I wrote the friend from whom I copied
the equality symbol, on FaceBook
she and I used to be diametrically opposed
in our political views.
She Republican and Conservative/me Democratic and Liberal
once upon a time, in college
such a long time ago....
I found myself writing her/waxing eloquent
about the equality symbol:
"I love you for this!
My old Republican nemesis
how we argued in the WU (Women's Union)
do you remember?
I will always think Atlas Shrugged for you."
this references the conservative tome
by Ayn Rand she made me read
Atlas Shrugged and I made her read
The Women's Room
by Marilyn French
equally polemic
it was our agreement
to read each others' books
and we talked
about it afterwards
do you remember?
it only takes a moment
but it takes forever
slight connection with the
Yoga Anatomy I am learning
loving, that small circle you
can make with your head
mindfully....slowly
it only takes a moment
but it takes forever
to exercise the Atlas - the topmost vertebra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_%28anatomy%29
"In
anatomy, the atlas (C1) is the most superior (first) cervical vertebra
of the spine.
It is named for the Atlas of Greek mythology, because it
supports the globe of the head.
The atlas is the topmost vertebra, and –
along with the Axis – forms the joint connecting the skull and spine.
The atlas and axis are specialized to allow a greater range of motion
than normal vertebrae. They are responsible for the nodding and rotation
movements of the head.
The atlanto-occipital joint allows the head to
nod up and down on the vertebral column.
The dens acts as a pivot that
allows the atlas and attached head to rotate on the axis, side to
side.
The Atlas' chief peculiarity is that it has no body, it is
ring-like, and consists of an anterior and a posterior arch and two
lateral masses.
The Atlas and Axis are important neurologically because
the brain stem extends down to the Axis."
do you remember?
it only takes a moment
but it takes forever
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
MYM (My Yoga Month)
April - My Yoga Month (MYM)…as I started calling it, a couple weeks before it actually began - almost as a joke - is not turning out quite as expected or as I had wanted it to. (But, therein probably lies the lesson.)
It started with me teaching Chair Yoga at my work, which has been going beautifully! It's only 15 minutes at a pop, but I think people are getting a lot from it, most noticeably some much-needed relaxation.
Seems like everyone in the U.S. (if not the world), is a stress-case these days (including me), even though for most of us folks working at Jackson Hewitt, the busiest time of year is now over (Tax Season). Thank God!
Tax Season was actually.really.really.awful. Worse than I would have thought, which is to say, in fact - BRUTAL.
That first Chair Yoga session was Tuesday April 2nd so I started MYM off well…I was reading The Science of Yoga every night, which is a great book. http://www.amazon.com/Science-Yoga-Risks-Rewards/dp/1451641435/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366162989&sr=1-1&keywords=the+science+of+yoga
In fact, it’s so informative and insightful I felt like it was making me become a better teacher with every paragraph and page I read. I normally turn down a lot of pages as I read (even, regretfully do this on library books), to mark certain passages I want to return to, and this book - which I own so can beat up as much as I want, with no guilt - is massively dog-eared by now.
But I couldn’t get myself started on my own reinvigorated home-practice via the other yoga book I recently purchased, called Moving Toward Balance: 8 Weeks of Yoga With Rodney Yee - http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Toward-Balance-Weeks-Rodney/dp/0875969216/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366159650&sr=8-1&keywords=moving+toward+balance+8+weeks+of+yoga+with+rodney+yee
My excuse was I didn’t have all the props I needed at home. But really it was/is my own laziness, and how all the rest of life intervened, and that's ALSO no excuse but there it is. More on that below.
MYM continued with a wonderful "Twist into Spring" workshop the first weekend of April, at MTS ("Moving Toward Stillness") yoga studio ~ http://www.movingtowardstillness.net/index.html
This is the studio where I started teaching last Fall, and shortly after I finished the 200 hours Yoga Teacher Training (YTT). My wonderful *boss* and mentor Elaine led the workshop and I was able to just be a student, and enjoy all she had to teach, for a blissful 3 hours...I think I snored in svasana. :)
The following weekend - interspersed by more chair yoga sessions, I think they like the calming music & aromatherapy + 3 mins meditation at the end - it was a full one and 1/2 days of teacher training, down in Naples, FL at Bala Vinyasa Yoga Studio.
