Indigenous Peoples Day 2021

Taking a moment to thank the indigenous people around the world for their fortitude and patience and the wisdom they have been trying to share.

Their understanding of the earth and our relationship with it/her is something we are being called to return to now, right now, yesterday in fact. The solutions to all of our problems are in this sacred collaboration.

Here’s Pat McCabe saying it better:

https://youtu.be/OeeAMNxuqio

Moving forward

The events of the past year and a half have invited us to consider our own experiences and actions within the larger contexts of community, world, and planet. Here, a wonderful conversation with the Dalai Llama on his birthday:

https://www.mindandlife.org/insight/evolution-of-the-heart/?utm_source=HomepageSlider&utm_medium=Banner&utm_campaign=Evolution

Open the doors...

On the eve of MLK day, a shout out to my friends at Open Doors - a group of poets, musicians, video and computer graphic artists living in the Coler Rehabilitation and Nursing Facility on Roosevelt Island in NYC. They have faced the most extreme challenges of anyone I know living in the Corona world - from the transfer of COVID positive patients from overpopulated ICU units in other city hospitals to their own healthy units in April 2020, to extreme quarantine, lockdown and visitation restrictions that are ongoing. Throughout all of it, they have kept up their outreach and mentoring projects in the fight against gun violence, they have kept writing and creating, and they have kept in touch with family and a growing community of devoted fans and supporters.

Click here to learn more about them

Here is some of their work, included with their permission:

___________________________________________________________


My Life My Life

by Vincent Pierce


My life my life

Used to so much pain no wonder I can hold my head high

During these hard times


My life my life

Back to back jail bids turned me into a rebel

Department of corrections did the total opposite to

Me except sure ain’t correct me


All my life my life

Girl after girl

Til I seen a black queen give birth

To another black queen made me

Have nothing but respect for women


My life my life

Fell in love with the hustle

Way before I knew how to tussle



My life my life

Ain’t know my pops until I was nine years old

By then it was to late

Cause Nino Brown was already my role model



My life my life

Used to think a black man couldn’t be successful unless

He was lucky but now I realize

Your color doesn’t define your future your choices do


My life my life

Karma came around put me in a wheelchair for life

But I ain’t trippin

Cried one time

But it wasn’t because of my current situation

It was tears of joy that I was still alive after living a life of crime

So when I leave this world dress me in all white so I can go out stainless after living this hard life.

_____________________________________________________________

Hipocrisy

by Peter Yearwood

Land of the Free? 

Home of the Brave?


When there are laws for them 

And different laws for me


We muster for the RIGHT to live

and you bring the guns out 


They attempt to destroy Democracy 

and are treated like they've got Clout


We fight in your wars

Build your buildings 

Contribute to EVery aspect 

of human survival in this America


Like a suit 

We wear the scars


It seems to me, in this America,

As long as we do as you say 

and not as you do 


Then we are free


This is Hypocrisy 

not Democracy


I, like MLK, would like to see the day 

when all people are treated with equality 


no matter your origin-ality


You are not capable of this justice


Because of all your prejudice

and ignorance.


But we will continue to persevere

crossed too many rivers 

climbed too many hills


We WILL get to the mountain top

Because America,     

we love you still.


____________________________________________________________

Click here to watch Hero by Jay Molina (password 'hero')

Please do not repost without permission

____________________________________________________________

Blessed Rising Heavenly Father it’s Me Again

by Ramon Cruz aka KTL


Your greatest Creations Are Oppressed...

And it's making our future generations really depressed..

We have endured so much we really have no more tears ..

They’re killing all our Prophets so we have no more Fear ...

Black life Matters & that is so Real ...

We are really Fed up So it's time to grab the steel ...

We can't take it no longer so we fighting back ..

We had the AIDS epidemic it Really scared us half to death

Our Youngsters been Bullied in school

Now the Corona but I'm Passing every Test ...

You Showed Us to live without Fear..

If I'm not Mistaken I think this is Our Year ..

We loosing Our Street Soldiers for lack of Understanding..

I wish Agents of Pure Evil Accept Our Creator And Stop Pretending ...

The Ending of Evil it's Almost here

Except Jesus Christ As Your Personal Savior...

Get Your Soul Cleared .,

Protect Your Kings & Queens & Never Out Shyne Your Master .,

Give praised to our Most high ..

And Avoid More Disaster ...

God is Real I don't know how you feel ..

I Know The Holy Trinity is Really Real...

And that's how I feel ..

