Archive for November, 2009

The Thanksgiving season is speeding toward me faster than ever this year. So of course, I haven’t started planning it yet, but this writing is certainly making me think about it. So besides the usual things to plan like figuring out what am I going to cook,(it’s never the same menu since I like to make it easy on myself ☺), making lists of needed supplies, etc., this holiday does make me think more about my actual thanks giving or its kissing cousin: gratitude.

Sabrina's casserole is almost as good as her chaturanga dandasana!

Gratitude has not always been a conscious part of my life. I learned, sometimes the hard way, that gratitude was earned just like anything else. I thought life owed me a free “Happiness Express” card and of course, it needed to be platinum or is it black now? That may be a good sign that I do not know for sure. So, with consciousness and “showing up” ability, I realized more and more that gratitude was like a muscle (hopefully not the arm muscle) because for the life of me I cannot seem to get the arm balancing pose of Chaturanga Dandasana. It’s the four limbed staff pose that usually follows our all time favorite: the plank pose, just in case you were wondering.

So anyway, as the cliche says: if we do not use it we lose it. And so it is with gratitude.  Even when I am having a not so good day, I will make an effort to see that even in such a day there is a reason to hope. Like with yoga, the more I practice it the stronger I become.  The art of thankfulness follows suit. The more I practice it, the more I can see something that I can feel gratitude for, thus strengthening my spirit,The art of thankfulness follows suit. The more I practice it, the more I can see something that I can feel gratitude for, thus strengthening my spirit, mind and body ever more. It’s a win, win, win situation!

You are probably wondering why this piece is titled “Not On My Thighs”. Well, in conclusion of this little writing, I wanted to share with you this little poem that came across my readings. The poem made me smile and hopefully it will make you smile as well.

Thanksgiving 8000 Calorie Poem

May your stuffing be tasty

May your turkey and/or tofurky be plump

May your potatoes and gravy

have nary a lump

May your yams be delicious

and your pies take the prize,

and may your Thanksgiving dinner

stay off your thighs

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Thank you Devanand Yoga for providing such a loving, peaceful place for yoga practice. Namaste!

A picture is worth a thousand words. Without warning it will incite your inner child. Often, if you leave your mental post, it will talk to your heart. One such painting left me spell bound. In the November 2009 issue of Yoga Journal (p.67), a quiet Shiva stands out in earth sky tones and reminds me of the mud of India. Like the sweet simplicity of crayons, or the joy of tracing Devnagari letters in chalk, it transported a sense of beauty I could not resist. I wondered why. Why did these colors produce such a profound sense of oneness in me? It might be that the artist had used a palette straight out of my childhood, the water colors unfolding with the same flow of when we were children, when we loved all those shades inside a single box of paint and dipped freely in them without worry. A child paints for the fun of trying out how small round pigments will look pressed out against an impression of sky, an impression of water, an impression of a shape form or figure. In this artist’s rendition of Shiva, a similar style invokes a childlike joy. Shiva, balancing in Hastasana, gazes out at his world from his wondrous Prakruti. Without discrimination the mountains, hills, water, and the supreme Yogi express themselves playfully, with no consciousness of right or wrong, only the feeling of joy for the vision of paint, and a fresh new shade. Thus love rolls out of the innocent imagination of the maker, without an intermediary of thought or judgment, only the intense feeling, ‘rasa’ for manifestation. Like childhood paint running over the plastic rims, the magentas, yellows, blues, and reds in this painting stream out of the body of Shiva into surrounding nature, infused with the artist’s own craving for beauty- for those steep undulating brush strokes of his/her inner child. Then as slender hands rise up to touch the sky, Shiva pulls out an oversized red gold flower like it were the whole point of creation- that God manifests himself and then offers his awesome gift to mankind, so that mankind may gaze, even as God gazes back, in praise and gratitude.

Dancing Shiva

That is why this painting moved me so much, its colors still wet to my touch and the more I smudged it, the better it got. From the brilliant petals to the delicate saffron folds of fabric, the picture initiated a desire to want some of that bright blue sparkle for myself, to rub off on me from touching it and drinking its beauty again and again- to become, you know, as colorful and sublime as the fluid invitation of Shiva.

You may find Vidula teaching in Katy ISD, cooking delicious food, teaching the cooking class on Nov 7, or chating beautiful kritana at the center.