Wobblyogi Wednesday – Summer Book Club!

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May I Be Happy: A Memoir of Love, Yoga and Changing my Mind

by Cyndi Lee

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Take this book to the beach with you as you relax in the sun and bask in your own happiness. Read a few pages, pause, close your eyes and reflect.  Cyndi Lee talks about body image issues, mom issues, spouse issues, teaching issues and almost everything in between. Some I related to and other I did not. Eitherway the book offers a good focus for conversation about how we each invite yoga principles into our lives.

Here is my favorite passage:

I’ve learned to listen to feelings in my body, as another form of meditation practice. Often when I’m walking home form the studio, I’ll realize that I have a butterfly in my stomuch or I’m gripping the strap of my yoga bag too hard. I practice being curious about it. It’s fun. I investigate by asking myself, “Okay, what’s bothering me?” The answer is usually right there on the surface and then I can puzzle it through, either coming to a resolution or at least gaining enough awareness of the issue to be able to table it for now and bookmark it for later. The body knows, the mind clarifies, and when I can get them to hold hands with my breath, things usually work out all right.

I wonder what questions the book sparks for you. Share your comments here or come join us (whether you read the book or not) for discussion, an asana practice, snacks and more August 12th 2:00 pm-5:00 pm at Community Yoga, West Lafayette, Indiana

Sign up online at https://communityyogalafayette.com/workshopsevents/

May you be safe, may you be healthy, may you be happy,

the Wobblyogi

 

 

Hunger, courage and a snack in Oslo

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I found a bench for myself and began gnawing greedily at my snack. It did me a lot of good; it had been a long time since I’d had such an ample meal, and I gradually felt that same sense of satiated repose you experience after a good cry. My courage rose markedly; I was no long satisfied with writing an article about something so elementary and straightforward as the crimes of the future, which anybody could guess, or simply learn by reading history. I felt capable of a greater effort and, being in the mood to surmount difficulties, decided upon a three-part monograph about philosophical cognition. – from Hunger by Knut Hamsun (Noble Prize Winner, 1920)

As I read these words by controversial Nazi sympathizer and nobel laureate Knut Hamsun, the significance of my first bite in Oslo became clear.  It was a short walk from the National Theatret station to the Savoy Hotel, made slow and deliberate by the bumpy drag of my carry-on wheels and by the weight of my backpack pressing down each step. I happily welcomed this seemingly underwater rhythm of a traveler on foot after the cramped imprisonment of seatbelted air travel. My snack, this shrimp sandwich, hearty chewy bread, sweet shrimp, bright lemons, woke me up. I felt the sense of “satiated repose after a long cry” and also, the mood “to surmount difficulties.”

I hope you find good snacks that offer repose and courage during your summer travels.

For now, I’m back on my warm Indiana porch with birds chirping and gentle windchimes…….. reading and snacking.

 

Food Poem – Market Day by Linda Pastan

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This poem beautifully illustrates the universal principle of local food.  Food memories and experiences across space and time have a common language.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

 

We have traveled all this way
to see the real France:
these trays of apricots and grapes spilled out
like semi-precious stones
for us to choose; a milky way
of cheeses whose names like planets
I forget; heraldic sole
displayed on ice, as if the fish
themselves had just escaped,
leaving their scaled armor behind.
There’s nothing like this
anywhere, you say. And I see
Burnside Avenue in the Bronx, my mother

sending me for farmer cheese and lox:
the rounds of cheese grainy and white, pocked
like the surface of the moon;
the silken slices of smoked fish
lying in careful pleats; and always,
as here, sawdust under our feet
the color of sand brought in on pant cuffs
from Sunday at the beach.
Across the street on benches,
my grandparents lifted their faces
to the sun the way the blind turn
towards a familiar sound, speaking
another language I almost understand.

“Market Day” by Linda Pastan from Carnival Evening. © Norton, 1998.

From the Writer’s Almanac, June 22nd 2017

 

Food Poem – Nurse by Dorianne Laux

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Here is a strange poem connecting a nurse’s day to her dinner at home and her children. It celebrates the body mediated by a mom, a nurse through a combination of gory details of hurt bodies and everyday details of a spaghetti dinner menu. How does your dinner tonight connect to your day and your loved ones?