Your homie Stabbed You in your Back & Then Ask You Why You're Bleeding ...

And When U Resting in ICU Your Baby they be Stealing . ..

Loyalty Nowadays is A Tattoo ..

This Generation is lost & No one knows what to do ...

I pray everyday that you give us new protections ...

I need you more than ever so please give us some directions

Amén amén & Amén

Kingtitolove aKa ThE TrUth !!





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For more info:





















Here's to a new year, a turning and a lifting up...

Let There Be Peace
By Lemn Sissay

Let there be peace
So frowns fly away like albatross
And skeletons foxtrot from cupboards,
So war correspondants become travel show presenters
And magpies bring back lost property,
Children, engagement rings, broken things.

Let there be peace
So storms can go out to sea to be
Angry and return to me calm,
So the broken can rise up and dance in the hospitals.
Let the aged Ethiopian man in the grey block of flats
Peer through his window and see Addis before him,
So his thrilled outstretched arms become frames
For his dreams.

Let there be peace
Let tears evaporate to form clouds, cleanse themselves
And fall into reservoirs of drinking water.
Let harsh memories burst into fireworks that melt
In the dark pupils of a child’s eyes
And disappear like shoals of silver darting fish,
And let the waves reach the shore with a
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Lemn Sissay

On the ocean and the water

Like many people, I have been quiet these few months, navigating the turbulent waters of the pandemic, social justice activism, and a mind-numbing presidential election. Life is anything but mundane, and I felt the need to pull back somewhat from the many forms of outreach that had been an important resource in the early months of COVID 19.

In September, I started a new job as hospice liaison for Visiting Nurse Services of New York, an organization I had always admired. The job makes good use of every skill and training I have ever had and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve in this way, as well as what it provides for me and my family (dental insurance!). At 55, I feel lucky indeed.

But the work can be tough, and it has made me look at self-care in a different way. Instead of understanding self-care as a maintenance program, I have come to see it more as self-compassion. I try to walk everyday, yes, and maybe do some yoga. I meditate, yes, usually every day. I try to make good choices when it comes to food and drink and sleep. But these are more like party favors, as it turns out.

The real sustenance, the real self-care, is more like love. Is more like self-compassion of the Kristin Neff kind (https://self-compassion.org/). It is recognizing where you are at any given moment, and encircling your entire imperfect self with the kind of heart-centered care you would unconditionally offer to a friend or partner or child. It is not striving for perfection, or improvement even, or any other thing. It is a deep abiding love and understanding for your own self at this moment as a beautiful and perfect entity in a beautiful and perfect world, such as it is, even when we don’t have the capacity to see it that way. It is knowing that we are in the ocean instead of searching for the water. This is a practice. Not always so easy.

Two films to watch as we slide into the new year:

Dalai Lama, Scientist on Amazon Prime follows the collaboration with renowned scientists and His Holiness

Soul on the Disney channel is the animated story of a young jazz musician and his experiences with the afterlife (look out for Dorothea’s story of the 2 fish and the ocean)

May 2021 offer health and well-being, joyful reunion with loved ones and compassion toward strangers.

Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu

Om shanti, shanti, shanti

Namaste

More thoughts about the immune system, about social justice, about voting...

Before I share some more links, I’d like to bring in an acupuncture session I had the other day, with Jenny Fairservis (http://jennyyouracupuncturist.com/). My intention was to get a post COVID check in/tune up before heading in to a new job in healthcare.

Acupuncture isn’t typically my thing. Like most nurses, I don’t like needles. But I know Jenny through a mutual friend, and she had sent us some Chinese herbal supplements that had helped us recover. I found her touch to be painless and intuitive, her recommendations on point, and her communication relaxed but full of intelligence and wisdom both.

One tip I keep having to re-learn is hydration (I can feel your heads nodding in recognition). Why do we, in this super-result-oriented society keep forgetting about breath and water? So essential. Fresh air, movement, a smile, whole foods; these are sometimes challenging. But water? Here’s the formula if you’ve forgotten:

Half your body weight (measured in pounds) as ounces of water in a 24 hour period.

So if I weigh 140 (the lemon bars my daughter perfected during COVID), I need 70 ounces of water daily. So, if I carry around a 16 oz refillable bottle (no more plastic), I need to fill it 4 and a half times, give or take an ounce or two.

Or, for my Canadian and European friends: If I weigh 64 kg, I need to drink about 2 liters of water in 24h. So if your bottle is 500ml, you fill it four times in 24h.

I also just attended my first meeting of a group called Constructive White Conversations

https://www.constructivewhiteconversations.org/

I highly recommend checking it out. A deeper dive into experiences of people who identify as white, witnessing bias, both in ourselves and in work and family environments, as well as what to do about it. Lots of honest talk, and resources. Here’s an excellent one, from that meeting (explicit language warning for sensitive ears):

https://youtu.be/1oDQVTNxddc

And last but not least: IT’S TIME TO VOTE!!! 58 DAYS UNTIL NOVEMBER 3d! This is a great place to put your energy right now! Lend a helping hand:

https://www.whenweallvote.org/

Entering the turn..

Who else feels a shift occurring? Less about what we desire, more about what is calling to us just now. Full of risk and full of potential. As one young friend said recently: This is a big wave. Might as well ride it.

As we begin new jobs, or adjust to the new circumstances of the old ones, or seek a job, having lost…we can ask the question in an intimate way, a kind of embodied whisper…whom does this effort serve? And let the answer be inclusive, joyous! Let it reverberate throughout a healing world, riding a wave of transformation so big that it seems slow, suspended.

And now for some inspiring healing, in the form of tap dancing:

https://www.nycitycenter.org/pdps/2019-2020/live-at-home/diary-of-a-tap-dancer/

Thinking about service..

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

- Rabindranath Tagore

I feel like we are waking up just now, in our brief history on this planet, and learning that life is service. For some of us, this is news, and we may be experiencing some grief around the joyous dream from which we have been suddenly exiled. We find ourselves in unfamiliar territory, grabbing at thin branches along a path we cannot fully discern. We wonder if we are alone in our experience.

For others, this place is home. This life of service called us long ago, waking us from our own dreams, perhaps less joyous. Here we are, still, celebrating service together, as the need exponentially swells. The path we have been walking is full of joy, even when it is dark. We can share this experience, we can call out in the storm.

Behold: Service is Joy. Your health is my health, is our health. Our peace of mind, our survival, dignity, radiant beauty, joy - all inextricably linked together. Like any organism or ecosystem or galaxy, the true path to survival is cooperation. We can learn to invite service with humility and joyful effort, to let go and let be and to be with.

Check out the absolutely amazing webinars on structural racism in healthcare and education, organized by NADOHE:

https://www.nadohe.org/webinars

And check out Danez Smith:

LITTLE PRAYER
by Danez Smith

let ruin end here

let him find honey
where there was once a slaughter

let him enter the lion’s cage
& find a field of lilacs

let this be the healing
& if not   let it be

Thoughts on independence and health...

If we think of the body as a miracle of interconnected organs and tissues and cells, all distinctly different yet communicating and cooperating with one another, then we have to acknowledge and support the whole, with equal attention and nourishment to each of the parts. If we favor the heart but neglect and abuse the liver, for example, the body is doomed to collapse altogether, heart included. The various parts of the body, individually so very different from one another, nonetheless depend upon and contribute to the health of all the other parts.

This weekend, as we revisit the question of independence and interdependence in US history, a couple of things to share:

James Earl Jones reads Frederick Douglass:

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/7/3/what_to_the_slave_is_4th

And the following petition, in response to the abusive neglect during the Covid 19 pandemic of the residents of Coler Rehabilitation and Nursing Facility on Roosevelt Island. The NYC H&H administration at first ignored and then repeatedly denied the increasingly desperate testimony of the residents and staff. The predominantly black and brown residents require advanced care but were otherwise healthy until NYC decided to house an overflow of Covid patients, with inadequate PPE and staff to safely care for everyone. Please sign:

https://www.voicesofcoler.com/

Juneteenth

Emancipation

by Elizabeth Alexander

Corncob constellation,

oyster shell, drawstring pouch, dry bones.

Gris gris in the rafters.

Hoodoo in the sleeping nook.

Mojo in Linda Brent’s crawlspace.

Nineteenth century corncob cosmogram

set on the dirt floor, beneath the slant roof,

left intact the afternoon

that someone came and told those slaves

“We’re free.”

This poem sings of the multitudes of wishes and fears that can be set free in one moment, reverberating through the ages. A fitting poem for tomorrow, which commemorates the day citizens in Galveston, Texas were informed by the Union army that slaves were free. A full two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. General Lee had to surrender first in order for the executive order to be enforced. If this sounds like a familiar pattern, congratulations. You have been paying attention.

A cosmogram, like a Tibetan sand mandala, like a work by Andy Goldsworthy made of icicles or fallen leaves, connects the maker directly with creative spirit, and then is left to the elements. It is a conversation with the divine, a song, not meant to be preserved as a material object. The experience of the making is itself the thing that endures and gets passed on.

This is what this mass movement of protests and activism feels like to me, as people from all walks of life, all over the world, connect with a shared creative spirit, a pledge of allegiance to an egalitarian world, with acknowledgement of suffering and the conviction that no one has the right to inflict pain on another. How beautiful that this comes largely from a generation we thought lost to cellphones and the internet. Turns out they were learning from one another. Now we are learning from them.

A few ways to celebrate:

https://www.mindandlife.org/healing-today/ The Dalai Lama will be speaking about covid and racism. Free but you are encouraged to register. Times vary depending on your location. NYC is around 10:30pm

For up to date protest listings in NYC, follow @justiceforgeorgenyc on Instagram

Listen to Angela Davis: https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/12/angela_davis_historic_moment

Read Elizabeth Alexander, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, Ta Nehisi Coates, Cornel West…

reflections on change

No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite

- Nelson Mandela

Recently, two events have shaped the way I feel about the movement for social justice in America as it continues and we are called to respond and called to act.

The first was an online event by the Zuckerman Institute and Columbia Wellness Center on Structural Racism, featuring Dr. Olajide Williams, Co-director of the Wellness Center, in conversation with Robert Fullilove, Associate Dean of Community and Minority Affairs at the Mailman School.

They spoke at length of the history of structural racism in this country, in which inequities are built into the infrastructures of healthcare, education, legislation, and voting so that glaring rifts have been created systemically, providing access to services for some and withholding it insidiously from others, all the while claiming ‘freedom, liberty and justice for all’.

Anyone who has been paying attention is aware of this problem. It is not a new problem. It just shift-shapes like a wicked jnoun (malevolent spirit), so that we have to keep tracking it, keep rooting it out, keep calling it out and fighting it.

The take away was something they addressed at the end of the symposium, in answer to the question, “what can we do?”. Aside from marching, and voting, and writing your elected officials, they said, go to the neighborhoods where there is need and be a helping body. Meet and interact with people with experiences different from your own. Feed, serve, love your neighbor. Ram Dass said that, Jesus, too, and the Buddha. Share the wealth you have. As someone who has worked my entire life in food service and healthcare, I can second the invitation. It has opened my mind and heart and continues to clear my vision.

The other event was a screening of the CNN documentary on John Lewis, Good Trouble. The biographical narrative, with great footage of civil rights protests (so familiar in light of the current activism), and interviews with the man himself, underscored the powerful effect of unwavering devotion to a cause. Change needs to be sustained. Hope needs to be nourished. Despair must be voted off the island. Here’s the link:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/12/politics/john-lewis-good-trouble-documentary/index.html

On mourning George Floyd and examining our history of violence

The root of compassion is not empathy; that is kindness. Kindness is great, but it is not the ultimate compassion. Ultimate compassion relieves the suffering that comes from separateness. The suffering that comes from separateness is relieved only when you are fully present with another person, not when you are separately present.

When our hearts open, when we know that we are in fact the world, when we experience the pain of others in our own blood and muscle, we are feeling compassion.

- Ram Dass

An idea from Paolo Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed ) comes to mind: when the oppressed fight for their liberation, they are ultimately bringing about the liberation of everyone, including the oppressors themselves. For how can anyone be free if they have their knee on someone’s neck?

When we protest, when we speak out against injustice, when we boycott corporations who continue to exploit women and people of color, when we hold our elected officials accountable…

when we do the hard work of examining our own, deeply forged and often hidden, unconscious biases,

when we resist choosing safety over the discomfort of confrontation whenever bias shows its twisted face,

then we are working to free all of humanity.

Until everyone is at peace, no one is at peace.

Below, a hastily-compiled guide of things to do/read/consider:

Listen to Cornel West:

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/1/cornel_west_us_moment_of_reckoning

What can I do?:

https://www.defendingblacklives.org/defund-police-sign-on/

https://www.change.org/

https://www.greatbigstory.com/guides/how-to-become-a-better-black-lives-matter-ally

https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/

Know your rights and what to do in an encounter with law enforcement:

https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/discrimination-on-the-basis-of-race-ethnicity-or-national-origin

https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/what-do-when-encountering-law-enforcement-questioning/

http://www.heraca.org/documents/knowyourrights/bustcard-English.pdf

Pressure your elected officials:

https://ny.curbed.com/2017/3/15/14886664/nyc-elected-officials-representative-how-to-contact

http://www.mygovnyc.org/

https://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/county-election-officals.shtml

