YogaWithGrace.net™

I am hopeful for a restorative week of yoga/walking. A little like high-class boy scout camp. Oh my, shades of Treasure Valley. My friend Lee and I will have a private cabin with our own bathroom. She has been to Omega and assures me that the campus is lovely, a lake to swim and boat, trails to walk, library and store (oh boy!) and an outside, but screened in yoga studio. A dream studio for me, ever since doing a garden yoga class in Florida at Siesta/Fiesta Key.
Patrick reminded me to bring the camera so I can share the experience.
A week off for the Tuesday Night Yoginis, two did brave the heat/humidity last week for a round of "slow motion" hot yoga. Miss Deb you missed a LONG drawn out starfish!
breave and breave
namaste
Grace

If I have been practicing yoga for 28 years, one would think I AM ready... For a week of walking/yoga and meditation in the woods of Rheinbeck, NY. Am I walking? No, but I have had a fabulous week of Yoga. Saturday morning (very early) I taught a class of women I had never met, an odd feeling for a small town girl. Again, the Say Yes to Yoga studio is such a wonderfully mellow setting, even at 7 AM on a Saturday. I also taught the Sunday class with some familiar faces. It was a lovely surprise when a Tuesday night yogini, miss Debbie showed to take the class. She had met and taken classes with Baujke at the Wellness Works Studio in Worcester. She also felt the good karmic vibes in Webstah'. Last night was a salute to the full Buck/Hay and Thunder moon. We were hot hot hot, but had a great session and nice re-connecting visit. Miss Maureen was lost in some ..."ville" somewhere. A happy place, she was full of giggles when she called to say she could not make it.
I do so enjoy our practice, thank you all for honoring me with your participation.
namaste
Grace

Today I spent a few hours in the gardens. Tending, weeding, fluffing, spraying, admiring... Michael did the edging, an enormous undertaking and hot heavy work. The whole picture is quite lovely, splashes of color, many different heights and textures and scents. We had lunch on the porch in the new rockers, overlooking the pleasant view. ahhh
Carol sent me a fitting forward...
THE SEED
> An emperor in the Far East was growing old and knew it was time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his children, he decided to do something different. He called young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you. "The children were shocked, but the emperor continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today - one very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next emperor." One boy, named Ling, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his mother the story. She helped him get a pot and planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it, carefully. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by. Still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Ling didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure. Six months went by--still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn't say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow. A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But his mother asked him to be honest about what happened. Ling felt sick at his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace. When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other youths. They were beautiful--in all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other children laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey, nice try." When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the emperor. "Today one of you will be appointed the next emperor." All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front. Ling was terrified. He thought, "The emperor knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!" When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. "My name is Ling," he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!" Ling couldn't believe it. Ling couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor? Then the emperor said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds that would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!"
If you plant honesty, you will reap trust.
If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.
If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.
If you plant perseverance, you will reap victory.
If you plant consideration, you will reap harmony.
If you plant hard work, you will reap success.
If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.
If you plant faith, you will reap miracles.
So let us be careful about what we plant now; it will determine what we will reap tomorrow. The seeds we now scatter will make life worse or better for us or for the ones who will come after us. Someday we will enjoy the fruits or will pay for the choices we make.

Karma in the garden...
breave and breave
namaste
Grace