five faves

I returned from skiing and was just quietly knitting my sweater, the one I just disassembled. It’s 95% done, just a zipper to go, when Lori called and asked, have you got your ticket to Baxter? I was thinking I would take in Sunday. I could handle Sunday, day three, kind of more mellow, a long dharma talk. I should back up and say that Baxter teaches hooping as a movement practice, by whipping 50 people into a frenzy of love, with a dash of frustration mixed in with the break throughs and beauty, where everyone is spinning, shaking everything they’ve got for everything their worth and throws in time for sharing and talking about the path we are on, the hoop path, but bigger than that just our path. I love the spirit in which Baxter does his work – it’s love. Here are somethings I take with me. Jazz hands – was our way of showing, yeah that one resonates with me…

• Paraphrasing, Bax said, “I am on the road to falling in love with myself.” and looking at how we show that, how do we talk to ourselves, treat ourselves. Trying stuff that can lead to the land of frustration can test that. I was reminded me of this related quote I had come across in the last year.

All you need is already within you, only you must approach yourself with reverence and love. Self-condemnation and self-distrust are greivous errors… all I plead with you is this: make love of your self perfect.”    -Sri Nisargadatta

• As I was sitting and knitting, I was listening to this podcast with Will Johnson on Liberated Body where they brought up a quote attributed to Yoda, but I can’t find anything that said he said it, anyway, it was…

There is no balance, there is just balancing. – Will Johnson channelling Yoda

They were also talking on this podcast about spontaneous and rocking movement during meditation or as meditation as in the Sufi tradition. It was synchronicity that here I had the chance to go do that and so I decided to buy my ticket and I went off that afternoon. Thanks Lori! And I am glad I did, because although day three would have been fine all on it’s own, you can’t short cut to day three, without day one and two.

• I loved the dancing and sway and levelling up in hooping. Sway is moving blindfolded. Day 1, there was time to share what brings you to this weekend and there were two things that came up that I was not really resonating with at the time. I came with less skin inthe game and more beginner mind because “I’m a hooper.” is not the first, second or third thing I would ever say about myself. I mainly came for Lori and for Baxter and sway. But I was surprised and delighted to have the chance to dance that much in three days. I have not done that in a very long time. Big belated jazz hands on Dancing and levelling up the hoop skills! My levelling up which I am delighted with is to advance from not knowing what I do not know and spending last year just scraping my jaw off the ground in awe, to knowing what I don’t know and being able to do a few things for seconds at a time. This year my shoulder hooping was better going in this time around.
• Doing this black belt stuff was not what I came for, but I gave it a try. I liked hearing this.

Do it now! The speed of learning will greatly increase if you start doing it now.

• Baxter’s Future Hero podcast. Episodes from March 13th and 16th were recorded a few weeks ago in Calgary at one of his workshops. I didn’t go to that one, but it was really nice to hear what went on. This is what happens amidst the hooping. I had this image this morning. What if your chakras could leave a visible trail of colour like paint and the Jackson Pollack you would see on the walls ceiling and floor of this room we were in.

Absent is all the stuff that came up that I choose to let go. And I’m sure I’ll have to let go of again. (But maybe another time… ) I went to yoga and heard Tamara say something along the lines of “what if what is left over is what is most sacred?” She had just been doing some training in yoga recently and was talking about her day 3 or towards the end of her training.