado, care, if not criticism, and faith, if not hope. Hope is dead, long live faith. The difference between them is packing for a vacation when you know you’re being sent down river in a pair of stilettos. Only faith will see you through the rapids. Hope capsized on the first rocks. Heading through rapids, one can only grab reality by the round dangles and squeal, if not in delight, then in passionate brays for the unique charm of vicissitudes. If one is being hurled willy-nilly down river, then not only do we need to know how to swim, but handle category five rapids. Learning to roll with the punches, and then roll again is the boot camp of consciousness. The stilettos may look fabulous, but it is time for muscle, not mincing. And no, there will be no walking around the falls… Over we go, facing each moment as opportunity to be alive, to face fear if not conquer it, to reach out, and open the heart in the headlong tumble. Sign up now for the best boot camp around. Asana: Sarvangasana Cycle/Shoulder Stand series. First remain in Sarvangasana five minutes, then do……

Science used to believe only humans had the capacity of intelligence. They also believed men smarter than women, white men smarter than brown men, and that animals could not communicate, nor birds remember. Our innate arrogance blinds us to possibility. Scientists are discovering it may simply be a matter of syntax. Like E.T., we must phone home ground rules of communication. We need to learn their language, not understand them from ours. Scientific minds, particularly, seek proof, and rightly so, but sadly many seek proof from the same P.O.V. that made them blind. We cannot see new possibility from old perspectives. We cannot solve problems from ancient approaches that got us into trouble in the first place. “I’ll believe it when I see it” is the old matrix. “I’ll see it when I believe it,” is the imagination freeing the mind for more. Liberating ourselves to live up to our most profound intelligence asks we let go of every pre-conceived, that the needed evidence for brilliant breakthroughs does not lie only within the brain’s intelligence, rather the heart’s ability to sit on top of the brain to open new portals of comparative compassion. If I see you as different, less-than, subject to inanity, I cannot see you. I certainly can’t understand you. those prejudices not only close me to you, they harden my heart, closing me to myself, keeping me from any hope of intelligence, never mind growth. Surely we can create a more formidable way of being? Perhaps become creative as a cat? Brilliant as a bird? A doggone Doctor of Dog? Asana: Adho Mukha Svanasana/Down Dog. An easy way to move into Adho Mukha is either through a Sun Salutation, or from lying on the stomach, bringing palms beside chest, fingers forward, on exhale, lift abdomen and hips,……

When we are shattered, pieces lie everywhere, our shards creating new prisms of light. At rare times these fragments are born of bliss, but more often they are from the implosion of unfathomable sorrow. At the very least, pain is honest. It keeps us on track even as we stumble. There is something very centering about these times. Despite feeling lost, we are ushered toward endings, and beginnings. We begin to see a long, lonesome highway leading into unknown territory. The inconsolable ache that grows from the well loved, well known richness of the time before the shattering is the tipping point that reveals essential self. It is that emptiness that lets in the light, that gives birth to the new, that assimilates the foreign, that learns the language where the tongue twists around oblique innuendo struggling to express the over-muchness of emotion. We stand forlorn, if we stand at all. Mainly we lie in pieces. The new journey must begin with the disintegration of despair. When we can’t begin again, we practice. We simply imagine showing up. We sit in a corner making our breath bigger. We totter to the corner on rocky steps. Sometimes the steps have to move us off the ledge before they can move us forward. If we are very lucky, someone reaches out a hand and we grab hold, then the glue begins to set, new and old shards meld into a crystal revealing profound mysteries. Asana: Paschimottanasa/Forward Fold Pose. Sitting with legs extended, on the exhale lift the belly, extend from the hips, reach forward and grab the big toes, if possible. Don’t hunch the shoulders, or round the back, simply extend as far as possible, release and breathe. Paschima means the west, referring to the back of the body, as the east……

Not to stand against men, or the men who wrote the biblical original ten. Not to declare myself as only a feminist. But what if the foundational ten had been written by a woman, actually it probably would have been, ‘women.’ Women tend to act from consensus rather than decree. They tend to listen first, declare after. And there might be more than one or two commandments ending in question marks. Here are ten, not from any consensus, nor from listening to ought by my own voice, and none question my right to ‘command.’ Enough said. I am the lord your god, you may have no other gods, and by the way, don’t take my name lightly. Spend time with me. This covers the first four edicts. What if it had been written, ‘all gods are good. Some are better than others. the one that lives in your heart is the most powerful. Listen to that voice, and take time to make it sacred with your love. Honor your father and mother. It’s amazing, considering the times, that mom was even mentioned. Had she written this she might have said, “Your parents make big mistakes. The family is a stinky compost pile out of which you might grow as a rose. Honor your gifts, despite how we gave them to you.” You shall not murder. This is a biggie by anyone’s standards, though countries encourage it. The positive aspect of murder is it teaches heaviness. Without that weight, we cannot know flight. We cannot be glorious if we don’t know wretchedness. And murder has remained wretched through every society, except TV’s, where we bow at its altar. You shall not commit adultery. Had women written this, retribution would have come with a knife, along with a visual cringe. Instead she……