Pages

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Takin' The World Into My Arms.




I keep thinkin' about this poem by Mary Oliver:

When Death Comes

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

~Mary Oliver, 'New and Selected Poems, Volume One' p.10

Okay, gettin' back to it.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Fantasy Picture with Seane Corn: Check!


Somewhere along the way to Kripalu last week I had the notion that I’d like to get a picture with Dr. Jay, Seane Corn, and myself. This is before I had met the fine Jay Winston. There weren’t many pictures of him around the Internet, so I didn’t know what he looked like. So in my mind’s eye there was a man sitting in the picture, but I couldn’t really imagine what it would look like. Well here it is! Mission accomplished. Thank you, Seane! Loved the program.

Read more about it at Elephant:
Empowered Fall Yoga Celebration at Kripalu with Jay Winston and Seane Corn.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Ecstatic, Happy, Good—after a Weekend with Seane Corn and Jay Winston at Kripalu!




Wow! I met Jay Winston (Dr. Jay) of the fabulous blog, Yoga for Cynics! He is just awesome in person.

We met at Kripalu for a weekend program with Seane Corn called "Empower Flow Yoga."

The program was really great, and Seane Corn was inspiring, but mostly I'm just blissed out.

It was a beautiful cocktail of meeting an Internet and heart-friend, Jay, and just enjoying that and feeling like Jay was also enjoying… Also included in the mix was the yoga—a great reminder of the magic, beauty and challenge in life, but it was also an incredible release from some tension and unnecessary baggage I was carrying… And the incredible beauty that we found surrounding Kripalu and in the woods (and beauty period.)! A spectacular Fall! Oh! It was just great!

I am gazing at the sky, and feeling joyful!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Bunny-sattva Wisdom

Read my latest post at Elephant Journal, to see what my precious bunny and a wise yogini friend taught me about shame:

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Heavily-Yogified Weekend.



'Guess I’m just high after my heavily-yogified weekend. The picture above is a window into some of the scene. Really great people.

I just really want to check in, not knowing if I have anything much to say…

I love yoga. It has challenged me so absolutely. It has closely walked with me for about the last eleven years. Wow to yoga! What a ride… So different than anything I might have expected of myself. But so satisfying as I navigate all of the personal and professional challenges that yoga has brought to me.

Love it!

I allowed yoga to take me because it gave me hope. That’s all.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Yoga Porn? Or Boundless Expression.




It's my latest post at Elephant, where I peruse the November 2010 issue of Yoga Journal. My sensibilities were jarred, at first, upon seeing the naked ads in light of Judith Hanson Lasater's published letter in the September 2010 issue. I was surprised that it seems as though nothing changed. But then I found myself questioning the necessity of restraint in representation—especially when it comes to telling others what to do.

Read the full article here:
Yoga Porn? Or Boundless Expression.

Thanks.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday, October 10, 2010

The Straw She-Man and Queer Columbus


It’s the time of year when straw people are hangin’ out just outside people’s homes. Who are these straw people? They don’t have a clear gender or certain form. Where do they stand on gender politics or race relations in America?

Whenever I’ve thought about it, I have felt uncomfortable about Columbus Day and Thanksgiving because these are days that honor the conquering of North America. Which required bloodshed. Also, the way America was built has had something to do with slavery and injustice. Don’t feel too proud of that…

According to Wikipedia, “The city of Berkeley, California has replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day since 1992 a move which has been replicated by several other localities. Two other California cities, Sebastopol and Santa Cruz, now celebrate Indigenous People's Day. South Dakota renamed the holiday "Native American Day". Various tribal governments in Oklahoma designate the day "Native American Day", or name the day after their own tribe.”

I think they have the right idea with “Indigenous People’s Day” and “Native American Day”. Why do we celebrate “Columbus Day”? Those colonialist ways should definitely be called into question.

I don’t really think that we should make it a “National Self-Loathing Day” or “Hate other People Day”, but to just move forward feigning ignorance is also not appropriate.

Here’s a blog by Emma Silverman of The Joy of Yoga that has a cool video that asks us to reconsider Columbus Day:
Columbus Day Reconsidered.

Apparently, October 11 is also National Coming Out Day: Celebrate individual expression, and read this blog by Krystal Baugher on Elephant Journal:
5 Reasons to Be More Queer This Year.

Happy “You” Day! Let’s celebrate uniqueness within our connected culture. Nobody should be left out! All people merit love.

Even me. Even you.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Change is in the air!


Please enjoy these Fabulous Fall Posts!

My latest at Elephant Journal:
Trees About to Get Naked and Maybe I Should Join Them.

The Pondering Yogini, Meridith LeBlanc, wrote about how her cute Pug doggie, Scarlet, has changed her life for the better!

Jay Winston is letting his foliage fly in a recent post at Elephant, aptly titled: Falling…

This post from last Fall by Laura Hegfield features a beautiful, sad poem by her then 16 year old daughter, Belin: Annual War

And here’s my Fall post from last year: Celebration Confetti

Happy Fall!

Monday, October 4, 2010

The Lonely Side of The Social Network.





The movie, ‘The Social Network’ features the birth of Facebook inside the milieu of partying college kids.

Read more at Elephant Journal.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Friday, October 1, 2010

Bodies are Movin' this Week!

Check out these rhythmic and profound posts from this week honoring Music and Dance:



Emmanuelle Lambert is dancin' at the Magazine of Yoga.
"If I can’t dance I don’t want to be part of your revolution"
~Emma Goldman


Dancin' with 'Yoga for Cynics', and allowing the stars, alone, to know where things are really goin'.

More Dancin' with Bindy Fry at the Chicago World Music Festival.

Let's dance! Like right now… Maybe, shake it a little (or a lot)—if you want to.

Have a rockin'-good weekend!
Brooks



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone