Wendell Berry

Sabbaths 1999, II

I dream of a quiet man
who explains nothing and defends
nothing, but only knows
where the rarest wildflowers
are blooming, and who goes,
and finds that he is smiling
not by his own will.

- Wendell Berry
from Given


"The study of asana is not about mastering posture.  It's about using posture to understand and transform yourself." - Yoga Journal, February 2013 p. 92

When you feel yourself becoming anxious, move toward the feeling.  Make friends with it.  The same teaching goes for physical discomfort: for example, move toward your headache, be with it.  Also, go toward sound.  If there is a sound bothering you during your meditation practice or your yoga practice, go toward it.  Make friends with it.  Soften around it.

Handstand preparation- half handstand at the wall.  Muscular energy: hug your arms and legs toward the midline.  Press down at the base of your index fingers and thumbs.  Move your weight forward toward the base of your fingers, as though you could slip a flower petal or credit card under your wrists.

William Blake poem

When despair for the world grows in me

I go and lie down where the wood drake rests
in his beauty on the water

And the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things who do
not tax their lives with the forethought of grief.

I come into the presence of still water and 
feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with
their light.

And for a time I rest in the peace of the world
and am free.

- William Blake

The Man Who Has Many Answers

The man who has many answers
is often found
in the theaters of information
where he offers, graciously,
his deep findings.

While the man who has only questions,
to comfort himself, makes music.

- Mary Oliver
from A Thousand Mornings