LOVE this woman.

While not big on New Years Resolutions I am big on changing things that aren't working for me and I currently have some of those "things" going on in my life, and I am pondering the future.

I just read this on Facebook. Here is my Facebook Page if you'd like to be on it.
Such wisdom from Pema Chodron below:

 LEAVING THE NEST

All too frequently we relate like timid birds who don't dare to leave the nest. Here we sit in a nest that's getting pretty smelly and that hasn't served its function for a very long time. No one is arriving to feed us. No one is protecting us and keeping us warm. And yet we keep hoping mother bird will arrive.

We could do ourselves the ultimate favor and finally get out of that nest. That this takes courage is obvious. That we could use some helpful hints is also clear. We may doubt that we're up to being a warrior-in-training. But we can ask ourselves this question: "Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear?"
Excerpted from "The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times", page 7.Heart Advice weekly quotes from Pema Chodron, courtesy of Shambhala Publications.

"You time" Time for you and only you. Hope you get some.

You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.
–Joseph Campbell

I love this so much. It's the perfect message.

Our loyalties must include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth

Parabola Magazines Facebook status update today:
Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations.

We have broadened the circle of those we love. We have now organized what are modestly described as super-powers, which include groups of people from divergent ethnic and cultural backgrounds working in some sense together — surely a humanizing and character building experience. If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth. 

Many of those who run the nations will find this idea unpleasant. They will fear the loss of power. We will hear much about treason and disloyalty. Rich nation-states will have to share their wealth with poor ones. But the choice, as H. G. Wells once said in a different context, is clearly the universe or nothing.

–Carl Sagan, "Cosmos," Random House, 1980, p. 339

Why we practice

The question we need to ask ourselves is whether there is any place we can stand in ourselves where we can look at all that’s happening around us without freaking out, where we can be quiet enough to hear our predicament, and where we can begin to find ways of acting that are at least not contributing to further destabilization.
–Ram Dass
Thanks to Parabloa magazine for the quote

I've been at births and I have had a loved one die in my arms and...

Finally someone else speaks of the correlation between birth and death. I have never been to a birth that hasn't reminded me of that moment when my grandma took her last breath in my arms. Its not morbid or sad in anyway. It is real life and is something that we will all face both at the beginning and end of our lives. 
Thank you Dancing Star Birth for posting this video on your Facebook Page today. Poignant and touching, this video chronicles the last days of the life of a man named Lord Gould. He says that when you really know you are about to die "Life screams at you in its intensity". Let us not be afraid to die or afraid to live while we are here. Namaste friends.  

I love Parabola magazine

Have you ever wondered why the Buddha offered Four Noble Truths? Why not just Two—Suffering and the Way Out? Better yet, why not skip straight to the point: The 8-fold Path out of Suffering? Did the Awakened One stretch out the explanation because he lived in a leisurely, pre-literate culture and didn’t have access to the many examples of Steps to A-New-You that abound on the internet and bestseller lists?
No, the Buddha knew that liberation takes place in the wild and woolly space between the recognition of suffering (in one of its infinite guises, even mild boredom at our unrelieved success) and our conscious awareness of stepping on a clearly defined path. Awakening—or the movement towards awakening—takes place in those times when the bubble of ego is popped and you are in pieces and overwhelmed. The work of awakening takes place in that wild interval of not knowing.
“Those times, when you absolutely cannot get it back together, are the most rich and powerful times in our lives,” teaches contemporary Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön. In such moments we look at life and ourselves in a kind of detached wonderment--and sometimes we are met by another kind of awareness that seems to take mercy on us—a free attention from another level. It can feel as if we are being seen and embraced by a higher consciousness that is there all the time (inside and outside) only we are too caught up in our little world to notice. Madame de Salzmann called it a “look from above.” At certain moments, we are joined by this attention in our efforts.
In the “Burning World” issue of Parabola, Rafe Martin retells “The Brave Little Parrot,” a traditional Buddhist Jataka tale—or past life story of the Buddha. Here is my retelling of his retelling: A little grey parrot lived in a green forest. One day a storm sparked a fire that set the forest ablaze. The little parrot reacted in the usual way, flying away to safety. Yet because of her past efforts and many other factors in her conditioning, she couldn’t forget the sight of the trees and animals that couldn’t escape. When she reached a river where many of the other animals were huddling, she didn’t fly on to safety. She dipped her wings in water and flew back to the burning forest to shake a few drops on the blaze. The other animals thought her effort was ridiculous, pathetic—such a tiny effort against such an out-of-control fire. But she flew back again and again. Finally, her brave effort attracted the gaze of a god—who wept at her sincerity (or in other versions banged clouds together and made it rain). With this special help from above, the fire is put out.
At certain moments in life, we cannot deny our suffering. At certain moments we see all the way down to root of it—that we are limited and usually in ignorance of the forest in which we dwell. We spend our time and efforts desperately wanting things to be other than they are, blind to immense fact of our conditioning—we live in an inextricable web of causes and conditions, just like that parrot in the forest. Yet sometimes, instead of trying to fly away and relieve our suffering as quickly as possible—we dip our wings in the living water of understanding. We turn back and bring the cool water of understanding to our situation. And sometimes making the brave effort to be in the fire—to see and feel the heat of our situation-- attracts help from above. It might even attract help from below—or transform the way we look at our lives.
“If you are working inwardly, Nature will help you,” taught G.I. Gurdjieff. “For the man who is working, Nature is a sister of charity; she brings him what he has need of for his work.” From the perspective of awakening, a forest fire is not a calamity but a crisis that brings the ultimate healing, liberation from suffering.

