Greetings in the midst of a wondrous thunder and hale storm here at Turtle Haven! Please do preregister for Summer Yoga, if you plan to attend, so I may prepare and send out Zoom links to you for classes beginning this coming week.
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Just having completed the first Zoom Yoga series broadcast live from Turtle Haven, I am anticipating the next series! These classes will begin June 2nd. I will publish the full information this coming week. It has been a good adventure finding technology use for connecting and practicing together in the times of Social Distance. Given the need to continue safe practices, I will move along with Zoom continuity until the time comes when we can happily resume practicing together in physical space. For now, we are all tending to nest more at home!
By now there are three eggs in this nest, perched in a shrub just above eye level for me near our front door! The nest makes use of natural materials and strips of plastic– a disturbing yet intriguing interface between the winged ones and the two legged. You might detect the plastic towards the front of this beautifully constructed dwelling place.
Greetings! Here is a flyer for a wonderful opportunity through Stillpoint. Check out this flyer, AND CONTACT STILLPOINT IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO REGISTER! LNDCONROY@gmail.com
Had it not been for the pandemic, we had planned to have Sister Lucy in our midst this coming May! And beyond that, Jillian and I were in conversation, and in the actual planning stages for creating an onsite film in India featuring the various manifestations of healing brought to life at Maher in many locations within India, that feed literally and soulfully, many individuals who might otherwise be lost or dying in poverty on all levels. Our friend Bodi Hallett who is a photographer, film maker and web designer enthusiastically visioned with us and Sister Lucy via Skype, for a journey which would have landed us in India in December.
As with so much of our planning collectively and individually, the vision is at least postponed. As I say and hear so much these days, we have little idea of what the next chapters hold.
Our film was intended to offer a vivid rendering of a community that holds and lives out many principles we hold dear around justice, compassion, interspiritual faith, and profound holding of earth with deep care and stewardship. One of our lessons at present is lived experiences of of how truly inseparable we are, how all of our actions and lives are interconnected. Maher has been living within this paradigm for decades, and needs support at present.
India’s government generally does not have social programs to care for those in the margins. Sister Lucy and Maher offer a privately funded solution in the face of this gap. Who funds Maher? Many Americans and Europeans have felt moved by the beauty of Maher’s vision and manifestation, and have offered funds. Many of you from Whatcom Countyhave offered your resources, having been directly inspired by Sister Lucy and the young adults she has brought here– remarkable people who grew up at Maher. Certainly there are Indian donors as well, but a large portion of donations have been offered though Western countries.
There is a #GivingTuesdayNow campaign being run by US Maher Friends to generate much need funds for Maher! I will copy the email I received here. Please do consider sending a donation, knowing that this is a deep and meaningful enterprise holding wondrous examples of profound care for human beings and the earth, on the order of what this planet is needing desperately, as so painfully revealed in this time of the Pandemic. Yes, we need to donate within our own borders, but part of what we are seeing, is that the borders are less true than the union of all of us, on this precious planet.Thanks so much for considering. A donation of any amount is so helpful.
Hello and Happy #GivingTuesdayNow!
So first, just what is “#GivingTuesdayNow”? #GivingTuesdayNow is a new global day of giving and an emergency response to the unprecedented needs caused by COVID-19. This event is designed to unify all individuals, corporations, and communities as global partners to support those in need.
Maher Ashram, India is one of the organizations in great need. They have been serving the community around them for 23 years and they are now being called on to give of their resources even more then they have ever dreamed of. This giving is straining their resources and they need your help.
Let’s come together to create a global giving community on this #GivingTuesdayNow – May 5th – and give to Maher Ashram, India so that they can continue to openly serve the villagers, migrant workers, and tribal people who are knocking on their gates, while they also keep their own Maher family safe and supported.
Either a one-time or a monthly donation in this time of extreme need is greatly appreciated and will be felt where it really matters. Link: [usmaherfriends.org]usmaherfriends.org
We also ask you to give in your community where you see a need in order to unite and heal all communities and create a wave of generosity to be felt around the world.
Sending a big thank you and heartfelt blessings to all!
Best of Health & Be Safe,
Brenda Howley
US Maher Friends
usmaherfriends@gmail.com
I sometimes offer a flyer here from Stillpoint. Here is the latest offering, so relevant for this moment we all continue to share.
