1. Morning walks. Yesterday, even though there were mosquitoes and the risk of ticks, I really really needed some river medicine. It was totally worth it even if it was only for a little bit. We are still having so much rain that everything is super green.
2. Good people. I am surrounded by them — neighbors, students, friends, family. I’ve had to lean a little extra on a few of them this past week and they were right there and ready. And then there’s you, kind and gentle reader. 🙂 ❤
3. Practice. In two more days I’ll complete a sadana (dedicated disciplined spiritual practice) of 40 days of yoga asana. I have a consistent daily meditation and writing practice, but because I wasn’t teaching again until recently, my yoga practice wasn’t as consistent or intentional. I did at least one sun salutation every morning when I first got up for the past 38 days. The “rule” with this sort of short commitment is that if you miss a day, the 40 days start over.
It’s always so interesting to commit to anything for a period of time. It’s how I built my blog in the beginning, so many 30 day or month long posting challenges. It’s the thing about practice in general that is so amazing — you return to the same activity every day, see how your experience changes while the practice itself stays the same. You really start to see yourself and your situation clearly. As it says in the Bhagavad Gita, “Yoga is the practice of tolerating the consequences of being yourself.”
4. Books. The above pictured trio by Michelle Cassandra Johnson were especially good. And I’m still wrecked from reading Educated, which wasn’t at all what I expected. I’m also rereading all of Andrea Gibson‘s work, trying to contend with their most recent health update.
5. My tiny family, small home, little life. I love my life so much — even when it’s hard, even when it hurts.
A neighbor built a new front porch and I want itimage by EricSuck it, Comcast/Xfinity
Bonus joy: keeping promises to myself, pizza, the smell of basil, writing with my wildish women sangha, training with Shelby and the gang, working out and walking with Eric, sitting in the sauna with him, the hydromassage chair, the pool, teaching yoga while it storms outside, rain and thunder, good TV (even when it’s bad), listening to music, a warm shower, clean sheets, dog tail wags and sighs, how Ringo makes me laugh (last night he was on the couch barking, trying to get my attention, so I threw a blanket over his head and he just stood there, then barked again but it was muffled and it cracked me up), sitting in the back yard with Ringo and Eric, every time a swallow tail butterfly floats over the backyard just like that one the day Sam died, all the recognition Eric is getting lately for the good work he does, that our nephew Jesse is okay after a motorcycle wreck last week, switching our internet provider, books for my Kindle from the library I can borrow and read and return without ever having to leave the house, the collapsible wagon I got to move yoga props when I teach at Red Sage and how Eric always helps me load and unload at home, crying (sometimes it’s the only thing that will make me feel better), other people’s dogs and kids, that people in our neighborhood seem to have finally run out of fireworks, new neighbors who have a kid and a dog, the four dogs across the street getting loaded up into their truck by their human (they have a ramp he sets up while they all wait and when he says “go ahead” they run up it in a line, three labs and a cattle dog, and they are clearly so happy), getting to see the July 4th 5k (on accident — we were out on a walk and apparently were on the same route as the race so had to pause and watch all the dogs and humans, many of them dressed up), that we are within walking distance of so many things but also in a quiet part of town, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.
1. No Sparklers for These Folkson The New York Times. “Whether because of crowds, politics or a loss of patriotism, some Americans are conflicted about celebrating the Fourth of July.” I feel this — it’s hard to celebrate “independence” and “freedom” when there’s so little of it, so many without.
4. “July Had Tried to Kill Them”from Robert Jones. Jr. “That is what I believe my smile and my happiness are: a tiny form of resistance; a kind of healing. Despite all of the energy expended by the powers-that-stole to guarantee my imminent destruction, here I be: finding moments to escape their treachery and dodge their tyranny to fully remember and fully embrace who I am and who I come from such that my lips can’t help but part and frame my teeth with love. As long as I’m alive, there is a chance to do something that eases, that improves, that inspires, that loves.” Also from Robert Jones, Jr. Please Help Adanne Bookshop Relocate: “A Black woman-owned bookstore is in need of our help.”
