Thinking of you Tamar

This morning when I checked my email I found out that one of the most amazing women I have ever met had left her body. I did not know her my whole life, just for a short and special time. We did our yoga training at the Kripalu Center together. But, she touched my life with her kindness, insight, intelligence and her smile. She was a truly magnificent human being. She lived in Dancing Rabbit Eco-community and among other things she helped build many of the structures in the community with natural materials. I remember her telling me about this during YTT and asking her a million questions. "You can make houses out of straw and wood just like the old days and they look like that!! WOW!" I was just amazed. You can see some pictures of what I am talking about here.

She was also, of course, a yoga teacher. So bright and skillful and gentle. She could explain things so quietly and clearly. Another one of her many gifts.

After our YTT she went on to learn midwifery so she could attended and assist in the births at her community. Amazing stuff.

She also played the fiddle, loved to dance, had the brightest smile and the most glorious thick and shiny hair you have ever seen. She was one of the most conscious communicators I have ever seen. I told her she should work for the UN, she could probably get us all to find common ground and get along somehow.

In some of the group shares and one-on-one work we did together in YTT she said some of the nicest things to me anyone has ever said. I did what i could to thank her in words and tell her how healing she had been to me; but words fall far, far short.

When she was diagnosed last year with Neurendocrine pancreatic cancer I was just stunned. It seemed impossible that someone so young and healthy could have such a thing. Tamar started a blog at the time to share her Journey, as she called it, with friends and family and in the hope that whatever she discovered along the way might be helpful to someone else. You can read her blog here from the beginning. And,  here is the final post made by her sister yesterday. In her death she was so surrounded and cradled by love. That makes me happy and I am glad that she no longer suffers. But, I am gutted that she is gone from this realm.

After I post this I am going to harvest some herbs from my garden and begin making healing tinctures and salves. I wish you were here to get out there with me Tamar, it's such a beautiful day and I know how you loved to be outdoors, AND I know you know A LOT more about this stuff then I do! I will do my best in your honor anyway...maybe I'll see you out there:-)

This one's for you Tamar. May you be happy, may you be eternally peace-full. See you around sweet girl.

One of my favorite poems ever...

I live my life in growing orbits
By Rainer Maria Rilke

I live my life in growing orbits
which move out over the things of the world.
Perhaps I can never achieve the last,
but that will be my attempt.

I am circling around God, around the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years,
and I still don’t know if I am a falcon, or a storm,
or a great song.

A Wish and A Prayer

Yesterday was certainly a day full of immense energy here in the United States, and around the world, as we witnessed the inauguration of President Barack Hussein Obama. The swearing into office of this president was particularly significant for many reasons, but I think the thing that struck me most about the ceremony, is the same thing that amazes me each time we have a new president: the peaceful transfer of so much power. We need only look around the world today, or in the annals of human history, to see what a rare, and impressive occurrence this is. It makes me very proud of my country.

As I watched the inauguration yesterday it was wonderful to see so many happy, hopeful people. As a yogini I know that there is nothing more powerful, more initiating of great change, then the power of unity, optimism and positive thinking. I feel this country has suffered a great, "dark night of the soul" in recent years, and I too, feel that yesterday was the dawn of a new day, in many ways.

However, I also felt a great level of concern about the unrealistic, and somewhat excessive nature of the enthusiasm. Without getting into what I personally perceive Barack Obama's strengths and weakness as the leader of our country may be, I am absolutely certain that he is a man, not a messiah. And man, does he have his work cut out for him.

Listening to the almost frenzied way that some people have been talking about him over the last year, I've really come to feel a bit sorry for the guy. People have put him up, I think unfairly, on a very high pedestal, and it is a very long fall from there.

I am also concerned by the ferocious hatred I see coming from both "sides" of the political spectrum. I feel it in myself. I have opinions, strong ones, and sometimes it is hard for me to accept that others are entitled to theirs. I can feel the tightness and separation this causes in myself, and I see it in other people. We must work with great vigor to recognize that this separation is illusion. We must, as the Dalai Lama says, "find through compassion that all human beings are just like me." This is the tallest order of all, but I believe it is a worthy goal that we must strive towards.

How can yoga inform a situation like this?

Yoga is at it's core a set of teachings focusing on union, and on staying firmly rooted in "the middle path," where we are not subject to the highs and lows of excess in any area, including emotions. As the Bhagavad Gita teaches us, "A lamp does not flicker in a place with no wind." Powerful emotions can set us on fire with enthusiasm and energy, but they may not sustain us over a long haul when the initial "glow" of an exciting situation has worn off.

I say all this not to rain on any one's parade, not to diminish the excitement and power of this time, but to offer a call for a level of rationalism and realism, that will help us as a country, and throughout the world, to sustain a positive momentum for all the hard and long work we, and our new president, have ahead of us.

On this day I have a wish and prayer, from the bottom of my heart, for this man, for my country, and for this planet.

It is a portion of the Saha Navavatu Mantra that we often recite at the beginning of a yoga class, and it helps to define the scope and the nature of the work before us. I think it beautifully expresses the energy of enthusiasm, realism, and unity, we must have on our journey of "the middle path."

OM saha navavatu
saha nau bhunaktu
saha viryam karavavahai
tejasvi navadhitamastu
ma vidvishavahai
OM shanti, shanti, shanti

Om
May we be protected together
May we be nourished together
May we work together with great vigor
May our study be enlightening
May no obstacle arise between us
Om peace, peace, peace

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