A Joyful Practice

First Friday Night Special #69: “A Little Rest for the Weary Working for Freedom(s)” (the “missing” & expanded invitation w/excerpts) July 3, 2026

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, California, Changing Perspectives, Dharma, Faith, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Life, One Hoop, Peace, Philosophy, Suffering, Swami Vivekananda, Tragedy, Wisdom, Women, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: 988, Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Ally Boothroyd, Battle of Gettysburg, Caesar Rodney, Civil War, CROWN Act, Franz Kafka, Frederick R. Karl, George Meade, Gettysburg, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Joseph Cinqué, Joseph Cinquez, Kelly Rowland, Max Brod, National CROWN Day, Oskar Pollak, Restorative Yoga, Robert E. Lee, Sengbe Pieh, slavery, Swami Vivekananda, Thurgood Marshall
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It’s National CROWN Day (unofficially, of course)! Many blessings to everyone and especially to anyone cultivating peace, freedom, and wisdom (inside and outside).

This is “missing” (and expanded) invitation for the “First Friday Night Special” on July 3^rd, which includes new and “renewed” content, excerpts, embedded links to related posts, and an extra video. You can request an audio recording of this Yin Yoga practice (with a little movement and pranayama) via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email myra    (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

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.

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.

“… so he said to put an end to all misunderstanding: ‘We parted on bad terms.’

The Manageress seemed to construe this as excellent news.

‘So then you’re free?’ she said.

‘Yes, I’m free,’ said Karl, and nothing seemed more worthless than his freedom.”

— quoted from “FIVE / The Hotel Occidental” in the unfinished novel Amerika by Franz Kafka (b. 1883)

It’s not enough to declare something. You usually have to work for it. When I teach (or blog) on July 1^st (as I did on Wednesday) and/or on July 2^nd, we focus on the effort that it takes — has taken and continues to take — to declare, ensure, secure, enshrine, and preserve independence, liberty, and freedom. However, the work does not end on the day it begins. As was the case today in 1776, there is more work to be done. However, people cannot do the work they need to do without taking a break to rest. So, today in 1776, some people rested.

Eventually, people in 1839, 1863, (1908), and 2019, also rested.

Rest is an important part of life. Along with the ability and opportunity to digest what we consume — including media and events — rest is a function of our parasympathetic nervous system. Our ability to rest and digest is also connected to our ability to create (and procreate). Just as a significant growth period in plants happens at night, we plant seeds and get rooted, centered, and grounded when we rest.

When we rest, we can also reflect and review on the work we have already accomplished — which is what people like Caesar Rodney and John Adams were doing back in 1776.

The following is a revised (and expanded) version of an earlier post.

“But on the other Hand, the Delay of this Declaration to this Time, has many great Advantages attending it…. This will cement the Union, and avoid those Heats and perhaps Convulsions which might have been occasioned, by such a Declaration Six Months ago.

But the Day is past. The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

— quoted from letter John Adams wrote to Abigail Adams, with the heading “Philadelphia July 3d, 1776”

After riding for two days, in order to cast his vote for freedom, Caesar Rodney rested in Philadelphia for a couple of days. John Adams, who also voted for independence on July 2, 1776, spent today resting and writing letters to his wife Abigail. In one of those letters to Abigail, the future president wrote about how (and why) the “Second Day of July 1776” would be remembered and celebrated for all times.

As he reflected on the decisions that had already been made and anticipated future celebrations, John Adams also acknowledged that the work was not done and that the declaration was just the beginning of the fight. He recognized that there were battles to come — and not just battles with the “redcoats” or “regulars” (as they would have been called back in the day). He recognized that there would be philosophical, legal, and physical battles among the colonists.

He could not have known, however, that his own son (John Quincy Adams) would be involved in one of those legal battles, which came about after Sengbe Pieh (also known as Joseph Cinqué) and the other enslaved Mende, West Africans revolted on the slave ship La Amistad sometime around July 1, 1839. The Mende, West Africans did could not rest, today in 1839, because they were attempting to take the ship back to Africa. A little over a month later, they would be re-captured and their legal battle for freedom began.

