catch your breath ~ harvest your practice!

now there's a catch-y (pun intended) invitation
to the autumn series of classes at MoNA..eh?
the museum of northwest art in laconner ~

in addition to the asana - posture practice..
and the sitting practice..
pranayama - breathing practices
will be on the docket!

here are the dates ..
mark your calendars..

tuesdays 6:30 - 8:30 pm
september 6 & 20
october 4, 11, 18, 25
november 1, 8

same low price ~
$108 for the 8 week session
$15 drop-in

all and every body is welcome!


the classes at the swinomish center continue..
thursdays @ 7 pm
fridays @ 9:30 am
crescent moon yoga shala
wednesdays 9:30am 


and pluck till time and times are done ~
the silver apples of the moon , 
the golden apples of the sun.
               ~ yeats

o happy heart

happiness does not come automatically.
it is not a gift that good fortune bestows upon us
and a reversal of fortune takes back.
it depends on us alone.
one does not become happy overnight,
but with patient labor, day after day.
happiness is constructed,
and that requires effort and time.
in order to become happy,
we have to learn how to change ourselves.
                    ~ luca & francesco cavalli-sforza

and.. 

it is a snap of a finger..isn't it?
can we change our minds with that snap?
make the choice in the moment..
to re-programme a habit of complaint or kvetch
into..an ah! so ! moment..
thereby letting go and being... happy..

it is a life skill..happiness..
with skill there is a time component..

yet..
is not the time component this moment?

if there is a way to free ourselves from suffering
we must use every moment to find it.
only a fool wants to go on suffering.
isn't it sad to knowingly imbibe poison?
                                ~  seventh dalai lama

tkv desikachar 1938 - 2016

yet another bright lamp of yoga is extinguished
tkv desikachar  ~

founder of
The Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram 
(click here)
in madras, india..now chennai..

sri desikachar was the son of krishnamacharaya..
the guru of pattabhi jois, bks iyengar and so many more..

desikachar was a simple direct teacher who brought
forth the practice of one to one teaching..
offering individual practices and therapeutic sessions ..
begin where you are..
adapting the postures to the needs of the student..

breath is the heart of yoga ~ 
he would say over and again..
he was a master of sound ..
vedic chanting - a passion..

he was the primary teacher of j. krishnamurti..
whom desikachar said..
taught him how to be a student of yoga.. (!)

desikachar stayed the course that yoga was yoga..
not a brand nor a type..
we practice yoga..simply yoga..

when asked -
what kind of yoga do you teach?
i will always say:
~ starts with a Y and ends in an A ~

when you call yourself an indian or a muslim 
or a christian or a european, or anything else,
you are being violent.
do you see why it is violent?
because you are separating yourself
from the rest of mankind.
when you separate yourself by belief, 
by nationality, by tradition,
it breeds violence.
one who is seeking to understand violence 
does not belong to any country,
to any religion, to any political party or partial system;
he/she is concerned with the total understanding
of mankind.
                   j. krishnamurti

i am grateful and honored to have been in his presence..
to have been his student  ..
a student of clarity and simplicity and kindness..
my head to his feet, i bow ~

dew drop-in! yoga classes in laconner !

did you know...?
that you can drop in 
any of these classes
as a dew-drop-in?

wednesdays @ crescent moon  ~ 9:30am

thursdays @ swinomish spiritual center  ~ 7pm

fridays @ swinomish also..  ~  9:30 am..

you may also attend the class 

at MoNA...museum of northwest art

as a dew-drop ! 

tuesdays @ 6:30 - 8:30 pm

it is a treat to stretch and breathe

among the art from our valley and islands..

we sit for about 25 minutes .. at the end of class..

this lends the sweetest ease to the evening ~

come!

you reading this, be ready

starting here, what do you want to remember?

how sunlight creeps along a shining floor?

what scent of old wood hovers, what softened

sound from outside fills the air?

will you ever bring a better gift for the world

than the breathing respect that you carry 

wherever you go right now? are you waiting 

for a time to show you some better thoughts?

when you turn around, starting here, lift this

new glimpse that you found; carry into the evening

all that you want from this day. this interval you spent

reading or hearing this, keep it safe -

what can anyone give you greater than now,

starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

william stafford

FINDING A PLACE IN ANACORTES 

TO SHARE A YOGA CLASS HAS NOT 

BEEN AN EASY TASK..

MY SINCERE APOLOGIES ~

skillful means

love is a place

love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places

yes is a world
& in this world
of yes live
(skillfully curled)
all worlds.

e.e. cummings

there will come soft rains..

there will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
and swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

and frogs in the pools singing in the night,
and wild plum trees in tremulous white;

robins will wear their feathery fire,
whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

and not one will know of the war, not one
will care at last when it is done.
not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
if mankind perished utterly;

and spring herself, when she woke at dawn
would scarcely know that we were gone.
                             ~ sara teasdale


this poem and sentiment comes to mind and heart
when i get tangled up in any of the seductions ~
power..bigotry..intolerance..
elections..war zones..terror..
trees being logged and hauled
for the bigger, better homes of glory..
& my own judgement therein

in the early morning walkabout..
the wind rises..the sun moves up..
goldfinch plays tag on the
scrub bush and berry..
robin hops the two step in front -
leading the way along the path..
bunny and bunny (after bunny)
scampers from hiding place to hiding place..
heron..glides as their pterodactyl cousin..
hugeness and grace ..to rest
on a wire just above no name slough..
hawk sits and sits and sits on phone pole
waiting for food to show itself..

are they in any way, shape or form
wringing their wings and fur about anything
that the humanoids are up to..?
i think not..

over and ever
i urge myself to join their club..
the wild..the peace of wild..
as wendell b. speaks of:

When despair for the world grows in me 

and I wake in the night at the least sound 

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, 

I go and lie down where the wood drake 

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. 

I come into the peace of wild things 

who do not tax their lives with forethought 

of grief. I come into the presence of still water. 

And I feel above me the day-blind stars 

waiting with their light. For a time 

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

always and ever again ~

counsel to myself..

and others who ask..

stay awake..

be feral..

be  fearless..

self-reliance

let us be poised, and wise, and our own, today.
let us treat men and women well:
treat them as if they were real:
perhaps they are.

..................................

without any shadow of doubt, 
amidst this vertigo of shows and politics,
i settle myself ever firmer in the creed
that we should not postpone
and refer 
and wish,
but do broad justice where we are,
by whomsoever we deal with,
accepting our actual companions and circumstances,
however humble or odious,
as the mystic officials
to whom the universe
has delegated its whole pleasure to us.

               ~ r w emerson