In An Age of Fools

I am amazed at the number of people who simply do not know where to look or how to look at the world to galvanize change.  I see and have such compassion for the hate filled struggle of so many people who have found themselves feeling powerless to stop the devastation of the world around them, both socially and environmentally.  The world is being taken apart piece by piece and sold to the highest bidder without regard for the sustainability of the practice.  The world cannot survive the current level of plutocracy that has been surreptitiously rolled out underneath all of our lives.  The very systems that we rely upon for our continued existence are being molested, deconstructed and the only interest that is being considered is that of the rich elite.  The earth, and her wellness is nowhere in this conversation.  Nor is the wellbeing of the majority being considered. The collective apathy is being reinforced through the manipulation of the very free media that we rely upon to inform us and watch our government.  These people are now in the pockets of the rich minority.  

That being said,  we live in an age of information.  The internet has made the independent dissemination of information possible in a way that has not existed to date.  We, as a people, have the power to educate ourselves, to inform ourselves and to raise our voices when the very government that we elected abuses its power, deconstructs our systems and sells our assets to the highest bidder.  The problem is that so many people have been lulled both into complacency and political apathy that they have been disempowered.  They feel powerless and so they behave in a powerless manner.  Everyone has forgotten the power of one voice.  When one voice is raised, others will follow.  In the age of information, ignorance is a choice.  We can choose to reclaim our power, to raise our voices and to move society in a direction that better cares for the needs of the people and the planet. However powerless you feel,  it is your choice to remain that way.  There are many justifications for choosing to remain in a powerless state of mind.  The largest is that you believe that your one voice will make no difference.  

EVERY VOICE MATTERS.  We all need to educate ourselves, speak up and reclaim our power as a Human Family.  

The people should not be afraid of their government, the government should be afraid of its people.    

35 Things I Have Learned in 35 Years

I turn 35 this year.  Granted, it doesn't happen for another 8 months, but I cannot escape the awareness that this is my 35th year.  So, to explore and celebrate this, I decided to get all listy :)  Enjoy!

35 lessons from my 35 years. 

1. Don't poke the bear

2. It all washes out.

3. A shiny sink is medicine for the soul

4.  Nice people aren't always nice.

5.  Harsh words hurt.

6.  Tomorrow is a new day.

7. Sunshine cures almost all ills

8. A good anthem dance cures any bad mood..  

9.  Belting out a good song will vent any frustrations you have.  A beautiful expression of what could be negative energy. 

10.  Let it go. Sometimes that means crying it out, yelling it out, talking it out.  Letting it go.  

11. Dancing is beautiful.  

12. Seasons change.  In everything.  The winter cannot last forever.  This too shall pass. Spring will come. Trust it. 

13.  Like winter, spring and summer don't last either.  Winter always comes back around again. So love spring, and revel in summer.  This too shall pass. 

14.  Savour it.

15.  Do what you love.  Nothing else will make you want to get up in the morning.

16. Pain is your teacher. Listen to it. 

17.  Geeks are cool..

18.  Science contributes to spiritual development.  If you're a geek:)  It's how you tell really.

19.  Eat green.  Fewer ingredients is better.  Chemicals are bad for nature. 

20.  Achievement feels good. However, please also refer to #14.

21.  Kids are wonderful and terrible at the same time.  In opposites there is beauty.  Contrast is what makes things stand out.  In wouldn't be incredible if it wasn't also incredibly hard. 

22.  Failure is hard.  Multiple failures in a row are devestating.  However, please also refer to #14 and #16

23.  Someone who loves you no matter what is an incredible gift.  Cherish them. 

24.  No one lives forever, so live now. 

25.  Self awareness is a blessing and a curse. 

26.  The dirty hippies were right.  Peace is the answer. 

27.  Make your bed.  

28. Call your mother

29.  Juice is better when it's fresh.

30.  You are never ready to have children.

31.  Naps are wonderful.

32.  You are stronger than you think you are. 

33.  Look at the stars.  It will make all you problems seem small.

34.  Laugh.

35.  Plant a garden.  Watch it grow. 

Whew!  That took a lot to complete :) May my next 35 years bring 35 more lessons that are just as valuable. 

A word about my truth.

Morning pages have reawakened my creativity,  my inspiration.  They have opened my eyes again to the beauty and bittersweet dichotomy of the world around me.  I had forgotten my Walt Whitman,  my Dead Poets,  my beautiful and insane urge to Carpe each and every Diem.  The beautiful and true are so often repugnant to the ignorant.  The truth speakers are often cast out, looked down upon and dismissed as crazy, decried and defiled by those who do not understand.  Let their slings and arrows be but the motivation that drives me forward.  

