You can use anything, truly anything to grow your consciousness, compassion and ultimate joy. This is one of those spiritual ideas that seems “nice” but in fact is super powerful and incredibly hard to live in to. For me it has taken every moment of the last 15 years of practice to really lean into that idea again and again. It’s a key idea in Tantric yoga, and one that time and time again I have experienced, eventually, to be true.
This morning, after staying up too late in a state of shock and mild terror (OK not so mild terror) I eventually came back home to this idea. The heartbreak I am feeling now, even the fear I am feeling now can be a clear clarion call to inspire growth and action in these challenging times. These after-election day feelings, whatever they are for you can lead you to help build the kind of world you wish to see. Really. Last year I went deep into the mysteries of the Divine Feminine with Andrew Harvey and Sally Kempton on their beautiful Shift Network course “The Evolutionary Goddess.” One of the many beautiful slices of wisdom that came through that course was Andrew Harvey encouraging us to find what breaks our hearts about the world – and to let that lead us to our mission, our service to the greater whole.
So today, if like me, you are heartbroken, I encourage you to lean into that feeling in anyway that is appropriate for you. You may wish to have a walk in the woods, spend time on your yoga mat, take a bubble bath, do a seated meditation, journal, paint, talk it out with beloveds. There are so many ways to do this deep work of allowing yourself to feel what you are feeling and really follow the threads to understand what is bubbling up for you. You may find you are terrified for the natural world, or for women’s health, or for our ability to connect rather than be divided. Once you find that heartbreak let it lead you to action. No matter who is in office, you can be a light. You can volunteer, donate money, raise awareness on any of the issues that you are heartbroken about. Use this potent time and clarity to step up and into your Seva (selfless service). Maybe you’ll decide to run for office yourself? Invest in solar energy? Create a charter school? Or just get your office to recycle. If we all do what we can – given the demands of our lives – each small action added together can create a tidal wave of positive growth for this country. Regardless of who is in the white house.
I have one last thought for you today, which is this beautiful poem. I’ve been reading it to myself all day:
The Buddha’s Last Instruction
by Mary Oliver
“Make of yourself a light,”
said the Buddha,
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal — a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
An old man, he lay down
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire —
clearly I’m not needed,
yet I feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.
Happy Autumn everyone!
One of the things I talk about often in my teaching is the incredible importance of the sacred pause. In order to have action we have to have in-action. In order to raise our awareness and shift our consciousness we have to have moments of incredible, mindful, stillness. There is an ebb and a flow to all things. A balance of doing and being. This is spanda, this is balance between divine masculine and feminine.
And so it is that I’m realizing that I need to take a little moment of stillness to listen deeply, nourish my family and my own body/heart/mind/self, and allow the next steps of action to emerge from the stillness. This is the first time I’ve done such a little retreat in 15 years of teaching!!! December is the darkest time of the year and is just a perfect time for such a deep going with in. So, for the Month of December my public classes will have a little “sacred pause”. That means logistically that I will not be teaching any of my public classes in December. My Wednesday classes will start their sacred pause on the Wednesday before thanksgiving and continue through January.
Join with me if you like and take one thing off your plate so that you can make more time for meditation, walking in the woods, journaling and listening deeply to hear what is next for you!
I may continue blogging during this time. I may be deciding to offer a special class or two during that time… like on the Solstice for example… If I do I will for sure announce this through newsletters – which you can sign up for here. I’ll also be posting on my new updated facebook page… here.
Hi!
Yesterday we had such a sweet Devi Day. Our theme was Balanced Fire. To explore this topic we brought in a deep study of the Goddess Brigid and her counterpart in the Christian world – St. Brigit. I thought some of you who weren’t able to make it would like a little taste of our time together, so I recorded just a tiny bit of my introduction to these two fiery beings. Enjoy!
I’ve just returned home from teaching the “Deep Rest in the Deep of Summer Demi-Devi Day”. I’ll have more to say on the topic of rest soon. But in the meantime, here is the Yoga Nidra that we practiced at the end of our beautiful morning together. The script was inspired by the work of this woman. I added the work with the elements and all the nature imagery and brought it into our Divine feminine focus. It is about 25 minutes, all done in a resting position like savasana. It’s my gift to you so you can tap into the sweet rest we cultivated this morning, and that you deserve!
