Product of Compression

Scared of my shadow...

2012-02-09T17:52:00.000-08:00

I get superstitious about some things... it's true. I used to have the collected works of Emily Dickenson by my bed in college -- and pretty much any time I opened it it would speak directly to my situation. There have been other books too. And this crazy guy who does amazing horoscopes... I don't believe in such things -- but him... Sometimes I think it's just a matter of what you want to hear -

Out Of Breath

2012-01-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

January 28 A few months ago I told a teacher, who was talking to me and a friend about breath and yoga, that breath-work – pranayama – made me panicky. I get anxious in the state of trying to control my own intake – the feeling would well, suddenly, that I would not be able to breathe, that there is not enough air. This is a little ironic, I suppose, as the purpose is to learn how much

Practice for life.

2012-01-16T04:30:00.001-08:00

January 16 This morning I came to the mat distracted. I resisted the beginning. I started late. I missed the breath work entirely trying to work on half lotus at the same time. It is amazing that I can begin to work on half lotus. I injured my hip in 2010 and through the middle of last year I couldn’t even sit cross-legged. I am wavering in my dedication to something else today.

Disapointment.

2012-01-15T07:29:00.001-08:00

January 15 For the past two weeks I’ve been quietly assessing what personal practice means to me… I thought, at the beginning of this project, that this endeavor might have a profound effect on my life – it has. A week ago I went to another workshop on personal practice. This time, it was less warm and fuzzy – more practical. More practiced. Devotion. Discipline. These were the things

Good Morning!

2012-01-02T05:14:00.000-08:00

January 2, 2012 Last evening I went to a two hour yoga workshop aimed at marking the passage of the year. It was a relief – I had somehow frittered away the actual midnight passage being cranky at my children who, though too young, insisted on staying up. My last bad mommy moment of 2011. I was amazed to look back at the year. What do you bring with you? she asked. What do you leave

I laughed, I cried... Happy New Year.

2011-12-31T09:00:00.001-08:00

December 31 I have the desire just now – as I often do – to go to the Oxford English Dictionary and search the roots and the variations of the words surrounding singularity. single. single mother. alone. lone. lonely. one. I was taught that any manifestation of the feeling of loneliness is, in fact, simply a result of the human condition. I think that I am working in my life to combat that

Gravity

2011-12-15T03:15:00.000-08:00

December 15 I was glad to come to the mat this morning. I kept my sweater on for a while. It’s pitch dark and cold – I lit a candle in front of me. I still struggle to chant, but I love being near a flame… All I wanted to do was put my forehead to the floor. I stayed in child’s pose for a long time. The ground. The day will be filled with my control… doctors and teachers and lawyers …

Beginning

2011-12-12T03:21:00.000-08:00

December 12 This morning I’m thinking about sequencing. I was thinking about it on the mat – about how I’m not sure what to do…I’m not even sure what I did this morning – I know there was a little movement and a little twisting… I didn’t want to go upside down, I didn’t want to bend backwards. In part because I don’t feel like I really understand how to warm up those parts – and how to build

The Inner Mat...

2011-12-09T06:42:00.001-08:00

December 9 I didn’t practice every day this week. It’s true. I admit it. Funny how it all works… Last week I gave away my mat – to someone who needed it more than me – to someone I want to have it, and who having it means a lot to me… but it’s funny, for the week it took until my (new fancy SO much prettier and cushier consumeristic) mat came, I felt adrift. I think that’s a good

All sorts of breaks.

2011-12-05T03:32:00.001-08:00

December 5 The other day I was working with a yoga teacher who focuses on breath – focuses on personal practice. I was a bit of an onlooker – but it was important for me to be thinking about this deep connection to the practice. At the end, I asked him about Warrior. My knee has been tweaking in the pose, and I thought maybe it was just a little out of allignment. I

In the realm of action

2011-11-30T05:22:00.001-08:00

November 30 I am thinking today about the distinction between yoga and stretching. Was I connected this morning? I was more connected when I was standing on my hands than when I was in shivasana… Sometimes I feel, when I am coming back to myself it works slowly, in layers. Some people say just breathe. Some people say just show up. Of course, at some point you just have to do the

The bell.

