KonaYoga.com

...And May We All Attain Perfect Peace

I am a link in Lord Buddha's golden chain of love that stretches around the world.
I must keep my link bright and strong.
I will try to be kind and gentle to every living thing and protect all who are weaker than myself.
I will try to think pure and beautiful thoughts, to say pure and beautiful words,
and do pure and beautiful deeds.
May every link in Lord Buddha's golden chain of love become bright and strong,
and may we all attain perfect peace.

-The Golden Chain of Love

 

There's something to be said about recitation. I repeated the words to the Golden Chain of Love, over and over when I was very young. I think we recited it nightly, as a dinner prayer and weekly, in Sunday School. I believe it to be the extent of my religious training, all eighty-six words of it.

But here's how it works in my life today: every time I think of something pure and beautiful, other pure and beautiful things follow, like beads on a string. My thoughts are echoed by what people say around me, I'll see it in print or on the screen. Sometimes within minutes, often within twenty-four hours.

Here's an example. A couple of days ago I read an excerpt from a soon to be released book, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" by  Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The stories told, read like fictional accounts of people living on another planet because it's hard to fathom that women just a few time zones away, are living within such severe and confining  traditions. It's easy to place blame on the men in those societies but then I remembered saying, over and over when I was very young, "May every link in Lord Buddha's golden chain of love, become bright and strong".

I also remembered watching Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women, explain to a talk show audience how important it was to raise the status of women by not degrading or neglecting their oppressors, male or female. I decided to read "Half the Sky" when it's published but I already know how I want to respond to it. I want to encourage every person I come into contact with to be bright and strong. Man, woman and child. Maybe it will catch on and we can all encourage each other.

The very next day at the end of yoga class, a young man from Greece named Martin said, "Women need to take over the world. Men aren't doing a very good job and I think women could do it better."  That evening my son sent me a headlining text message to go with a video of his wife, starting a fire without a match or lighter: "Woman make fire. No need man." His caveman-style statement, oozed with pride. Then on Saturday, a new mother came to my yoga class. Her infant son was at home with her very supportive partner and when I mentioned how lucky they all were she agreed and said, "We're raising a gentleman."

I live in perfect peace.

Yesterday I got an e-mail from Kiva, telling me that the man in Tajikistan that I loaned $75 to expand his fruit orchard, had repaid a portion of his loan. I now have $25 to loan to someone else! Wouldn't you know it? A few days earlier, when I got to the end of the book excerpt I mentioned, my eyes went straight to the link for  "Do-It-Yourself Foreign Aid" where the second paragraph read:

Choose a woman to lend to on kiva.org. The minimum amount is $25, and you can choose from people all over the world.

I'll say it again, as I did over and over when I was very young: may we all attain perfect peace.

Photo: "Prayer Beads" by James Nachtwey VII. First Place Winner, Pictures of the Year International.

Review: "Mama Knows Breast"

In the early 80's when I was pregnant, my role models were the women I saw in Ina May Gaskin's book about midwifery at The Farm, a now world famous commune in Summertown, Tennessee. In those days, home births and breastfeeding were considered to be the radical options chosen by hippies living in tents and buses, so breast pumps and cover-ups weren't even a consideration during the two and half years I spent breastfeeding my son.

That could be the reason why many of the tips and insights mentioned in Andi Silverman's beginner's guide to breastfeeding, "Mama Knows Breast", were an education for me. Especially, Chapter 5: Breast feeding Etiquette. Silverman offers suggestions on "how to handle the need to feed" in airplanes, bookstores, buses, cars, movies, museums, the doctor's office and more, even the bathtub! When did breastfeeding in public fall from social grace?

These days, many of the women who come through my Prenatal Yoga classes, opt for home births and nearly all of them expect to breastfeed their babies so breast pumps and cover-ups have become the norm. I'm going to recommend  this book because it's comprehensive and up-to-date:

• Chapter 1: The Pros & Cons of Breastfeeding
• Chapter 2: Operating Instructions
• Chapter 3: Answering Your Questions
• Chapter 4: Tricks of the Trade
• Chapter 5: Breastfeeding Etiquette
• Chapter 6: How Your Spouse Can Help
• Chapter 7: Sex and Relaxation
• Chapter 8: Weaning Your Baby...and Yourself

Lists of reference books and websites are also provided along with comments by lots of other new mothers. The book is small enough to hold in one hand, as the cover picture shows, and the pages sturdy enough to withstand the clutching reflex of any hungry baby.

What I particularly like is her optimistic and easy-going attitude: try it and see what works best for you. It goes along with my major emphasis in Prenatal Yoga,"Relax and accept all advice graciously. Then do what feels right for you. We've been doing all of this for thousands of years!"

What I would have liked better is for the type to have been a little darker. But if it came down to light hearted versus dark ink, I'd choose the former.

"Mama Knows Breast" is illustrated by Cindy Luu and published by Quirk Books.

Note: This is not a paid review.

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Flirting with Life

Traveling is like flirting with life. It's like saying, 'I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.'
-Lisa St. Aubind de Teran




I'm physically back in Kona but still seem to saunter in and out of several time zones. I never know when I'll have to lay down and go to sleep, but do so willingly because I know that this will pass within a few days. As I sift through the remains of the past two weeks, this picture underscores the theme of the entire trip. Every day brought us to a new place, every place brought new experiences and so we never ran out of reasons to Cheer.

I'm happy to be home, yet find myself clinging to that expectation of daily wonder and adventure. Like rising after a deep and complete Savasana, I don't want the effects to fade so I'm plotting to experience the same, everyday, right where I live. Cheers!

Photo: Cheers to the Travel Angel with Bellinis at the Hotel Splendido in Portofino, Italy. Left to right: Ann Hill, Caitlin O'Neill, Barbara Uechi & Christine O'Neill.