Another Everyday Bodhisattva

I have never met Victoria Soto.  Never shaken her hand.  Never laughed with her.  Never worked with her.  Never laid my eyes upon her aliveness.  Yet I am moved to a deep resolve by her bravery.   It is my hope and belief that in a moment like that I would do the exact same thing.   In that terrible moment in time she demonstrated presence, and compassion, and incredible heroism to hide the children in her hands in closets and cupboards, and put her body between them and that of the madman with his finger on the trigger.  Surya Das talks about the power of the ten enlightened principles. One of those is the Power of Heroic Effort.  It is my belief that as a human being, a spirit and soul that walked this earth in physical form Victoria, in that moment proved her metal as a person. She will be remembered as a hero in my heart and in the hearts of the children that she saved and those of their families.  May her name, and the names of all those who were so senselessly gunned down, may them and their story live much longer than the memory of the name of the shooter. May it outshine the terror and the violence as a beacon of hope and heroism to those who in her shoes would believe that they would do precisely what she did.  We never know when we are going to face those moments.  None of know when we wake in the morning whether or not we will be alive at sunset.  May we all believe that in those moments where we are tested we would put ourselves between innocence and violence, that we would shield that which is new and growing in this world from the blind crosshairs of violence, anger and hatred.  May we all nurture the hero within ourselves, and within our children.  As was made abundantly clear at Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday, the world needs more heros. 

Let there be peace on earth.  And let it begin with me.  And you. 

A Page Turner

Here I am.  I’m at a new page.  That is what life is after all, page after page of new fresh white open expanses to fill.  It’s how we fill them.  That is the art.  Whether we choose to fill each new ( ) with stories of darkness and fear we tell ourselves to “keep ourselves safe”, because after all we have learned haven’t we? The stories we have told have taught us the hard way that life has rough edges.  It’s not the pretty place we imagined then. So we continue to fill each new page with our fearful stories of what happened then, warning ourselves to stay home now and do nothing for fear of the frightening and failure filled world that lies beyond that front door.  We fill reams of paper with reasons why we stay, why we can’t turn that page and embrace the opportunity of a new start.  We have filled volumes with our closeted skeletons and boogie monsters that hide under our beds.  We are so busy, most of us, composing these stories and heeding their wisdom that we fail to even notice when we turn a new page.  Our obsessive, fevered composition is so deeply consuming that we are aware of little else in the room around us, or inside of us other than our stories.

Turn the page.

There are other kinds of stories we can tell.  In failure and pain are deep wisdom. Perhaps our inattention is our worst enemy. Perhaps it is that inattention that causes us to miss key moments, of connection, of grace, of kindness on which new stories can be built.  It is my experience that from each new connection grows the potential to spring into an all new storyline.  If we are too focussed on our fearful stories of what happened then we miss those moments happening now, those new pages waiting to be filled, offering endless potential for growth and change. We have learned that it is painful.  We have learned that it is hard this life we have.  What we have also learned is that it simply continues to continue.  No matter what we say or what we do or how we try to hide from it with our hero’s and grand tales of hope and glory life still continues to continue.  And we are all too busy with our fear that we miss it.  The very moments we look for, the fairytale that we seek to write, it’s all in front of us just waiting for us to turn the page and look up and see the beautiful story around us waiting to be lived now.

Little Monkeys & Sun Salutations

Does your little monkey know how to do a sun salutation?

Mine do :)

For the past couple of months I have been facilitating yoga classes with a hoard of about 200 little monkeys. Each time I come, once a week for each class I teach, we start out with the same warm up every yoga class starts with - Sun Salutations. For weeks it has been circus of trying to ensure that they don't step on each others head while they hop back into downward facing dog. Today, well, today was a little bit different.

Today I stepped back and watched 3 classes of about 25 kids each, flow through sun salutations on their own steam. Led by their breath, and awareness of their surroundings and a jazzy little song by Kira Willey called Dance for the Sun. these kids flowed right through two series. (Props to you Kira! Thanks for the great resource!)

I was so proud.

As a growth out of this I have been invited to facilitate workshops for other little monkeys in a couple of other locations through the city. Please check out the Facebook page that I have created for this new adventure :) Please give it a "like" and maybe a share with your friends. Help us grow!!!

Namaste blog-friends!!

Oh! Just as a quick, very adorable aside, yesterday when I was coming home from one of the other locations that I teach at I put on the same song in the car and then looked at the backseat....... weren't my kids doing their best Sun Salutations while buckled into their carseats!!!! AH-DORABLE!!

A quick drop by to let you know.....

...that I have been featured on another site! Woot!

One of my lovely fellow bloggers does a thing she calls Yoga Tattoos-day. I stumbled across this one day while I was poking around on Elephant Journal. So I of course sent her off a picture of my fab yoga tattoo and the story behind it.

She posted it!

And not only that, gave me a little link lovin' to go along with it :)

You can find the post here

Thanks Birdie! You are one yogini in a million :)