Lovely All Around

A lovely weekend was spent recently in beautiful Ventura, California by Nancy Renaud and myself. We had a wonderful time filled with healthy gluttony and redundancy (redundancy gets such a bad rap -- I mean it in the best of ways!) Our first stop on the redundancy train was to let Bon Iver (http://www.myspace.com/boniver) play non-stop in the car (a four hour car ride each way, additional driving around town -- you do the math.) We ate almost every meal at Nature's Grill (when something's so good, why go anywhere else?) And we spent most daylight hours engrossed in an 18 hour yoga wall workshop led by Bryan Legere (http://www.venturayoga.com/index.html) at his Ventura Yoga Studio. The workshop was participated in by a fabulous and varied group (who would have thought that Nancy and I coming from Fresno would be some of the closest geographically to Ventura? People had come from across the United States and New Zealand.) Bryan holds an Intermediate Level 3 Iyengar Certification. He and his business partner invented "the Great Yoga Wall" (http://www.yogawall.com/index.html) in 1998, a system which builds upon the revolutionary inventions of Mr. Iyengar's rope wall through adjustable belts and attachments to the wall. The rope wall is a wonderful tool to assist in the development and progression of poses, and it was great to revisit its use as taught by Audrey at Fig Garden Yoga (http://www.figgardenyogastudio.com/home.html), as well as explore other uses. What a great weekend!

I think Emily Dickinson Might Have Been Mistaken

The tiny bird moved back and forth in her closed, cupped hands. She could feel its strong wings pushing against her palms, and could feel the rapid heartbeat beneath its warm chest.
She marveled at the wallop this small bird packed. Gathering her courage, she tentatively separated her hands an inch or so in order to say good bye to this little bird. Hope -- this thing with feathers that perched in her soul, that sang the tune without the words, and never stopped at all. Never. Ever. Ever. Stopped.
Fearful of the unknown, she nonetheless knew it was time to say good bye. They'd outgrown each other, gone as far as they could in their relationship. She knew Hope's Greatest Hits by heart -- the one where the ground would finally stop shifting beneath her, the one where she'd one day not only make it, but stay there (where ever "it" and "there" were.) The one where all the loose ends would be neatly tied up. The one where one day she would arrive, fully-formed, as the person she was supposed to be. And all the time she'd been Hope's biggest fan, this innocent looking little bird had been robbing her blind. Over and over again, it had stolen the present moment from her. She had been mesmerized by its star power and hypnotized by its beautiful songs. Hope had swooped up from her soul, carrying her away from Reality, whom she had tossed by the side of the road with barely a glance back. Hope dazzled her with its live show -- and she followed it from arena to arena, giddy over its promises of something better, prettier, faster, longer-lasting (pleasure!), shorter-lived (pain!), and/or more permanent or less permanent, and which, it sang, could only be found in the future.
She took one last glance at the bird in her hands. She turned her palms upward, said good bye, and Hope took flight. (She thought she caught a look of relief on its face as it flew toward the setting sun.)
She brushed her hands together, still warm from its touch, and looked back at the road behind her. Plumes of dust rose from the gravel as she saw Reality trudging slowly toward her. Ah, Reality. Not always what she wanted, but always there. He reached her side. They stood together for a moment, saying nothing. Their eyes turned toward the sky, empty now of Hope, and together in silence they watched the sun drop below the horizon. Reality put his hand on her shoulder, and together they turned and began to walk the dusty road home.

Waving, Not Drowning

Once upon a time, a woman of a certain age found herself in the middle of the ocean, swimming to stay afloat. The ocean had no beginning and no end -- it churned and moved beneath and around her. It was an ocean of activities, chores, jobs, to-do lists, and many more things -- too many to name -- which kept her constantly moving to keep her head above water far beyond the time it took the sun to arc across the sky . Sigh. Somewhere there must be a better way!
She looked up one day, mid-paddle and mid-errand, and noticed a raft bobbing in the water beside her. It didn't look as if it would hold her, but it's beautiful shade of purple enticed her to take the chance. Grabbing hold of the raft, her to-do list slipped from her hands. She worriedly watched it disintegrate and sink beneath the surface of the water as she hoisted herself onto the slim structure. Being that the raft was only 24" x 68" and 4mm thick -- the exact size of a standard yoga mat -- she was surprised it held her so well, and she fit quite comfortably.
She floated on top of the water -- the lists, the chores, the jobs, all forgotten. She rested and rejuvenated. She stretched and strengthened. She explored and quieted. She pressed into her big toe mound and back through her outer heel and felt the power inside her body. She brought her shoulder blades into her back and let her chest and heart lift, feeling refreshed and energized. She folded herself in two, deep into her hip creases, and rested with her head below her heart, quieting her mind. When on her purple 24" x 68" raft, life simplified. The unnecessary thoughts (My! There were so many of them!) seemed to fall away. Words went unspoken, and the world was none the worse for it. She felt alive and present to each moment, and felt her body fully inhabited.
Keeping her raft close by her side, she dove back into the water (after all, the kids did need to be picked up from school) with a restored body and a clearer mind. She created a new to-do list to replace the lost one, but this time made sure that it left her plenty of time to spend on her raft.
If you find yourself in the ocean and see this woman waving from the distance, don't worry, she is not drowning. She is just waving you over with an offer to share her raft.