CLICK ON THE EXCERPT TITLES BELOW FOR MORE.

Because Every Vote Counted (Part 2)

A Rest for Those Riding, Fighting, and Working for Freedom – An Invitation

“You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.”

— quoted from letter John Adams wrote to Abigail Adams, with the heading “Philadelphia July 3d, 1776”

While John Adams and John Quincy Adams were the only early presidents to never own enslaved people and while both father and son legally represented people fighting for freedom within the courts, the elder was willing to compromise his views on slavery when it came to colonial politics. All that being said, today in 1776, as he rested and wrote to Abigail (who was publicly anti-slavery), John Adams couldn’t have known that he and his son would end up as presidents — or that his son would help to secure the freedom of kidnapped West Africans.

John Adams also would have had no reason to think of a Black woman, resting after the birth of her son on July 2, 1908. He had no reason to think about how his actions would eventually (indirectly) lead to a descendent of enslaved people being able to rest — instead of being immediately forced back to work — after delivering her child. Neither would he have been able to imagine that that woman son’s, Thoroughgood (later shorten it to Thurgood) Marshall, would work tirelessly to further secure, enshrine, and preserve freedom, liberty, and independence.

I said indirectly, because (as I stated before) he was willing to compromise his views to appease the Southern states in order to achieve independence. Even as he wanted to avoid conflict, I don’t know that he could have imagined the brutality of the Civil War.

“But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate we can not consecrate we can not hallow, this ground The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”

— quoted from “The Gettysburg Address” (from the Nicolay version¹) by President Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863

Today in 1863, the Army of the Potomac forces, led by Major General George Meade, defeated Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia during the third Battle of Gettysburg. The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War and its conclusion not only halted the confederacy’s invasion of northern territories, it also marked the beginning of the end of the Civil War (but not the end of the battle for long-promised freedom).

The generals, soldiers, civilians, and enslaved people who survived today, in 1863, did not rest. There was still work to be done, on both sides of the battlefield.

There was, also, still battles to be won off the battlefield.

“(3) Racial and national origin discrimination can and do occur because of longstanding racial and national origin biases and stereotypes associated with hair texture and style.

(4) For example, routinely, people of African descent are deprived of educational and employment opportunities because they are adorned with natural or protective hairstyles in which hair is tightly coiled or tightly curled, or worn in locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, or Afros.

(5) Racial and national origin discrimination is reflected in school and workplace policies and practices that bar natural or protective hairstyles commonly worn by people of African descent.”

— quoted from “(a) Findings.” of “SEC. 2. Findings; sense of Congress; purpose.” in “CROWN Act 2020 (H. R. 5309)”²

Today in 2019, in America’s ongoing effort to make our ideals make sense (as a reality rather than a theory), the CROWN (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair) Act (SB188) was signed into law under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (of 1959) and the California Education Code. As I first noted in 2021: “New Jersey and New York adopted similar versions of the bill and other states, including South Carolina, are following suit. But, those laws don’t protect people in all over the country and they don’t apply outside of the country.”

As of today, in 2026, 30 states — including Texas, Maryland, Tennessee, Minnesota, Illinois, Oregon, and Alaska — have passed a CROWN Act. Some major cities in those states also, independently, passed variations of the CROWN Act. Additionally, cities in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, and Wisconsin have passed CROWN protection laws. But, again, those laws only apply in those cities. So, unfortunately, people are still having their hair cut without consent and/or being told they can’t participate in school or professional events with their God-given hair.

You can click the embedded link (above) for the history and/or click on the excerpt title (below) for more (con)text(ure).

Free To Be You (and Me?), a sequel & a prequel

“(9) As a type of racial or national origin discrimination, discrimination on the basis of natural or protective hairstyles that people of African descent are commonly adorned with violates existing Federal law, including provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.), section 1977 of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1981), and the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.). However, some Federal courts have misinterpreted Federal civil rights law by narrowly interpreting the meaning of race or national origin, and thereby permitting, for example, employers to discriminate against people of African descent who wear natural or protective hairstyles even though the employment policies involved are not related to workers’ ability to perform their jobs.”

