Back to Blog

I took a break from blogging. Why? Because. That should be enough of a reason.

Back Home

Back home. No lizards to write about. No agaves. Just back in the real world digging through a stack of stuff. Stacks of stuff. Stuff sacks.

Moving on and forward.

Final Exam

Today they take the final exam. So what does this mean? There will be no more exams? Ever? Wow. Give me that final. Or not. Cuz then it would all be over. And life is good.

Every moment is a final exam of sorts. It's literally a "test" to see how we will decide in the moment. Will our past be the decider? Will our ego/identity? Will our soul? And how are we doing on the test? We give ourselves the grade. We give ourselves the choices we make, and therefore the life we are leading. So if you like your life, you are passing. If not, you might want to study some more.

Tapas - it's a main course

Our life is Tapas. Tapas, all day, everyday.  If we choose to live like that. And though it may seem extreme or impractical to have a daily diet of tapas (pun intended), I say “serve it up!” It’s coming anyway, so we might as well make the most of it.  And that is to have our life be our tapas. Our “austerity.” Our “heat.” Our practice. 

the NOW

It is beyond beautiful today. Right now. Now. The weather can shift in a instant, so I can stay inside and type, or I can go NOW and enjoy something that I often take for granted. NOW to enjoy that which will never be the same again. This NOW is already a new NOW and the weather is already shifting.

And so I am.

YMONA

YMONA - Yours, Mine, Ours, None of the above, All of the above

Artists are expected to have influences on their work. People constantly ask me as a musician, “Who do you sound like? Who are your influences?” basically, who do you want to be?  It’s been hard to answer those questions. Do I go back to what music I listened to on the radio growing up? Do I go back to what was played in our house that I didn’t necessarily choose to listen to, but was expose to anyway? Some of the jazz greats and American Idol top 12 say that they owe everything to their parents who exposed them to (fill in the blank) style of music, whether it be gospel, jazz, whatever.  So when do we stop imitating and start being ourselves? When have we assimilated those influences and even though I loved and still love Ella Fitzgerald, and learned every nuance, every riff, every breath of her singing, when am I not just an Ella imitator?  And then there is the question of plagiarism. When am I honoring Ella and when am I ripping her off?

It’s a fine line and at some point, apparently it needs to be drawn. I’m not sure how. I just know that I want to sit on this for awhile. 

Parts is Parts

“Only the adult blocks free expression by separating the parts from the whole. The child says “I run,” “I jump,” “I sing,” not “I am toeing out,” “my shoulders are back,” “I walk on the balls of my feet," until the adult has split his attention, making details the focus.” 

--- Mabel Ellsworth Todd, The Thinking Body, pg 281

Ok, the alignment thing never ends with me. Maybe it's because I'm teaching alignment right now, so it's quite in the forefront of my mind. Today yoga asanas seem to have become a series of 3-5 cues about where the feet, pelvis, arms, and focus go. So students learn the poses as a series of cues, instead of having their initial experience of the pose be from the essence, or energetic of the pose. The whole of the pose. The Whole. Trikonsansa. What are you? When I ask my students "who are you in this pose? What are you saying in this pose? What is the "personality" of this pose?" it's almost as if they have no idea what I'm talking about. Especially when they keep asking me where their hips go or what they are "supposed" to look like. Sometime I think to myself "who cares - how does it feel?" "How does this pose relate to you? to your life?" And sometimes I say it. Out loud. In class. Without apology. 

So doesn't it seem that this approach is taking us away from the Whole? And isn't yoga about union - self with Self - aka the Whole. So we have dissected into parts the very vehicle (yoga asanas) that was supposed to bring us to wholeness in the first place? 

Hmmmmmmm.

There. I said it. Out loud. In a blog. Without apology.

You may wish I'd just shut up already. But I won't. Without apology. But with love.