"The Mastery of Teaching Gentle and Basic Yoga."
http://www.bvyoga.com/Default.aspx
I had NO idea what I was getting into, having not been to this studio before, but took a chance based on the workshop description. And it also turned out beautifully. I had the Best.YogaWeekend.Ever.
I learned SO much that I want to turn toward my classes, and take further....all of which will probably be side-lined for at least a little while, due to the impending change - reason why I've been so stressed out lately, and feel life has intervened with my plan to do more daily yoga - which is that...I've taken a new full-time job!
Up in Tampa so involves an hour commute but pays A LOT better and no more crazy tax-season to endure. Will probably have to endure lots of other crazy, but at least not that! :) Cue the song by Meat Loaf ~ I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GNhdQRbXhc
New job starts 4/29 and here's hoping it's the right move...it FEELS right so far...
MYM will continue this coming weekend, with the first all-YTT social event since we all got together at Thanksgiving. Hosted by yours truly, at my apartment complex pool for a cookout/pool party. I am so looking forward to seeing all my fellow yogis, hearing about how life for them has also been great or hard, maybe wonderful, but maybe stressful or even awful, as much as or more than me.
How life has intervened with their daily yoga practice also (or not), and their future yoga plans. And I look forward to telling them all about my upcoming job change. Because some of them saw me miserable about job-stuff at Thanksgiving and challenged me to fix, change or accept it. I feel I did all three. I feel, in fact, triumphant!
MYM will conclude with an Ashtanga Yoga workshop the last weekend in April, which I am - purely - dreading. It's at ReFlex Arts, where I got all Yoga-Teacher-Trained so that helps me be more comfortable, but we didn't do Ashtanga in our training and I've never done it before.
This type of yoga is as strenuous as Bikram (which I have done), but maybe more so (see video hyperlink below). Yikes! How the HELL do they DO those crazy poses?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUgtMaAZzW0
God help me but I'm trying it, and the day after is first day at my new job, Monday April 29th, the official end of MYM (even though the calendar DOES contain a day beyond that, obvs). :)
So, if I hobble into my new place of employment all sore & aching from Ashtanga - and I present badly because of it - at least I'll have a good excuse! And I'll blame it all on Yoga - and MYM.
It started with me teaching Chair Yoga at my work, which has been going beautifully! It's only 15 minutes at a pop, but I think people are getting a lot from it, most noticeably some much-needed relaxation.
Seems like everyone in the U.S. (if not the world), is a stress-case these days (including me), even though for most of us folks working at Jackson Hewitt, the busiest time of year is now over (Tax Season). Thank God!
Tax Season was actually.really.really.awful. Worse than I would have thought, which is to say, in fact - BRUTAL.
That first Chair Yoga session was Tuesday April 2nd so I started MYM off well…I was reading The Science of Yoga every night, which is a great book. http://www.amazon.com/Science-Yoga-Risks-Rewards/dp/1451641435/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366162989&sr=1-1&keywords=the+science+of+yoga
In fact, it’s so informative and insightful I felt like it was making me become a better teacher with every paragraph and page I read. I normally turn down a lot of pages as I read (even, regretfully do this on library books), to mark certain passages I want to return to, and this book - which I own so can beat up as much as I want, with no guilt - is massively dog-eared by now.
But I couldn’t get myself started on my own reinvigorated home-practice via the other yoga book I recently purchased, called Moving Toward Balance: 8 Weeks of Yoga With Rodney Yee - http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Toward-Balance-Weeks-Rodney/dp/0875969216/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366159650&sr=8-1&keywords=moving+toward+balance+8+weeks+of+yoga+with+rodney+yee
My excuse was I didn’t have all the props I needed at home. But really it was/is my own laziness, and how all the rest of life intervened, and that's ALSO no excuse but there it is. More on that below.
