Thursday, January 01, 2009

Happy New Year!

New York seems to explode with yoga on the 31st of December and 1st of January.....I guess as the old year exhales to a close and the New year inhales, NY yogis find ways to do the same. Studios lit till midnight with music and intention setting and reflection, teachers falling back into NY after their travels like Times Square balls dropping with light and movement. Song. Prayer. Silence. Laughter.

Letting go of 2008 was a Huge series of exhales...so happy and grateful to make space for the New!

One of my favorite New Year's rituals is the chanting at Dharma Mittra Yoga Center. This year, Krishna Das led, which was extra eardrum bliss. For those who didn't get to marinate in the melodies in person, a gift:



I also got to check out one of David Life's classes. Jivamukti isn't my normal scene, and the owners aren't normally in town, so it was largely curiousity that led me. Getting into his sold-out class was like trying to get past the velvet ropes of some elite nightclub.. at first a turn-off, but I'm glad I made the cut. I was pleasantly surprised by his creative sequencing and his humor. The guy was drawling deadpan into a mic to reach the 100 or so students who were there. He delivered original asanas and kooky jokes that had us literally laughing on our backs. David Life reminds me of Sid Vicious, if Sid Vicious had lived to teach yoga and delivered joke-asanas on mics instead of lyrics. I would've liked to have seen Sid in Headstand.

But anyway, I left with my heart lighter and the space in back of my heart, in between my shouder-blades where I imagine wings would sprout, strangely sore. I guess all the humor distracted me from all the jump-backs. Chaturanga dandasana!

Speaking of jumping back...what a year! When I look back to this day last year, my world was vastly different. A herneated disc had me largely out of New Year's Yoga-commission. I had a different profession, different home, had different relationships and circumstances, questions and answers. What a wild ride between Januarys. A lot of loss, a lot of opportunties. Exhale. Inhale. So thankful to have landed in 2009 intact, flowing into sequences, and a whole new set of circumstances for a whole new year.

Jai!

Sid:


David: