On the table

Most days on the acupuncture table, I try to relax and often, at least for a few minutes, drift off into a nap. It took me a while to get so I could do that. Even to be ok with the needles going near my sternum or solar plexus or shoulder, the areas scarred from incisions. Sometimes my heart seem... Read More

On walking the talk

I was just looking at a picture from a year ago today, March 27, ten days after surgery. I won’t post it, since I’ve still got an air tube, a feeding tube, and other tubes in both sides of my neck, etc. I’ve got a goofy grin and I look like I’m out of it. I’ve been thinking about walking today, ... Read More

Old Growth

I picked up a hiking trail book the other day and flipped through it and came across this quote below about old-growth forests. I thought it was an interesting concept to apply to the forest of my own consciousness, as the yoga traditions speak of it.  "Sometimes an old-growth forest isn't as evi... Read More

Making Yoga

Sometimes I’ll put on a shirt and look in the mirror or ask Penny if it looks ok, if it shows too much of my scar on my chest. I don't want to freak myself out along with anybody else. I still wear my yoga shorts, though, and don’t mind the scar down my leg so much, other than the numbness. I sti... Read More

Fall

I stepped out this morning and it was 71F. Autumn is in the air. Ha! You know, thinking about leaves falling and accumulating, I can imagine walking through the woods, stepping across and shuffling through the loose natural mosaic of shapes and colors, kicking up the earthy smell ... such a deep ... Read More

Psyche

In class recently, we explored some things I've been reading in Thomas Moore's books. (Care of the Soul, Original Self, and Soul Therapy). He writes about the Greek roots of the word "therapy" or therapeia, which is often thought of as "healing" or "curing," but originally meant "serving" or "car... Read More

Ways to Practice

One way to get a balanced yoga or movement diet is to think about categories, just like you might think of food groups.  In the gym, for instance, you might work on push exercises and pull exercises. Or arm day, leg day, etc.  In yoga, you can think of asana in terms of Standing Poses, Forward Fo... Read More

The Mythic Mindset

The world is real.Thanks for taking a look at the blog. I hope you're doing well and staying cool enough, without diminishing your own fire and light. I'm fired up enough today to try to bring light to a yoga that acknowledges the world as real. And complex and complicated. We want it simple, but... Read More

A Life of Practice

I've been thinking again this past week about the concept of practice. It's been prompted by the passing of two people important to me in my own practice, my karate teacher when I was a kid in Kentucky, Bill Leonard, whose title was "Eldest Master" in his particular system, and Karina Sauro, a de... Read More

"I accept."

A couple of months ago I read an article on a Japanese tradition called Shugendō, which combines folk traditions with Buddhism and Shinto. Their main practices are pilgrimages, rituals and retreats, often very austere, in the sacred mountains. When the pilgrimage guide gives instructions – "We wi... Read More