They Call Me the Breeze…
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credit to kinshuksunil and creative commons
I’m sitting on my back porch listening to JJ Cale. I just finished practicing Hatha yoga outside with a view of the lake and mountians at sunset in Nelson, BC. With the sky sponge-painted blue and pink, I stood on my high perch and started to breathe. I expanded into the poses and reached inward for a sense of balance. The Two Sides take time before coming together to meet. Gravity is the operative force.
Blockage and change happen together to create flow. When one path is blocked another is found, and a connection is made that was never there before. I enter a new place and take stock: what have I learned? How have I changed? What has stayed the same?
I look at the changes first. I think of leaving Yasodhara Ashram after 7 months as a student and a teacher. I think of the moments and choices between then/there and here/now. I see where Reality has conspired to help me. Awareness and feeling guide my way and I am in a much larger world.
A friend recently observed a fly as it hit against the kitchen window, over and over. The screen was open nearby but it insisted on moving to where it could clearly see ahead. It wouldn’t accept that the barrier in front of it was something it could not see.
My friend caught the fly with a cup and piece of paper, and released it outside. The fly spun aimless and giddy in its freedom, then flew off into a vast open world.
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So did someone catch you in a paper cup?
yes actually
I left the ashram after a bit of a push from a swami… needed it to free myself from stagnation. It proved that a compassionate act can be forceful, and doesn’t have to be nice.
Thanks for the post Brian. We’re glad one blockage led you here.
A heckling first comment is a good sign
I liked this observation…”The screen was open nearby but it insisted on moving to where it could clearly see ahead.”
Do you ever feel guilty for impeding the freedom of critters with our walls and windows?
I once spent an hour freeing 2 cedar bugs who were trapped between insulating plastic wrap and a leaky window. I was choked to find them there after my diligent work of double-side taping the window frame and hair-blowing the plastic into place. I peeled open the plastic in the hopes that they would fly out, but instead they decided to walk over the double-sided tape – and got stuck enroute. I used a pen tip to unstick one leg so the bug could take a step, and then the other leg, repeat, repeat…It was both tedious and glorious. I felt like we were working together towards freedom
i’m trying to think of why these creatures want to get out so badly… why we build such enclosed, sealed-off homes. we build these safe, comfortable places for ourselves but they seem to create the urge to get out! go places! see what the world is all about!
im happy to hear about your buggy rescue
full of symbolism
Brian it is wonderful that you were able to make such a profound and seamless shift from the Ashram to The Seed. I find that Change becomes difficult the older we get. The worry about whether or not we’ve made the right decision or not, what the future holds, often keeps us in stasis and results in inaction. We only see as far as our imagination allows. At a time when I was struggling with change in my life I found this quote from Goerte which unburdened me of the heavy weight that comes with decision. After many years I still have this quote hanging on my wall and I often find myself retuning to it when standing at a cross roads. It reminds me that there is no wrong path.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back– Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
that really resonates, thanks for sharing that Julia