A fight against more

People in the yoga business all say that you need to have a website, a facebook page, a blog - I have all those things. I have a practice and dedication and a commitment and I am so very out of balance with my health, my livelihood, with my housework. This blog post then, is a way for me to work towards finding balance again. I don't often share my own thoughts on this blog, mostly it's a collection of inspiring quotes and ideas that inspire me, shared with the intention that what I collect may inspire you as well ... Right now, I'm inspired but not by doing more, by doing less, by stepping back, by releasing and by trusting.

My dear old dad is very clear in his thoughts about doing. One of his favorite sayings that often runs through my mind when I am contemplating a step back is "You must work harder, smarter and longer than anyone else." He is also fond I telling me that in order to "be successful" I need to be putting in the 12-14 hours a day to do so. He also likes to make general statements (which are clearly directly at me and when I call him on it he accuses me a playing word games and effectively shuts me down). Some of these statements are that people from Oregon and people from my generation in particular don't know how to work. These words hurt me. They hurt me so much, because I believe that the era of more is too much. I believe (though not with every fiber of my being) that we don't need more hours, more time, more money, more processed things, more capacity to purchase,  we need less! I feel like I have to fight so hard for this not only against my society or my dad, but against myself.

Every spiritual tradition talks about Grace and the slow work of the Lord and the slow and steady trusting that every ounce of nature demonstrates and yet, this voice, these words, these thoughts of more more more now now now drive me insane. Though I fight - I can't seem to win or release them. My stomach tightens and my brow tightens and tears role down my cheeks fighting this fight.

So what do it do? What do it do except write and take note of sensations and feelings as they arise. Waiting, waiting, waiting for the space to increase, for God to enter and to let it all go. And do it again and again and again until the balance is restored.

Velveteen Rabbit

"...the Boy loved him just as much. He loved him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears turned grey, and his brown spots faded. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy. To him he was always beautiful, and that was all that the little Rabbit cared about. He didn't mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic has made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn't matter." - from The Veleveteen Rabbit

Steven Cope writes in his book Yoga and the Quest for the True Self ...

"The highest capacities of the human being to see reality clearly are rooted in the simple experiences of being seen. We cannot see without having first seen. We cannot wake up without interacting with a consciousness that is awake.

Spiritual practice in the contemplative traditions works with the rudiments of the capacity to see clearly, and then it builds them into all the extraordinary potentials always present in the seed of the human being.

The deepest structures of the mind are evoked in this process of seeing clearly - the intuitive awakened mind, buddhi. The is a mind, an awareness, a consciousness, that can move anywhere, that is not separate from anything in the whole field of mind and matter, that is not restricted by fear, clinging, holding on. This is the mind that can acknowledge, experience, and bear all of life. This is the mind and body that can be fully in the dance and, at the same time, be fully in the calmly abiding center. "

"Once you become Real, you can't become Unreal again. It lasts for always!"

Change agents for unabashed joy

I know there is poor and hideous suffering, and I've seen the hungry and the guns that go to war. I have lived pain, and my life can tell: I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks for the early light dappled through leaves and the heavy perfume of wild roses in early July and the song of crickets on humid nights and the rivers that run  and the stars that rise and the rain that falls and all the good things that a good God gives. Why would the world need more anger, more outrage? How does it save the world or reject unabashed joy when it is joy that saves us? Rejecting   joy to stand in solidarity with the suffering doesn't rescue the suffering. The converse does. The brave who focus on all things good and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, the are the change agents who bring fullest Light to all the world. When we lay the soil of our hard lives open to the rain of grace and let the joy penetrate our cracked dry places, let joy soak into our broken skin and deep crevices, life grows. How can this not be the best thing for the world? For us? The clouds open when we mouth thanks ... Somethings always comes to fill the empty places. And when I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grown within in me. This, this makes me full, and I magnify him with thanksgiving and God enters the world. " - from A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are - 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Universal Religion

If there is ever to be a universal religion, it must be one that will have no location in place or time, one that will be infinite, like the God it will preach; one whose sun will sine upon followers of Krishna or Christ, on saints and sinners alike; on that will not be Hindu or Buddhist, Christian or Mohammedan, but the sum total of all of these, with infinite space for development; and one that with its catholicity will embrace in its infinite arms every human being, from the lowest to the highest man. It will be a religion that will have not place for persecution or intolerance in its polity, that will recognize divinity in every man and woman, and whose whole scope, whose whole force, will be centered in aiding humanity to realize its own true, divine nature.

-Swami Vivekananda

Moon Cycles

NewBegin new things. Be spontaneous.

Cresent Gather information. Implement plans.

1st Quarter Confrontation. Address problems. Lay foundations.

Gibbous Make adjustments. Refinement.

Full Fulfillment, unveiling. Revealing.

Dissemination Social, sharing and understanding.

Last Quarter Let go.

Balsamic Rest, reflect.

I find that by paying attention to the moon and the natural rhythms of our planet, I find a easier flow for my daily life. Each new and full moon, I take a (non-essentail) technology free day, give my body and home a deep clean, take in an intentional yoga practice, spend extra time connecting with those I love most in person, and I make a special meal at home for my family. I also teach a special class at the studio around these times and set deep intentions for myself, my life, and my business. I would like to encourage you to either join me at the studio or consider joining me energetically during these times. We are more powerful together.

Here is a link so that you know when the "Moon Days" are.

Deep Love to all, Kat