KonaYoga.com

Even as a tortoise draws in its limbs, the wise can draw in their senses at will.

-Bhagavad Gita

 

Kiyoko the tortoise came to class last week with her owner, Tracey Shoemaker. She stayed in one spot all evening, just observing and probably as happy as everyone else when I turned off the lights for Savasana. So mellow and introspective, she gave me a greater appreciation for the Tortoise pose,  Kurmasana .

The next morning when I told the 7am class about Kiyoko, Bryce Groark 

shared the story of old Lonesome George, a tortoise in the Galapagos that Bryce has filmed.  George is the last of his species and has refused to mate outside of his "line". So far, George is truly exhibiting the qualities of Kurmasana with "equanimity whether in sorrow or in joy." Just like Kiyoko.

 

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 In need of a feel-good-boost? Watch and listen to Manuel De Los Santos (You Tube 03:48). That's all I'll say about this. 

 

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Just in case you haven't seen any film footage of the latest volcanic activity, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has a 6 minute video of the Napau fissure eruption taken yesterday.  So that's why the vog's so thick.

 

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Anyone from out of town planning on attending Jehangir Palkhivala's workshop April 8 - 11? Christine Carlson has a little rental unit (sleeps 2-4) up in Kaloko and she's generously offering a 20% discount off the regular $100/night rate as a special during that time. Photos and full information is available here.  Also available, a 360 degree video of the unit done by Chris' son Anders.

Our Food Drive Contest

The Food Basket warehouse in Kona is located on Kuakini Highway, between Teshima's and Higashihara Park. Just drive up to the front, grab a shopping cart and unload your bounty. It's like shopping in reverse!

The friendly folks there will then weigh your contribution. That's our 90 pounds of food on the scale, taken yesterday. The gentleman who assisted me said that folks in Kona have been so generous with their time and donations.

 

The shelves looked well stocked this time, as opposed to the last time I visited in October.

Mahalo to all of you who support the Food Basket and especially those who brought goods and money to our Win a Massage Contest:

• Melissa Allen
• Robbin Turner
• Leilani Sigrah
• Jean Grissom
• Stephen Nies
• Marta Ciancio
• Janet Maeda
• Diane Quitiquit
• Sandra Yoshioka
• Lynn McCall
• Sharon Yeck
• Susan Wong
• Diedra DeCoito
• Kim Killino
• Those who donated but did not enter the drawing.

Congratulations to winners of the drawing:

Leilani Sigrah - massage by Moku-Wai Busch, LMT and
Marta Ciancio - massage by Barbara Uechi, LMT

Sylvia Earle's 'One Wish to Change the World'

Our past, our present, and whatever remains of our future, absolutely depend on what we do now.
-Sylvia Earle

Every year at the TED Conference, three people are awarded $100,000 and the granting of "One Wish to Change the World". Oceanographer Sylvia Earle is one of the 2009 winners and this is her wish:

I wish you would use all means at your disposal - films! expeditions! the web! more! - to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.

Watch her presentation and find out what she means when she says, "It is the worst of times but it is the best of times because we still have a chance." The video is a little over 18 minutes long: Sylvia Earles' Wish. Then take a look at Google Earth's new Ocean layer and dive deep into the ocean off Lanai: http://earth.google.com/tour.html#v=3

When you look at an expanded view of the earth, don't you think Hawaii should naturally be the lifeguard for the Pacific Ocean? Kona Yoga would like to acknowledge the following Kona residents who have a passion for the sea and share their photos and videos with the rest of the world. Let's make Sylvia's wish come true!

• Carlos and Margaret Eyles
• Bryce and Jen Groark
• Sea Pics.
• Deron Verbeck
• Eric Franke
• Everyone who does their part to reduce the amount of plastics going into the sea.

Photo: eFranke

Related articles by Zemanta

• Google Earth 2.0: Google Ocean? (appscout.com)
• TED: Change The World With $100,000 (cbsnews.com)

My Son is Watching

It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself.
~Joyce Maynard

Happy 57th Anniversary to, Fred and Clara Uechi, a couple of my most diligent and most improved yoga students, who also happen to be my parents.

Fred was born in Kohala and Clara was born in Kona. They met, wed and bred two children in Honolulu before returning to the Big Island where two more were born. They've been parents for a very long time!

I've written about a few of the lasting gifts my mother and my father have given me and seriously wonder if I would be able to lay claim to the happy life I now have, had I been born to any other couple. As the mother of an adult child, I've begun to observe my own parents through my non-dominant eye, the one that's controlled by my right brain.

Yesterday, when my son, his wife and their dog left after an overnight stay, I began to anticipate their next visit even before they reached the main road. Then I thought about my folks and the miles between them and my three younger brothers. Spread out over the continent, one lives in San Francisco, one in Las Vegas, and the youngest in New Jersey. Is it easier to say "goodbye" when you have four children rather than just one? Do you get used to it, the older you get? Probably not.

I can see the strong ties that my parents have erected, they insure connection but are never used to pull or drag. As I observe, I learn, and I think my son is watching.

...and Baby Makes Three

Danielle won't be in class today, now we're certain. She gave birth to Ayden Danger Deshotel this past Tuesday, March 18, at 4:24pm. Ayden weighed 8.2 pounds and stretched out to a full 21 inches!

Congratulations, Dani and Ben. This will put a smile on the faces of those still doing their wall squats! :D

An Infinite Expectation of the Dawn

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn. -Henry David Thoreau

Danielle Ramsey's baby is due and as I was adding a photo of her to my blog, I thought about the power of expectation. Aside from a burgeoning belly, every woman in my Prenatal Yoga classes keeps a constant focus on her due date and the birth of her child. It even serves as a name tag and conversation starter: "I'm due in October", "When are you due?", "I'm not due until August", etc.