— quoted from “(a) Findings.” of “SEC. 2. Findings; sense of Congress; purpose.” in “CROWN Act 2020 (H. R. 5309)”²

If you are unfamiliar… If you haven’t noticed or paid attention to the ways in which hair has been used to oppress people, some of the information related in the linked posts can be a little surreal.

For that matter, even if you are familiar, it can be surreal.

In some ways, we are living in a realistic, surreal world, not unlike the worlds created by Franz Kafka, who was born today in 1883. Like Kafka’s characters, we find ourselves transformed and/or in oddly transformational situations where we are forced to confront things that just don’t make sense. Of course, in order for things to make sense, we need context… reference points… history. In fact, in a letter to Oskar Pollak (dated 27 January 1904), Kafka advocated reading books that shake us awake. This was a follow-up to an earlier letter (dated 8 November 1903, translated by Frederick R. Karl), in which Kafka wrote, “We are as forlorn as children lost in the woods. When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours? And if I were to cast myself down before you and weep and tell you, what more would you know about me than you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful? For that reason alone we human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to Hell.”

Resting can help us make sense of things that have gotten surreal. Resting can help us open up our hearts and minds to the griefs of others — without (or especially if we already are) feeling overwhelmed. Resting allows us to continue the battles we need to fight in order to say, “Everyone!” when asked:

“Who is free?”

— quoted from the commentary on Yoga Sūtra 2.20 from Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda

This Restorative Yoga practice (inspired by Ally Boothroyd) includes a body scan and some pranayama.

It is accessible and open to all.

(NOTE: There will be a little bit of quiet space in this practice.)

Friday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “07032026 A Little Rest for the Weary Working for Freedom(s)”]

NOTE: This playlist is a Friday remix. You can start with any of the first 6 tracks. It is still slightly different on each platform, but mostly with regard to the before/after class music. The biggest difference is that certain contextual videos (including the one below) do not appear on Spotify.

Prop wise, this is a kitchen sink practice and I will suggest having a strap and wall or bolster (as well as a blanket) for this practice. **CLARIFICATION: I used the fitted sheet so I could do the sequence in bed**. You can practice without props or you  can use “studio” and/or “householder” props. Example of “Studio” props: 1 – 2 blankets, 2 – 3 blocks, a bolster, a strap, and an eye pillow. Example of “Householder” props: 1 – 2 blankets or bath towels, 2 – 3 books (similar in size), 2 standard pillows (or 1 body pillow), a belt/tie/sash, and a face towel.

You may also want extra layers (as your body may cool down during this practice).

If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.

White Flag is an app, which I have not researched, but which may be helpful if you need peer-to-peer (non-professional) support.

If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or need a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).

You’re Invited to Bend… & To Take The Deepest Breath You’ve Taken — On Retreat!

September 25 — 27, 2026

“Who is free? The free must certainly be beyond cause and effect. If you say that the idea of freedom is a delusion, I shall say that the idea of bondage is also a delusion. Two facts come into our consciousness, and stand or fall with each other. These are our notions of bondage and freedom. If we want to go through a wall, and our head bumps against that wall, we see we are limited by that wall. At the same time we find a willpower, and think we can direct our will everywhere. At every step these contradictory ideas come to us. We have to believe that we are free, yet at every moment we find we are not free. If one idea is a delusion, the other is also a delusion, and if one is true, the other also is true, because both stand upon the same basis — consciousness. The Yogi says, both are true; that we are bound so far as intelligence goes, that we are free so far as the soul is concerned. It is the real nature of man, the soul, the Purusha, which is beyond all law of causation. Its freedom is percolating through layers of matter in various forms, intelligence, mind, etc. It is its light which is shining through all.”

— quoted from the commentary on Yoga Sūtra 2.20 from Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda

NOTES:

¹In the other four versions of the Gettysburg Address, the words “have consecrated it” are used.

²The CROWN Act of 2020 (and a subsequent variation in 2022) passed in the U. S. House of Representatives, but has never been voted on in the U. S. Senate.

### FEEL FREE ###