Monthly Archives: January 2015

Living Color

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The vibrancy of life here is catchy.
The spontaneity of vehicles,
conversational honking, traffic
softly swerving around tumeric-colored
cows that seem to own the street,
jangling bells of sadus, slapping
of laundry–all fireworks of day to day living.

My appetite for color grows in India.
Everyday I choose to wear more color,
and each day more colors on top of each other.
My eyes do not grow tired of it, just as
my stomach is everyday adjusting to
an assault of spices. India is
that perfect balance of hard and gentle.
It is always too much and never too much.
A perfect place for yoga to happen.

PHOTO: No prose–for that matter, no poem–could possibly verbalize the month that I’ve spent here already. I can only say it continues to unfold beautifully, colorfully, mysteriously, with a lot of joy and also struggle. It is a blessing to be here as a student, to humbly bow to my teacher each morning after class, to use this time to heal my travel weary body and rebuild my personal practice.

 

 

Landing

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We are strange birds, I wrote many articles ago. Built to fly in our very own strange ways. Always intent on taking wing, flitting here, soaring there, floating on wind’s current, forgetting that we cannot live in the sky.

Returning to Mysore, India to study with my teacher is grounding me. I am feeling my feet again and that my “wings” are tired. It is a time to rest and rebuild strength. And that these moments of down-time are not just healthy but necessary in continuing life’s journey.

Photo: Bird perched on a branch overlooking the lake here in Mysore, India. I imagine that this bird is like me, resting and pondering flight.

Out of Station

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In Indian English, “out of station” is a phrase that is used to explain when one is away or not present in a particular place. When I call my fave rickshaw driver here and he answers that he is “out of station,” I know he is not working or not available to work.

Currently, I am out of station.

I arrived in Mysore, India the morning of January 1, 2015 and I will be here till the end of March, the end of the season of study here with Sharath Jois, my teacher, at the Krishna Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Institute (KPJAYI), which means I am for the moment just another student, returning to the development of my own practice. So, I return to my teacher and to the source of ashtanga yoga.

As a practitioner of ashtanga yoga, this is where the world collides, where things inevitably fall apart only to come back together. This is where I learned what it was to be a student–without which teaching would be impossible. I will most likely continue to share, though ever since my first trip to India most of my Mysore observations are chronicled in my first blog: www.realizingmysore.blogspot.com. If you are so inclined and would like to catch a glimpse of what Mysore is like from my eyes, feel free to check it out.

Happy New

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Be fearless. Be bold. Be unashamed. Make mistakes and learn from them. Look at things differently. Do things differently. Speak your truth. Be decisive. Tread softly but make a big impact. Be the change. Live the change. Be grateful, be very very grateful. Laugh hard and often. Be abundant and happy. Just be. HAPPY 2015! Let’s rock this new year together!