Another rainy day.
I am sitting here drinking the best cup of coffee I think I have ever had before heading to the practice room. The ground is still wet and the earth soft from the drum roll vibration of the rain that has fell for days. My boyfriend Sonnie keeps up with his blog much better than I, and after all he told me to post something new, so here is a little not a lot.
Last night I taught an in store class at Lululemon. This is always an interesting experience with an eclectic mix of students and non-students, teens and seniors.
As the room filled up I asked if the class was anyone's first yoga experience, and a girl in the back bashfully put up her hand hoping that no one would see her. I asked her to come and place her matt next to mine.
I could tell she was about 18, and that she went out the night before and enjoyed what glitter Banff had to offer. She had deep set eyes and was lacking a proper sleep and a proper meal. I smiled remembering the days.
After class, some easy meditation and a resting pose, she got up and looked at me with a different face. The skin of her face had diffused evenly and silenced the crease in her brow, her eyes were sparkling and less vacuous.
She said,
"That was great. I feel different.
It is so nice to get out and do something that makes me feel good in Banff because there is so much partying."
Enough said.
I hugged her and told her about all the free classes offered at the store.
10 minutes later, I was preparing to leave, she was still lingering. She came up and thanked me again with a wide open smile.
I knew she would do yoga for the rest of her life, in some way.
I knew the feeling she had because I am consistently chasing it.
I knew she would have different life choices, maybe not now, but in the years to come.
I felt inextricably linked to her as if she were a part of me.

That was enough to come back again and again.
And again.

The sun is supposed to come up, my boyfriend is supposed to come home, I am moving out of Nicole's.

Big change happening.

Have a good day.

Mysore

Thankyou again to all the beautiful people that made up the tribe of practitioners whom Sarah and I learned from this week. Your dedication, bravery and playfulness inspired!
Sarah and I are looking forward to the 3rd week in July... 20-25th at the Yoga Lounge.
We are also in Calgary at The Yoga Shala for a weekend workshop from the 18th to the 20th.

Ooops

To all you amazing Mysore students... Sarah forgot to email me the pics and won't be back till Monday, so they will be up on Monday night Fo Sho.
Thankyou for all you energy and support.
Natasha, thankyou for the gift (you left before I could give you a kiss!)
We're going camping till Monday... 20+ and azure bly sky.
Sarah and Lydia

Oh Bodhi

I have been experiencing the test of patience lately. Puppy sitting.
Oh, Bodhi.
After he has chewed up the remote, a pen and all the toilet paper, he places his chin on my lap and gratuitously slobbers all over my leg and looks up at me with those big liquid baby browns, and I just melt cause he is oh-so devilishly handsome.
And after he bites my ankles while we are walking and prances just in front of me so that I continue to stumble on him, he sits on me during my meditation and lets out an audibly human sigh. I descend to the place where we are one and the same.
I have had a profound awakening to the realization that I must have been much like my four legged friend when I was a teenager and I am feeling first hand some similar emotions my parents must have had. Knowing that his immaturity is not a personal attack on me, and his mischievous subtleties not attempts to make me tardy or frenetic, or take away my sacred time. He is just a kid after all.
We are becoming good friends and often converse with nature and listen to the trees talking together. We sit quietly and shake hands with the twigs and the grass.
My patience seems thinner when I am getting up at 4 am to practice before the Mysore classes begin. (Pictures coming soon!) This week my respect level and honor for Mysore teachers the world over, and Nicole (Bodhi's rightful mum) has ascended to heavenly proportions.

The word "buddha" means "one who has achieved bodhi." Bodhi is also frequently translated as "awakening." I often feel awake in his presence... he is undoubtedly an instrumental teacher.

I couldn't get a picture of him because he doesn't sit still for long enough, but you would be smitten too by his gold and tawny locks.

Eka Pada Galavasana (picture). I feel my shoulders in places I have never before felt, tactile sensations deep in caverns and crevasses that have been sleeping in ignorant bliss. The feeling of soreness and tenderness a residue of change... or maybe it's just trying to keep Bodhi on the leash... either way, I love it.

I have been really inspired by Kino Macgregor's Ashtanga clips on You Tube... stunning. Wow.

Two Things of Beauty

Sometimes an affinity for love can take place in me. This last couple of weeks I have fallen in love and become more devoted to two beautiful things
The first being my boyfriend Sonnie. For my birthday (27!) he flew me out to Smith Rock Oregon to climb and relax for a week. I found a new love for rock and a peaceful place in myself doing my practice in front of a fire over a steaming mug of coffee after a luxurious 8-10 hour sleep. Hiking and sitting quietly by the cliffs, watching the colossal wingspan of the drifters overhead and allowing the wind to swirl ringlets into my wisps of hair. I felt a true communion with nature. In the evening of our last day we sat in the hot tub and watched the stars overhead with a glass of wine... feeling bigger than I've ever known yet as small as the pieces of star dust that make up the vast galaxy. I got to experience Sonnie in a different light, training for a project that is really important to him. I studied him closely, and as simply as I can say it, am truly inspired by his life practice and the way that he styles the art of living in vivid colour.
A trip I'll never forget. The pictures are of the cliffs and one of us warming up before climbing the monkey face behind us. Sonnie is off to Scotland to redpoint climb one of his aspired routes by a castle over the sea... wish him luck!

The second thing being the practice of yoga. I came back to an inspired and passionate teacher, Mark Darby. My first practice after a week of sporadic and public sessions, was a trip into an awareness matrix. Extreme attentiveness and hightened sensitivity took over my being, coming from deep within myself. Every time I take a step away from the Ashtanga practice I come back feeling more engrossed with it's endless possibilities for evolution.
Darby keeps a tight class with an emphasis on facing your own personal challenges. Each student this week was completely present with their weak and dull areas, aware of when they were not harmonizing with gravity and becoming sharper in the knowing of the placement of their limbs.
I surrendered myself to having a teacher and ended up with a whole new practice! I don't even know the names to the asanas yet! These postures I have hardly even looked at on my own- for fear of injury and for practicing contentment for where I am at. I know there is no benefit for me from forcing, and having a clean pathway for growth has an ease and a natural feel to it. Becoming something can stop, and being and doing can take place, creating silence in my brain. Having someone with so much experience believing in me more than I do in myself is an amazing thing, and for this I am grateful.
Having Darby at the studio has such sweetness to it. Today he shared with us a day in his life, what his practice consists of and what he thinks about. To hear and feel how passionate and energetic he is for something that I feel equal proportions of enthusiasm for, makes my heart swell. He is still so vital with his generosity to teach and it is so obvious that he is in love with yoga. May he be blessed. Please check out his incalculable well of knowledge... sattvayogashala.com

"There is no beauty without love and no love without beauty." Vanda Scaravelli