Yoga to Open the Upper Body | Yoga International

Yoga to Open the Upper Body | Yoga International



We did this a few weeks ago in class.

Interesting set of exercises you may not have encountered before.

Enjoy!

Most civilized music

Birthdays

30 years ago this child was born. 

Another crisping day

 Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness

Every year we have been

witness to it: how the

world descends

into a rich mash, in order that

it may resume.

And therefore

who would cry out

to the petals on the ground

to stay,

knowing as we must,

how the vivacity of what was is married

to the vitality of what will be?

I don't say

it's easy, but

what else will do

if the love one claims to have for the world

be true?

So let us go on, cheerfully enough,

this and every crisping day,

though the sun be swinging east,

and the ponds be cold and black,

and the sweets of the year be doomed.

Poem by Mary Oliver

A Thousand Mornings

Dark and spicy hot chocolate

You can feel good about drinking this one!

It's from Vancouver's Gorilla Food restaurant and cookbook of the same name.

It is a fabulous raw food restaurant but this recipe is a deviation and perfect for our weather weary moods.

Dark and Spicy Hot Chocolate

2 tbsp cacao powder

3 dates, pitted

2 tbsp chia seeds

1/4 cup hemp seeds

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cayenne

1 tbsp coconut oil

1/2 tsp vanilla powder

1 5/8 cups (400ml) hot water

In a blender, processs all ingredients until smooth.

Makes one serving.

World party

Good grief! I am already crying and the Olympic Games haven't even started.  Every 2 years we have this world party and I find it a joyful event. Every national anthem is a tear jerker. 

It's a family tradition. My parents watched Olympics when I was a kid. They stayed up late and got up early. Hooted and hollered. My dad's favourite was hockey and cross country skiing events in winter. Track and field in summer. My mom's favourite above all is ice skating. And all the human stories! 

Years ago, Thunder Bay hosted the Canadian ice skating championships and my mom went to the whole event. She clapped so much that the palms of her hands were bruised. She phoned me from Australia this morning to remind me that the opening ceremonies start today. For her the ceremonies start at 2 am and she was staying up. She's 81. 

When I lived in Finland I noticed they were all sports crazy. So it's not just my family.  In Kokkola, the city where I lived, they had a Sunday soccer event. Literally everyone who wasn't working  or sick attended. It was fabulous for a city of about 30,000. It was surprising and wonderful. We snuggled under blankets drinking coffee and eating pulla. It was the fun of the event for me and I don't know the rules of soccer or any other sport for that matter. The journey not the destination. Party! Party!

Secret to happiness

I scribble everywhere. 

I found this bit of writing on a scrap of paper. I know it's a excerpt from someplace due to the ......

Here it is:

Secret to Happiness

Have no demands on the moment. We are always demanding more. We want more in the moment or something to be taken out of it. This equals suffering. 

Stop chasing love.

Stop chasing peace.

Stop trying to be a good person.

Stop and be still.

Sit in the space.........

That's the only reality. Ego is always trying to acquire something. You have to be ready to let it all go. You need to trust in maturity..........the way we trust babies to become children, and then adults.

What to write today?

What to write today?

How can I improve on what my teacher says? How can I improve on what Hafiz has written?

Ohhh!

I don't need to improve. I just need to say what's flowing from me.

And what is that?

Is there anything special that I have to say? Is there anything that hasn't been said?

Sometimes I think that everything I say or write is a lie. That it's all just made up and I'm telling another story. I don't want to tell lies or stories. Oops. Now that's a lie. I DO want to tell stories. What kind?

Ones that make you laugh and giggle. Ones that show you me.....and you! Ones that entertain as well as enlighten, as in lightening the spirit. Oh, the heaviness we all live with!

I suppose I can't say we all live with heaviness. But many people live with heaviness. This feeling of carrying all these gotta-do's, these musts and haves, these opinions, these positions, and this knowledge that seem so important to hold onto. What would happen if we dropped this load? What if we didn't need to give it to anyone else either but just to leave it on the roadside? What would happen?

If I dropped everything I knew and smelled this moment as it is what would happen? I might enjoy it. I'm doing it now as best I can and I feel as if there is freshness in the air and an aliveness that permeates my every cell. There is room to breathe. There is room to let a stretch unfold. And these words now just come. Unbidden. Nothing to be important about. Nothing to care about. Nothing that I have to make special. Nothing I can lose. Nothing I can lose at. My face softens. I close my eyes for a moment. Sounds drifting far away. What else is more important?

I love questions! There are no answers. In answers there are opinions and positions and boxes and closings. Questions are beautiful, open, fresh, and useful.

What would happen if we only had questions and never dared to utter an answer?