2011-11-28T03:36:00.001-08:00

I interviewed David Emerson (the author I talked about last week who does work with yoga and trauma) last week, and it was so interesting to talk to him. He started out as social worker – but found he couldn’t get to healing through talking. “We just focus on the body. We don’t bring the issues into the room at all.” The body has its own wisdom. We can heal through breath. Breathing.

Challenge/Goal/Posture

2011-11-21T06:44:00.001-08:00

November 21 I’m reading a book – Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga by David Emerson and Elizabeth Hooper (North Atlantic Books: 2011). I became interested in the book a few weeks ago, when I came across a workshop Emerson ran last summer for war photographers with PTSD. There’s a grid on page 96: Challenge/Goal/Posture. I’m so in love with this idea. For the past few weeks I have been

A Metaphor

2011-11-15T04:00:00.001-08:00

November 15 Lately I’ve been working on letting go. I don’t mean this in any sort of metaphorical sense. I am learning to make the pose simple – be it a standing pose or a sequence of poses or a resting pose. And I have been paying attention to all that is moving around what should be moving that doesn’t help at all. I clench my jaw. I furrow my brow. I begin to notice that all the

Rest and Motion

2011-11-13T03:40:00.001-08:00

November 13, 2011 For most of my life waking up was easy. For years and years I would wake up quickly, two minutes before my alarm went off, my head clear. Even on the days I didn’t want to get up, I was awake. This helped because a lot of what I do is done in the morning. I get up early, so that I can start the day while the world is quiet. This has always been a really important and

Familiar Haunts

2011-11-07T02:32:00.000-08:00

November 7 Saturday was a hard day, physically. I didn’t want to get out of bed, and was feeling bummed out about that, too. I went to class and I noticed something strange – something that I don’t really notice when I am doing my home practice – which I suppose is because at home I am targeting specific things and points on the body… I noticed I could feel everywhere I had ever

Backward Circles

2011-11-04T03:58:00.000-07:00

November 4 My daughter is 10. She is thin and lovely and very, very bendy. I was never like her. I remember being flexible – but I never had her budding popular look or her way of ease about me. I can only watch in awe. She springs and glides into dancer and king pigeon touching her toes to her nose with the same attitude as she throws her book bag to the middle of the floor.

Holding

2011-11-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

November 3 My body has been giving me a pretty hard time this week. It hurts. It makes the things that are best for it hardest – it makes the things that are worst easiest. It over reacts. So I didn’t go to Sweet Teacher’s class on Monday. As a result, I knew what I was in for – Long pose holds – and I dreaded it all week. While I have been finding my way to the mat every day, not with

Letting Go

2011-10-31T03:59:00.000-07:00

October 31, 2011 I have been thinking a lot about the practice of letting go. The support of the positive – as if there were two electrical charges at work. Letting go of that which does not serve your goal. That’s complicated, isn’t it. What goal at what time? When does determination switch over into holding on? It helps me to reframe the idea that the things I want to do

My Voice

2011-10-27T03:25:00.000-07:00

October 27 Chanting and I, we go way back… I learned to chant when I was – somewhere around 5, I suppose. Fruit cake that I am. It was summer with my father – I remember he wore only white cotton and black china flat shoes – he cooked completely vegan – and he meditated for what seemed like an eternity every day… and he taught me how to chant. Om Mani Padri Om. Om – the sound the

Strength

2011-10-25T04:06:00.000-07:00

October 25, 2011 I think I expect that entry and existence will be greeted with the same energy. But today they are different… Funny, yesterday I was a little dreading Sweet Teacher... her warm ups are so hard. Sometimes they feel like torture -- and I almost didn't go. Of course, what I was expecting was the opposite from what came. She even forgot to have us introduce ourselves -- just

My backbends...

