off the mat

for the past week i've been waiting for the magic pocket of time to post this flier and write a bit about the yoga benefit i'm leading tomorrow, december 15th to bring attention to saving historic mcmillan park.  as always, the pocket of time has not come because life can often get in the way of good intentions.  or rather, i find that life causes me to simplify again and again again and i find that lists can really help that process. so here goes:

1.  i'm holding this benefit because i would enjoy life more if there were a large, non-fenced-in green space around my house.  also, i don't enjoy traffic and the proposed development plans would bring A LOT extra into my world. in addition, i think the open green space would make everyone happier and more relaxed and promote a better life for families around me and help DC grow in ways that are aligned with my values.

2.  a group of my friends have been working tirelessly for years to bring attention to this and i only recently started listening.  once i did, i wanted more people to listen and talk to each other about it.  i think the best way to help a situation is to practice what you are already good at.  i teach yoga for a living and i thought yoga might be a good way to get more people educated and interested.  if more people get interested, then maybe dc would have to listen to other proposals that would be kinder to our community.

3.  to me, it feels really good exercise leadership. as i heal and heal and heal through theses amazing yogic practices that i've been lucky enough to find in my life, i feel a certain responsibility to translate that out into action in our world, especially when it's action that feels aligned with what feels important to me (beautiful spaces, healthy lifestyle, community building).

i'll be talking about these ideas of conscious activism in the community in class tomorrow and we'll have a couple of great speakers and time for Q&A.  it's also my birthday and i can't think of a better way to celebrate...

first oaxaca photos

rampage of appreciation before mexico

i'm so grateful to be leaving so early for oaxaca tomorrow morning to celebrate dia de los muertos and photograph the wedding of alex and jan, dear friends/neighbors/students.  i'm so grateful to wagtime (the most amazing pet store owned by such lovers of animals) for having me back for the fourth year to take really fun photographs of people with their pets.  i'm so grateful that i get to bring in poncho this year and photograph my own dog as well.  i'm so grateful for warm socks and spicy green curry soup and calming ayurvedic oil massage (abhyanga) and all the things that help me feel cozy as our weather in dc grows colder.  i'm so grateful for my awesome little garden plot that could and for my cold-resistant the kale, chard and spinach plants that are fueling my diet.  i'm grateful a beautifully sunlight walk with poncho this afternoon in rock creek park.  i'm so so so grateful for the support of friends and family as i go through a really big transition right now (more on this later) and for life, aways there, offering something new around each corner. 

sweetness within the pause

 at the dc aquatic gardens, which are lush and uncrowded and remind me of the life that goes on no matter how we think we are shutting things down. 

Sweetness

By Stephen Dunn

Just when it has seemed I couldn’t bear   

   one more friend   

waking with a tumor, one more maniac   

with a perfect reason, often a sweetness   

   has come   

and changed nothing in the world   

except the way I stumbled through it,   

   for a while lost   

in the ignorance of loving   

someone or something, the world shrunk   

   to mouth-size,   

hand-size, and never seeming small.   

I acknowledge there is no sweetness   

   that doesn’t leave a stain,   

no sweetness that’s ever sufficiently sweet ....   

Tonight a friend called to say his lover   

   was killed in a car   

he was driving. His voice was low   

and guttural, he repeated what he needed   

   to repeat, and I repeated   

the one or two words we have for such grief   

until we were speaking only in tones.   

   Often a sweetness comes   

as if on loan, stays just long enough   

to make sense of what it means to be alive,   

   then returns to its dark   

source. As for me, I don’t care   

where it’s been, or what bitter road   

   it’s traveled   

to come so far, to taste so good.

hi everyone!  i'm about to embark on my last weekend of four consecutive weekend trips in september. the first weekend i spent with a great spiritual teacher in charlottesville, va.  the second weekend took me to the outer banks with my dearest friends from growing up. last weekend, adam and i went to the most magical mountaintop wedding in aspen, colorado.  now today i head to charles town, wv to lead a yoga retreat with the amazing yael flusberg.  we have a full retreat and beautiful weather forecasted and i am so excited!  each of these trips has satisfied an important part of me and once again, all i can say is a deep thank you for the velocity of dreams coming true.

i'd love to write more about humility and lessons learned (and there has been a lot of that too of late) but i need to pack and take poncho for a long walk and do my own yoga practice before getting on the road.  so instead i'll leave you with this wisdom about why we are obsessed with our phones from the very honest louis c.k. to help us remember that truth can be found in the funniest of places. 

(in case the video doesn't load, here is the link: http://teamcoco.com/video/louis-ck-springsteen-cell-phone)

photographs from the amazing elephant sanctuary in chiang mai, thailand

 we found that elephants way prefer their fruits over their vegetables.

we were told this elephant is wearing a chain because he is "naughty."  he still seemed pretty happy.

after having the nicest, most relaxed week--and realizing that next week will probably be the opposite of relaxing--i buckled down and edited the rest of the photographs from my trip!  i'll post them in sections and today it's all about elephants.  visiting the elephant nature park outside of chiang mai was a huge highlight of my trip. it seems like everyone who goes to thailand wants to see elephants, but what most people don't know is that a lot of these elephants are mistreated.  elephants are strong and sensitive creatures and the training process their owners put them through to break their spirits is really awful.  many elephants are brought to big cities like bangkok so their owners can earn money from tourists but they are not built for the busy life (they pick up sensations from miles away through their feet and are totally overwhelmed by traffic).  also, they eat a lot--like over 1,000 lbs of food a day and people rarely feed them enough.

seeing these problems, a little but brave lady named lek decided to start rescuing elephants.  it started with one and today it's almost 30.  mostly these elephants have been bought out of bad situations after they've been trained but she has been able to train one completely wild elephant just through love and positive reinforcement. also, they have rescued over 200 dogs who all lounge around the center like they own the place.  it's an expensive visit and definitely very touristy but so worth it.  plus, i really like to see places like this find a strong income stream (although i think they could always use more if you want to donate).  this bustling business keeps the elephants eating plenty of bananas and cucumbers and tourists happy to have seen such peaceful elephants. 


 also, i've been loving the five kundalini yoga sutras from yogi bhajan.  the second and third ones have been particularly helpful to me in the past couple of weeks.

1. Recognize that the other person is you.
2. There is a way through every block.
3. When the time is on you, start, and the pressure will be off.
4. Understand through compassion or you will misunderstand the times.
5. Vibrate the Cosmos. The Cosmos shall clear the path.

a moment of pure glee

from our hike in white oak canyon yesterday...