Live as if this is all there is...

Yoga in Costa Rica

saltspring island

i spent all day yesterday so excited about finishing work and going to a yoga class. i needed the centering. i needed the feeling of connection. i needed to work out this nasty kink in my upper back.

there was a snowstorm, though, and i walked up to the door of the studio only to discover that the class was cancelled.
i had this moment of such disappointment. this anxiety about the fact that i had no outlet for working through some energy. no yoga. i felt as though it has been too long a time since i've had that yoga in my life. that mechanism. that external activity that brings internal understanding.

and then i started the long, slushy walk home, and began to remember that yoga is now. yoga is in so many more places than on a mat in a studio.
yoga is a space i can create in every interaction. it's about fostering and nurturing positive energy. it's about looking within yourself and looking at what's around you and cultivating respect and love and understanding and strength.
and it can be done in innumerable ways.

i walked home and stopped being frustrated for a minute. and stopped excusing myself for not having found studios to stretch in. i walked home and practiced yoga.

“Even after all this time, the Sun never says to the Earth ‘You Owe Me.’ Look what happens with a Love like that. It lights the whole Sky.” -Hafiz

Ascent Magazine

Being Present in the Future.

On my Starbucks Cup.

"Anger is contagious."

The Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health.
Bershires, Massachusetts.

The Yasodhara Ashram - Yoga Retreat and Study Centre.

Principles.

Stand and sit up straight, with integrity and humility.

Engage in each pursuit with dedication, perseverance and leadership. Be thorough, ethical and kind.

Cultivate internal power with the purpose of utilizing it for the betterment of our collective condition.

Be strong in the face of adversity, obstacle and emotion.

Listen; seek to understand but not to settle or thoughtlessly accept.

Observe and admire the beauty of what is presented universally, for the sake of enjoyment and building trust.

Think critically but do not question for the sake of rightness.

Be surrounded by those who radiate strength, empowerment, sensitivity, warmth and lightness.

(Do yoga; be yoga)

xoxo Kelly

Home

It's incredible how there are some spaces; some corners of the world where your soul just lives.
you don't necessarily have strong roots in that place. you don't necessarily even know why you're there.
but somehow your soul just knows that you've found home.
and for a little while at least, you can breathe, and rest, and remind yourself of what you're all about.

and hopefully that carries you until the next time your soul finds home

Essays in Love

"We long for a love in which we are never reduced or misunderstood. We have a morbid resistance to classification by others, to others placing labels on us...To ourselves, we are after all always un-labelable. When alone, we are always simply 'me', and shift between sides of ourselves effortlessly and without the constraints imposed by the preconceptions of others...
But as we must be labelled, characterized, and defined by others, the person we end up loving is...the person who loves us for more or less the things we deem ourselves to be lovable for, who understands us for more or less the things we need to be understood for. That 'chloe' and I were together implied that, for hte moment at least, we had been given enough room to expand in the ways our complexitites demanded.

-Alain de Botton
"Essays in Love"

A Few of my Favourite Things About Sampson

1) she reminds me to journal.

2) she believes in energy

3) she believes in me

4) she laughs sincerely

5) she has more passion and drive than anyone else i personally know

6) she has a really fantastic bed

7) she has a deep appreciation for the 3 c's - chocolate and coffee and cheese

8) she has a deep appreciation for inner beauty

8) she lets me be her student

10) she can fix bikes

11) she likes organic things and she likes plants

12) she doesn't lose sight of what's important for her

13) she gives her time and her strengths to better the universe

14) she can do a handstand for over 6 seconds

15) she grasps the bigger picture - she doesn't give in to the unimportant

16) she's intelligent and so insightful

17) she tolerates (and somehow even appreciates) the messiness in my life, and cleans the cupboards after i come along

18) she snowshoes

19) she still laughs about the time i fell off the bed in cambodia

20) she reminds me to trust the universe

“The same stream of life that runs through the world runs through my veins night & day. It is the same life that emerges in joy through the dust of the earth into numberless waves of flowers.”

