Kids Yoga II

Once wasn't enough punishment so we came back for more!  I shortened the class this time, so that made it a lot better.  Using the ideas from the Bodhi Yoga manual, we started with the kids doing a tug of war with scarves.  It started out okay, but very quickly got out of hand!  These kids just aren't sitting there docilely like the pretend children in the example lesson!  I pretty much had a non stop running reminder that there is no talking in yoga and we have to stay on our mats... It might sink in eventually?  

My friend snapped a picture of a calm moment.  Is a picture worth a thousand words?  Or just a lie in image form?

Kids Yoga

This morning I started a kids yoga series held over at the Crossroads Church. They're trying to create a neighborhood community center, so a pay what you can/want yoga class seemed like a good fit -- and I can get my hours!  I'm also going to do an adult yoga class there in the evenings.  

In the Bodhi Yoga manual, Syl had put together a whole four month yoga series for kids and it is so cute!  I roughly followed the outline this morning, but with kids you never know what is going to happen!  I am used to going slower, but soon realized that they lose interest in things so quickly, so we would quickly jump to the next thing.  I also planned on using a whole hour, but that is simply too long to keep their attention!  I scheduled it for daytime and posted it on the homeschool site, so we had quite a large age range, which might have made it more difficult, too.  All in all, I feel like I learned a lot, but I'm not so sure about the kids, haha!

What Does a Leaf Know

Does a brittle, prime 
past leaf, plucked
from its cozy life

by an errant breeze,
wonder why it is
somersaulting precariously

through the air? Does
it question where
it is being tossed? Or

when it might once
again tumble jarringly
to a stop? Would

knowing change its
capacity for delight?
Or change the fact

that, in the end, we are
all inexpressibly, unalterably
alone?

Sunday Speculation

Matthew has a new calling in the High Council at church.  Our stake is quite large so this will require some traveling, both to weekly stake meetings, but also to visit different wards and branches.  His assigned ward is one that meets in our building, which is very nice, but yesterday he had to visit and speak at a branch in Kewanee, Illinois.  It is about an hour and a half away and their meeting started at 10:00 so I accompanied him.  When we arrived, we were pretty much ignored by everyone, but then right before the meeting began they asked Matthew to play the piano and me to lead the singing!  I don't know what the plan was otherwise... so Matthew got up and down a few times for that and then gave a wonderful talk about gratitude.

It has been so sunny and warm, it was a perfect day for a long drive.  We chatted about our future, so I have some new adventures up my sleeve, and then we listened to the best On Being podcast about love!  I always love them, and always think the last one I heard was the best, but we were laughing, I cried a little, it was cathartic.

I was in a very very bad mood yesterday, but the little trip was helpful -- it is always good to get out of the confines of town and see the  countryside!  Matthew adores getting his picture taken, so I make sure to oblige as much as possible

Today is President's Day!  We were going to go clean the CYFS, but I think they're closed for the day.  Now we're going to meet some friends at the park for an early lunch, some other friends for a little play date, hopefully I'll find some time to exercise, and I still really want to tackle that garage!  It's eating at me...

Why So Warm?

The weather here is being absolutely bonkers for February!!!  Judging from the reports I'm seeing on facebook, it is unusually warm all over the place.  On Friday it reached 70˚ so we went to the park with friends and had such a great time.  The wind was blowing... because we live in Illinois... but otherwise it was lovely.

On Saturday the boys both had basketball games in the morning so we got those under our belts, I went shopping with a friend, and then we totally chilled the rest of the day.  Matthew and I both had headaches, so our grand scheme of finally cleaning out the garage was set aside for yet another day.  Another warm one is bound to show up again, right?

After dinner we watched an episode of "A Series of Unfortunate Events."  Matthew told the boys that if they got ready for bed within 7 minutes then he'd give them a piggy back ride from the basement to bed.  They both did it!  So he tried to follow through with both of them...

That lasted just about long enough for me to snap a pic!  So I carried the lighter one.

As much as I am relishing the summery reprieve, I can't help but be slightly alarmed by it.  What does it mean over the long term?  Will we have a sweltering summer?  Will the bugs be enormous?  Because it really isn't worth living here if we start having to co-habitate with gigantic cockroaches.  Seriously.

Love That Body

I was so happy to be asked to lead the young ladies from church in yoga again.  It's the new year so I'm sure that the leaders were asking from a goal or fitness perspective, but I wanted the class to be all about being so grateful for our fabulous earth vessels, for all of the things they can do -- and not what they can't do or what they don't look like, ugh.  We talked about self-acceptance and self-love, trying to stay out of our heads and present in our bodies throughout the practice.  In my training at Bodhi Yoga, Syl told us that we would be better teachers if stayed open and and non -critical of ourselves, it would allow us to recognize our own inner divinity.  Well, of course, that is true with everything!  And I hope that I was able to communicate a little of that to the girls.  It was especially fun having my own two sweeties there with me!

I Crave Light

Some people
find it soothing,
the grayness,
but I find it suffocating --
draining the world
of its variety and color
smudging the details
at the edges.

I crave light.

Once an opaque plane,
the ice on the
kitchen window transforms
into a thousand glittering
crystals, each one a
snowflake of
incomprehensible beauty,
captured on glass
to extend its fleeting
existence.

I crave light.

Once dark, abbreviated days
at year's end,
illuminated by
singing, bells, old
friendships renewed --
by a thousand
acts of glittering
kindness.

Not all grayness
Not all light
is surface: we allow one --
or the other --
to infuse, consume
become part of us,