My mother went to work each day
in a starched white dress, shoes
damped to her feet like pale
mushrooms, two blue hearts pressed
into the sponge rubber soles.
When she came back home, her nylons
streaked with runs, a spatter
of blood across her bodice,
she sat at one end of the dinner table
and let us kids serve the spaghetti, sprinkle
the parmesan, cut the buttered loaf.
We poured black wine into the bell
of her glass as she unfastened
her burgundy hair, shook her head, and began.
And over the years we mastered it, how to listen
to stories of blocked intestines
while we twirled the pasta, of saws
teething cranium, drills boring holes in bone
as we crunched the crust of our sourdough,
carved the stems off our cauliflower.
We learned the importance of balance,
how an operation depends on
cooperation and a blend of skills,
the art of passing the salt
before it is asked for.
She taught us well, so that when Mary Ellen
ran the iron over her arm, no one wasted
a moment: My brother headed straight for the ice
Our little sister uncapped the salve.
And I dialed the number under Ambulance,
my stomach turning to the smell
of singed skin, already planning the evening
meal, the raw fish thawing in its wrapper,
a perfect wedge of flesh.

From the Writer’s Almanac http://writersalmanac.org/page/3/

Food Poem – The First Green of Spring by David Budbill

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This is the perfect poem for today, Amani’s birthday. Happy 22nd Birthday my baby.  May we all celebrate “this green, this life.”

Out walking in the swamp picking cowslip, marsh marigold,
this sweet first green of spring. Now sautéed in a pan melting
to a deeper green than ever they were alive, this green, this life,

harbinger of things to come. Now we sit at the table munching
on this message from the dawn which says we and the world
are alive again today, and this is the world’s birthday. And

even though we know we are growing old, we are dying, we
will never be young again, we also know we’re still right here
now, today, and, my oh my! don’t these greens taste good.

“The First Green of Spring” by David Budbill from Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse. © Copper Canyon Press, 1999.

From Writer’s Almanac on April 27th, 2017

Wobblyogi Wednesday – Yoga Poem- The Necessary Brevity of Pleasures by Samuel Hazo

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Enjoy this yoga AND a food poem celebrating moderation. May we all have the wisdom to “savor every bite of grub with equal gratitude.”

Prolonged, they slacken into pain
or sadness in accordance with the law
of apples.
One apple satisfies.
Two apples cloy.
Three apples
glut.
Call it a tug-of-war between enough and more
than enough, between sufficiency
and greed, between the stay-at-homers
and globe-trotting see-the-worlders.
Like lovers seeking heaven in excess,
the hopelessly insatiable forget
how passion sharpens appetites
that gross indulgence numbs.
Result?
The haves have not
what all the have-nots have
since much of having is the need
to have.
Even my dog
knows that—and more than that.
He slumbers in a moon of sunlight,
scratches his twitches and itches
in measure, savors every bite
of grub with equal gratitude
and stays determinedly in place
unless what’s suddenly exciting
happens.
Viewing mere change
as threatening, he relishes a few
undoubtable and proven pleasures
to enjoy each day in sequence
and with canine moderation.
They’re there for him in waiting,
and he never wears them out.

“The Necessary Brevity of Pleasures” by Samuel Hazo from A Flight to Elsewhere. © Autumn House Press, 2005.

From the Writers Almanac on April 25, 2017.

 

Wobblyogi Wednesday – Learning to Breathe

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I am fighting a battle; I fear I am losing. It started as a cute blossom filled spring-time allergy that morphed into an angry full-blown, noisy nose blowing, scratchy throat coughing, body aching, ugly cold. I continue to fight with a steady stream of tea, oregano drops, and uplifting mantras like “I am healthy and happy…I am healthy and happy….I breathe freely and efficiently”…. to no avail.

This situation comes at a most inconvenient time while I’m trying to learn how to breathe. You heard me….I’m trying to learn how to breathe. Sure, I know how to automatically breathe, but not as efficiently, smoothly and mindfully as I’d like. I’m reading The Yoga of Breath by Richard Rosen. I have yet to work on the suggested practices because….you know…my current battle with snot.

