A Joyful Practice

Noticing Things [on Friday, June 2nd] (the “missing” and revised invitation) June 2, 2023

Happy Pride! Many blessings to everyone!!

My apologies for not posting this before tonight’s “First Friday Night Special.” You can request an audio recording of tonight’s Restorative Yoga practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at 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.

Calm fell. From Heaven distilled a clemency;

There was peace on earth, and silence in the sky;

Some could, some could not, shake off misery:

The Sinister Spirit sneered: ‘It had to be!’

And again the Spirit of Pity whispered, ‘Why?’”

– quoted from the poem “And There Was a Great Calm (On the Signing of the Armistice, 11 Nov 1918)” by Thomas Hardy

This has been a week of remembering; deliberately remembering and reflecting; noticing (or not); noticing, remembering, and reflecting. If we pay attention, we notice the pattern repeating – on and off the mat. We also notice, if we are paying attention, that throughout history people (like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman) have consistently warned us… that we are not paying enough attention – especially to what’s simmering, churning, and bubbling beneath the surface.

And so, the pattern continues.

This is a significantly revised and expanded version of a 2020 post. The original only referenced the poet.

“And will any say when my bell of quittance is heard in the gloom,
And a crossing breeze cuts a pause in its outrollings,
Till they rise again, as they were a new bell’s boom,
‘He hears it not now, but used to notice such things?’”

– quoted from the poem “Afterwards” by Thomas Hardy, set to music by Lon Lord

Born June 2, 1840, Thomas Hardy (OM) was an architect who is remembered as a novelist and a poet who noticed things. I know, I know; writers notice things – that’s part of their job description: notice and write, in order to tell the world what you noticed… what they could also notice. And, to that end, Thomas Hardy wrote short stories, published almost a thousand poems, and three different kinds of novels. In character and environment driven novels like Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895), he wrote about sex, religion, marriage, class, education, morality, and where all six themes intersected with each other, as well as with a person’s individual will as it intersected with universal will (or a single other person’s will), which he called “Immanent Will.”

He wrote about being alive, being dead, and about ghosts and spirits. He also wrote, in letters, about race and the impact different cultures could have on society. He noticed things… and made some of those things important.

When he was asked to write something topical (i.e., related to the current events circa 1905 – 1917), he initially resisted. Ultimately, however, he was inspired by events in the Middle East and a passage from The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians (1:18 – 19)*, which speaks of hope and, also, of something powerful – mighty – working beneath the surface. As he did in so many of his other poems about conflict, Thomas Hardy continued the message of hope… and also included a warning message.

“I

When moiling seems at cease
In the vague void of night-time,
And heaven’s wide roomage stormless
Between the dusk and light-time,
And fear at last is formless,
We call the allurement Peace.

II

Peace, this hid riot, Change,
This revel of quick-cued mumming,
This never truly being,
This evermore becoming,
This spinner’s wheel onfleeing
Outside perception’s range.”

– the poem “According to the Mighty Working” by Thomas Hardy

Although he was not particularly devout, being inspired by sacred text was not unusual for Thomas Hardy. He noticed things about Nature and things about human nature and things about the Divine – and he noticed where all of those things overlapped, collapsed, converged, and coalesced. He was also fascinated by the idea that patterns of history are repeated and that those patterns can be found in Nature, in the Bible, and in ourselves – if we just take the time to pay attention; to, as he wrote, “notice such things.”

However, Thomas Hardy didn’t stop there. He also noticed what he (and others) noticed. He noticed the art or practice of noticing.

Take a moment to notice what you notice. Bring awareness to your awareness.

You can jump over to the April 19^th “Noticing Things” post or do that “90-second thing.” Either way, pause. Just for a moment. Notice without the story or the extra dialogue that springs to mind. Or, you could take a moment to intentionally notice the extra dialogue that inevitably springs to mind. You can even emulate Thomas Hardy – the architect – and build your awareness from the ground up.

Start with what is tangible, what is solid and true beneath you and work out from there – physically, mentally, emotionally, maybe even energetically, spiritually, and religiously.

I have previously mentioned that this week is about perception and ideals. We start to notice what we notice. Then, we also start noticing what we (individually and collectively) make important. When you notice what sticks in your heart and in your mind, you will start to notice the origins of your words and deeds. You will start to notice the kind of person you are telling the world you are and aim to be.