MYM continued with a wonderful "Twist into Spring" workshop the first weekend of April, at MTS ("Moving Toward Stillness") yoga studio ~ http://www.movingtowardstillness.net/index.html
This is the studio where I started teaching last Fall, and shortly after I finished the 200 hours Yoga Teacher Training (YTT). My wonderful *boss* and mentor Elaine led the workshop and I was able to just be a student, and enjoy all she had to teach, for a blissful 3 hours...I think I snored in svasana. :)
The following weekend - interspersed by more chair yoga sessions, I think they like the calming music & aromatherapy + 3 mins meditation at the end - it was a full one and 1/2 days of teacher training, down in Naples, FL at Bala Vinyasa Yoga Studio.
"The Mastery of Teaching Gentle and Basic Yoga."
http://www.bvyoga.com/Default.aspx
I had NO idea what I was getting into, having not been to this studio before, but took a chance based on the workshop description. And it also turned out beautifully. I had the Best.YogaWeekend.Ever.
I learned SO much that I want to turn toward my classes, and take further....all of which will probably be side-lined for at least a little while, due to the impending change - reason why I've been so stressed out lately, and feel life has intervened with my plan to do more daily yoga - which is that...I've taken a new full-time job!
Up in Tampa so involves an hour commute but pays A LOT better and no more crazy tax-season to endure. Will probably have to endure lots of other crazy, but at least not that! :) Cue the song by Meat Loaf ~ I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GNhdQRbXhc
New job starts 4/29 and here's hoping it's the right move...it FEELS right so far...
MYM will continue this coming weekend, with the first all-YTT social event since we all got together at Thanksgiving. Hosted by yours truly, at my apartment complex pool for a cookout/pool party. I am so looking forward to seeing all my fellow yogis, hearing about how life for them has also been great or hard, maybe wonderful, but maybe stressful or even awful, as much as or more than me.
How life has intervened with their daily yoga practice also (or not), and their future yoga plans. And I look forward to telling them all about my upcoming job change. Because some of them saw me miserable about job-stuff at Thanksgiving and challenged me to fix, change or accept it. I feel I did all three. I feel, in fact, triumphant!
MYM will conclude with an Ashtanga Yoga workshop the last weekend in April, which I am - purely - dreading. It's at ReFlex Arts, where I got all Yoga-Teacher-Trained so that helps me be more comfortable, but we didn't do Ashtanga in our training and I've never done it before.
This type of yoga is as strenuous as Bikram (which I have done), but maybe more so (see video hyperlink below). Yikes! How the HELL do they DO those crazy poses?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUgtMaAZzW0
God help me but I'm trying it, and the day after is first day at my new job, Monday April 29th, the official end of MYM (even though the calendar DOES contain a day beyond that, obvs). :)
So, if I hobble into my new place of employment all sore & aching from Ashtanga - and I present badly because of it - at least I'll have a good excuse! And I'll blame it all on Yoga - and MYM.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
It Keeps Me Warm (My Love - My Love - My Love)
"Same Love"
When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay
'Cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight
I told my mom tears rushing down my face
She's like "Ben you've loved girls since before pre-k tripping"
Yeah, I guess she had a point, didn't she?
Bunch of stereotypes all in my head.
I remember doing the math like, "Yeah, I'm good at little league"
A preconceived idea of what it all meant
For those that liked the same sex
Had the characteristics
The right wing conservatives think it's a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made rewiring of a predisposition
Playing God, aw nah here we go
America the brave still fears what we don't know
And God loves all his children, is somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written thirty-five-hundred years ago
I don't know
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
I can't change
Even if I try
Even if I wanted to
My love
My love
My love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
If I was gay, I would think hip-hop hates me
Have you read the YouTube comments lately?
