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A Good Name for God Is…”

02/28/2021 by Aruni

“A Good Name for God Is…….

Not Me”

Says Anne Lamott.

~~~
About 200 years ago or so, pre-pandemic and pre-several-Kripalu-CEOs, I worked with a magnificently marvelous woman named Jodie.  We together ran a massive department at Kripalu called Ongoing Programs, which included R&R, the Yoga Team, the Dance Team, the Who-Even-Knew-What-Other-Teams.  

It brought new meaning to the concept of “ongoing”.

From early morning yoga classes to evening concerts, the classes never stopped.  That roller coaster ride was the doorway to magic for me.  The teachings, the legacy of Swami Kripalu lived and vibrated in the program rooms constantly.  I saw my job as both stewarding the teachings while making them accessible to all our guests, no matter the medium of transmission, be it yoga on the mat, an evening concert, a workshop, wacky and wild drumming/dancing—whatever.

This moment in time was just the other side of the post-ashram /pre-corporate Kripalu, so Jodie and I had free and wonderful reign to make stuff up for this huge area as we went along.

Make stuff up?  Yes, with a dose of integrity and a tad of thought, yep, we made stuff up.

Let me tell you what I mean.

Chanukah?  No problem.  I’d write up a one-pager about Chanukah from a yogic perspective.  No Marketing department had to approve the fonts and no curriculum director had to sign off on its ideas.

Post the sign.

Put some latkas, potato pancakes, on the food line

Presto:  a yogically inspired Chanukah.

It was ours to create.  

And It was beyond-uber-fun to work with Jodie.  We did a pretty darn good job with what we had and rocked each other’s worlds with laughter.

Jodie was so irreverent, a truth-teller of Class AAAA+.  She would simply call it, whatever It was, as it was.  But it was her humor, which coated the truth with belly-aching, side-splitting, out-of-control laughter.
Her expressions, wide-eyed innocence, amusing language with a strong dose of inner dignity—

She was wonderful.

In those days, Jodie had a favorite mantra.  Rolling her eyes to the heavens, confronting the Gods and Monsters that Be, she would make a fist, raise it into the air, and from the depth of her soul, speak it:

“BASTARDS.”

You had to be there.  

The truth of it, yep, there are bastards, and yep, shitty things happen.  Woven into that truth was her expressive, big-eyed, sassily-speaking amusement about it—which nobody else probably would have said aloud, while many were thinking—she just nailed it.

She nailed it.

She stuck the landing.

She nailed the truth in a way that it both landed and opened the door to the next moment.

Being able to laugh at it made it palatable, livable, and out-livable.  

Humor used skillfully is a brilliant tool.

Which brings me to Anne Lamott.

She is a personal hero of mine.

Her writing, her depth, her faith, her capacity, like Jodie, to just call the bullshit, but in a way that moves it forward and frees us of it, is wonderous.  

Humor and depth!

It is educational.
It is spiritual.
It is blessed.
It is healing.

I have loved Anne’s non-fiction, learned from her pain along with her glorious celebration of life.  I would like to share her with you here, from a Ted Talk of hers.  Please give yourself this gift:

~~~
“12 Truths I Learned from Life and Writing”
Anne Lamott

~~~
Friends,

What touched you?
What tickled you?
What opened you to thought?
To heart?
To healing?

~~~
Dear Friends, on your hero’s journey, what do you know to be true?  Or, as Anne says, “that which you are almost positive about”?

I am almost positive that—

  • If I don’t drink or drug, I will be given fantastic moment after fantastic moment, no matter what happens.
  • If I eat sugar, I will want MORE SUGAR.
  • If I look for the beauty in the moment, it meets me many-fold, every single time.
  • If I accept myself, I am free.

Please send in your responses—I would love to share them with you.

~~~
Dear Friends—
As we find our way
Into March,
May we
Breathe
Relax
And 
Be

With the 
Softening
Light,

With the 
Warming
Sun,

With the
Longer
Days.

We got this.
One day at a time.

All blessings,
Aruni
~~~

Our Wisdom Circle

Thursday, March 4th, @ 2:00.  It is a wonderful way to connect to self, to other, to all.

PayPal link is here

Your payment will indicate your registration.

http://coacharuni.com/thursdaycircles/

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Love Dog

02/21/2021 by Aruni

 
Love Dog

It started with squeaking.
Like, squeaking.
I tried to record the said-squeak
But was just not fast enough
On the draw
With the phone-thingy.

Squeaking was car-centric.
We drive a lot,
She and I.
Most of the time,
She just hangs,
Looks out the window,
Longs for the front seat silently
(never!)
And
We pass
Our Berkshire miles
Together.

These squeaks were different.
Tell-tale squeaks.
A little more frantic
Of a squeak.

Once I stopped,
Pulled over,
Climbed into the back-seat
(muddy blankie!)

To find she had
Disengaged herself
From her halter-seat-buckle,
Her tiny leg wrapped around it.

A rush of bad mothering terrors
Filled me.

She was right—
It was a tell-tale squeak, indeed.
Worth squeaking about.
Buckled into a seat
Does suck.

Agreed.

Yet other squeaks seemed unfounded.
Undefined.

I find the squeaking
Generally
Unsettling
But not horrible.

My spouse leans
Toward The Horrible.

So we asked the animal communicator.

The conversation went like this—
(disbelievers, just know that I believe:)

Niki, what’s up with the squeaking in the car?

Quote Niki the Dog:

I just get anxious sometimes.
I just want to get to where we are going,
To the next family adventure.

I’m anxious!

This next part was most interesting.

Mom,
It’s not your issue.
I’m fine.
I’ll work it out with myself.

And she ended with a request for front-seat co-piloting.
It was and always will be denied.

A dog that knows her co-dependency boundaries
As well as
Her seating preferences!

Pondering the squeaking,
I realize,
I,
Too,
Want to get
To where
We are going.

Are we there yet?

Where are we going?

I, too, want
The next adventure
To safely unfold.

Are we there yet?
Where are we going?

Niki is squeaking for me.

I am anxious too.

This insight brings a smile,
A breath of relief.

~~~
Pondering her squeaking,
I remembered Rumi,
The wonderous
The remarkable
Ecstatic poet from
13th century Persia.

Here is Coleman Barks, his major translator,
With one of my favorites—

LOVE DOG

Please give a listen:

~~~
I loved this—it touches me to consider:

  • Poetry as words set to music, to offer to community hearts.
  • Poetry as fodder for the “work” of opening of our hearts.
  • Poetry to ponder our questioning prayer and longing.
  • What is the return of prayer?
    • The gift of longing?
    • The return of our practices?

~~~
Dear Friends,
How do you see the results of your prayer, your practices, your commitments to that which is greater than your mind?

For me, today,
It is Niki B.

The miraculous way 
She found me,
I found her.

The way she
Hunkers in
Behind me
On the sofa
Or
In a chair.

Check out our picture!

Rumi ends with:

The longing is the return message.
The answers come in so many forms, 
Our grief draws us toward them.

There are love dogs
No one knows the name of.

Give your life
To be
One of them.

~~~
Dear Love Dogs, Dear Friends,
For what do you long?
For what do you hope for?
How does your practice support you?
PLEASE!  No separation around “practice”.
If you are reading this—it is your practice.
Please let us not make practice into something we don’t do well enough.

Right here and right now,
What do you practice?

Perhaps the longing is enough.
Perhaps Niki squeaking with delight-filled anticipation 
Of that is ahead,
Perhaps that is enough

I get my vaccine, shot #1, this week.
Perhaps that is enough.
Perhaps that is a road-sign,
Some marker
Along this pathless path,
To imagine,
A new adventure up ahead.

~~~
Dear Friends,
Dear Love Dogs,

Be safe and well and warm.
Be safe
And
Well
And 
Warm.

One breath at a time.
May the journey unfold.

All blessings, 
Aruni

~~~

Wisdom Circles

Please come to Thursday’s Wisdom Circle, Thursday, February 25, @ 2:00.  It is a wonderful way to connect to self, to other, to all.

PayPal link is here

Your payment will indicate your registration.

http://coacharuni.com/thursdaycircles/

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Mishmash

02/14/2021 by Aruni

Mishmash

Dear Friends,

I am here 
And 
I am there
And 
I am everywhere.

So many feelings.

And you?
How are you?  

What are you noticing?

About what are you curious?

Anxious?

About what do you feel a tiny seed of hope germinating in the softening light of mid-February?

This week,
I find myself
All over
The
Place.

Feeling strong,
Yet
Sleepless
In
The
Berkshires.

Hope
Tingles,

While
Netflix
Reigns.

Hence, this blog
Will be….
Some
Of 
This…..

And some
Of that.

A little yes.
A touch of no-way.

Some audio.
Some video.

Some aruni
Some others.

In those famous words,
Take what you like,
And leave
The
Rest.

I hope
You
Find
Something
Here
That
May 
Speak
To 
You.

~~~
Blog-freeze!
For the first time in, oh, so long, I struggled, I wrestled,
I tussled with topics.

I slept early,
I woke in the night,

Unclear about where to go.

I tussled with topics.
I wrestled with words.

Then the word mishmash
Came to me.
Mishmash.

It’s a cool word.
A funny word.
An alive word.
Surely an onomatopoeic word
Shimmering with energy.
(Okay, confession, I’m a recovering English teacher.)

Hodgepodge.  
Pastiche.
Compilation.
Potpourri.

These words
Brought me a smile
Oh,
About 3:26 a.m.

So here is my offering,
A 
Mishmash
Of
Intended
Inspiration.

~~~
First, some visual hope, may our eyes open our hearts.  

The New England weather
Has been
BRRRRRR
And
Snowy
And 
Stunning.

And oh,
So beautiful.

Please walk with me
Down 
Undermountain 
Road,
Lenox, 
Massachusetts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


~~~

And now, audio inspiration to rest us, to remind us of truth.  Please join me as I lead us in a ten-minute-ish guided meditation, the topic?  Permission to be Human.

Listen Here

~~~
And now, for the heart.  I watched this short link about a dozen times throughout one day this week.  I’m not sure why—but the tender joy that wells up in me is well-worth sharing.

Watch Here

(Thank you, Carol from Canada).

~~~
Finally, last but certainly not least, here come the animals, for all of our senses, for all of our hearts.  The title is Antidepressant.  No kidding.  The perfect topic for a mid-February moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Friends,
The light changes.
Despite 
Diving 
Temperatures,
The light 
Does
Change.

The days expand in light.
The softness of the sun
Shifts.

Mid-February.

Be safe.
Be warm.
Be well.

Welcome it all.
Let it come.
Let it go.

Let’s ride the waves,
All the varying
Waves of feelings,
As the days unfold.

Be safe.
Be warm.
Be well.

All blessings,
Aruni

~~~
Please come to Thursday’s Wisdom Circle, Thursday, February 18, @ 2:00.  It is a wonderful way to connect to self, to other, to all.

PayPal link is here

Your payment will indicate your registration.

http://coacharuni.com/thursdaycircles/

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Perception

02/07/2021 by Aruni

Perception
A Memory

First, I was shorter than the stove.
I stretched my little-girl body upward toward the right-front-burner.
Always the right-front-burner.
Electric, it beamed pink/red at me with fearful promise, as its heat intensified.

Something to be reckoned with,
That growing heat,
To be managed.

So many things to be reckoned with!

Then, later,
I was taller.
Looking down
At the burner,
Stewarding the process.
Aiming only for perfection.

I used the same pot for all those years.
Breakfast after breakfast.
School week after dreaded school week.
Month and year after month and year.

Small, probably aluminum,
She became My Pot.
My breakfast ritual.

First, pour in milk,
Up to the line in the pot
Etched by repetition.

Then turn on the stove….
Was it medium?
Low?

Precarious a process,
It began.

Eventually, when the milk warmed
Just the right amount—
Oh!  So precarious,

Then, oh-god-help-me,
Pour in the Bosco chocolate syrup…

This was precarious.

Just enough syrup to make the milk a rich dark brown,
But not
To dull the flavor.

Over-doing was my slippery-sloped-tendency.

(Hum.  That pattern stands strong today, 10,000 years later…..)

Managing the Bosco was a deep, focused process.

Then guard, 
So very carefully,

Guard with baited-breath the heating.

Watch
Careful
Watch
Careful

At the right perfect moment
And it was hard!
So hard to wait!  

At the right perfect moment,
Take the piece of wonder bread.

Make little balls out of the soft white middle
Ignoring the crust,

And at the RIGHT MOMENT
When the milk chocolate was warm—not—hot.

When the chocolate was dark,
Not too-dark.

At the right moment
Drop in the balls of wonder-bread-insides into the pot!

First they sink?
Maybe.  (memory fuzzy)

Then they float?
(Not sure—might be confusing it with matzoh balls)

But be careful—it’s not over yet.

Now at the right moment
Turn off the burner,
Stretch stretch breathe don’t breathe….

Pour milk and chocolate and wonder bread balls into mug.
(Which mug?  No memory.  It didn’t matter.  Only the prep mattered.)

BREAKFAST.

This was mine.

This was
My breakfast daily
Throughout my
Childhood,
Elementary school
and
High school

Bosco for decades.

I have no memory of the mug,
I have no memory of the drinking,
Or the flavor,
Of the pleasure
Of the taste.

I only remember 
in stark and specific detail—
The process.

The excruciating pleasure
Of the process.

~~~
That little girl that I was,
That little girl that I am,
She was,
She is,
A hungry little girl.

She wants something
Warm
And
Chocolate
With floating
Balls of
Soggy
Carbs.

She wants 
Something.

What’s my job?
My adult job?

To love her.
To hold her.
TO NOT MAKE HER WRONG.

Making her wrong,
Trying to shame her
Or
Control her
Or 
Change her—
That is the problem.

The solution?

Hi, honey….
I hear you and I see you.
What are you really hungry for?
There’s no Bosco here today.
No more wonder bread little balls.

What can we give you that is yummy?
Delicious?
Exactly what you need?

Let me give you what you really need.

~~~
Perception.

I feel some questions for my parental units,
Both long gone from this earth,
Questions bubbling in my belly:

That was breakfast?
For a child?
Was there a nutrient in the entire thing?
How could you send me off to school?
Off to life, with that as the nutritional foundation?
How could you have imagined that would be okay for me?

Bosco and milk and white bread and a tiny child alone at the stove?

And—let’s be clear.  My parents did great.
They loved me fully and wholly and lived their lives for my happiness.
I know that—now.

But….and…..yikes.
It’s no wonder I’m hungry.

~~~
Perception.

That was breakfast.
They believed that was breakfast.
I believed that was breakfast.
In 1958, that occurred in reality as breakfast.

Perception!
Molded by culture, by decade, by advertising, by false news, by—media.

Perception.
In a time when so many millions of people think somebody beside the duly-elected president won the highest elected office in the country, without any data to substantiate,

Perception calls our attention.

What might yoga teach us?

Be here.
Now.

Right here.
Right now.

Practice grounds us, 
Clears us,
Opens our heart 
And our eyes.

Practice tethers us
Back to reality
As it is.

It changes!
(Whose idea was that?)

We are called to be fluid.
We are called to be skillful.
We are called to be gentle.
We are called to be compassionate.

Dear friends,
We are called.

