Knittish

I walked down the street to a neighborhood cafe...with just my wallet and house keys.  Usually, when I go for a cup of coffee, I am armed with my knitting, Crackberry, back-up calendar, perhaps note cards for long-delayed thank you notes, and some other reading materials.  Multi-tasking.  Flitting about.  Thinking I'm being productive.  And yes, in a way, I am productive.

However, I made the distinct effort this afternoon to have a few minutes of "present" time.  So I locked the door behind me and strolled along the street ... unencumbered by extraneous items.  Being free from the imagined demands of phone calls and emails, because, quite frankly, there's a bit of ego talking when you think you always have to be at the ready to receive, process and respond to communications.  

Instead, I let myself enjoy the moment.  Me, my cup of coffee, and my cinnamon sugar cookie. I don't know that the cinnamon sugar cookie was the best I ever had, but I can say for certain that I thoroughly enjoyed it, because I was present and willing to receive that which is the now.

It's delight in the little things that are happening right here, right now.

The Power of being Present.  

I am one lucky creature to be able to relish the moment for all it's worth.

Won't you, too, take a moment today to breathe ... to be ... to enjoy the present?

So I lost my aunty last week to leukemia. 

And my uncle (not wedded to this aunty, but on the same side of the family) just found out he has colon cancer.

And Tim Russert died suddenly.

Last week is not one of my favorites.

But a friend had a baby shower and another friend is engaged to be married.

I accept the cycle of life.

And I welcome any prayers and thoughts you can send to my uncle that his treatment plan is a success.

Peace, good health and light to you all.

Thank you.

El, Michelle and I saw the new "Sex and the City" movie today and we each loved it!  Two thumbs up!

We laughed and we cried abundantly.

In knitting news, I began the Baltic Sea Stole (Fiber Trends pattern AC-50) with the Holly-recommended yarn of Jade Sapphire 2-ply Cashmere Silk in the Film Noir colorway and addi Lace Needles in US 6, 24".  LOVING knitting with this smooth and luscious yarn!

What an absolute joy it was to see sunshine today after several days of rainy, drizzly stuff.  Yay for sunshine! 

I started out the day subbing a 7a Power Yoga class and then dashing off to my weekly volunteer gig at the local Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic studio.  For some reason, my voice was quite tired and it was only 9a!  To get the voice at a decent output level, I had to use a bit more ooomph, which was not going to be sustainable for the 1.5 hours of reading from the textbook on Theatre Appreciation.  It turned out that that was the one booth for which they'd installed new recording software/hardware which wasn't picking up the voice levels well.

I taught a noon-ish yoga class before meeting my friend Julie at Caribou Coffee.  OK, can I just say...I like the faux cabin feel of the Caribou, but the Andes mint drink concoction tasted like Robitussin DM to me?  I only drink Frappuccino-like drinks once every few years.  I always forget why I don't like them anymore (too sweet and/or too chemically-tasting), until I've had another one.  ICK!

The white chocolate and raspberry scones, on the other hand, I do like.  And I usually don't care at all for white chocolate.  Give me dark, bittersweet chocolate any day over white or milk chocolate! 

On a different note, have any of you ever noticed, halfway through your day, that your pants are on inside-out?  Yeah...erm...me neither... 

You may have noticed a distinct lack of blog-posting here at knittish over the past year (or more?).  Aside from the over-tasked excuse of "I've been busy", I think I have discovered, or more like admitted, that the reason could be a lack of commitment due to indecision.

knittish began as a blog of knitting and other fiber-related activities a few years ago, and my interest in such crafts and arts is still strong, although in fits and droves.

Another passion has compelled me to become more introspective over the past 10 months, and that love is yoga.

So I've been dancing around what I want to do with this blog.  In a way, I want to continue blogging, but would it remain as a knittish blog?  I like my domain name.  And I still enjoy knitting and my knitting friends.

But how do I incorporate more of my thoughts, questions and observances about my yoga practice on a blog that seems geared toward knitting?

Yoga has become a huge part of my life.  It is something I try to practice and explore daily, both on and off the mat.  And my regular teaching schedule has picked up between weekly classes as well as substitute classes. 

This weekend, I spent at a series of amazing workshops by ashtangi Kino MacGregor who was teaching at Georgetown Yoga. I'm quite a newbie with respect to ashtanga yoga and this experience has piqued my curiosity to the point where I'm considering taking some more ashtanga classes, both led Primary Series and Mysore-style.

Certainly, I'm interested in the physical practice, the asanas.  However, beyond that, I also seek the continuous "transformation" and "the magic" that is yoga, that are part of the whole experience of which Kino spoke this weekend.

Kino mentioned that the challenge in yoga is there when one is ready for it.  (Or did she use another word instead of "challenge?")  In a way, it's sort of like, "seek and ye shall find."  

But one must be committed to the long haul because it's the journey and not the destination that will bring the transformation of the self.

 Thankfully, yogi Mark Whitwell assures us that whatever it is that we seek, it, the answer, is within:

"Yoga is your direct participation
absorption in the given wonder
the extreme intelligence of life
that is of course in every person..."

It takes the right moment in time to realize that which we seek, the question of the moment we need or want to ask. 

And at the right time, the answer will reveal itself from within.

It takes patience and compassion with the self.

Commitment to the consistent practice leads one along the path of transformation.