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In memory of strawberry pie
Today would have been my grandmother’s 99th birthday. I wrote what follows nearly three years ago, on the occasion of her passing on to the next life…
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The sweetness of home practice…
The biggest challenge for me coming home from India this time around was going back to practice at the studio I’d been at for the last year. Maybe I changed, or maybe I was just seeing things more clearly, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I didn’t belong there anymore. I love the…
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Everything is Divine…
Well hello from Austin! I’ve been back from India for a little while now, and I’m excited to tell you about my experience this go ’round. I have so many amazing things filling my heart and mind, so much creative energy, I feel like I’m on fire! Instead of attempting some kind of linear exposition,…
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The time of God
I am back in Mysore to practice at the Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute (KPJAYI). Experience is potent here. I wake up around 3am (Brahma muhurtham) to do my asana practice. The rest of my days are spent in chanting and philosophy classes and in my own solitary study of the Gita, the…
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Everything to give…
Well, I’m back in Mysore. Feels like I never even left. I had another dream before I left Austin. I had been feeling quite anxious about some circumstances that presented me with the opportunity to practice non-attachment in a big way. I was conflicted about whether I should stay in Austin to deal with the…
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The yoga of friendship…
In my last blog over at Raw Raw Riot, This is the training ground, I wrote: Showing up to practice is one thing; showing up to life can be a whole other battle. If you practice even when distracted/distressed/hurt/upset/in pain, then you are training well. This is the training ground, afterall. So let us train…
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This is the training ground…
Ok, yeah, so I haven’t written a blog since I was in India. I figure I should at least say hi and let y’all know I’m alive and well in Austin. Ahhhh, to update you in a nutshell on the last several months… My rib injury healed and my practice has been going well. It…
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Raven…
Raven revels in this untamed magnificence with every kaw! kaw! . In the canyonlands… on the white rim, watching the full moon rise, with Venus by its side. No other human in sight as far as the eye can see. For miles and miles and miles. There’s a whole lot of darkness this time of…
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Land of the four corners…
I am called to the land of the four corners where universes collide and humanity emerges from a series of failed creations where the landscape is shaped for millions of years to be framed by a once in a lifetime sunrise every day and the beauty of its vastness is echoed in subterranean secrets in…
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Forget your perfect offering…
A month just flew by in the blink of an eye. Time is strange here. The days are impossibly long, and yet the accumulative passing of them goes by in a flash. I still have another week in Mysore, and many people have already left or are in the process of leaving this weekend. There…
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When the center of the universe is a coconut stand…
When the center of the universe is a coconut stand… not a coconut stand, the coconut stand. Of course there must be hundreds in Mysore, but you know the one I’m talking about, because your whole life revolves around it… My first week and a half in Mysore and I’m feeling the rhythm of things…
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A sleeping turtle in the land of yogis…
First few days in India felt like a whole week. With a nearly thirty hour trek to get to Mysore, I saw two sunsets and two sunrises in twenty eight hours. Hours feel like days as I am sinking into the rhythm of things here in Gokulam. First day of practice. My start time is…
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Come home, it’s time..
I am getting on a plane to India tomorrow to go study and practice at the Shri K Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore. I have been having a lot of dreams leading up to this trip, dreamland visitations by people I will soon meet. Mostly they are anonymous dream characters who give me…
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Samskaras, tapas, and burning through…
The only way out is through. Last weekend I took a workshop with Ashtanga badass Kino MacGregor. One of the main points of focus was about developing agni, or the karmic fire which burns through obstacles we encounter along our path. Kino talked about tapas, the significance of pleasure & pain, and the importance of…
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The places you fear to go…
“No fear, no fun.” One of the things I love about Ashtanga, is that it requires me to confront some scary places. I started working on dropping back and standing up from urdhva dhanurasana (backbends) a few weeks ago. My teacher came up to me as I was going into the finishing sequence and asked…
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Life, happiness, and the pursuit of liberty…
One of the interesting paradoxes of ashtanga practice is that the more regimented and disciplined I am, the freer I become. Somehow, keeping a strict schedule around the times I eat, practice, sleep, etc, frees up a lot of energy. Maybe it’s the virgo in me, or maybe it’s a promise, a gift of making…
