Hello Fellow Body-Mind-Hearts –

It’s okay to cry and not know the reason. It’s okay to have a day where you feel low energy or down even if you slept well the night before. It’s okay to feel angry and want to throw a whole set of china (or maybe two) at a wall without a particular cause. Why? Because we are connected and embedded inexorably in this web of life we call planet Earth. And although each of us has a sense of our individual self we cannot survive or thrive without this interconnection. And as a result we can feel for and with the seemingly others of our planet…humans, other animal beings, the green ones, the planet herself. And right now there is a lot to cry about and want to smash things about!

Our western culture focuses to a fault on individualism and the ability to ‘make something of yourself’. But the truth is that none of us would be here without others…we were birthed by someone, we were taught by someone, we are held by many beings all the time. Take a moment to close your eyes and become aware of each person and element who contributed to your last meal…the seed, the planter, the tender, the rain and sunshine, the harvester, the packer and shipper, the stocker, the sales clerk, the preparer and more. Or consider all the hands that touched your place of residence and the natural elements contained therein.

WOW…we simply don’t…can’t… exist alone.

To tend community as an inherent need is an important practice. To acknowledge our need for connection and witnessing is central to our wellbeing. We need to find the circle(s) that feed and tend us and that we can, in turn, nurture so we can know that we are not alone even when we feel utterly alone. Community circles can be small or large, can hold us in different ways and allow us to offer our unique gifts in the ways we can. One of the amazing gifts of the last few years is that I was able to stay connected to my Seattle yoga community during and after my move to Central Oregon. Words cannot express how potent and meaningful this has been. At the same time, I have had to slowly seek out new circles of embrace that meet me in new and fresh ways. And deeper than my communities of humans is the ongoing relationship I tend with the earth and her waters and knowing my belonging through gravity and touch. 

I invite you to tend your connections. To know a circle can be composed of two or more beings that nourish and cherish and uphold each other. Make this a calling. Make this a practice. Offer your gifts back in love and service for all that you have been given. I cherish you as part of my practice circle.

Guiding Lights…
Krista Tippett and OnBeing has long been a source of inspiration and comfort for me. As their website states…Welcome to the On Being Project. We describe ourselves as a media and public life organization; you can find us in the studio, and out doing fieldwork in key sectors of culture.We explore the big questions of meaning at the intersection of spiritual inquiry, science, social healing, and the arts: What does it mean to be human? How do we want to live? Who will we be to each other?

Join us and a beautiful constellation of curious people and communities through: On Being Studios (home of the Peabody-Award winning On Being and Poetry Unbound), the Lab for the Art of Living (where we incubate tools, like our soft-launched Wisdom app, that help anchor wisdom in your own life and community), and our Quiet Convenings and not so quiet Gatherings (where we bring people together into a different quality of relationship).

May we acknowledge daily the deep embeddedness of our lives with every other living being

May we tend to the communities of body and heart that support our being

May we allow space for the emotions we feel both for our individual lives and for those around the world

May we offer kindness, compassion and beauty everywhere we go and in every interaction 

Practice Prompts:

• Take some time to lie down on the ground and tune into the embrace of gravity. The gentle yet firm way that you are held against the surface of the earth no matter what shape your body is in, or how conflicted your mind, or how broken your heart or how tortured your soul. You belong here…can you feel it?
• Give your self permission to feel the feels even if you don’t quite know where the emotion is arising from or if it feels contrary to the current experience of your life. The only way to get to the other side of it is to feel through it and honor it as a way to be in deep connection with our siblings around the world.
• Take time to honor and visit the more than human beings that surround us daily…take some time outside or sit with an animal or plant inside or sing with the trees or take a bath and sit in awe of the water or offer a prayer to the fire. Be creative in your ways of honoring your connection to the elements and the other beings of this planet.
• Schedule a free 20 minute Exploratory Session to learn more about what I offer in my private sessions and how I might be able to help you learn the language of your body and ways to follow it’s wisdom.

Upcoming Live Streaming Practice Opportunities:

• Slow Flow Yoga, Mondays, 10-11:30am PT, live stream through Seattle Yoga Arts
• Continuum Inquiry Playshop, Monday, April 11, 5:30-7:30pm PT live stream through Body of Insight
• All Levels Yoga, Sunday, April 17, 10-11:30am PT, live stream through Two Dog Yoga
• Yoga Nidra Practice, Sunday, April 17, 5:30-7pm PT, live stream through Two Dog Yoga
• SAVE THE DATE…Summer Renewal Mini Retreat with myself, Ellie Rose, Claudette and Nicole, Saturday, June 11, 1-6pm PT
• On Demand Yoga Practices…All Levels… through Seattle Yoga Arts (practice with me anytime, anywhere!)

Inspirational Wisdom:

Osani, The Circle Game (see picture above)
Children gather to take part in circle games all over the world.
Among the Efé people of the Ituri rainforest, kids play the Osani game.
Osani is the Efé word for love.

Children begin the Osani game by sitting in a circle, feet touching, all
connected. Each child in turn names a round object: the sun (oi), the
moon (tiba), an eye (ue) – and then goes on to name a figurative expression
– the circle of the family, togetherness, or the cycle of the moon.
As players fail to come up with a term that is “circular” they drop out.

Eventually, only one remains. Tradition has it that this player will
live a long and prosperous life.