Monday, August 23, 2010

FLOATING IN A TUBE DOWN THE ESOPHUS RIVER

I had the blessing of floating in a tube down a river with my beloved teacher, Shiva Rea, on Friday, August 20 before making our way to the Omega Being Yoga Conference.

We rented from Town Tinker Tube, a well established outfit in Phoenicia, NY. We rode in a bus with 20 or so teenagers and their chaperones up the Esopus River to the put-in point.

The bus ride began with an update on the water levels (low) and some instructions from the driver who was wearing a bandana much like a famous male yoga teacher, aviator sunglasses, and a fu-manchu mustache. The only thing missing was a 70s classic rock soundtrack blaring from speakers.

With water levels being on the low side, our ride began slowly but we experienced about half a dozen dynamic sections on the river. At one point, the rapids nearly tossed me off my tube. Shiva described me later to Coral and Debbie with my legs pointing directly upwards. I thought for sure that I would flip but I was able to right myself.

During the slow and flat portions of the ride, I stared up at the blue sky with puffs of cloud recognizing the tranquility of the moment especially after having just picked up Shiva the JFK Airport in New York City. Shiva and I had a rambling conversation whenever we drifted close to each other. At one point, she shared with me that teaching of the river - how we can't control our direction or speed and our task is only to relax especially during the dynamic journey through rapids.

I highly recommend taking an afternoon off and floating down a river. So many lessons and opportunities to unplug from the river of life back in the city.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

RELISHING THE JOURNEY AND LIFE'S VINYASAS

Every now and then when you slow down from moving between jobs, teaching gigs, sleeping, waking, eating, etc. you experience an upwelling of happiness, love for life, gratitude, and empowerment from a well lived life. This is also matched by other experiences of confusion or stagnation, and emotions of anger or sadness.

Almost three seasons have past since my last Thanksgiving post on Gratitude. I've had many adventures and experiences. Life has been full and I've been blessed with many lovely, beautiful people.

My apologies to anyone I've left out but I enjoyed a sweet ringing in of the New Year with my Uhuru Afrika family at their party at the All Asia Bar. Then, I celebrated my 40th Birthday on January 16th with some very wonder-full people, Lucy, Sarah, Erin, Shiva Kumar, Erin, Dani, Bonnie, Bonnie A, Nicoline, Amber, Jay, Gretchen, Sarah, Alice, Charles, et al.

In March, I visited magical India for the first time by assisting my teacher Shiva Rea on her India retreat at Manaltheram Resort in Kerala. By the end of this retreat, the one word that resonated so loudly for my was integration. The teachings that I've been hearing seemed to have finally sunk in.

The other blessing of the trip was meeting some amazing yogis from all over the world and getting invited to teach the practice that I love - Prana Flow - in Copenhagen, Denmark, Florence, Italy and Beirut, Lebanon. Thank you so much to Charlotte Bruun of ZenSensation, Debora Cutolo of Florence, and Mira Siblini for hosting me this November 12-21.

In May, I found myself following adventure to New York City and spending time with Taoin and getting to know the Soulitious Crew. What a great cast of characters, Skye, Nikki, Liz, Todd, Fryske, Eric Tucker, Ella, Perry, Annelies, Heather, et al. The party continued over the July 4th weekend at the Philadelphia Experiment, a grand Burning Man-like experiment organized by a crew of dreamers and lovers of life from Philadelphia. So many late nights and some parties with dancing and laughing lasting well past day break. I was experiencing life to one of its many extremes.

As we know in vinyasa yoga, there are cycles and in between these peaks were regular days of getting up, meditating, going to work, going to yoga, returning home, meditating, sleeping, and starting over.

Starting over is a another great yogic teaching that I intend to channel into "A Great Flame Follows a Spark" blog.

Jaya Jaya Karunabdhe Shri Mahadeva Shambo