“‘It is a difficult question, my friends, for any young man– that question I had to grapple with, and which thousands are weighing at the present moment in these uprising times– whether to follow uncritically the track he finds himself in, without considering his aptness for it, or to consider what his aptness or bent may be, and re-shape his course accordingly. I tried to do the latter, and I failed. But I don’t admit that my failure proved my view to be a wrong one, or that my success would have made it a right one; though that’s how we appraise such attempts nowadays–I mean, not by their essential soundness, but by their accidental outcomes.’”

– quoted from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

“‘Remember that the best and greatest among mankind are those who do themselves no worldly good. Every successful man is more or less a selfish man. The devoted fail…’”

– quoted from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Now, just for a moment, turn all the things you are noticing into music. Imagine you are a musical composition by Sir Edward William Elgar (1st Baronet, OM, GCVO), who was born June 2, 1857. Like Thomas Hardy, Sir Elgar noticed things and told people about what he noticed… what they could also notice. The only difference was that he communicated his observations with music.

From October 1898 and February 1899, Sir Edward Elgar composed Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36. Also known as the “Enigma Variations” – because the word “Enigma” was written over the first six bars – the fourteen variations are character sketches meant to invoke the personalities and temperaments (or moods) of fourteen of Sir Elgar’s friends. Each variation’s title is the nickname of the friend “pictured within.”  Similar to the way Thomas Hardy noticed what others noticed (or not), Sir Elgar composed the pieces as if each person were composing their own variation/personality.

“‘I had a neat stock of fixed opinions, but they dropped away one by one; and the further I get the less sure I am. I doubt if I have anything more for my present rule of life than following inclinations which do me and nobody else any harm, and actually give pleasure to those I love best. There, gentlemen, since you wanted to know how I was getting on, I have told you. Much good may it do you! I cannot explain further here. I perceive there is something wrong somewhere in our social formulas: what it is can only be discovered by men or women with greater insight than mine–if, indeed, they ever discover it– at least in our time. ‘For who knoweth what is good for man in this life?–and who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?’”

– quoted from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

There are so many mysteries in life. But, where (or what), you might ask, is the mystery in the Sir Edward Elgar’s music? An enigma, after all, is defined as “a person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand.” The word comes to English from Greek, by way of Latin, from words meaning “fable” and “speak allusively.” Yet, the compositions and their monikers are very straightforward. Where, then, is the mystery?

According to Sir Elgar, there was an overreaching theme that tied everything together. Maybe it was musical. Maybe it was a quality, like friendship. Maybe it was an activity, like perception and awareness.

Perhaps it was simply a message between friends.

“‘I shan’t forget you, Jude,’ he said, smiling, as the cart moved off. ‘Be a good boy, remember; and be kind to animals and birds, and read all you can. And if ever you come to Christminster remember you hunt me out for old acquaintance’ sake.’

The cart creaked across the green, and disappeared round the corner by the rectory-house. The boy returned to the draw-well at the edge of the greensward, where he had left his buckets when he went to help his patron and teacher in the loading. There was a quiver in his lip now, and after opening the well-cover to begin lowering the bucket he paused and leant with his forehead and arms against the frame-work, his face wearing the fixity of a thoughtful child’s who has felt the pricks of life somewhat before his time. The well into which he was looking was as ancient as the village itself, and from his present position appeared as a long circular perspective ending in a shining disk of quivering water at a distance of a hundred feet down. There was a lining of green moss near the top, and nearer still the hart’s-tongue fern.

He said to himself, in the melodramatic tones of a whimsical boy, that the schoolmaster had drawn at that well scores of times on a morning like this, and would never draw there any more. ‘I’ve seen him look down into it, when he was tired with his drawing, just as I do now, and when he rested a bit before carrying the buckets home!’”

– quoted from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Friday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.

NOTE: The playlist is a remix of the one I typically use in April and for the birthday’s of Thomas Hardy (today) and Jon Lord (b. June 9, 1961). I may or may not update it to include more of the “Enigma Variations.”

This Restorative Yoga practice is accessible and open to all.

Prop wise, this can be a kitchen sink practice. You can practice without props or use “studio” props and/or “householder” props. Example of Commercial 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 want extra layers (as your body may cool down during this practice). Having a wall, chair, sofa, or coffee table may be handy for this practice.

*NOTE: Although it is a modern translation (and, therefore, not the translation Thomas Hardy used), The Christian Standard Bible translation of Ephesians (1:18 – 19) is the only one I found that directly syncs up with Thomas Hardy’s poem title. “(18) I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, (19) and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength.”

### NOTICE WHAT YOU NOTICE ###