They may have some physical complaints, it's true, but they don't identify with them. Low back pain, nausea and sleep deprivation are just part of the trip. These women come to class expecting a happy ending within a matter of months and that's what they get.

What are the implications here for us non-gestating human beings? What if we chose to create something within the next nine months, could we hold on to our excitement and anticipation during all that time? What would we have to do in order for our creation/project to rapidly grow and evolve on a daily basis? We would have to expect it to happen, and therein lies the challenge.

The reproduction of another human being is something so miraculous yet we don't doubt that it will happen. But move an adult human being from point A to point B? Learn to speak another language? Change jobs? Lose 20 pounds? Clean out the garage? Do a headstand? Oh, that might not ever happen.

I feel so privileged to witness this march of strong women with joyous expectations file past me, month in and month out. There's something from that magical parade that needs to be extracted, bottled and injected into the rest of the human race. Expect it.

Photo: Waimanu Sunrise by konaboy

The Lights Are On Because Somebody's Home

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"Thank you for bringing such interesting people together in your classes", a woman said to me on Saturday. Yoga for Women, follows a novel format in that it lasts for two hours because we gather in a circle for the first thirty minutes to introduce ourselves and discuss a chosen topic before the experience of yoga postures.

This past week, each participant was asked to share something about themselves that others might find "interesting". What prompted me was the fact that we have many part-time residents in our classes who come away from very different settings and lifestyles when they enter the studio.

Carole Kaeding is one example. She'll be returning very soon to Michigan where she owns Gratiot Lake Basketry. When she retired (many years ago, she says) and took up basket making, she found a need for a consistent supply of materials. She became that supplier and today has a successful business staffed with the most capable people, which allows her the time to come back every year to Kona and yoga.

Surrounding Carole were some other very special women who varied in age and life experience. They have travelled the world solo or taken up a new language. They are exploring different cultures and art forms or discovering hidden talents and hobbies. They seek the excitement of exploring lava tubes, beginning a new service for the elderly or just having fun in life playing and travelling.

I then introduced a restorative yoga sequence meant to alleviate fatigue by soothing and then energizing the adrenal glands. Some of the dozen or so postures had to be modified for the varying degrees of yoga experience and physical limitations but once everyone reached their perfect position, it was a sight to behold! When we learn how to be comfortable in our bodies, wherever life might position us, we can remain calm and peaceful; everything flows and everyone glows. It doesn't matter what it looks like from the outside, the light is on inside because someone's at home!

At the end of class, phone numbers were exchanged so that conversations could continue. I doubt that fatigue is something that these women experience very often...they seem to balance their lives quite gracefully.

Photo of the Duomo in Florence, Italy: GeneBurch. com

REQUIEM

If we can get Jen Groark out of the water long enough to dry, we might be lucky to see her in class again soon. But, we're so proud of what she and her husband Bryce are doing that we want to support them in any way possible.

They have recently completed a shark conservation film entitled Requiem through what they call a "super low budget Jen and Bryce production":

The story follows Jen - as she learns more about sharks and their battle to evade extinction from finning and over-fishing. Over 100 million sharks are killed worldwide every year! That's 275,000 killed every day on average!

The film has been playing all over the world and recently won an Accolade for the 2007 Best Nature/Wildlife/Environment Category and was nominated last weekend for Best Film at the North Sea FilmFestival (The Hague, Netherlands).

We made REQUIEM in association with WildAid, a non-profit organization that is on the front line protecting sharks. We have started selling copies of the film on DVD for $20 + $5 shipping. A donation of $5 from every sale is being donated to the WildAid shark fund.

Watch the Trailer (2 minutes).

Not Full Grown...yet.

We do not yet possess ourselves, and we know at the same time that we are much more.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not long ago, we were waiting for him to appear. Then we reveled and cheered when he finally (on time by his standards) showed up on the fourth of June. Now he's coming to yoga class every Friday (Yoga for Moms and Babes) and this past week decided that he was ready for a pose of his own, Upward in Downward Dog.

While I was cropping this photo of James Dylan Graves, I wondered what it would take for me to step onto my mat with the same wide-eyed, open body and fresh mind attributes of this baby. He hasn't learned to crawl, but he will. He hasn't learned to stand, but he will. He hasn't learned to walk, but he will.

What if he came to class and said, "I heard yoga was good for me but I gotta tell you, I don't crawl, I don't stand and I don't walk"? He might then never progress beyond that one pose, sweet as it is.

The magic word is YET. It holds so many possibilities and promises. Luckily, it was one of the first concepts I learned in yoga and it continues to draw me forward nearly twenty years later, on and off the mat. The inclusion of the word yet, does not allow my statements to become my sentences.

We would speak well for ourselves, and others, just by adding that simple three letter word. As for James, he's not talking, yet.

A similar topic:
Argue for Your Limitations and They're Yours by Richard Carlson.

Peace Tags

Last week, my friend Patti was in town from Seattle and stopped by for a personalized yoga session. We talked about connecting mind to body, breath to movement, actions and results. She told me about a very graceful project that she's been involved with: Peace Tags.

Resemblant of military ID "dog tags", the sterling silver tags are engraved with quotations of your choice and net profits are donated to non-profit organizations that support our troops and their families.

Like the algebraic function, square, good is multiplied by itself. Whether it's a gift, a statement or a beautiful reminder....no square number is a negative. I know what I'm getting myself for Christmas!

Watch: Peace Tags in the News (King5).

Photo:PeaceTags.com