We enjoyed a wonderful celebration of Erin’s 40th birthday yesterday. It was done in a classic, quiet, deeply satisfying Erin style…some good juicy new books to read on the couch, some candle lit time when Erin wrote notes expressing the great gratitude to the people in her life, and just some good old reflecting, celebrating and toasting to life, to rites of passage, and this amazing woman, for whom I am immensely grateful.
This morning, a poem from em claire seemed to best point in the direction I see Erin heading as she enters her 40s- May we all join her there.
Everywhere Heart
Heart is hiding everywhere
and when I look without eyes
I fall immediately
into
that warm abyss
and then
the concepts
that were my crutch
the judgements
that were my prison
the armor
that was my skin
disappearsand
the heart
hides nowhere
the seeker
ceases seekingknowing everywhere
Everywhere Heart
-em claire
The Movement of Self-Compassion
Saturday, Nov 16th 1-4:30
@Avenues Yoga heart rocks millcreek
In this afternoon workshop we will explore the connection between way we move and the way we are in the world. How can we learn to cultivate more awareness, self-friendliness, ease and clarity in our movements every day? Is it possible to use mindfulness of the body during daily activities as a way to cultivate compassion? Often our attempts at self -improvement can have a subtle (or gross) self aggression to them- trying to be thinner, stronger, more coordinated … what we don’t often attend to in these activities is our internal environment. Too often we can injure ourselves (on one or many levels) as we try to force our way into change. We’ll explore the rich terrain of learning and movement – and the many possibilities which open up when we use movement as a means of self-discovery and self-respect rather than aggression and self-correction. This class comes with a warning: Prepare to have it change the way you go about many activities, from the way you exercise to the way you stand while doing dishes, as well as the way you treat yourself and others.
“Harmonious efficient movement prevents wear and tear. More important however, is what it does to the image of ourselves and our relationship to the world around us.”
– Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais