Keeping Pace

Keeping Pace

aus·pi·cious

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Adjective:
  1. Conducive to success; favorable: “an auspicious moment to hold an election”.
  2. Giving or being a sign of future success.

You may remember that my quest to achieve 60 yoga and/or meditation sessions in a 60 day period (aka The 60 day Challenge) turned into a quest for the auspicious number 108. For the most part, the journey has been going well. But it has not been without it’s own set of challenges, most of which, I have come to acknowledge late in the game.

For starters, it seems that my love of hot, power-based, flow yoga must be balanced with something else. My body has been hurting and is demanding change off and on for some time now. While spiritually and mentally, I’ve grown accustomed to my almost-daily practice of yoga, physically I have noticed a rather varied enthusiasm. Similar to my other activities, the value of regular yogic practice must be weighed against the physical demand on my body. While the movement feels good, I cannot keep continuing to push it as hard as I have been. I suppose my approach needs to be similar to endurance running, utilizing a hard-easy-hard pattern for long term success. The need for this change seems essential if I intend to proceed with my plan to pick up my running and other rigorous outdoor activities as we move into the hotter months of the year.

Balance? Wasn’t that my word for the year? Apparently, it is more than just being able to stand on one leg with the other stretched up towards the heavens. Apparently it is much bigger than that. Apparently the most auspicious thing about my quest for 108 is the realization that in order for me to find the physical and spiritual balance I am after, I need to find ways to balance out my yoga practice as well.

So…

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UNLESS

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Today, being Dr. Seuss’ 108th Birthday and all, is perhaps the most perfect and auspicious timing for the release of Universal Picture’s animated interpretation of Seuss’ classic children’s book, The Lorax.

The Man bought me this book as a Valentine’s Day gift and, upon reacquainting myself with the story I once thought I knew, I was dumbfounded. The man (Dr. Seuss, that is) was BRILLIANT. To think that this book was published in 1971, “in the days when the grass was still green and the pond was still wet and the clouds were still clean,” amazes me. How did he know that we would chop down the forests to build the houses and other such “thneeds” that we somehow felt were more important that preserving the homes of the animals that lived there.

manzanita tree.jpg

Okay, maybe I am getting too preachy here. After all, I too live in a 4 bedroom home in the ‘burbs. But I do wonder if we’ve gone too far. I mean, just look around. How many buildings in your surrounding area are vacant, be it office, home, or other business? How many grocery stores or coffee shops do you have within a 5 mile radius of your home? Do we need all that? Really?

All that aside, what about the open space preserves, national parks, or other beautiful places which we have somehow managed to save from development? How many times have you seen a seemly-perfect tree such as this manzanita tree out in the middle of these paradises? Look closely: more than one person has carved their name into the tree trunk. It’s sad.

One look at this makes me wish that there was really and truly a Lorax to speak for the poor defenseless trees, for the birds, the bears, the fish… and for us. If there is anything we need, it is glorious places such as these. In my humble opinion, these are the “thneeds” that-all-people-need.

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