~~~

Inspiration:

First, no words for this one—check it out.  Just when you think you know what’s happening…..

~~~
Secondly, here are some contemplation questions for your heart and mind:

  • Did you have an odd or unusual childhood food-fav?  Consider.
  • Are there any odd foods or food-combos that live in your life today?
  • What are you noticing this week about yourself, as February begins to unfold?

~~

Wisdom Circles

Yep, our Thursday Wisdom Circles live with breath and teaching and inspiration and truth.  Please join us on Thursday, February 11th, @ 2:00.

PayPal link is here

Your payment will indicate your registration.

http://coacharuni.com/thursdaycircles/

Please come and join us!
~~~
Dear Friends,

Sending love, 
Sending light,
Sending wise
And
Grounded
Hope.

All blessings,
Aruni

Filed Under: Uncategorized

“To Heal, We Have to Remember”

01/31/2021 by Aruni

“To Heal, We Have to Remember”
Quote by President Joseph Biden

Yesterday was a hard day.  
All of it, everything, seemed dense,
Too heavy to even imagine a shift,
Despite the shifts that 
Have begun
To creak 
Themselves
Open.

It was a couch day, interrupted by dog walks, errands, 
Stuff.
But a couch day, nevertheless.

I napped and moped and erranded myself
Through the day.

Finally,
Hallelujah—
It was time!

OH THAT TIME,
The one that seems
To get earlier
These days.

The time to get in bed.

At 7:00 p.m.,
DELIGHTED AND RELIEVED
I cozied into bed…

(This is who I have become, 
The highlight of my day
Comes
At
The end of the day,
Most of it due to Most Adorable Animal Bed-Mate, 
(see pix below)

I quieted down.
I snuggled in.

I began to consider,

I began to ponder.

And I remembered
The words that 
Joe Biden spoke
At the memorial
For the COVID losses.

“To heal, we have to remember,” 

He said,
From a place of deep knowing.

Hum.

Perhaps I was pushing down too much?
Keeping myself too freakin’ busy?
Working too much?
Getting on with it all, too much?
Netflix-ing too much and with too little discernment?
Prematurely transcending?

Too much?

Perhaps I felt safe enough
Just for a few moments
With the new national shifts,
To begin to consider
My losses.

So
I let myself 
Remember 
What I missed.

And then I remembered.

And then I remembered.

I miss you.

~~~

http://coacharuni.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Seekonk-Rd-13.m4a

~~~

What do you miss?  Can you take a few moments and remember?
Breathe and remember?
Let me know.
Please,
Let
Me
Know.

~~~

Inspiration

 

This week, it was silliness that offered me inspiration.  Here are three.
First, Show me the way.  And I’ll show you.  Check out these friends:

 

~~~

Next, for those of us who have trouble letting go.  Let’s honor and celebrate all parts of ourselves, shall we?


~~~

And finally, my source of inspiration, bedmate, playmate, snuggle-mate, walk-in-subzero-degree-temperatures-mate, my crack-me-up- mate, for whom the only thing is Right Here and Right Now, here is Niki B:

Picture by Barbara Schmich
~~~
Announcements

Our Thursday Wisdom Circles live with breath and teaching and inspiration and truth.  Please join us on Thursday, February 4th, @ 2:00.

PayPal link is here

Your payment will indicate your registration.

http://coacharuni.com/thursdaycircles/

~~~

Dear Friends,
Let’s together imagine
The highest unfolding
For all.

Let’s imagine
The light of healing,
Touching us
All,

Renewing,
Realigning, 
Revisioning,
Rebirthing

Ourselves 
And 
Our
Glorious
Planet.

Be safe and well
And warm—

All blessings,
Aruni F.

And please keep in touch.  How are you?  What do you hold on to?  How do your friends support you?  What do you miss?  I would love to hear your voice.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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Latest Entries From Aruni’s Blog

  • A Good Name for God Is…” 02/28/2021
  • Love Dog 02/21/2021
  • Mishmash 02/14/2021
  • Perception 02/07/2021
  • “To Heal, We Have to Remember” 01/31/2021

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