KonaYoga.com

Lifting me higher

"All emotions are pure which gather you and lift you up; that emotion is impure which seizes only one side of your being and so distorts you"
-Rainer Maria Rilke

This photograph aptly illustrates my weekend. I felt as though I was at the center of a large gathering of people and everything they did and everything they said, lifted me higher.

The energy at the Keauhou Farmers' Market was certainly different this past Saturday. Insistent, probably describes it. It felt as though a new crowd came off a bus and were eager to make their purchases before the merchants ran out of their wares.

The people in a rush meant no harm, they were simply operating in a different time zone and I felt buoyant with awareness.

Saturday's yoga class brought back women who were away for a spell. During our little talk session at the beginning of class, it became so evident that no matter where we go, or what we go through, there is a current of energy that is consistent and common to us all. That energy increases when we share and lift each other's spirits.

Then at sunset, Aadil Palkhivala fluently described and displayed this energy to those who had gathered to remember Marcia Carman. People shared their thoughts and memories of Marcia, and Aadil drew the circle tighter as he spoke of the energy that runs through all of life, seen and unseen, physical and non-physical. I left, feeling closer to Marcia than I have ever been!

Last night, I shared dinner with people who have been vital to my happiness and well-being. As I write this, my memory of their voices, laughter and hugs, fills the now empty dining space with joy.

I will have to disagree with the second part of Mr. Rilke's pronouncement. No emotion is impure if it comes from that common and consistent source and seizes that one part of us that truly is our only purpose: pure, unbridled joy.

Photo: National Endowment for the Arts

Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep by Mary Frye. the poem read by Aadil Palkhivala in remembrance of Marcia Carman.

Blessings Come Down

"Blessed are those who give without remembering. And blessed are those who take without forgetting."
-Bernard Meltzer

This is a first: I am writing this newsletter early Monday morning, the time when most readers are checking in. My usual Sunday writing spree was pleasantly interrupted by a phone call from my son.

Just seconds before, I stood up from my desk and looked around at my half packed room and wished that I was moved and settled into my new space on Alii Drive. The disorder of it all was what I wanted to change and I thought about Brede and what he might be doing.

"Watcha doin', mom?"

I laughed before I answered, "I was just thinking about you." Ever since we watched the movie Dune when he was barely five years old, Brede and I have assumed a wireless thought transmission.

"I was thinking that we should move your stuff today instead of trying to fit it in during the week," he (?) decided.

End of story. You get the picture. I shut down the computer and packed it up. By the time we were done I was too tired to Google.

I am living a life of multiple blessings, going from one beautiful space to another. I seem to be on the receiving end of an assembly line of material and emotional abundance.

There's an old proverb that insists, "prayers go up, blessings come down". Could it be that my prayers are louder than others? Is it possible that my simple wishes and whims are heard as prayers?

Maybe my mother was right: "You were born under a lucky star!" She, of all people, should know.

Photo: camera_rawanda

Marcia Carman

"In simplest terms, a leader is one who knows where he wants to go, and gets up, and goes."
-John Erskine

This is one of my favorite yoga photos because I remember the energy in the room that day, so vividly. I'm the fourth one from the right and my first yoga teacher, Darina Archer, is right in front of me.

The photo was taken shortly after the opening of the Big Island Yoga Center in Kealakekua. Up until then, Darina would find a place to hold classes and her students would follow. But as more people became interested in yoga, a permanent space and more teachers were needed. So there we stood in trikonasana, reaching for the sky and ready for the future.

Over the years, as each of us in the photo began to choose paths that took us away from the studio, it became apparent that Marcia Carman (first on the left) was committed to the vision of a flourishing yoga center there. She wished us well and gathered more responsibility for the care and custody of the studio. Eventually, there emerged a new line of teachers and students behind her.

Less than a month ago, Marcia learned that her respiratory distress and "listless" (as she described to me) nature, were the symptoms of her cancerous lung and liver. As friends learned of her condition they began to prepare for ways to offer Marcia and her husband, Hugh, all the support they would need. Marcia had other plans. Last Thursday evening, she passed away at her home with her husband and dear friends by her side.

As soon as the initial shock of her illness and death wears away, it is easy to reconnect with the energy that was Marcia. It's as though she just demonstrated a simple, yet consummate correction in a yoga pose: This is what I think is happening here and this is what I would do about it. Which invariably would leave those watching to ask, "How did she do that? I wonder if I could?"

Thank you, Marcia, for always being there, leading the charge.

Marcia's dear friend, Marjorie Erway, shared a soothing article from the Daily Om: Beyond the Physical, We Are Beings of Light.

When High Tech = High Touch

Artist and author Sandra Magsamen has a link to a YouTube video of women in art on her blog. Beautifully done, it's a stream of female portraits from various artists. Each face blends into the next. As I watched it, I realized that I was so grateful for a number of things:

• My Art 101 Class
• Visits to the Louvre
• Museums in general
• You Tube
• Cable Internet access
• My Toshiba laptop
• Classical Music
• Women
• Mongoose (!)
• Technology
• Leonardo DaVinci
• The Cello
• People, like Sandra Magsamen, who share
• The Renaissance
• The days when I used to paint with Kerry Browning (where is she today?)

The list could go on, as a stream of consciousness exercise. I'm getting better at focusing on what I like, as opposed to what I don't like. It's just a matter of developing the habit.

Watch the Video: Women in Art

Portrait of Gineva deBendi by Leonardo DaVinci (1474).