Spring

Happy Spring Y'all!

Okay, okay, so it doesn't much look like spring here in Brooklyn, but the helpful little square on my calendar begs to differ so I'm rolling with it. This first day of spring is especially poignant. Early today was a full solar eclipse (not visible here) and we also have a new moon today. The days are getting longer, the nights shorter. In other words, the universe has lined up nicely for change. To reboot our inner computers, so to speak. It is time for me to drag out my favorite Thich Nhat Hanh quotation once again:

"Everything changes. Nothing stays the same. Having gained this awareness, one is freed from suffering. This is the way of purification." 

The seasons change, the days change, the weather (theoretically) will be getting warmer. In yoga, I feel my muscles and joints easing up a bit. Just walking home from teaching this morning, I noticed that my shoulders were not inching up my neck, vying for the position of earrings. This is an unbelievable relief. This change, and many others, are more than welcome. Winter serves its purpose: a necessary rest period for the earth to take a break from the intense release of growing energy that it spouts off from spring through fall. Winter gives a moment to settle in and quietly work on what has been grown and sprouted during the rest of the year. This first day of spring is our indication that we can set down our knitting and weaving and get out into the fresh air. Find some new hobbies. Grow a garden, go for bike rides, put away those yoga videos and get into the studio (hint hint, I'd love to see you all in class!). 

“Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past, or a pioneer of the future.” Deepak Chopra.

The Spring Equinox is a great moment for some spring cleaning. No, I don't just mean donating a few odds and ends to the salvation army (though that is fabulous). I mean getting down into the gritty, dusty places of YOU and sweeping them out. Chasing out the mental tumbleweeds that are preventing you from seeing clearly through your mind and into your thoughts. Maybe the snow and ice had you mentally set on the idea that your apartment is the only place you want to be. Or that you are a sedentary creature. Or whatever. But with this new season, you get to re-write your thought processes. You get to clean out that which is not serving you and mentally re-stack, re-hang and revive that which still is. Your body, may need some spring cleaning as well. Those heavy winter meals can begin to be replaced by lighter meals, with bright spring colors decorating the plate. Perhaps you could seek out some twists in your yoga practice, wringing out anything you do not want any more. Personally, I'm feeling the need for some yummy heart and hip opening. 
Accepting these changes. Accepting that the body, mind, spirit need new things is part of spring. Part of the process of freeing ourself from suffering, as Thich Nhat Hahn suggests. I am hoping that this spring will bring some extra joy and positivity to everyone. 

“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.” BK Iyengar.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti - Peace Peace Peace 

Akhilandeshwari

Lately, I have found myself once again fascinated by the goddess Akhilandeshwari. She is the goddess who is never not broken. She rides on the back of a crocodile. She is the goddess attuned to change, flow and spin. Rather than being deterred by challenge, she pulls her strength from being broken, always broken. She’s a total badass, if you ask me. Think about it, how much courage does it take to choose not to glue one’s self back together? How much courage does it take to step onto the back of a dinosaur-like creature with fearsome teeth, supreme speed and intense strength? Like Kali, Akhilandeshwari is a goddess in touch with destruction, however, instead of leveling everyone and everything, she yields to destruction. She melts into it, embracing the breakage.

I have an intense love for spirals and circles. Akhilandeshwari survives on spirals. The spinning is what holds together all the broken pieces without glue. The Earth spins on its axis, with a wobble. As does this goddess. As can we. We can keep going on, round and round, embracing the wobble. A crocodile does not kill by its bite. It goes into a death spin, twirling its prey in the water until it breaks. So much power in turning.

The last time I found this goddess, I felt very broken. I had lost my first real love. I was crying all the time. Weeping with no provocation, tears dripping onto my mat in down dog. This time she has found me when I am in a state of renewal. Things seem really good right now. I see so much hope and fresh starts. I’m terrified that the things I really want won’t work out. So I am trying to embrace the spin, the flow. It is time to ride the crocodile into the flow of the river, let myself dissolve into the water, knowing that my bits and pieces are still me, even if the form isn’t what I expect it to be. It seems to me that one of the most powerful things one can do is realize that our identities and lives are not one specific thing. Change is always happening. Change, grief, breaking are all necessary and positive.

Artists are often finding beauty where one doesn’t expect it. Why not find beauty in breakage? When researching Akhilandeshwari, one finds she is compared to a prism. The crystal’s beauty comes from the breaking of the surface. The rainbows that are splashed across the wall are the direct result of light traveling through fractured parts. If the prism were completely smooth, unbroken, all we would get would be plain light passing through, instead, the breaks allow us to see, with the naked eye, the different colors that are contained within white light.

So this is what I am working on right now. Finding beauty in the breakage. Dissolving and flowing, rather than resisting. I am working on being a badass who wouldn't be afraid to ride the back of a crocodile. 



"Goddess Never-Not-Broken: Symbols and Surprises * Wicca-Spirituality.com." Goddess Never-Not-Broken: Symbols and Surprises * Wicca-Spirituality.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.
Peters, Julie. "Why Lying Broken in a Pile on Your Bedroom Floor Is a Good Idea. ~ Julie (JC) Peters." Elephant Journal. N.p., 1 June 2011. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.
Stoneberg, Eric. "Akhilandeshwari, an Invitation to Srividyalaya." Eric Stoneberg. N.p., 13 Jan. 2011. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.