dear readers,
i’m out here in oakland, where going dumb is a good, good thing. here’s the info for the hip hop yoga class i’m teaching this evening at the gorgeous women’s building. the women’s building was the first building to house all women’s organizations in the nation. here’s the flyer for today and a shot of the powerful murals on the women’s building, en la mission.
xoxoxo
morning prayers at coney…
so i went for a run this morning
earlier my homegirl had called me from
the tarmac at nola airport
and when we got off the phone
she talked about attaching to her spirit
so i’m out there right
and its all mist and spring grey
can’t see shit but the water and the sand
like a 15 foot circumference around is clear
beyond that the buildings the ocean is fog
and you know you keep on running
and attaching, reattaching, re-reattaching
to myself
detachment is like that fog
descends without warning
attachment happens in that small circle of clarity
i am holding on to the spine of my loving spirit
i am holding on to the tracks of this roller coaster
some parts rooted some parts letting go
laying these burdens down
and running into the ocean mist
dear readers,
there’s so much going on, so much to care about, the poet ishle park wrote that when the japan earthquake hit, the world shifted on its axis, and some of us clipped on our wings. it’s a good time for flight, no? here’s a poem from rumi, i was feeling it so much this morning, running through that grey and green and dog filled prospect park. go brooklyn.
lovers are made aware, by rumi
you make a hundred resolutions to journey somewhere/
but He draws you somewhere else.
He turns the horses bridle in every direction/
so that the untrained horse may know there is a rider.
The clever horse is well paced because it knows a rider is mounted upon it.
He fixed your heart on a hundred passionate desires, disappointed you/
then broke your heart.
Since he broke the Wings of your first intention/
how do you doubt the existence of the Wing Breaker.
Since his ordainment snapped the chord of your contrivance,
how can you remain blind to His command?
Your resolutions and aims now and then are fulfilled
so that through hope your heart might form another intention/
which he might once again destroy.
for if he were to keep you completely from success/
you would despair:
how would the seed of expectation be sown?
If your heart did not sow that seed,
and then encounter barrenness, how would it recognize its submission to Divine will?
By their failures lovers are made aware of their Lord.
Lack of success is the guide to Paradise:
Pay attention to the tradition:
“Paradise is encompassed with pain.”
peace,
roopa swing
