Sat Nam.

I thought I'd share with you what life has been like for me after selling the yoga school. I have been busy:
reading
writing
walking
yoga-ing
babysitting
and eating.

I've been having a good time.

But I miss you.

So how about joining me for Summer Solstice and S'mores, like we did in the good ol' days, Wednesday, June 21st, anytime?

I'll go to Cabrillo Beach early and grab a pit. Come by and jump in the waves, bring a book or a magazine you've been saving for a special loungy day, bring lunch, and stay for sunset s'mores.

I want to know what you've been up to. I want to set up walking dates, lunch dates, game nights.

This is not a class. This is not a Bindu event. This is friends gathering with friends. This is free fun. And it won't be the same without YOU. So, are you in? Let me know!

May the longtime sun shine upon you...

Day 3: Turning Away

Syria, your hollowed, hallowed babies
I look away from your babies
and sand sculpted men against soft women flowing
through lines in the sand erasing and erasing and flowing
I turn away from the tv of babies
I have to. I have a grandson who must keep breathing.
Your everything to lose so unlike and like my everything
you have grandsons you're afraid to lose, too.
Not right now. I have no time for your babies. There's milk that's old and green oranges soaked in mold that I must purge from the bowl.
Syria, forgive us our- is there a phone that's ringing or a mantra in need of singing?
Mother India, pray for Syria. Sister Geneva, you who stand between
inhumane and unfathomably inhumane, don't let hollowed become your name.
Deliver us from-
eyes as dark as my grandson's. Can we escape to the desert?
Eat poolside under a protective umbrella, our only fear a sunburned shoulder, and that is fear enough.

Day 2: Short Story for a Monday Morning

   On the hanger hung the words take me in your arms. I put them on, but they didn't fit me right. I walked outside, arms crossed, head down, embarrassed at my ill-fittingness. Does this make me look human I asked a gravestone. I asked a window reflection. I went home and hung them up on the hanger, shoved back to the back of the closet with all the other pretty things I hope to one day wear.

April 1, 2017

Sat Nam! Since I've given up Facebook for lent, this will be the home for my poems for National Poetry Writing Month, at least until after Easter. My poems get lonely on blogs. So thanks for stopping by and giving them a read. Happy NaPoWriMo 2017!

My first poem is a sestina, where the last word from each line of the first stanza is the last word in each line of the rest of the stanzas, but in a particular pattern. The last stanza is three lines, and each word must be used.

Day 1: A Sestina for Belonging

Blake calls out, Abba! Abba!
as he lifts the wet Cheerio
made of organic beet and purple sweet
potato. Did I say Amen aloud
as sun streams through the soggy O
he holds below the stained glass window?

A dazzling, towering saint windows
the path to beloved God, beloved Abba.
Blake's creampuff hands hold Os
for all. Take this humble Cheerio
he offers with a loud
invitation for the crowd, too sweet-

Blake, some people have had sweet-
ectomies, crusty windows
shut to their souls, a loud
sour drowns out a baby's Abba
lost like a rolling Cheerio
beyond the reach of a breathy "O"-

But his high-flying heart breathes O
so soft, too soft, so sweet, too sweet
beyond what a Cheerio
could get from a beet. The eye a window
to the soul calling Abba, Abba
unafraid, unconstrained love, aloud!

Longing to unsour, they sing aloud
when sung to, they open their mouths to O
yet think you simply said ab-Ba,
syllables pulled from a low shelf, but, sweet
baby, there is no crust on your window,
no dust on your organic box of Cheerios.

Like a eucharist the wet Cheerio
fills my mouth. I did say Amen aloud
Your smile uncrusting the windows
to my souring soul I sing O!
No beet or purple potato sweet
as you are, straight from Abba.

This is your church, so sing your song of O.
Open the window to your wide sweet
Cheerio world cry aloud, Abba!

Sat Nam,
Thursday night's class almost unraveled me. I couldn't keep the class together. When that happens, I question my right and purpose to teach yoga. Yoga Bindu is a small space. When one person decides to do their own thing, three people , at least, follow. And those three people are usually the ones who shouldn't try the alternative. But it happens. And then the egos of others are engaged. Then I see others giving up on themselves and others giving up on me.
I've been to classes where the teacher will have absolutely none of that. I appreciate the teacher's ability to stand up for the whole class energy and cut the excess ego from invading the space. My teacher is an expert at that. I am not.
I share this because I want to remind you of why , I believe, we go to class in the first place; we go to class not so much to practice the asanas and pranayamas in the order presented but to BE IN THE ASANA, BE IN THE PRANYAMA. We come to class to learn how to be present. Otherwise, if we wanted to do whatever we wanted, we could stay in the living room. That said, I have nothing against modifications - absolutely nothing. I believe in them and suggest them ancome up short.
The strange thing was, at the end, half the class thanked me for a great practice! Shouldn't that be all that matters? Shouldn't I just let it go because everyone had a great practice? Probably. I don't know.

Saturday, September 20, All Levels Change of Pace Vinyasa

Annette's forearm plank roll-ups are my new favorite thing! We practiced this sequence, using them for foundational awareness in navel: palming the eyes, eyes softening, dark cool cave at back of mouth, ease around jaw, so-ham inhale-exhale sitali crocodile, sphinx, clasped hands cobra Annette's plank roll-ups, exhale belly and pelvis with 3 count kumbhaka (hold breath out) x6, then lift legs, too, x6 crocodile aand armless cobra again child's pose, roll into deep squat, roll up to soft uttanasana, ardha uttanasana, uttanasana uddiyana bandha x6-8 begin surya namaskar B, but add crescent moon, crescent w/ eagle arms, , curl toes under to lungs, virabhadrasana 3 with eagle arms, step back into crescent, release arms, lizard sequence, dog, other side. we did this sequence twice. On the second round we added forearm vasisthasana after lizard, child's pose, dog, other side child's pose, roll up to deep squat, soft uttana, ardha and uttana, surya namaskar B. beginnings, crescent moon side stretch to pigeon, to eka pada rajakapotasana, holding back leg, vinyasa, other side bow with bolster under belly, under hips, no bolster, crocodile, sphinx, armless cobra, child's pose, deep squat, soft uttana, ardha, and uttana with 3 count hold after exhale, deep squat to roll down to paschimo., supta baddha konasana to savasana

Annette's Tuesday Night Class

Annette is the new teacher of our Tuesday night All Levels class! This was tonight's practice to the best of my memory: 1. kappalabhati 2. abdominal work 3. spine spirals 4. tadasana 5. surya namaskar A. x3 6. To surya namaskar A. she added twists: first round lunging twist w/ prayer hands, second round lunging twist w/ open arms (paravrrta parsvakonasana), third round bound variation 7. tree 1 and 2 x2 each, then forward bend in tree 8. deep squat to floor 9. janu sirsasana 10. wide leg seated forward fold 11. trikonasana on mat, at wall, on mat agaian 12. prasarita padottanasana 13. deep squat to floor 14. paschimo. x2 15. dead bug and floating baddha konasana x2 each 16. savasana It was the perfect class for me after writing for thirty hours this weekend!! thank you, Annette. Sat Nam.