Vote:

http://www.nyccfb.info/nyc-votes/vgwelcome/guide-to-voting-in-the-2020-elections/

https://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/election-information-2020.shtml

The role and responsibility of corporate America:

https://hbr.org/2020/06/u-s-businesses-must-take-meaningful-action-against-racism

Required reading:

Anzaldua, Gloria. Borderlands, La Frontera; the New Mestiza

Freire, Paolo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Martin Luther King, Jr. Strength to Love

loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu

loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu

loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu

om shanti, shanti, shanti

(may all beings, everywhere, be free from suffering)

Hope in Uncertain Times

is the title of Deepak Chopra’s and Oprah’s new 21 day free meditation series. These offer a nice combination of dharma talk and mantra meditation simply taught:

https://chopracentermeditation.com/?sso_code=eyJpdiI6IklZQnY4UHRcL3NWTEJqaTVWc0ZUMkRRPT0iLCJ2YWx1ZSI6IlJ2S1VKc0pXNTRUeEI4dUtDN1F5UkN0ZlZRZU5scDJlNzdWV2VOTG4rWTRweURleU1jRTRBc1JGY0d5ZVVybDNCQTlWM0NYMnE1SDFlVjBhTGZZZUZQUUczSHZ1azY4NCtwZUZqWkNHall3PSIsIm1hYyI6IjJiNzZhMTNmZjNkYWIxMzU3YjcwODQ1YmM0ODU1YmYzMTc0YzA4ZjJhNTE0NmM4OWM4NTdmMTU2YWFmMGJkOTMifQ%3D%3D

And then we got sick

Despite the theives oil and the neti pot, despite the vitamin C in mega doses, the zinc, the vitamin D, despite self-quarantine and meticulous, nurses’ handwashing techniques and bleaching (yes, bleach) down doorknobs and light switches and toilet and sink handles…we got sick. Being in service, being in the world, has its risks, after all. Fortunately, the symptoms began in quarantine, and so no one else was affected. Small comfort.

The first surprise was that my husband, who has a chronic condition, would not be seen by his physician, despite his symptoms which mirrored those being splashed all over tv and internet; cough, low grade fever, exhaustion. Because he was not having difficulty breathing specifically, we were advised to keep him comfortable at home, to keep him out of the hospital if possible. Tests in NYC were not available, we were told, unless you showed up at the hospital. We tried NJ where we live. Each testing center filled up before we could even get to the pre-screening. Nothing. Sick with fever, I drove an half hour away to a testing site for healthcare workers. We arrived at 9am and the signs greeted us from the highway exit: “testing full”.

Finally, after a week of getting worse not better, my husband couldn’t keep down food or water, and we took him in. The first hospital, a 650 bed teaching hospital near us, had no beds, not enough doctors. After 16 hours in the ER we took him out. Our doctor advised us to go west, or north of the city, so we did. The hospital we chose, nearly an hour west of the city, took him in right away, oxygen mask on as they wheeled him in. A new chapter was beginning.

He has been in the hospital now for a week, on plaquenil, an anti-malaria drug, antibiotics for pneumonia, and oxygen. He will be discharged when he can hold his oxygen saturation level without the nasal cannula. He is considered one of the lucky ones. I have never been so grateful for nurses and doctors who show up to work no matter what. And I know that, once home, there is a long road ahead to fully recovered strength.

Self care has taken on the quality of spiritual practice in a whole new way. Something about facing loss of such magnitude fills meditation practice, yoga asanas, the long walk with the dogs, the preparation of ‘magic broth’, with a kind of reverence, with gratitude. It’s not, just now, about discipline, but about comfort and celebration both, union with life. I’ve planted some more medicinal herbs - chamomile and calendula and arnica. I’ve been steaming with chamomile and sea salt. I’ve been drinking marshmallow root tea, good for the mucosal linings of lungs and intestines. It has a funny, slimy consistency but I’m not complaining. For once I’m not complaining.

Friends and family have given a new meaning to the word ‘care’. The love and concern that pours in on a daily basis is sustaining in the most deeply essential way. Nectar and balm. Even relatives with whom I’ve had little contact in the past several years are calling to check in, their desire for our well-being rings in their voices like truth. We are naked altogether in this corona phenomenon. And it is a tender thing. I bow down to it.