2011-10-24T11:26:00.001-07:00

October 24 A funny thing happened to me, on the way off my mat… Sweet Teacher said to me, as I was lying in happy baby pose/ dead bug pose (which for those of you who don’t know, finds a practitioner on her back with her legs squat open and her feet in her hands – completely open)… Sweet Teacher says to me, “That was one hell of a wheel!” It was a very strange moment. First off – I

The Tree

2011-10-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

October 21 Strength grows – like a child, right in front of me while I feel so weak... Core knowledge – the feeling of form – an understanding of endurance of allowance of courage. The hold of the severed begins… before trust, before understanding, before the fall is in the past. It is fall. The colors and the leaves – they don’t need to be told… hold… let go… face the sun.

Open Heart

2011-10-20T03:32:00.000-07:00

October 20 A smattering of voices come to me this morning as I think about practice. Just after I wrote the last entry, the therapist asked if I had ever used the Metta prayer. Funny how that works. She asked if I had tried saying it for parts of myself… I said I had been saying it for my heart – “what does that mean?” she said… of course, she didn’t mean to say, you have two terminal

Toward Well Healed

2011-10-17T03:54:00.000-07:00

Energy Thinkers Ponder The Future By The New York Times What does — and should — the future of energy and energy policy look like under an Obama administration? (Photo: Getty) Senator Barack Obama has said that

It's a Day for Hope

2008-11-04T02:31:00.001-08:00

Don't forget to vote.Tree fungus could provide green transport fuelOrganism discovered in the Patagonian rainforest produces mixture of chemicals similar to diesel * Alok Jha, green technology correspondent * guardian.co.uk, * Tuesday November 04 2008 00.01 GMT * Article historyA tree fungus could provide green fuel that can be pumped directly into tanks, scientists say. The organism,

The Non-Issue

2008-11-03T03:29:00.000-08:00

AFPThere's an article about how falling gas prices are causing turmoil in the middle east.There's an article about another kidnapping -- the company insists the attack was provoked.My students are writing articles on the candidates positions on oil -- which seems a non-issue now, now that our financial collapse has stabilized prices...I am beginning to wonder -- a year after this project is over

Like Whiskey

2008-11-02T02:18:00.000-08:00

The first modern steel-hulled oil tanker was named the Glückauf. Before that, oil was transported in wood casks.

Recall

2008-10-31T02:24:00.000-07:00

I recall -- I was just coming into Halloween at that scary razor blade time -- somehow I never quite recovered...Be careful out there..WASHINGTON, DC - In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Kaadan, Inc., of Lancaster, PA announced today that it is voluntarily recalling its "Li'l Lite" Halloween Pumpkin Oil Lamps. The product contains a high grade petroleum

Soapbox time, sorry. For mom.

2008-10-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

For as long as I remember knowing about politics, my mother has voted for some stupid candidate.I think she actually voted for Andersen.Today, I was very proud of her. She voted a viable candidate.She said she was ashamed of herself. She said Nader said to vote conscience -- if you are in a landslide state, vote conscious.NO. The whole world, I argued, needs to see us vote a landslide!So --

Ewitness

2008-10-29T02:51:00.000-07:00

I just got an amazing book.OILIt's a DK Eyewitness Book.It has clip art and a million tidbits perfect for learning a thing a day! Now I'll be done too soon! Furthermore, I'm glad I didn't find this earlier -- I never would have known about anything!Clip art, I tell you! Which I can't figure out how to get on here at this moment -- but I will, rest assured.I did not know that when Saddam invated

Regained Their Freedom

2008-10-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

From China View: Gunmen hijack oil ship in Nigerian oil region LAGOS, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Unidentified gunmen on Saturday in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta area attacked two oil vessels and briefly hijacked an oil ship belonging to Canada's Addax Petroleum, local media reported. Lagos-based Channels TV reports said in its website that a group of oil workers including seven French citizens

Of OPEC and Xs

2008-10-27T08:29:00.001-07:00

First off, I didn't know OPEC had a cool looking brand logo. It kind of reminds me of the Target Logo.Over the weekend, OPEC said it would cut oil production by at least 1.5 million barrels a day.Now, I think oil prices should be high. I think we need to divorce ourselves from oil entirely...But really, don't we know the type?Will you help me?no.You need me to be ok...no.Ok; I'll figure it out.

If Companies Communicated

2008-10-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

This from the Canadian Press:Irving among companies fined in 2006 Massachusetts oil spill4 days agoBOSTON — Three companies allegedly responsible for spilling about 68,000 litres of fuel oil into the Chelsea River and Mill Creek in Revere, Mass., have agreed to pay US$312,500 to an environmental restoration fund.The oil was released in 2006 from a pipeline that was under repair on a fuel loading

Let There Be Light

2008-10-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

Starting tomorrow maybe I'll even write again...

Obama Obama Obama

2008-10-24T02:13:00.000-07:00

I'll move on tomorrow...I like too -- gas prices were 2.25 when this was made...

and more Obama

2008-10-23T02:56:00.001-07:00

Obama

2008-10-22T15:40:00.001-07:00

Justice Equality Movement

2008-10-21T02:01:00.000-07:00

Well, that's a good name. Yesterday in the car my son asked if he was a democrat or a republican... Some days it feel like I don't know anything... tomorrow I think I'll look into oil in Darfur.By Alaa ShahineKHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese security forces were struggling through rain and harsh terrain to try to rescue nine Chinese oil workers kidnapped in central Sudan two days ago, the government

A Lifetime of Cover-up

2008-10-20T03:09:00.000-07:00

"QUITO, Ecuador, Oct 15, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Texaco, now owned by Chevron, ordered its employees to destroy reports documenting oil spills in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador where the company is now the subject of a $16.3 billion potential liability in a civil lawsuit, according to an internal company memo released today by the group representing

A Day on the Wire

2008-10-19T02:50:00.000-07:00

Da Nang Bay grapples with oil spill(18-10-2008)DA NANG — Local authorities and rescue forces are striving to contain an oil spill in Da Nang Bay after a landslide smashed an aviation company’s warehouse on Thurday, spilling large amounts of jet fuel into the ocean.The landslide caused by heavy rains on Wednesday night collapsed a 30m long wall of the embankment protecting the company’s warehouse

Youth For Oil

2008-10-18T02:24:00.000-07:00

This is one of the scariest things I've found to date. Their slogan is, "drill here, drill now, pay less."Hearing propaganda come out of the mouths of politicians -- it's different, of course. We know the money angle -- we know that politics are complicated and that there are reasons for one policy or another that have to do with law or larger scale... even if we don't agree...But kids believe.

Privitizing Nigeria

2008-10-17T02:22:00.001-07:00

By Camillus Eboh ABUJA, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Nigeria's oil unions are maintaining their threat of strike action next week over government plans to privatise some downstream units of state oil firm NNPC, despite assurances that a sell-off is not imminent. Nigeria's privatisation agency said it had no immediate plans to sell off any oil and gas businesses, an apparent climb-down after the unions

Transcripts

2008-10-16T01:29:00.001-07:00

SCHIEFFER: Climate change, yes -- has said what both of you have said, and, that is, we must reduce our dependence on foreign oil. When Nixon said it, we imported from 17 to 34 percent of our foreign oil. Now, we're importing more than 60 percent. Would each of you give us a

Hearts and Minds

2008-10-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

Last week I was teaching sources to a bunch of freshmen. I asked if they could guess why the government website would not report Iraqi casualties. One of my favorite guys spoke up, "because who cares?"This is in the Christian Science Monitor today:By Mark Clayton| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor/ October 14, 2008 editionAmid rampant attacks from insurgents in 2004, some US

More Youtube Fun

2008-10-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

My Nigeria; My Texas

2008-10-12T02:50:00.000-07:00

I just wrote an entire post based on an article I thought was written last week. I'm tired, blury eyed. It was not. It was written last year. The article is about gang violence in an "oil-drenched" city in Nigeria.The thing is, I think what I had to say is not different. I've pasted the article at the end -- and isn't it awful when you predict something then realize you were looking at the past