what if...

this morning when i stepped out my front doors, i saw a breathtaking sight. snow. everywhere. the trees were so full of it their branches were hanging low. so low they touched my forehead. there was snow on the cars and the streets, the rocks and the park benches. and i had this thought:

what if...

we don't use any more cars. and we would use sleds to get to places. there would be jobs for people to pull sleds. and they would be paid a lot of money cuz all the money we used to spend on gas and car insurance could now be spend on them. and it would be a good job. we would look up to those people. for their strength. and if we got stuck, we would get out and help them. 

and all of our food would come from places that could reach us by sled. and it would mostly be cabbage, potatoes and carrots. but every month there would be a festival where the best recipes would be in a competition. and all that the cooks would be able to use would be cabbage, carrots and potatoes. leeks too. and they would come up with amazing creations. and there would be no winners. in the end every body would be eating everybody's creations. and there would be a big photo in the newspaper. and then we would all try out those recipes at home until the next competition.

and all the roads downtown would be covered with ice so you could skate everywhere. and there would be little sleds that can go on the ice for the elderly and people who can't or don't want to skate. and again, there would be people to push them to where they would like to go. there would be different lanes. one lane for skate strollers (those who like to look at the windows and just go slow), one express lane for people who need to get to a place quickly, and one lane for skate strollers going the other way. everybody would stop at the intersection and because it's so quiet and we are not separated by metal, we would communicate who would go next. and at every store's entrance would be hangers for our skates. and colorful benches painted by local artist, where we would sit down to take off our skates. and the stores would offer warm socks for the customers to wear while inside. and there would always be hot tea or apple cider no matter what store. and people would be able to pay for it cuz even though we would need to pay for the sled pushers and the tea, it's still a lot less than having to support a car.

and sometimes, between sips of delicious local apple sider, we would look back on those stressful days and sigh relieved.

what if...

Gratitude Phrases

1. I am grateful for the blessings already on their way.

2. I am grateful for the blessings of this day.

3. May these blessings ripen upon all beings.

Poem by Robin Morgan

A Ceremony

We will grow old, and older.

One of us will die, and then the other.

The earth itself will be impaled

on sunspokes. It doesn't matter.

We have been imprinted on the protons

of energy herself,

and so stand in another atmosphere,

where an undiscovered star we will never live to see

casts shadows on a grove of succulents we cannot yet imagine.

There our interchangeable features still vibrate and blur,

each smile half of one circle,

each utterance spiraling like light

upward in shudders along the spine

as if the moon and you and I were slivers

of one mirror, gazing on herself at at last.

-Robin Morgan

Poem by Wendell Berry

I would not have been a poet

except that I have been in love

alive in this mortal world,

an essayist except that I

have been bewildered and afraid,

or a storyteller had I not heard

stories passing to me through the air,

or a writer at all except

I have been wakeful at night

and words have come to me

out of their deep caves

needing to be remembered.

But on the days I am lucky

or blessed, I am silent.

I go into the one body

that two make in making marriage

that for all our trying, all

our deaf-and-dumb of speech,

has no tongue. Or I give myself

to gravity, light, and air

and am carried back

to solitary work in fields

and woods, where my hands

rest upon a world unnamed,

complete, unanswerable, and final

as our daily bread and meat.

The way of love leads all ways

to life beyond words, silent

and secret. To serve that triumph

I have done all the rest.

-from A Timbered Choir, Wendell Berry

N Grams

Have you ever heard of an N gram? So cool~ It finds the number of times a particular word is used in books. I've tracked the number of times the word 'yoga' is used from 1800 to 2000 in all Google books.
Check it out! Below you can look at the books those words appear in.
http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=yoga&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3

Book Report List

AUTHOR	PRESENTER	TITLE
Mitchell Albom	Laura	5 People You Meet in Heave
Jack Kornfield	Susan Lollis	Guided Meditation – Six Essential Practices to Cultivate Love Awareness & Wisdom
Barbara Stoler Miller (trans.)	Susan Lollis	Yoga Discipline of Freedom – The Yoga Sutra Attributed to Patanjali
Michael Stone	Lise	The Inner Tradition of Yoga
Michael Stone	Lisa & Elizabeth	Yoga for a World Out of Balance – Teachings on ethics & social action
Goerge Feverstein (ed.)	Gale	Living Yoga – A Comprehensive Guide for Daily Life
Thicht Nat Hahn	Jewels	Answers from the Heart – Practical Questions to Life’s Burning Questions
Daniel Gilbert	Sheri	Stumbling Upon Happiness
Karen Armstrong	Hilary	12 Steps to a Compassionate Life
Sharon Salzberg	Heather	Lovingkindness
Sylvia Boorstein	Jason	It’s Easier than You Think – The Buddhist Way to Happiness
Dr. John Townsend	Paul	Loving People – How to Love & Be Loved
Donna Farhi	Vickie	Bringing Yoga to Life – The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living
Stephen Cope	Marilyn	The Wisdom of Yoga
	Erika	Peaceful Piggy Meditation
	Erika	Have You Filled Your Bucket Today?
Thich Nhat Hahn	Megan	The Miracle of Mindfulness
Thich Nhat Hahn	Megan	Peace in Every Step – The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
Swami Satyananda Savaswati	Susan Hadfield	Yoga Nidra
Neil Pollock	Susan	Stretck: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude
Mary Bond	Kathy	The New Rules of Posture
Jack Kornfield	Sandy	The Wise Heart

Meditation Retreat

The meditation retreat I mentioned this weekend is from True North Insight. Their webpage is http://www.truenorthinsight.org/
The particular retreat I was mentioning is called Wake Up to Life! and is being held at Guelph's Loyola House next November 2012. We'll all be yoga teachers by then! Here is the individual webpage http://www.truenorthinsight.org/index.php/en/schedule/residential-retreats/wake-up-to-life-loyola