+ LOOK Underfoot +

The lesson that life constantly enforces is ‘look underfoot.’ 

You are always nearer to the true sources of your power than you think. 

The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. 

The great opportunity is where you are. 

Don’t despise your own place and hour. 

Every place is the center of the world.

Naturalist John Burroughs

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* * * * * * There's kind of a lot to work with here. It's a reminder to let the effort find us.  We don't need to make things difficult to feel like we've done our work or are in control.  If we show up to do our work the effort will come and find us.  It takes a lot of strength and courage to stay when we feel lost or under stress.  Much less put your lipstick on, tuck in your shirt and keep going when we want to run.  I'm surprised to be reminded of this again & again when I step on to my mat.  I refer to it as Carry With You What You Know as we weave and unwind our way through a practice.  We all have our own world to offer as who we are in this life here and now and it's so fun to explore and we are lucky to have each other.  xo LVM  

P.S.  This is in the forest overlooking the ocean 45 min outside of SF where I hugged my first Redwood.  

> > > the Goal of LIVING is to GROW

“in time of daffodils(who know

the goal of living is to grow)

forgetting why,remember how

in time of lilacs who proclaim

the aim of waking is to dream,

remember so(forgetting seem)

in time of roses(who amaze

our now and here with paradise)

forgetting if,remember yes

in time of all sweet things beyond

whatever mind may comprehend,

remember seek(forgetting find)

and in a mystery to be

(when time from time shall set us free)

forgetting me,remember me”

― E.E. Cummings

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I have my mom's e e cummings book she used when she was a student at The University of Wisconsin Madison in the 60's.  It's one of my most prized possessions.  It's earmarked and dog tagged with her studies and inspirations.  Throughout my life she has been a well of the right quotes at just the right time..many of them from e e cummings.  This poem is one of my absolute favorites…the perfect description of what it is we try to capture when we practice on our mats and off > The Goal of Living is to Grow after all ..isn't it?

www.yogagardenmpls.com

) ) ) ) NOW I Become MYSELF ( ( ( (

Now I become myself. It's taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people's faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
"Hurry, you will be dead before--"
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!
-May Sarton

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