Why do I need to learn how to breathe better? Rosen writes,

She [The efficient breather] breathes slowly, which streamlines the breath, with the free and easy movement of diaphragm, engaging the entire torso (in fact the entire body). She mostly breathes through the nose, which filters, warms or cools as needed, and humidifies the breath. Nose breathing naturally slows the exhale, because the nostrils offer more resistance o the breath than the mouth, and gives the lungs enough time to extract the maximum amount of oxygen and energy from each breath. With the correct proportion of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body, which dilate the blood vessels, blood and oxygen circulate smoothly and easily through the efficient breather’s body and brain. The full excursion of the diaphragm and the well-toned abdominals massage internal organs, like the heart and intestines, and so improve digestion and elimination. Efficient breathing activates the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system and the relaxation response. In all, the efficient breather is much calmer, more clearheaded, and probably healthier and happier, than her inefficient friend.

At the moment, I am clearly not an efficient breather. I can feel the shallowness of my breath that makes me feel anxious and annoyed with myself. Perhaps, my current battle makes me appreciate the need for slow, sustained breathing more than I would otherwise.

Maybe I have better motivation to breathe my best when I can.

I learned about Richard Rosen on the Yoga Land Podcast. Thank you, Andrea Ferretti!! Check it out at https://www.acast.com/yogaland/richardrosenonlookingbacktogoforward

Wishing all of you smooth breathing,

Wobblyogi

Yoga Poem – Be Kind by Michael Blumenthal

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Not merely because Henry James said
there were but four rules of life—
be kind be kind be kind be kind—but
because it’s good for the soul, and,
what’s more, for others; it may be
that kindness is our best audition
for a worthier world, and, despite
the vagueness and uncertainty of
its recompense, a bird may yet wander
into a bush before our very houses,
gratitude may not manifest itself in deeds
entirely equal to our own, still there’s
weather arriving from every direction,
the feasts of famine and feasts of plenty
may yet prove to be one, so why not
allow the little sacrificial squinches and
squigulas to prevail? Why not inundate
the particular world with minute particulars?
Dust’s certainly all our fate, so why not
make it the happiest possible dust,
a detritus of blessedness? Surely
the hedgehog, furling and unfurling
into its spiked little ball, knows something
that, with gentle touch and unthreatening
tone, can inure to our benefit, surely the wicked
witches of our childhood have died and,
from where they are buried, a great kindness
has eclipsed their misdeeds. Yes, of course,
in the end so much comes down to privilege
and its various penumbras, but too much
of our unruly animus has already been
wasted on reprisals, too much of the
unblessed air is filled with smoke from
undignified fires. Oh friends, take
whatever kindness you can find
and be profligate in its expenditure:
It will not drain your limited resources,
I assure you, it will not leave you vulnerable
and unfurled, with only your sweet little claws
to defend yourselves, and your wet little noses,
and your eyes to the ground, and your little feet.

“Be Kind” by Michael Blumenthal from No Hurry. © Etruscan Press, 2012.

From the Writers Almanac April 12th, 2017

Wobblyogi Wednesday – Dance Mom Meditation

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Here is the meditation that helped me emotionally survive a weekend of dance competition. Almost.

Our late start Saturday morning thankfully gave me time to sit for 20 minutes.

The solidity of the floor is always best for a long straight spine but hotel room carpets always feel threatening to me. So, I sat comfortably on the pillowy bed.  I closed my eyes and felt my breath. Then I started to listen for all the noises around me, loud and quiet. The hum of machines, slamming doors, cars passing on the road, people talking, water running, children running, As my mind noticed all the noises, I quietly said to myself, “There is noise but I am still. There is noise but I am still. There is noise but I am still.” I didn’t have to be moved by the noise and sensory chaos. I tried to memorize the feeling of noticing noise without the need to be moved by it. The feeling of being the calm center of a storm, the feeling of channeling Aristotle’s unmoved mover.

I sat in my pillow nest enjoying the quiet center of a noisy day.

The 20 minutes made a world of a difference sitting in the loud auditorium. There is noise but I am still.