-Rabindranath Tagore (on water)

The Picnic Table

Everyday on my bike ride from school, I notice the same picnic table. It's worn and well-used, sitting very close by the Thames River. Everyday this table is in use when I ride by. Earlier this week, by four colleagues with take-out pizza. Yesterday, by an older couple - one in a folding camp chair, the other sitting on the edge of the table - feeding the ducks. Today, a man lying flat on the table surface, with this arms covering his eyes.

There is something that draws me about this table, how it collects and releases people throughout their days. Sharing their moments. More so, I wonder what goes through the heads of the people who sit at the table.

Once at the beginning of medical school I lay on the ground near that table, under a tree. I needed to ground myself. I thought, "as if I'm in medical school and how am I going to do this". It was more of a statement than a question. And then I remember thinking about nothing. Just lying there by the picnic table, under the tree.

implication

it's funny how we get caught up continuously turning some things over in our heads.
around and around...with each turn, a perception of some new angle....some new insight.

and it's so fascinating if we can step back from ourselves. just a little - just for a moment...

and recognize a few of the countless, almost subconscious decisions we make each moment.
with every seemingly benign thought - every mindless interaction - lies the potential of influence...of energy gone somewhere.

sometimes i step back and recognize my insignificance.
and occasionally, i scare myself with the implications of all that energy i send - well directed or not so well directed...or not recognized as being sent at all.

the discovery of discerning intention.

be impeccable.

Never Stop Exploring. Especially in the Living Room.

People.

The key is to surround yourself with people that inspire you. People you admire. People you like to listen to. People whose work you like to read. People who make you feel good when you're around them. People who look up to you, and to whom you look up. People that you want to have sit in your kitchen and drink a glass of wine. People who want to hear about your life and your experiences. People you want to cook meals for so you can sit, talk, and eat. People who will drop everything at a moments notice to help you out of a bind. People for whom you would do exactly the same. People who love you. People you love.

it's funny how so often we feel as though we're starting again. starting over.


turning over a new leaf.


tomorrow.


and this time it will be right and better and real.


and this time it will last.


and tomorrow we'll hold on to that glimpse of perspective that made us realize we had to go back and reevaluate in the first place.





but we never really start again. we never quite turn around and let go of our self-defined flaws. our patterning.


and we strive and we disappoint and we keep trying and we keep loving.


and we just keep going.





i think sometimes we need to remember that there's nothing so magical about tomorrow.


it holds our possibility. just like right now.



and despite that i'm so excited for next week.

because next week holds time to re-center.

to start again.

Coming home again. Feels like the place you lived didn't keep up with your new energy. Feels like you forgot how it felt. Seems like the place you live and you need to come to a new energetic agreement. Feels like a good night to meditate and fill the space with positivity.

Goals. To stop hating and just love. To listen and don't fight. To enjoy being home. To spend lots of time with family. To be influential. To embrace my career. To rest. To be impeccable with my word. To be honest. To be here.

xxxooo K

some more of other people's words (c/o kelly)

"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance.
To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you.
To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair.
To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple.
To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand.
To never look away. And never, never, to forget."

- Arundhati Roy

trust the universe

....sometimes i think we have to challenge the universe. or at least challange our own perceptions - our own ideas about the universe.

and sometimes maybe we just need to trust it.


maybe we're gonna be o.k.

applicable

this is just something i wrote down the other day. it sort of summarizes what stuck with me after a lecture by a brilliant yoga instructor at the costa rica retreat...it resonated somehow.

by clinging to a sense of I, me and mine, we turn ourselves into subjects. and we misconstrue the gap between what is real and what is perceived by this objectification as lonliness. as lack. we try to fill this lack with objects. ideas of what should be there. instead of just being. realizing there is no i and you. listening honestly.

and then love shows up.

random quote

i have this written down on a little piece of paper, that i'm obviously going to lose and wanted to write it somewhere more permanant before it disappeared!

"Desire is a teacher. When we confuse desiring with having or attaining something, we move away from ourselves, away from listening, flowing, feeling, creating, and into pushing, striving, teeth-gritting, forcing way of being...
Desire becomes a place to get to rather tahn a vital energy to feel, experience and ride. It is possible to be in a state in which desire is valued not as a prelude to possession, control, or merger, but as a mode to appreciation itself."

-Mark Epstein

First Post

Welcome!