Unfettered

About a week ago, thought about how nice my knee felt; it was so unfettered. Well, I must have jinxed it.

When I didn't have the luxury of having a super tight knee, it started to feel inflamed and all-around weird. Helped to prepare for a festival this past weekend and definitely missed moving around with ease.

One of my colleagues asked me if I had bursitis. I don't know and don't know if I want to get an MRI. I did the PT exercises that Gingerzingi shared with me and it feels much better. It's amazing to me that so many of the moves are yoga-related moves and it's also amazing how the constriction alleviates.

For months now, I've been in the "yoga snacks" lane -- practicing for about 10 minutes a day but I need to make a commitment to do, at least, 30 minutes of daily yoga...

Finished reading How We Live Our Yoga and, now, I'm without a book to read so I'm reading a Yoga International magazine and the 1619 Project.

Searched for the 10% Happier episode with Sebene Selassie when I came upon another one of her interviews on Hurry Slowly. Selassie likes to say that none of us are auto-didacts and that we don't learn on our own. In the Hurry Slowly episode she says, Our evolution from birth to now -- everything we've learned, we've learned from society.  She said I've learned language and ideas through other human beings. She goes on to say that even when we think we're not being repetitive, we are.

What she said about language really resonated with me...

Also listened to the first episode of the 1619 Project podcast. The sound effects and Nikole Hannah-Jones' narration make for a captivating episode.

Other people who have also lost heir minds:

Rejoicing

Moonflower, I think...

Finished Tara Westover's Educated the other day and it's one of those books that sticks with you. Her upbringing sounded so unreal that I was glad that she put author's notes in there about it being fact-checked. Westover also consulted with siblings about memories and where the memories vary, there are footnotes.

Next, I'm on to reading How We Live Our Yoga...

I want to get my hands on the 1619 Project; it's free to read online but my visual stamina for reading on a device is not that great.

Listened to the 10% Happier episode about Sharon Salzberg's medical emergency. Dan Harris mentions something about taking two steps back and Salzberg says that those steps are never as far back as we think they are then asks Can we rejoice more (about accomplishments) instead of focusing on those "backward" steps?

The importance of rejoicing is always a hard lesson to learn.

Also listened to an 11 minute meditation with Sebene Selassie on 10% Happier. It was great and I'm thinking about subscribing to 10%...

I'm having another wild Friday night. I cut the grass, took a shower and did about 20 minutes of yoga.

Days Late...

One of the presenters, Jana Long, for Yoga As A Peace Practice encouraged us to grow something -- a pot of, say, basil -- something.

Recently listened to Ross Gay's Tending Joy and Practicing Delight, an episode of the On Being podcast and he mentioned that his life got better when he started growing things.

Guess that I will forgive myself for that one time that I killed mint and a cactus and try to grow something again and see where it takes me.

Speaking of On Being and growing things, Jerico Brown's poem, Foreday in the Morning, blew me away.

And speaking of writers, someone saw me post about Toni Morrison and the person expressed shocked -- I know that Toni Morrison was old but... I know exactly what she meant.

The tweet below was the one that made me teary-eyed.

And thanks Saeed Jones for this excerpt from Beloved:

And this...:

The world right now, wow...

So So Much

Was deeply ensconced in this training called Yoga As A Peace Practice this weekend. It's a training offered by the Black Yoga Teachers Association with the following goals:

...to facilitate, create and introduce contemplative practices, rooted in the philosophical tenets of the niyamas, restorative and kriya yoga and culturally relevant themes, and to offer them in ways that are accessible to individuals and communities where trauma from violence exists.

I always feel guilty about saucha, one of the niyamas. My environment is really cluttered but,  somehow, I have to move beyond feeling paralyzed about it and get myself out of this situation.

At any rate, it was an intense but inspiring weekend. I've felt like gentle and restorative yoga is my thing and I feel an even greater commitment to it now. I also went to a birthday party on Saturday. I had RSVP'd before the yoga workshop got on my radar. 

The person sitting next to me at the party said that she's not flexible and that's hard for me to hear but I try to take time to explain that, really, flexibility is not required...

Because I was at the workshop, I heard the news about the mass shooting late. It was a punch to the gut on so many levels and when I heard about the second one, wow. I feel like Pandora’s box has been opened. 

So so much has been going on. 

About how I'm feeling right now:

If I get killed in a mass shooting please cremate me and throw my ashes into Mitch McConnell’s and Dana Loesch’s eyes while I’m still smoldering.

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) August 5, 2019