The Essence of Yoga Center

Green Apples

In August we carried the old horsehair mattress
to the back porch
and slept with our children in a row.
The wind came up the mountain into the orchard
telling me something:
saying something urgent.
I was happy.
The green apples fell on the sloping roof
and rattled down.
The wind was shaking me all night Long,
shaking me in my sleep
like a definition of love,
saying, this is the moment,
here, now.

- Ruth Stone
📸 Johann Siemens

Join us in August for a group yoga class or workshop! Visit our website to learn more: www.theessenceofyogacenter.com

To Begin With, the Sweet Grass
(excerpted)

1.
Will the hungry ox stand in the field and not eat of the sweet grass?
Will the owl bite off its own wings?
Will the lark forget to lift its body in the air or forget to sing?
Will the rivers run upstream?

Behold, I say–behold
the reliability and the finery and the teachings of this gritty earth gift.

2.
Eat bread and understand comfort.
Drink water, and understand delight.
Visit the garden where the scarlet trumpets are opening their bodies for the hummingbirds
who are drinking the sweetness, who are thrillingly gluttonous.

For one thing leads to another.
Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot.
Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in.

And someone’s face, whom you love, will be as a star
both intimate and ultimate,
and you will be both heart-shaken and respectful.
And you will hear the air itself, like a beloved, whisper:
oh, let me, for a while longer, enter the two
beautiful bodies of your lungs.

3.
The witchery of living
is my whole conversation
with you my darlings.
All I can tell you is what I know.

Look, and look again.
This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.

It’s more than bones.
It’s more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
It’s more than the beating of the single heart.
It’s praising.
It’s giving until the giving feels like receiving.
You have a life—just imagine that!
You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe still another.

..

And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world

- Mary Oliver
📸 pure julia

How to Listen

I’m not asking you
to come down here
and clean out the muddy
corners of my life.

I’m asking you
to be a forest
where mud and leaves,
shadows and light,
growth and decay
all have their unquestioned
belonging.

I’m asking you
to be an ocean,
where even great storms
don’t trouble the depths
and each tear is welcomed
as a homecoming.

I’m asking you
to be as spacious
as the vast darkness
behind the sky,
which will never be afraid
of what I do
or don’t choose.

I’m not asking you
to hold me together.
I’m asking you
to open so wide
there’s room for all the ways
I come apart.

- James A. Pearson
📸 Caleb Woods

The Lesser Goldfinch

It was hardly bigger than an apricot,
a goldfinch, yes, but smaller and paler,
a little ghost in the lavender
eating seeds too tiny for
my old eyes. Sometimes I think
Heaven needn't measure
even two by two
inches, much less all the sky
above the Vatican;
for peace is lodged deep
within the very
spacious thought of itself.
Quiet bird, your gestures
are vast in such a place
as I dream of.

- Connie Wanek
📸 Mark Olsen

NEW Workshop! Asana and iRest: Coming Home to the Heart
Saturday, August 29th - 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Join Cara Sparkman for this *donation based* 2.5 hour exploration of movement and stillness. This workshop will begin with a meditative ‘check-in’ and an exploration of intention–both short term and long term. From this foundation, we’ll explore somatic movement and meditation practices designed to help us rediscover the inner brightness that resides in the heart and to explore and affirm our Heart’s Mission or Soul’s Purpose. Practitioners of all levels will enjoy a balanced practice with lasting whole-body effects, and teachers will appreciate new techniques for whole body wellness and with a special focus on creating space for the natural breath and for healthy heart function. Finally, the practice will conclude with a 25 minute guided iRest yoga nidra, featuring a long body-sensing and a focus on contentment and gratitude. Participants will not only enjoy the benefits of the workshop, but will also receive a recording for their personal use.

Visit the link in bio to learn more and enroll!

blessing the boats

may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back may you
open your eyes to water
water waving forever
and may you in your innocence
sail through this to that

- Lucille Clifton
📸 Hanan Edwards

I will try.
I will step from the house to see what I see
and hear and I will praise it.
I did not come into this world
to be comforted.
I came, like red bird, to sing.
But I’m not red bird, with his head-mop of flame
and the red triangle of his mouth
full of tongue and whistles,
but a woman whose love has vanished,
who thinks now, too much, of roots
and the dark places
where everything is simply holding on.
But this too, I believe, is a place
where God is keeping watch
until we rise, and step forth again and –
but wait. Be still. Listen!
Is it red bird? Or something
inside myself, singing?

– Mary Oliver
📸 Evan Porter

As the weather heats up, be sure to give yourself the opportunity to slow down and cool off through body-mind practices. Join a group yoga class at The Essence of Yoga Center in July and experience the joy of somatic yoga. Your first-hand experience is centered in these kinesiologically-focused practices. Group classes are available for as little as $5 per class through our "Pay Through the Heart" option. Give yourself the gift of practice today.

All That's Required of You

Did you know
there will be poppies
again this year?
It’s true. I’ve seen
their muted green fractals
stockpiling sunlight,
distilling it down
to its purest essence
before igniting
into slow motion fireworks.

In the end, isn’t this all
that’s required of you?

To drink in what you love,
to concentrate it
in the crucible of your body,
and, finally, to bloom.

- James Pearson
📸 Farrinni