Spring Equinox Newsletter - Update for April - June!
Daffodils by Dennise Gackstetter
Finally, this week they bloomed.
They have been nosing their way in
for several days now.
With tireless tenacity,
they endure whatever weather
the world throws at them,
refusing to be flattened,
refusing to be held down…..
See below for the rest of the poem and free Daffodil Power Pranayama and Med practice…..
Contents
Online Yoga continues
- April Wed and Sat Ams + Michelle’s Tues Ams
- One 2 One monthly private sessions
- DropIn to DEEP YOGA - “Groins and Adductors” - 4/7
In Person Yoga:
3/24 Sun 12-2pm Celebrating Spring Equinox, SoBo
- Still space as of 3/22
May Workshop at Nest Yoga TBC
Yoga in the Garden, Ukiah 5/20 - 6/10
Earthing! A Day of Yoga and Clay in Albion 8/11
Retreats 2024
Gray Bear, TN Retreat 4/25-5/2, 2024
Summer Solstice, CA 6/17 - 21, 2024 - FULL
Wait List only!
Spanish Spa Retreat 9/15-21, 2024 - Registration Open
Note: We are returning to quarterly newsletters. No more monthly updates, just occasional reminders re longer workshops. so look out for updates at the Equinoxes and Solstices!
See Below: For the rest of Dennise’s poem, an article on equipoise and balance, a meditation/pranayama on daffodil power + info re new video library and mucho more….
Our Online Yoga Theme explores Equipoise this coming month of April. As the spring energy surges, how do we find a place not only to integrate and balance, but also to go with the flow of the natural creativity arising around us without getting swept away.
Subscribing fees are going up in April to 50/70 per month. For those who are currently subscribed or join us in March, fees stay the same.
From April:
$50 includes all live classes + current months recordings
$70 includes all live classes + 3 months recordings
FREE Daffodil Power Pranayama and Meditation - (23mins)
This practice was designed for the change in the clocks in the US where we Spring Forward, however reluctantly….. The pranayama includes side-body breathing which is helpful when schedules and seasons shift. It also cultivates equipoise in the midst of our usual ups and downs. Forgive the occasional clunk and creek of my ancient heater!
NEW VIDEO LIBRARY is in process…..
- If you just want an occasional practice, or possibly a deeper exploration to a longer online workshop you were unable to attend, peruse this page. These videos are unedited and presented with all the freshness and inevitable techno bumps of a live class.
- If you are looking for a professionally filmed and edited Sun Salute Experience, these are also available here, created by Fuller Digital Media.
- Lower prices apply in April as we work out the kinks and levels of interest in this offering.
In Person: Workshop
3/24 12-2pm, Sunday
Studio SoBo, Boonville
Celebrating Spring Equinox
A few spaces left as of 3/22
Info
Sliding Scale
Drop-In to the DEEP YOGA program on 4/7
Waves and Water
Soft and Strong
Groins and Adductors
7.45am - 9.30am PST
Explore your groins, adductors in the depths of the ocean and with our aquatic kin through meditation, asana and reflection. Open to all, particularly suitable for yoga nutz who love water!
In Person: Retreat at Gray Bear, TN
Breath Breathing Itself
- Advanced Intensive 4/24-27
- Presence in Yoga 4/27-5/2
Last chance to sign up for this retreat at the lovely Gray Bear. Ready for yoga in the most beautiful studio space that Mary is aware of!, walks to the waterfall, outdoor meditations and of course, sauna, hot tub, massage, delicious food and all the delights of a Gray Bear experience????!
Catalan Spa Retreat
9/15 - 9/20
Registration Open Now!
“I loved this retreat, the combination of excellent instruction at a relaxed pace, a wonderful group of people and the charming Balneari Prats Hotel made for a restorative fun week….I’m coming back.” 2022 and 2023 Participant
EQUIPOISE - Balancing in Binary!
The word “binary” comes up all the time now. Usually as a derogatory term implying limited perspective, even polarized extreme conservative views. It still has an arithmetical whiff from the first time I heard this term, sitting bemused and lost in a Maths class, many maths classes to be honest! Dear reader, this is no dissing of the term as it’s being used these days, but more of a reflection on what it is to live in this world where language is part of a movement towards extremes, apparent opposites. How do we find a place to be in relation to it all, without getting lost in those extremes oneself? On one side of a non-existent fence.