"Man, that's gay" gets dropped on the daily
We become so numb to what we're saying
A culture founded from oppression
Yet we don't have acceptance for 'em
Call each other faggots behind the keys of a message board
A word rooted in hate, yet our genre still ignores it
Gay is synonymous with the lesser
It's the same hate that's caused wars from religion
Gender to skin color, the complexion of your pigment
The same fight that led people to walk outs and sit ins
It's human rights for everybody, there is no difference!
Live on and be yourself
When I was at church they taught me something else
If you preach hate at the service those words aren't anointed
That holy water that you soak in has been poisoned
When everyone else is more comfortable remaining voiceless
Rather than fighting for humans that have had their rights stolen
I might not be the same, but that's not important
No freedom till we're equal, damn right I support it
(I don't know)
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love
My love
My love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
We press play, don't press pause
Progress, march on
With the veil over our eyes
We turn our back on the cause
Till the day that my uncles can be united by law
When kids are walking 'round the hallway plagued by pain in their heart
A world so hateful some would rather die than be who they are
And a certificate on paper isn't gonna solve it all
But it's a damn good place to start
No law is gonna change us
We have to change us
Whatever God you believe in
We come from the same one
Strip away the fear
Underneath it's all the same love
About time that we raised up
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
I can't change
Even if I try
Even if I wanted to
My love
My love
My love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
Love is patient
Love is kind
Love is patient
Love is kind
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is patient
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is kind
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is patient
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is kind
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is patient
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is kind
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is patient
Love is kind
Lyrics:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/macklemore/samelove.html
Video & Song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVBg7_08n0&feature=youtu.be
When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay
'Cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight
I told my mom tears rushing down my face
She's like "Ben you've loved girls since before pre-k tripping"
Yeah, I guess she had a point, didn't she?
Bunch of stereotypes all in my head.
I remember doing the math like, "Yeah, I'm good at little league"
A preconceived idea of what it all meant
For those that liked the same sex
Had the characteristics
The right wing conservatives think it's a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made rewiring of a predisposition
Playing God, aw nah here we go
America the brave still fears what we don't know
And God loves all his children, is somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written thirty-five-hundred years ago
I don't know
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
I can't change
Even if I try
Even if I wanted to
My love
My love
My love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
If I was gay, I would think hip-hop hates me
Have you read the YouTube comments lately?
"Man, that's gay" gets dropped on the daily
We become so numb to what we're saying
A culture founded from oppression
Yet we don't have acceptance for 'em
Call each other faggots behind the keys of a message board
A word rooted in hate, yet our genre still ignores it
Gay is synonymous with the lesser
It's the same hate that's caused wars from religion
Gender to skin color, the complexion of your pigment
The same fight that led people to walk outs and sit ins
It's human rights for everybody, there is no difference!
Live on and be yourself
When I was at church they taught me something else
If you preach hate at the service those words aren't anointed
That holy water that you soak in has been poisoned
When everyone else is more comfortable remaining voiceless
Rather than fighting for humans that have had their rights stolen
I might not be the same, but that's not important
No freedom till we're equal, damn right I support it
(I don't know)
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love
My love
My love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
We press play, don't press pause
Progress, march on
With the veil over our eyes
We turn our back on the cause
Till the day that my uncles can be united by law
When kids are walking 'round the hallway plagued by pain in their heart
A world so hateful some would rather die than be who they are
And a certificate on paper isn't gonna solve it all
But it's a damn good place to start
No law is gonna change us
We have to change us
Whatever God you believe in
We come from the same one
Strip away the fear
Underneath it's all the same love
About time that we raised up
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
I can't change
Even if I try
Even if I wanted to
My love
My love
My love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
Love is patient
Love is kind
Love is patient
Love is kind
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is patient
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is kind
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is patient
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is kind
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is patient
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is kind
(I'm not crying on Sundays)
Love is patient
Love is kind
Lyrics:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/macklemore/samelove.html
Video & Song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVBg7_08n0&feature=youtu.be
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