Magic Mineral Broth (from Clean Soups by Rebecca Katz)

Makes about 6 quarts, prep time 10 mins, cook time 2-3 hours

6 unpeeled carrots, cut into thirds

2 unpeeled yellow onions, quartered

1 leek, white and green parts, cut into thirds

1 bunch celery, including heart, cut into thirds

4 unpeeled red potatoes, quartered

2 unpeeled Japanese or regular sweet potatoes, quartered

1 unpeeled garnet yam (sweet potato), quartered

5 unpeeled cloves garlic, halved

1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley

1 (8-inch strip) kombu (Japanese dried seaweed)

12 black peppercorns

4 whole allspice or juniper berries

8 quarts cold, filtered water, plus more if needed

1 teaspoon sea salt, plus more if needed

Rinse all vegetables well

In a 12-quart stockpot, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Decrease to simmer and cover pot partially, let simmer for 2 hours or until the full richness of the vegetables can be tasted. Add water if vegetables begin to peek out.

Strain broth through a coarse-mesh sieve. Discard solids. Let cool before refrigerating or freezing. Can be stored up to 5 days in refrigerator or 6 months in freezer.

New moon affirmations...

Today the moon is new, begins another cycle of expansion. This is a good time to plant seeds of all kinds - arugula, marigold, chamomile, indoors or out.

It’s also a good time to plant seeds of intention, as affirmations. Here’s how:

Sit in a quiet place,

Bring your awareness to your breathing body

Now move your awareness to the heart center

Notice desires or intentions as they begin to appear

(example: health or abundance or compassion)

Reflect on the seeds of these desires as they exist already in your life right now

(example: a feeling of well-being or a warm cup of tea or concern for your neighbor)

Tune in to the vibrational resonance of the example and the feeling it elicits in the body and rest in that feeling, breathing deeply

Write down the intention(s) in a few words, not more than 5

Say thank you :)

Repeat on the first day of the new moon

Of course this is magical thinking! But magical thinking is powerful stuff if you learn how to work with it. Revisit the intentions from time to time and see how they manifest. The feeling of the present-time seed of the intention (the well-being, the cuppa, the neighbor) expands, in resonance perhaps with the moon, and attracts similar energy.

Here are my new moon affirmations for this month:

Joy in health

Simplicity

Tend relationships, body, garden

Let go of both the past and the future as I imagine it

Rest in Source

Ending the week, a collection of tools for the long haul...

Immunity and resiliency go together. Here are a few things I’m doing to keep balanced as we surf the wave:

I’m eating as cleanly as possible, no red meat or chicken. I do indulge in some chocolate or a glass of wine most days. I have not given up coffee, though I drink mostly herbal tea now, peppermint if I’m working and chamomile or verbena if I’m trying to relax.

I lie in bed breathing deeply for a little while before I get up. I mind my thoughts and do my best to banish the worst case scenarios that knock at the door with such persistence:

Inhale through the nose deep and strong, all the way to the collarbones, filling completely. Exhale through the mouth, slow and long, releasing completely. Try to make the exhale slightly longer than the inhale. Repeat 4 - 8 times, minding the ‘turn around’ (between inhale and exhale, exhale and inhale). Let it go if you start to feel dizzy or anxious.

I don’t listen to the news until I’ve had some activity and breakfast. Then I get the gist of it from a reliable source and turn it off.

I take a long walk every day with my two dogs (they are delighted), and at least a few yoga asanas or qi gong to move the energy. If I want to shake off the blues, I do backbends or chest openers - the first brocade in qi gong (see link in earlier post), or a modified sun salutation, camel pose or dancing shiva in yoga. If I need to calm down, I do forward bends - child’s pose, standing forward bend - or savasana, or legs up the wall.

Check the pose finder on Yoga Journal’s website: https://www.yogajournal.com/pose-finder

Each day I try to tend my garden, or check in on my friends and relatives, or prepare delicious meals, to connect with life as best I can under the circumstances. I try to forgive myself when I am scattered and less than efficient, or just plain tired. I apologize when I nag my husband for not being careful and then I nag him again. I am still working in healthcare and in food service and feel scared to be out in the world but also deeply grateful to be a part of it, sharing my fate with so many courageous individuals. People are amazing in a crisis. Warm, big hearts and ready smiles are exchanged between subway and bus riders, grocery store clerks and patrons, nurses aides and their patients. We are not alone. Something sustains us yet. If you are working or studying at home, reach out to someone who still has to go out to work and ask them how they’re doing. You’ll both be glad you did!

Be well. Namaste.