February 14, 2009I LOVE yoga because
This was a week where we celebrated the heart by collecting donations for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario (thank you to everyone who donated!!!) and voiced why we LOVE yoga. The results filled the wall of our studio and allowed us to look into the many, many reasons why we practice yoga. The words were inspiring, funny, and comforting. Have a look. This is how yoga has captivated these hearts… I LOVE yoga because it challenges me mentally and physically. I LOVE yoga because it increases your flexibility and improves your performance in sports. I LOVE …
January 21, 2009Balance
Being a yoga teacher it is easy to assume that I am speaking of yoga poses. Vrksasana (tree pose), Garudasana, Ardha Chandrasana, Handstand, Bakasana (crane pose) and so on. And although I am teaching some of these poses in my classes this week; I think it is a search for balance in my own life that is on my mind. (It is now when we can go back to the age old argument…the chicken or the egg? Which came first?) Is it because of my teaching these balancing poses this week that I have balance on my mind, or, is …
- January 4, 2009
New Beginnings
New beginnings can come at any time and in many forms. I thankfully feel the sense of new beginnings many times during the year. Always I feel this in the spring…freshness…the spring rain washing away the grey… the salt… the muted tones. Watching the miracle of the ground and trees waking up. Seeing the tender new buds emerge. Spring is about opening windows and breathing a little deeper. September is also a time that is full of newness with its crisp clean air, the promise of routine, new school clothes, clean sneakers, fresh backpacks, the smell of a new pencil …
- December 18, 2008
Christmas Is About Gifts
Christmas is about gifts. It’s odd hearing that sentence. We work so hard teaching our children that Christmas is not about gifts…it is about so much more. By reminding them constantly that this season is not about presents, shopping, Santa and more, more, more…I failed to take the time to realize that Christmas really is about gifts. It started with gifts and continues to be about gifts. It is about the gift of unconditional love, the gift of trust and faith, the gift of spirit and the gift of compassion and charity. Christmas is about gifts! Gifts can come without …
December 10, 2008Kindness – a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye
Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. How you ride and ride thinking the bus will never stop, and passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever. Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side …