We can blame it on social media, politics, resistance to change, but underneath it all is perhaps a wish for a certainty that just does not exist in the world we live in today, a lack of willingness to live in the wobble and in diversity. This comes up in an arena that concerns many of us greatly - the environmental, the realities of climate change. The more denial deepens, the more extreme the rhetoric, on what I personally feel, is the saner, more rational side. And at the same time, the forces of denial and capitalism at any cost, are now - in panic - shutting down freedom of speech in both environmental and political causes. It is alarming to hear that in cases in the UK where climate protesters are being judged, it is now not possible to use the words Climate Change, Fuel Poverty or many other relevant terms. The latest assault on the ability to protest came this week, when one of the few avenues for protesters to avoid prison time has been taken away by the high courts. Please listen to this 24 minute Guardian audio interview with an environmental reporter who has sat through the implementation by government and courts of many increasingly radical (in a denial sense) restrictions on how people can sound the alarm about our dear planet.
A few updates ago, I included a link to an article by Rachel Ritchie, who is an environmental scientist and has written a book called “Not The End of the World” which I am just getting my teeth into! Her basic argument expressed in interesting interviews like this one with Channel 4, is that our only hope is to trade eco-anxiety with cautious optimism. There is so much to celebrate globally and locally in terms of progress made towards a sustainable future but most of her generation have grown up with a deep sense of gloom and doom. When the rhetoric gets extreme, we tend to switch off or move into despair. Her book begins with this alarming statement: “It has become common to tell kids that they’re going to die from climate change. If a heatwave doesn’t get them then a wildfire will. Or a hurricane, a flood or mass starvation. …..It shouldn’t come as a surprise that most young people think their future is in peril. There is an intense feeling of anxiety and dread about what the planet has in store for us”. BUT before you stop reading in dread and anxiety, her whole thrust is to examine how easy it is for some of us to dismiss what’s actually occurring and in this way prevent people from getting involved in some exciting solutions and movements. There’s whole profession of people in the climate biz who are sometimes called “Doomer Dudes”. And at the same time, there are so many engaged in moving towards a more balanced, more diverse and inspiring universe. But relatively quietly!
To put it bluntly, we are absolute shit on the more left side of the equation, at tooting our own progressive horns! Explaining to people what we are upto. Biden is a case in point. As much as I have serious issues with some of his foreign policy (Cease fire now for Godesses sake) and his decision to stand again, there is no doubt that many of the programs that his crew have introduced towards green energy solutions and diversity in manufacturing and infrastructure, are worthy of celebration in a country where some folks see the enemy entirely represented by electric cars. The only folks who are taking credit seem to be the ones who were most actively against these things in the first place!
In my local town, the streets are continually being excavated, with traffic delays and chaos on the main drag. I had no idea that the reason was some great improvements in the town, which included a whole system of recycling and saving water. It’s not exactly being advertised to those beyond the reaches of local government. Tomorrow I go to a climate resilience event in the valley where I find it inspiring that people from very diverse walks of life come together to brainstorm and share information to improve the vitality of this particular watershed. No-one is shouting about these quiet, powerful events that are happening in many places where community comes together. Even if the predictions are dire, folks are making a difference.
Paul Ehrlich, an American biologist, in his 1968 book The Population Bomb, declared that “England will not exist by 2000” A definite doomer dude, and one who was totally wrong, even if that “green and pleasant Land” has some challenges right now. There are so many false predictions in the face of surprising news in the worlds of alternative energy and climate solutions. As Rachel says, “if we want to get serious about tackling the world’s environmental problems, we need to be more optimistic. We need to see that it IS possible to tackle them….It is not a pipe dream: things are changing and we should be impatient about changing them faster.”
This requires a broader vision open to the possible, the unknown, the uncertain. Something our practice and our daffodil power can support us in evolving. There are signs everywhere, and as the delights of spring appear, we can take pleasure in this extraordinary planet we live on, and at the same time move forward. It’s not either or, it’s not binary!
Wishing you a celebratory Spring Equinox and inspiration in the wobble!
M
PS A sweet story about old folks and toddlers inhabiting the same space in a care home called “Belong”…. What happens when you put a Nursery in a Care Home Diversity works.
From Daffodils by Dennise Gackstetter - One of our online yogis, poet, artist and soon to be retired professor! Thanks Dennise and Congrats!
…..Hearty green blades cut up through snow drifts,
push through tangled mats of debris.
The most audacious ones stretch
elegantly above the others,
whose heads remain still humbly bowed.
Two days ago, these first adventurers
opened, offering their abundant cups of beauty.
Wholeheartedly with great gladness,
we venerate their arrival.
“Ah yes!” we sigh, “You have returned”.
Day after day, more raise their cups
and join the golden chorus,
calling us back into the greening world,
singing us back to hope and joy.