I thought I won the day. I defeated the fatigue of watching dance all day. I was confident of my yogic super powers.

The awards began past 10:00 pm that evening. After 15 minutes I folded and found myself hunched over as if child’s pose. My serenity lost.

I wasn’t ready for the repetitive, auction-like rush of words and numbers. I couldn’t just tune out, after all I was waiting to hear about how our dancers did. What to do? How can I be aware and engaged but not burdened and fatigued?

What helped was commiserating with other moms just as tired and invested as I was. It didn’t take away our fatigue but the jokes, sighs and laughter sure made it bearable. Sometimes meditation works and sometimes we just need to laugh with a friend to get through difficult hours of waiting.

Next competition I’m going in with all the support I can muster: snacks, meditation and friends.

May I focus beyond my achy back, hungry tummy and overloaded eyes and ears to be in the present and enjoy our girls dance through the long days with grace, skill and beauty.

Wishing you all laughter and quiet, as needed,

Wobblyogi

That’s my dance baby flying strong in the air. Proud mom moment 🙂

 

 

 

Wobblyogi Wednesday: Book Club Workshop and Eats

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Last weekend our yoga book club met to talk, practice, eat, watch a documentary and talk some more. The three hours flew by. Jacqueline lead us through a beautiful asana practice inspired by mantras from the book.  We talked about the difference between ambition and greed, between pain and suffering. We talked about what we liked about the book and what we didn’t like. We talked beyond the book about the challenges of a home practice, about how we came to join the book club.  We watched and talked about the documentary: Yoga Is. It was movie night, book club and tea time rolled into one. What a wonderful way to spend a Spring Sunday afternoon!

Usually after practice we rush back to our respective lives. What a welcomed treat to sit and laugh with my fellow yogis.

Our snack menu included items to balance Spring Kapha flavored with heat building spices of ginger and black pepper.

Corn Tacos with Tofu and Bitter Greens Scramble

Cucumber Slices with Hummus and Feta Crumbles

Dates stuffed with Crystallized Ginger and Almonds

Roasted Chickpeas

Spiced Ginger Tea

All of the snacks were easy to assemble. The most “cooking” I did was the tofu scramble. The “heat inviting” meal ironically required very little fire to prepare.

Here are a few directions.

For the Corn Tacos (less gluten and dairy helps balance Kapha): Break up a box of extra firm tofu. Add any spice mix of your choice to the broken up pieces. I used a spring spice mix with turmeric, fennel, cumin, ginger, black pepper and chili powder. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a wide pan or wok. Add tofu. Let it dry out and even brown on one side before you move the pieces around. You can take the tofu out of the pan or just have it waiting on one side of the pan, while you wilt some greens (spinach, arugula, chard). You can also add onions or garlic, if you like. I didn’t. Once wilted, toss greens with tofu and your filling is done!Warm some corn tortillas with ghee, butter or an oil of your choice. Add filling. Maybe top with shredded carrots or avocado slices. Enjoy.

The stuffed dates were simply crystallized ginger and almonds pulsed together into a grainy consistency. Stuff the mixture into de-seeded Medjool dates.

The cucumber slices were just that. Sliced cucumbers topped with hummus and sprinkled with feta.

The roasted chickpeas (deep frying is tastier but not very healthy) were drained canned chickpeas, tossed with vinegar, oil and a spice mix (I used the same spring spice mix as the tofu) and baked at 400 degrees until crispy. Between 30-40 minutes. During cooking you’ll need to moves the peas around to get an even bake. That’s it.

The spiced tea was regular tea with milk, a touch of sugar, spiced with ginger and black pepper.

If you couldn’t join us, I hope you can find the time to enjoy the book, the movie and the snacks with your friends. Next time, join us.

Looking forward to our next book club meeting in late summer,

The Wobblyogi

 

 

http://yogaismovie.com/

http://www.judithhansonlasater.com/lly2/

My favorite Ayurveda Cookbook is this one by Kate O’Donnell. I modified the taco recipe offered in this book. It has many other recipes that are easy to to prepare and have easy to find ingredients. O’Donnell reminds us that Ayurvedic cooking is not limited to Indian food!

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