desire

I have a couple new books on the go.  The first is The Four Desires by Rod Stryker.  I was in the library looking for a book -any book - when this one came out at me.  I've picked it up and put it down a number of times before and have always walked away.  But for some reason, on this sunny day, it jumped into my bag and begged me to take it down to the water for a read.  So I did.

Within the first couple of pages, I knew the timing was finally right.  This was the book for me, now.

My mind is jumbled and I need some help unjumbling it.

I have about eight books on the go.  A hundred different ideas for blog posts and videos.  When I'm not actually teaching yoga, all I'm thinking about is teaching yoga.  And between my dozen different journals for my dozen different emotions, I'm never really sure which to go to for what.

I know this - I want to create!  But my workspace is all cluttered.  Each time I sit down to write or work and find myself a half hour later in the kitchen in triangle pose, I realise that this jumbled workspace of a mind isn't working.  I need to free up some space in order to create.  I don't know how to do this.  I need to sort out my thoughts and ideas to get this all into action.  I don't know how to do this.  This is where The Four Desires came in.

Then yesterday, in the bookstore, I came across a book called Desire to Inspire.  I picked it up, flipped through it for a moment and walked out with it. 

Sitting there last night admiring my two newest reads I saw it - Desire.  This is not a word I use often, but there it is in both of their titles.  Desire.  Coincidence?  I think not!

Desire.  What do I desire?  Happiness.  More handstands.  I desire to think and speak and act freely from my heart.  I desire to know how to do this.

I desire to be a 'Force of Good'.

"To guide and encourage people to discover their true, authentic voice so they can live their best life is to be a Force of Good". ~ Christen Olivarez

These books also offer assignments throughout the pages for the reader to better come to terms with their desires.  The first assignment in each of these books is to find your life's purpose.  (Like seriously, coincidence)?  In The Four Desires, this is referred to as your Dharma Code.  In Desire to Inspire, this is called your Battle Cry.

Battle Cry - I love it.  A word or phrase that "inspires you to action".   

My assignment for this week is to discover my souls Battle Cry.  I can hear it, it's a bit jumbled now, but it sounds something like

" aye aye aye aye aye aye yaow"!!!!!

Desire - the action that sets fire aflame.   What's yours?

what's our part in all this?

Earth Day got me thinking.

Spring is here—the birds are chirping, the buds are blooming, the layers are coming off and you can actually feel the pulse in the air. It’s got me thinking about The Law of Giving and Receiving by Deepak Chopra.

When the world’s in bloom, there’s an extra little bounce in my step. I breathe in a bit deeper and tilt my head back while the sun lights up my face. Mama Nature sure is dishing it out, and I relish in the spring and all of its gifts. Sitting under the cherry tree, sippin’ my iced cap the yogi in me asks “what’s my part in it all?”

According to Chopra, “the universe operates through dynamic exchange.” And we’re all a part of it. It’s this exchange of energy that keeps the life force flowing. With every breath taken, each individual body exchanges energy with the body of the universe. This is what keeps the prana, the life force, flowing.

“Stopping the circulation of energy is like stopping the flow of blood.” ~ Deepak Chopra

Click here to read the rest of the article over at Elephant Journal

Maybe you're already familiar with the Law of Giving and Receiving or have read my previous post on this from a while back.  In which case I will just leave you with a little gift from me to you. 

A poem by Thich Nhat Hanh

Peace is every step.

The shining red sun is my heart.
Each flower smiles with me.
How green, how fresh all that grows.
How cool the wind blows.
Peace is every step
It turns the endless path to joy.

~Peace :)

words to live by

I came across this beautiful, magical, inspirational poem by Jeanette Leblanc, and just had to share.  Read this, and then Go now, and live.  Enjoy!

There's this woman I know.  You may know her too, or a version of her.  For some of you, she, may be a he.  For me she stands in the middle of a field - surrounded by daisies.  Arms open wide like she's ready to fly.  But she doesn't.  She knows that her place is here, now, grounded, present.  Her two feet - barefooted feet - buried in the grass.  So instead she twirls.  She twirls and sings, laughs, dances, jumps up and falls down.  She gets back up.  She is happy.  I don't know what she does, or where she lives, or how she came to be so free.  But I do know this: this woman is me.  The me that I want to be.  And I've long been searching for just the right words to give her a face and bring her to life.  And now I don't have to.  Through the magic of poetry by Jeanette Leblanc, I see this woman more clearly.  She now has a name.  Her name is Life, and she choses to live it.  Isn't that nice!?!

To check out more by Jeanette Leblanc visit her site at {Peace. Love. Free}

parting is such sweet sorrow

I just finished reading Anna Karenina, for the second time.  I read it about five years ago and absolutely fell in love with it - and Tolstoy.  I always find after finishing a book like this (insanely long) that a few days after putting it down I start to miss the characters.  They've been a part of my life for so long, and then all of a sudden they're just gone.

The last two paragraphs of the book made me skip a breath.

There's something about this that makes me think about yoga.  And yes, I know that all I think about lately is yoga.  But there was a change that I thought would just drop down upon me as soon as I started to seriously practice yoga.  Like all of a sudden I would just 'get it' and become enlightened.

And that didn't happen.

Changes, have happened over time.  But slowly.  Organically.  Breath by breath.  I'm still me, with all my flaws and indulgences, just now with more awareness, with more tools in my belt to bring about the good.  Does this make sense?

Maybe Leo should take it from here.

"This new feeling has not changed me, has not made me happy and enlightened all of a sudden, as I had dreamed, just like the feeling for my child. There was no surprise in this either. Faith--or not faith--I don't know what it is--but this feeling has come just as imperceptibly through suffering, and has taken firm root in my soul.


"I shall go on in the same way, losing my temper with Ivan the coachman, falling into angry discussions, expressing my opinions tactlessly; there will be still the same wall between the holy of holies of my soul and other people, even my wife; I shall still go on scolding her for my own terror, and being remorseful for it; I shall still be as unable to understand with my reason why I pray, and I shall still go on praying; but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but has the unquestionable meaning of the good which it is in my power to put into it."


Now what am I going to read?