“In seeking what is essential we become essential” -Mark Nepo
Happy New Year Bright Lights!
I’m really excited about all the possibilities contained and ready to be explored in 2014. New beginnings abound! For the first time in 19 years the New Year begins with a new moon. In the inky black of the night the stars will glisten ever brighter.
Stars are massive luminous spheres of plasma held together by their own gravity. It is said that, “we are all made of stars” and not just by music artist Moby. Carl Sagan famously stated, “We are a way for the universe to know itself. Some part of our being knows this and where we came from. We long to return. And we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star stuff.”
This is what Yoga gives to me - a knowing, a remembering, and a return to myself, to that which is inherent. Oftentimes there are no words for what is essential. It is a felt sense, invisible to the eye. When an experience or something is so sacred it is stripped bare, beyond vocabulary, I know I am close to the center of my being and in concert with Source, the All that Is.
Recently, someone asked me if I was a purist because I don’t play music in my class. I was unsure of the exact definition and I don’t much care for labels so my response went something like this; “We are bombarded on a daily basis with noise pollution. I absolutely love music yet my practice is a time to turn off outer distractions and tune into the sound of my breath and inner stillness for it is in that quietude that I remember what is important. Later, I looked up the definition. A purist is one who desires that an item remain true to its essence and free from adulteration or diluting influences.
In that framework I guess I am a purist. Aren’t we all? We basically want the same things, to be free and happy and to remember our essential nature. So, let’s drop the labels and find out what makes us come alive. Find out what makes you sparkle like the stars we all come from.
In the words of mystic poet Rumi, “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn’t make sense.”
As the new moon greets the New Year and something sacred this way comes, I vow to cherish what is only seen with my heart, beyond words, and essential.
Love,
Mary
Happy New Year Bright Lights!
I’m really excited about all the possibilities contained and ready to be explored in 2014. New beginnings abound! For the first time in 19 years the New Year begins with a new moon. In the inky black of the night the stars will glisten ever brighter.
Stars are massive luminous spheres of plasma held together by their own gravity. It is said that, “we are all made of stars” and not just by music artist Moby. Carl Sagan famously stated, “We are a way for the universe to know itself. Some part of our being knows this and where we came from. We long to return. And we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star stuff.”
This is what Yoga gives to me - a knowing, a remembering, and a return to myself, to that which is inherent. Oftentimes there are no words for what is essential. It is a felt sense, invisible to the eye. When an experience or something is so sacred it is stripped bare, beyond vocabulary, I know I am close to the center of my being and in concert with Source, the All that Is.
Recently, someone asked me if I was a purist because I don’t play music in my class. I was unsure of the exact definition and I don’t much care for labels so my response went something like this; “We are bombarded on a daily basis with noise pollution. I absolutely love music yet my practice is a time to turn off outer distractions and tune into the sound of my breath and inner stillness for it is in that quietude that I remember what is important. Later, I looked up the definition. A purist is one who desires that an item remain true to its essence and free from adulteration or diluting influences.
In that framework I guess I am a purist. Aren’t we all? We basically want the same things, to be free and happy and to remember our essential nature. So, let’s drop the labels and find out what makes us come alive. Find out what makes you sparkle like the stars we all come from.
In the words of mystic poet Rumi, “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn’t make sense.”
As the new moon greets the New Year and something sacred this way comes, I vow to cherish what is only seen with my heart, beyond words, and essential.
Love,
Mary