6. Drawing This Changed My Life. It can change yours too. from Danny Gregory. (video) “For 25 years, I’ve been drawing the same subject. It’s expanded me in so many ways. You should try it too. I’ll explain why and how in this video.”
7. Lucian James on weirdness: “Weird is often a controlling label to pathologize those who depart from conformity, a marker to tag them as problematic. But when you own your own weirdness, you become yourself. When you dare to be your full weird self, you’re fully original, and that’s what leaves a legacy.”
9. Becoming a Buddha – A Shingon Buddhist 10-step Program. “Kūkai returned to Japan in 806 to found Shingon Buddhism and to spread his teaching of “becoming a Buddha in one’s current body” (Jpn. sokushinjōbutsu). ..Here, I would like to focus on his outline for becoming a Buddha in 10 steps described in his ‘Ten Mindsets’ (Jpn. Jūjūshinron). In this text he uses his system of ‘ranking the doctrines’ (Chn. panjiao) to map the way from ignorance to wisdom, from suffering to liberation, and from hiding to manifesting Buddhahood.”
10. On Unlearning. I was reminded of the Mary Oliver poem Just as the Calendar Began to Say Summer because Hugh Hollowell shared it in his recent Life Is So Beautiful newsletter. I Googled to find the text, a post where I could link to the poem, and came across this lovely blog entry from Rachel Ishiguro Yoga Therapy and loved what she had to say. Hugh’s newsletter also reminded me of the You Are Not Alone Murals project.
11. Cognitive Dissonancefrom Jena Schwartz’s Monday Dispatch. “The planet may be on fire, but that doesn’t mean what we do and who we are doesn’t matter. If anything, it means it matters even more.”
13. The Power of Unplugging with Tiffany Shlain, the latest episode of The Conversation with Amanda de Cadenet. “What does technology amplify in your life, and what does it amputate? In her book, 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week, Tiffany Shlain shares how her family unplugged one day a week and how you can achieve digital wellness. Terms like ‘digital detox’ and ‘internet addiction,’ were developed to identify the problem a device can play. In addition, Tiffany explains what her family calls a ‘technology Shabbat.’ So, where do you want to place your time and attention?” (podcast)
16. Oh, your heartfrom Patti Digh, “what having a heart attack taught me about heart health.”
17. From Lion’s Roar: The Healing Power of Feeling (“‘The way to find freedom from difficult emotions is to find it right within the feelings themselves,’ writes Andy Karr in his new book, Into the Mirror. Here, he shares a practice for locating and working with difficult feelings in the subtle body to ultimately heal them) and The Life-Changing Words of Mary Oliver (“The beloved late poet Mary Oliver Oliver was known for her poems that contemplate the relationship between nature and spirituality. Rick Bass looks at Oliver’s poem ‘The Summer Day,’ which asks, ‘What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?'”).
23. Deciding to Let Go. “What misconceptions hold you back from releasing what hurts you?”
24. Being With Loss, a practice and teaching from Upaya Zen Center. (video)
25. ‘Choose drugs?’ 30 years after he wrote Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh says life is tougher now. “People can’t get jobs. People will never buy a house. They can’t buy nice things. Everything is fucked even if you’re not on drugs,” he says. “It [the book] almost becomes some kind of inspiring clarion call: let’s do fucking drugs, man. We’re fucked anyway. Let’s just go for it.”
32. Does Everyone Have An Imagination?“How do you know if you have a ‘mind’s eye’ or not, and is it good or bad if you don’t?” Eric has this, so I’m always interested.
39. Recipe I want to try: Blackberry Loaf. In related news, The Best Veggie Burgers ranked by America’s Test Kitchen. My favorite is still the original Gardenburger. 😦
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 