yoga

This picture captures the promise of the best smelling lilac in the greater town of Boulder- and i can tell you with assurance- i’ve smell tested them all!

This hound nose is to a lilac what a sommelier’s tongue is to a glass of Barolo :)
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The wavering but steadfast climb of a sprout, the fragility of a baby bird, the recherché language and timing of a petal….. and all of it all at once…. spring emergence is a beautiful coupling of vulnerability and power, not to mention aromatic delight.

Last week watching and reflecting, I couldn’t help but consider how beautiful it might/could/will be in a post-awakening, after the power struggle, post economic gain as bottom line, and dominance-rather-than-approval sort of world.

In the practices I’ve engaged for over 28 years now, imagination, creativity and the art of mind are all utilized to create change. Watching roots and sprouts sprawl in the world around me, I see the mirror that is the natural world, ideas forming, neurons firing and life itself procreating.

If we feel we are between a rock and a hard place (election reference, but also all of it) , look to the single dandelion sprouting through the sidewalk and take note… we can imagine another way into being. The rock, the hard place, and option #3.

Important is the time to take inventory of what is- in this case, the stark reality of bleak darkness and the shattering underbelly of the abyss that are the echoes of archaic colonial and religious dominance and the dark side of the psyche. There is much to do in this chapter of seeing.

And from that understanding, once the soul knows what it is dealing with and where it also reflects these bits (this part not to be stepped over), then, imagination… spring… what is new.

And so…..

What would it be like to have leaders who not only acknowledge the vulnerable and those without a voice, but actually seek them out and uplift their presence and expression, who understand the nuance of any given situation and because of this, resist trigger-happy and one-sided choices based in trauma or retaliatory consciousness, who aren’t afraid to say they got it wrong, who go to the books and understand history- not just play-by-play but the evolution of the psyche and the soul, who have done their own shadow investigation so that they can attempt to be as present to what is as possible without the tendrils of their own hurt, aversion, and attraction, who aren’t persuaded by the dollar but rather a strong ethical code to take a stand for all things life and love. What is it to be able to surrender to a system that holds these values at its heart and how much might we eliminate the gun violence, the dog-eat-dog, the childhood suicide, the escalating homelessness and mental illness, and cancer that are all on a rise in the US. Leaders that understand the loss we all experience when the women and the children suffer and are trampled upon. Who understands that killing and lack of protection for the vulnerable puts undue stress on our men and therefore creates wayward pathologies and eruptions of violence. Who understand that giving the purpose of protectorate of life and love puts the masculine heart at ease so that it will not need to go rogue and erupt. Who seeks advice from elders, international establishments and indigenous cultures rather that rolling through like an entitled teenager. Who is unafraid to show his own vulnerability. Who understands that without the health of our planet, we have nothing and so this is forefront and centermost. Who strives to balance feminine and masculine (irregardless of gender) energies on our planet- sometimes in the form of men and women, other times in the forms of art, healing, nature, and connection. Who understand that they need to hold wide arms, especially when dealing with year-long conflicts. Who offers atonement for those who have been wronged and goes to every length possible to make right that wrinkle in the individual and the collective because she understands the trail of intergenerational trauma, war-mind, and ptsd and knows that IT IS NEVER WORTH IT. Who trades out arrogant, untouchable, and elitist orientation for boots on ground connection with real people in real time and understands that the buttercup is just as exquisite of an expression of life as the redwood.

This election year, I am not about to try and convince anyone of anything. I see the younger generations seeing through the charade and I deeply respect that. I hear the older generation concerned about a world lacking in connection and humanity and i bow to that.

The coupling of power and vulnerability inside of our leadership might just bring forth all the gusto of a thing hat transmutes the entire earth’s surface….. spring.

To let our imaginations land in the spaces that is the desired outcome. To flesh it out, roll around in it, sing that song, feel those feelings, notice the body respond… this is a practice who’s power is fathomless.

So maybe we feel uninspired, grief-stricken and downright angry (rage is an appropriate use of language here) about some of the things, but if we hold the pie in the sky vision and then evaluate the reality of our choices, we might see the next tiny step in that direction…. the direction of our vision… And that is personal.

The composer's greatest opus was inspired by the blooming of the spring flowers, scientific discoveries are preceded by a stretch of the imagination, an instinct or an inexplicable nudge, Michelangelo’s notebooks are filled with inventions that later came to pass. Einsteins creativity and imagination were crucial in developing new theories and ideas, and Toni Morrisons words invoke an uplift to even the drowsiest of dispositions even to this day.

Perhaps this is a way to deal with an election year. Spend as much time with option number 3 as you do the others. And then bridge the gap to the best of your ability. This is what new neurons firing, and pea shoots extending do every single time.

Spring/ creativity is never once the same and always magnificent. Creativity lifts us up past narrow parameters of what we think can and can’t be done. It can elevate humanity to heights it never knew possible. Art, beauty, politics- taking our cues from spring, what might that bring…. ?…….

Your ‘paint’ on your ‘canvas’….

Your particular flavor of dreams about what is life-giving not only matter, they make a difference.

SOME FORMS OF CREATIVITY I’VE BEEN ENJOYING AS OF LATE:

A P O E M ~
If you were in class with me last week, you might have heard me struggle to keep back the tears reading this one:

If They Come in the Night
Marge Piercy

Long ago on a night of danger and vigil
a friend said, why are you happy?
He explained (we lay together
on a cold hard floor) what prison
meant because he had done
time, and I talked of the death
of friends. Why are you happy
then, he asked, close to
angry.

I said, I like my life. If I
have to give it back, if they
take it from me, let me
not feel I wasted any, let me
not feel I forgot to love anyone
I meant to love, that I forgot
to give what I held in my hands,
that I forgot to do some little
piece of the work that wanted
to come through.

Sun and moonshine, starshine,
the muted light off the waters
of the bay at night, the white
light of the fog stealing in,
the first spears of morning
touching a face
I love. We all lose
everything. We lose
ourselves. We are lost.

Only what we manage to do
lasts, what love sculpts from us;
but what I count, my rubies, my
children, are those moments
wide open when I know clearly
who I am, who you are, what we
do, a marigold, an oakleaf, a meteor,
with all my senses hungry and filled
at once like a pitcher with light.

A S O N G ~
My dear friends Richard and Elizabeth sent me this song recently and it’s been on repeat and also rather tear-worthy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQvzX0Z3HE4

S O M E W O R D S ~
My friend Tayler indicated this passage and i’ve watched it so many times i cant begin to count.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5xvJYrSsXPA&pp=ygUNVG9uaSBtb3JyaXNvbg%3D%3D

#theflowerfindsaway
#dandeliondetermination
#powertothevulnerableandvulnerabiltytothepowerful
#butoneconclusion #mothernatureforpresident

*** No classes this week dear ones ~