A Joyful Practice

EXCERPT: “The Day of Introductions” January 20, 2024

May all beings everywhere feel a sense of belonging! Warm wishes for peace and righteousness to everyone celebrating Kumbh Mela!!  

“We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts. If we show a little tolerance and humility, and if we’re willing to stand in the other person’s shoes, as my mom would say, just for a moment, stand in their shoes. Because here’s the thing about life: There’s no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days when you need a hand. There are other days when we’re called to lend a hand. That’s how it has to be. That’s what we do for one another. And if we are this way, our country will be stronger, more prosperous, more ready for the future. And we can still disagree.”

— quoted from the January 20, 2021, Inaugural Speech by President Joseph Biden

The following (reformatted) excerpt is from a 2021 post:

“So: Here we are — again, beginning and also ending. Ending also and beginning, again – are we here? Are we all in? That is a question that could be asked (and is implied) by every president and vice president. Never forget, that every administration is intended to serve us, we the people. And yet, we also serve; as citizens of this nation — even of the world — we have responsibilities to ourselves and to one another. Just as we look at what a candidate, a president and/or vice president elect, and a sitting president and/or vice president has to offer us, we must consider what we have to offer ourselves and one another. Then, we offer it.

Offering what we have to offer is a reoccurring theme with these inaugurations. And, it’s what Robert Frost meant when, on January 20, 1961, he spoke of “The Gift Outright” as the first poet to recite a poem at a presidential inauguration. What we offer can be as profoundly simple as a ‘[hopeful] Good morning,’ as Maya Angelou suggested when she became the second inauguration poet on January 20, 1993 — or as simply profound as ‘[dreaming] for every child an even chance’ as Miller Williams had us consider on January 20, 1997. We must, as Elizabeth Alexander said on June 20, 2009, ‘consider, reconsider [our words]’ and the mighty power of love. We must, as all the poets have said, remember where from where we come and, as Richard Blanco reminded us in January 21, 2013, to say ‘hello / shalom, buon giorno / howdy / namaste / or buenos días in the language my mother taught me—in every language spoken into one wind[.]’ And we can, we must, as the sixth and the youngest inauguration poet to date implored us, ‘forge our union with purpose’ and ‘lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.’ This is what we need to live well.”

Click here for the entire post about palindromes and a brief history of Inauguration Day in the USA.

“Scripture tells us to envision that ‘everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.’ If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade but in all the bridges we’ve made.

That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare it, because being American is more than a pride we inherit – it’s the past we step into and how we repair it.”

— quoted from the poem “The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman, during the January 20, 2021 Presidential Inauguration (the “Scripture” she cites Micah 4:4) 

Please join me today (Saturday, January 20^th) at 12:00 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Saturday playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)

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