A Little Warm Winter Light ///

Cleaning up all the votives hidden in the nooks and crannies of YOGA Garden.  A little Warm Winter Light to shine through for you.  See you on Thursday for class @ 630

Your Story for a New Year

This Thursday >>> Celebrate the Winter Solstice  Everyone has a story.  Everyone wants to tell their story.  And Everyone's story is worth being told. As we live through each season we move forward through cycles, change and choice. Within us and all around us.  On the solstice we move from the time of Ether to Earth.  Each of the seasons is symbolized by one of the 5 elements: Winter = Earth, Spring = Water, Summer = Fire and Fall = Air.  The element of Ether is symbolized by the time between Halloween and the Solstice.  The element of ether is symbolic of our intuition, our ability to close our eyes and sit still.  It is a place of creativity before boundaries, judgment, insecurity and this freedom is what ignites the creative spark at our core. It's where the story begins. It gives us a light in the dark, our word for the year, an idea on how we would like to tell our story for a new year.   But in order for our word, dream, desire to manifest it has to become physical, like a seed.  It has to take shape, to have a place to root into and grow.  The element of earth is symbolic of the body.  As we move from ether to earth we start to manifest our idea physically.  We begin to make choices about the way we breathe, move and rest to build a body that reflects where we are now and what direction we want to go.  Our bodies literally take the shape of our hearts and minds, each pose a reflection of our awareness as we weave and unwind our narrative of experience. This Thursday night we will move from Ether to Earth.  We will move from one season to the next and into a new year.  We will step into a new cycle of change and choice   and create the story of a new season in our lives with us as we go. "At the end of the day, your life is not the sum total of the things that happened to you, but how you told the story." - Douglas Brooks  See You Thursday 12/20 @ YOGA Garden 630 - 800 $15/drop-in or $12/class pack Questions?? laurel@yogagardenmpls.com Love, L

DOG POSE

Sunshine @ Anodyne

In November even.  A little color and light goes a long way as we head into longer nights.  I love how our appreciation of things is cyclical and forever renewed as the seasons change.

A Single Kind Word...

New Floors Make All The Difference

Letter Landscape

Your Year In A Word

We celebrate Halloween this week.  When I was a kid it was all about the candy and costumes, which I loved, and still do.   As an adult I've learned a bit more about it's origins I think it's actually a really beautiful day.  It's become one of my favorite holidays.

Halloween marks the day the veil between our world and the spirit world is at it's thinnest.  It is also the 1/2 way point between the Fall equinox and the Winter solstice.  Halloween marks the day we think of the stories of those who have passed before us and find a foundation in their love and support to take us into the dark as we move toward the light of a new year.

As we move toward a new year we pick a new intention.  Within every word there is a mantra or a seed to a story.  It's called a Bija Mantra.  Bija means Seed, Mantra means to transcend. Perfect.

For a new year I wish for us all to create the story of our lives we most truly want. To be creative and to suprise ourselves by doing something new. To not waste time but still have fun and give ourselves space to explore. To find a core group of people to do this with who understand this process and are adventurous at heart. To plant these seeds of new creative beginnings. So back to the idea of choosing a word.  Every word is both a seed and a story. Every word contains it's raw power in it's individual letters and pronunciations and a description and understood explanation in it's meaning. So through this process of choosing a word a story starts to unfold. We give ourselves a focus for the year, a place to go when we start to lose sight of our focus and create a new pattern.

Every one of us has a story. All of us want to tell our stories. And all of our stories are worth being told.

I hope to See you Thursday @ YOGA Garden 630 - 800 to plant the seeds of a new story...

Love, L

Tool Shed Temple

Remind Me of Home

YOGA Gardens gardens

>>>>>YOGA Gardens gardens are safely tucked away inside the studio for the winter.  It's so nice to have some wild Summer color in the studio as the natural light gives way to Winter.

Power Line Love

ALL SOUL'S SAVASANA

Carry With You What You Know..

The fall equinox is here...already.  It always seems to soon doesn't it?  As we move toward more darkness than light let's remember to stay true to our work so we can stay true to ourselves.  I think of this as "carrying with us what we know", what we found when the days were long and hot, open and welcoming with their heat and light.

Do the work.  Your work, the work that is specific to you and you will find your way...even in the dark.

Because if you are truly on your own path, the hard won fight of independence comes with no judgement.  It is about the work.  The work of the love of life.

Tomorrow night "Carry with you what you Know" class 630-800 @ YOGAGarden

RED

Easy on the Eyes...

A shot from our beautiful hike in Vail.  Easy on the eyes, soft for the heart.  And just imagine its earthy amazing smell.

You Had Me @ Hello

Variegated and periwinkle...you had me at hello.

We Are All Capable of Creating Our Own Beauty

We Are All Capable of Greatness

Don't Forget to Play

Saturday night means cribbage night w friends :)

The Color of the Word

Can you say the color of the word and not the word itself?

Between Horns of the Day

Organizational rules to live by according to Benjamin Franklin. Not a bad lead to follow.

Savasana Under the Big Blue Sky @ YOGA Garden

Poem (the spirit likes to dress up)

Thanks again Mary Oliver

Art is the Highest Form of Hope

"Art is the highest form of hope." - Gerhard Richter

Sometimes the Little Times

> > > Warhol, on the cusp of his fame when this photo was taken, said "Sometimes the little times you don't think are anything while they're happening turn out to be what marks a whole period of your life." - Thank you Saatchi Gallery

DreamScape

If you need to find me I'll be in here>>>

Street Scenes From A Raucous Plant Party...Veggies Included

What Is It You Plan To Do With Your One Wild And Precious Life?

More from the Homemade Beverage List...

So, I made these for the lovely Summer Solstice Party we had at Yoga Garden last Wednesday. The party was a blast. The studio is an absolutely beautiful place to have a get together with all the natural light and such. And when you know a group of lovely yogis who love to make delicious, healthy food and get together and chat it's always fun.

 The beverages in the pic are flavored water. The recipes are simple.

 Raspberry/Rosemary water:

 1 sprig rosemary 1 cup raspberrys - tamp the raspberries down gently with the end of a wooden spoon fill the container 1/2 with filtered water fill the remaining part of the container with ice.

Citrus water:

 1 lemon 1 lime 1 orange tamp the fruit down gently with the end of a wooden spoon fill the container 1/2 with filtered water fill the remaining part of the container with ice.

Refridgerate overnight and drink the next day...they are good for 3 days. Perfect for a hot summer day...enjoy!

Find vision in the dark, in your imagination

This is the excerpt I used in class tonight > From Helen Keller to a friend who asked her to write an open letter about what she "saw" when she went to the top of the then new Empire State Building in 1932:

 "Frankly, I was so entranced "seeing" that I did not think about the sight. If there was a subconscious thought of it, it was in the nature of gratitude to God for having given the blind seeing minds. As I now recall the view I had from the Empire Tower, I am convinced that, until we have looked into darkness, we cannot know what a divine thing vision is. Perhaps I beheld a brighter prospect than my companions with two good eyes. Anyway, a blind friend gave me the best description I had of the Empire Building until I saw it myself."

 We've been taking the work we did this spring on our hamstrings and psoas and taking it into some pretty deep backbends. Definitely new territory for all, which means we get to view ourselves, each other, practice, pose, relationship to yoga on and off the mat, etc...from a new place. But to get to that place means we travel through unknown territory, oh yes...into the dark we go again. Even in the middle of summer. Which is something I love the most about the practice of yoga. You have to be clear about your vision, what you see yourself as being able to do and be open to what is possible. Be open to the possibility of attaining what isn't there yet, to what you can't see yet and feel your way through. This is where the skill becomes clear as the foundation.

 I've been thinking a lot about this letter and description from Helen Keller (you can read the whole thing here, it's amazingly beautiful http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/empire-state-building.html) because so much of her life she was in the place we start our practice with. Close your eyes, stop talking and sit still. Find vision in your imagination. Granted we can still hear but there is so much to be learned from the work we do here in the dark and our ability to be humble enough to the possibilities that come with carrying that all the way through the practice. I love how quiet the practice can be but rambunctious at the same time. That is a very different way of seeing than looking from the view we are most used to. I imagine when most people take the elevator ride to the top of the Empire State Building it's comforting to look down at what you are so used to seeing from a different point of view. But what about all the rest? I Love the way she describes it

"I will concede that my guides saw a thousand things that escaped me from the top of the Empire Building, but I am not envious. For imagination creates distances and horizons that reach to the end of the world."

 As far as this goes w asana ...my point is you have to work hard too. But the reward you get, the vision you get, the new perspective and grounding you get feeds your imagination like nothing else. I closed w this quote from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known, defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen"

 So, thanks to all who came to class tonight and worked so hard. And Phil, I swear we will do it again next week. Love, L

Kitchen Counter Simple and Sweet

This is one of my first bouquets of the season. I love how simple and sweet they are early on. These little blasts of beauty right out of my back yard are the best transition from our Winter slumber to the bright blue sky of Summer Sun. Even as the days get longer and I get more variety out of my garden I still like these the best. Simple is sweet and good for your kitchen counter.

And a poem to match

The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck

I think I'm in love.

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