May you be at ease in your body and your mind!
Like our lives, this website in a work in progress.
I invite you to browse and journey through the postings on this side.
For regular classes and upcoming events and yoga travel, please use the links on the right.
The pretty fractal image at the top your link to return home.
May you be filled with Loving Kindness.
May you be safe from inner and outer dangers.
May you be at ease in your body and your mind.
May you be at peace and happy!
Namaste
It doesn’t matter what you may use, to keep reminding yourself to stay Conscious. I have this solar powered prayer wheel on the dashboard of my car. As the sun rises it begins to turn. The Tibetan Mantra Om Mani Padme Hum are inscribed on the wheel, and while I drive, it makes a subtle turning sound.
Recently I drove behind a truck that had a variety of stickers with slogans that are counter to the slogans I might choose. For example, the Peace sign sticker had a circle with fighter bombers inside it, with the message Peace the Traditional Way – implying that force is the way. Aaaarg! I find myself in argument with the driver of the truck, who I have never met, and I discover a rising anger towards him. Then I hear the subtle turning of my prayer wheel, and see the sun shine on its golden color: Ha, now the mantra comes into my Awareness. My thoughts shift away from judgments and self-righteous ideas, back to a place of openness and freedom. As soon as I realized where my mind was taking me, what story I was telling myself, I just laughed out loud and felt immediately free!
Driving with this reminder, keeps my mental/emotional body in check. When the monkey mind wanders off down some well-worn pathway, we can be pulled back. This is of course a spiritual muscle that needs strengthening, just as much as the physical body needs that.
I got my solar powered prayer wheel in Bhutan! Saw it, and HAD to have it. I believe there are only 3 of them in our town. If your desire nature has suddenly sky-rocketed, shop at Amazon!
May you be at ease in your body and your mind!
Like our lives, this website in a work in progress.
I invite you to browse and journey through the postings on this side.
For regular classes and upcoming events and yoga travel, please use the links on the right.
The pretty fractal image at the top your link to return home.
May you be filled with Loving Kindness.
May you be safe from inner and outer dangers.
May you be at ease in your body and your mind.
May you be at peace and happy!
Namaste
This is officially PANIC Day! Is a yoga teacher allowed such a day? Yes yes yes! The panic quality is giving me enough adrenaline to get things done. Like decide which clothes are allowed to come. Like tell Dorji of Topanga Bhutan shop, I am delighted to take his gifts to Thimpu, but cannot take all three jackets in my suitcase. Lovely to have him visit my home this morning with his wife. Like make sure all bills are paid on time, and ensure that the remnants of my life in Thousand Oaks stays in tact! Like checking all electronic equipment is in place.
The liminal world – between two zones, where time both speeds up and then stands still.
Must confess that too much panic means not being able to think clearly, so the lists are handy!
Word from Chaing Mai that the floods have not been too devastating. Also appears thant Bangkok is safe from the rising waters which coincided with full moon extreme tides. In gratitude!
In April 2009 we visited the Elephant Nature Park in Northern Thailand. This is a safe haven for tired and abused animals. No rides, no shows, just feeding and bathing the ellies. It was one of the best experiences in my life. Getting up close to an animal the size of an elephant is spectacular. I felt her stillness and her depth, and I know she felt mine! Click how I fell in love to see the short clip.
Chris and I hope to get back there next week, weather allowing,to deliver the musical energetic remedy especially potentized for elephants that have experienced trauma.
Yes, that is me and a very old tree. This fallen sequoia has been intriguing visitors to the Mariposa Grove, Yosemite for hundreds of years. The roots fan out 150 feet, although they are only 6 feet long. Before it fell, the tree stood tall for several thousand years!
How small my body in comparison. Well, I believe, that thanks to a many years of practicing yoga, and my maturing body, I have reached the largest size for woman’s shoes!
It really does remind of the golden reclining Buddha in the Wat Pho, Bangkok, on account of the enormous feet/roots! The reclining Buddha has feet that rise up to 48 feet.
Check out what the US Cavalry did with the same tree!!
From the comfort of my home computer, I scour the news for reports from Thailand about the recent flooding. It is the worst in 50 years, and the river that runs through Bangkok may well flood its banks. This is devastating for the locals.
What about me? How does this change the scheduled one-whole-month of travels? It is time to practice being a yogi – time to be flexible and unflappable! Some structures are in place, such as needing to get on the Cathy Pacific flight to Bangkok on Thursday morning from LAX. Such as meeting the group of yogis accompanying me to Bhutan at 5am on November 4th in BKK airport! However, what we will do when we arrive in BKK on Friday evening, is still entirely unclear. Please, don’t let us have to stay in the airport!
Chris and I had scheduled 5 days as a pre-Bhutan get-into the time-zone and the travel mood, before meeting the entire yoga group to go to Bhutan.
What will do with that time? So far the best laid plans have been abandoned due to the flooding. I first heard of the flooding in a personal email to me in response to my request to visit the ElephantStay Camp an hour outside of Bangkok. Did you know such a place existed? Guests are invited to stay for several days to live in close proximity with the retired elephants, and to assist with the nursery of young elies. Now that is SO exciting to me. You have your own elephant to care for, feed, bath, and bond with. Oh my, such a rocket of desire in me to do that. I adore elephants! Enormous creatures who appear so still and so tuned in to what is happening around them. They are teachers of stillness and meditation to me. So, when I heard that 90 elephants had been moved to higher land, and that the staff and other animals at the Elephant Stay are under threat with the floods, I felt compassion for them, and big disappointment for me! Right now, we cannot go there.
Elephants rescued from floods in Thailand.
There are some alternatives of course, all flood depending. I can see no reports on Northern Thailand. Perhaps we could go to Chiang Mai, visit temples and go back to Elephant Nature Reserve, the place we visited last year and where the elephant affair deepened. Should I just book flights to Chiang Mai, or wait and get weather reports?? Learning again to be in the moment and to embrace uncertainty!
Updates to follow!
I love this gentle giant! May we meet again soon!
Hmmmm, only three days to departure. Now, what do I need to pack??
SATURDAY DECEMBER 4 1:00 PM — 5:00 PM
TUSCAN GLUTEN-FREE HOLIDAY FEAST!
Gift these authentic, traditional, heirloom recipes to your family and friends for the holidays or any time at all!
HOIDAY GLUTEN-FREE FEAST and PARTY HANDS ON!
MAGGIE’S GARDEN ROOM
WITH MAGGIE AND THE TOPANGA CHEF
SIGN UP NOW—SPACE IS LIMITED
$75.00 pp is the discounted price for early registration. $20.00 more after Thanksgiving Day.
To reserve your space, send check November 25th to: Judith Sarchielli
21376 Summit Road, Topanga, CA 90290
Your registration is nonrefundable, however you can take another class at any time.
For more information please contact Chef Judith:
310-482-9901 sarchjudith@gmail.com www.glutenfreecuisine.weebly.com
Chef Sarchielli educates—she does not diagnose or prescribe.