And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,
no matter how long,
but only by a spiritual journey,
a journey of one inch,
very arduous and humbling and joyful,
by which we arrive at the ground at our feet,
and learn to be at home.
―Wendell Berry: "A Spiritual Journey"

Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know."
―Wisława Szymborska from her Nobel Lecture: "The Poet and the World," 1996


Parabola magazine www.parabloa.org 

I ♥ Thich Nhat Hanh. We don't want to miss our life.

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” -Thich Nhat Hanh

Love "your" tree. Its beautiful♥

Just spent the weekend studying with the one and only Judith Lasater and she recommended we watch this video, and I just did. So amazing. BTW, if you ever get a chance to do a workshop/training/bask in Judith's wisdom a while (in any city) I highly recommend taking advantage. I am full of gratitude.

She is coming back to Vancouver in September for a Restorative Yoga Teacher training. For more info go to www.judithlasater.com OR you can go to www.soulspringwellness.ca or email Christina directly at christina@soulspringwellness.ca. *A heads up that this woman has never had a workshop that hasn't sold out in record time.*

Enjoy the video. Thank you Judith Hanson Lasater for all you gave us this weekend.

Read this quote a week ago and haven't been able to get it out of my mind.

"If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem wonderful at all." MICHELANGELO-Renaissance sculptor and painter who spent 4 years lying on his back painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

If you had one wish for Christmas what would it be?

John Lennon answers in the video below:

Peace on Earth.

That implies no violence.

No starving children.

No violent minds.

No violent households.

No frustration.

No fear.

"We think the future is made in your mind"

I've have had quite a few yoga students confide in me lately. This isn't always the greatest time of year for everyone.

I have likely posted this in the past, but I just came across it again in my documents and thought I'd repost. There are some real words of wisdom written here. Keep your chin (s) up and don't lose hope! You know who you are...

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and the Divine. It was never between you and them anyway. -Mother Teresa

its almost 2012!

If you're looking for a 2012 calendar for that special someone I recommend Thich Nhat Hanh's. It's really beautiful and full of lovely quotes from him and artwork by Adam Guan (you can click my pic to enlarge).

Below is a beautiful video of Thay and his calligraphy. I really hope to purchase a piece on his next tour. I didn't have the cash this time around but felt so lucky to hear him speak just the same. Namaste.

Compassion. If you have any enemies, feel compassion for them too.

Meditation is simply about being yourself and knowing who that is.

“It is about coming to realize that you are on a path whether you like it or not, namely the path that is your life.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Amy Purdy talks about imagination. What a hero.

Amy Purdy talks about the power of imagination. She explains how our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but by the choices we make. Imagination allows us to break down borders, to move beyond our circumstances, to create and constantly progress.

Amy Purdy has been through hardships that most of us will never face -- or can even fathom. But what makes her story so incredible is not that fact that she lived a "normal" childhood and spent her high school years as a passionate artist and snowboarder, then traumatically lost both her legs at age 19, but how she has persevered, taking implausible challenges and rising above them.

Today, Amy is an athlete; currently the top ranked adaptive female snowboarder in the world. Amy also spends a good amount of time helping others; specifically those with physical challenges get involved with snowboarding, skateboarding, wakeboarding and other action sports through the organization she co-founded Adaptive Action Sports. Challenging herself while making a positive impact on the world is a true testament to Amy's spirit.

Let everyone that you meet on this day be blessed by you.

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today and this was exactly what I needed to watch. If you watch only one thing all day, let it be this.

This is beautiful. Occupy love.

Love this.

“Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.” ~Buddha