So get cozy and enjoy!
Happy (belated) Solstice! Our little family just spent 9 days at Mar de Jade (Jade Ocean) playing, resting, and most importantly volunteering my time to support the fantastic work this place does. If you are curious to get the whole picture of Mar de Jade and it’s projects, check out their website. My intention was to go observe, connect and support their very unique non-profit Montessori/Waldorf school. It turned out that they also were in need of a yoga teacher at the retreat center – so I also got to teach yoga every morning while I was there. My students were folks that worked at the retreat center and other guests. The group that was there at the retreat center was a group of Mariachi teachers. Many had never done yoga before – so it was very fun to introduce them to this fantastic practice! For me this was a perfect storm of all my passions – being in a spiritual center that lives very connected to nature, spending time with my family, teaching yoga, traveling and sharing my passion for Montessori and the great spiritual art of being with children in an elevated, conscious way. Amazing!
We were able to go thanks to the generous support of many many people – so I send a huge thanks to all who donated time, money, positive vibes to help our trip be manifested!
I wanted to just write a bit about the trip here, for those who are interested in how it went! After a long travel day to get there we spent a few days settling in and getting to know everyone. This place is spectacular. It manages to be beautiful, humble and extremely nourishing on all levels. Usually when we are on “vacation” somewhere, staying someplace beautiful, I have a hard time fully enjoying it. I often think “Is my presence here contributing to the destruction of this natural area? Is my tourism here good for the local people or is it damaging in some way?” These underlying questions make it hard to relax. It was a revelation, then, to be able to spend a few days “arriving” and feeling 100% clean and clear about spending time at this place. We were being given room and board in exchange for my volunteer work, but if I had been paying I would feel fantastic about where my money was going. The retreat center is beautiful with three amazing yoga studio rooms, sweet pools, a gorgeous open air ocean front common area, and even a little spa. The picture above is the view from our very sweet room. The building is the “temple” studio. Inside it’s beautiful floors, and veiws of the ocean, and even an amazing painting of the Buddha on one wall. The meals were DELICIOUS! The food was healthy, fresh picked and cooked to satisfy even the major foodie. Much of the ingredients come from the Organic farm that is one of the projects of Mar de Jade. Our presence supported a place that was built in a very green fashion and a family whose work enriches and uplifts the local community in many many ways. Laura, the original founder and matriarch of the family who owns and runs Mar de Jade is even mentioned in the wikipedia article about the local town (Chacala). So after a day or two of swimming in the ocean, playing in the very kid friendly pool, eating amazing food and doing yoga in beautiful, energetically vibrant studios – I was ready to get to work!
I spent two days observing the classrooms, and meeting with the teachers and administrators of the school in Chacala. El Jardin’s website has some great pictures and explains the mission of the school well. What a huge task these folks are undertaking! The school is run almost completely by donation – most of the students are there on full scholarship. The school serves – as Montessori’s first school did – the poorest of families. In this humble place the teachers are dealing with many unique difficulties. On top of this, they have made it their goal to experiment by attempting to combine Waldorf and Montessori methods (and are open to other influences as well!). All of this in a remote area where, while it is beautiful, is difficult to lure teachers to come and stay for many years.
The school was like an oasis in the midst of Chacala. It was clean, green and made with loving care for the children who would be spending time there. This board states the school’s mission: The nurture emotional and social intelligence, to develop creativity and to reach academic excellence. It was wonderful to see these kids floating freely around their humble classroom doing their work and enjoying each other. It was fascinating to see the influence of Waldorf, and to step into this experiment of how to merge the two very different pedagogies. After getting the lay of the land I had the great pleasure of spending the next four days, after school, giving what support I could to the teachers and administrators of this sweet, super special school. Here is the letter that they have written to thank my donors for helping me get to them:
Here is the path I got to walk between the school and Mar de Jade retreat center 🙂
A sweet singing, walking game.
The garden at the school 🙂