Greetings Zoom Yoga goers, and those who practice on their own! Here is a poem I read this week in classes, when my internet bandwidth was weak– and thus words dropped! I offered the poem in the context of all of us taking time away from the challenges of living in this particular moment, in the sense of finding inner refuge. Yoga, a practice of discovering the place of non fragmentation, of communoin within ourselves could provide a deep sense of Inner Home; Marie Howe’s poem has resonance for me in relation to this pursuit. Hope this finds each who reads these words well. For those in the Zoom classes, I will be sending the next link email soon, with some encouraging news about better connectivity!
(after Stephen Hawking)
Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity
we once were?
so compact nobody
needed a bed, or food or money—
nobody hiding in the school bathroom
or home alone
pulling open the drawer
where the pills are kept.
For every atom belonging to me as good
Belongs to you. Remember?
There was no Nature. No
them. No tests
to determine if the elephant
grieves her calf or if
the coral reef feels pain. Trashed
oceans don’t speak English or Farsi or French;
would that we could wake up to what we were
— when we were ocean and before that
to when sky was earth, and animal was energy, and rock was
liquid and stars were space and space was not
at all — nothing
before we came to believe humans were so important
before this awful loneliness.
Can molecules recall it?
what once was? before anything happened?
No I, no We, no one. No was
No verb no noun
only a tiny tiny dot brimming with
is is is is is
All everything home
These fellows reorganized themselves it seems, just outside the yoga shrine! They were sitting side by side, and now one leans with joy into the other. Their intimacy seems especially poignant in the days of distancing. The heart rock arrived along the river, and Jillian planted with the enlightened duo.
Greetings! A student points out that on my blog post I sent incorrect information. The Spring session via Zoom begins this coming week, and is just six weeks long, due to the uncertainties of the moment. Below I offer the accurate email I sent to those who were enrolling, minus the Zoom links. Please get in touch with me at elizabethkerwinyoga@gmail.com if you would like to join the classes, and have not already received the links.
I am grateful for the technology which allowed some of us to come together this past week to practice yoga online!
I am offering Spring series online as a 6 week session, and this would mean a schedule of classes 6 weeks long, beginning this week on Tuesday April 14th, and Wednesday April 15th, in the usual times. And what has become the usual place: YOUR HOME! The series culminates with the Wednesday class on May 20th. You are welcome at this time to do makeups in the alternate class. I will evaluate a month or so from now, to see if the next series makes most sense as continuation online, or the old way where we meet at Turtle Haven!
I will include both links here, for signing on to the Zoom classes; please be sure to click on the correct link for your day and time.
PLEASE NOTE:
At the end of the Winter Quarter, as the Pandemic chapter emerged, we were unable to complete two classes that were make ups for snow and ice days! Those students who were in the Winter Quarter, wishing compensation for those missed classes can see the tuition possibilities below, and pay less for Spring. I am wanting to be sensitive to those who are truly in need at this time, suffering from loss of work and income, so will certainly invite you to connect with me if tuition as it stands is not possible. Additionally, I am working on inviting people who are working on the frontlines during this time, offering some scholarships to them for some relief from stress and strain with a yoga practice.
For paying tuition, please send a check payable to Elizabeth Kerwin, mailed to 6551 Rutsatz Road Deming, WA 98244 If this is not possible for any reason, please inquire about other possible ways to pay your tuition!
FULL TUITION FOR 6 CLASSES: $80
NOTE: **** IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DEDUCT FOR THE TWO MISSED CLASSES, AND YOU WERE FULLY PAID FOR WINTER QUARTER, YOU CAN ADJUST YOUR TUITION SUBTRACTING $25 FROM THE TUITION ABOVE.
IF YOU NEED FURTHER ADJUSTMENT, PLEASE DO LET ME KNOW!
Greetings! Here is the email I sent out this morning, just in case you are wanting to come, and you have not received the email. You would need to be in touch for the Zoom links, if you wish to enrol! I am offering scholarships for some people who are working on the front lines, working with the public directly, and might get relief from doing some yoga; please pass along my email address to the person you think may want to attend: elizabethkerwinyoga@gmail.com
I am grateful for the technology which allowed some of us to come together this past week, to practice yoga online!
My current direction is to offer the Spring series online as a full quarter, and this would mean a schedule of classes 10 weeks long, beginning this week on Tuesday April 14th, and Wednesday April 15th, in the usual times. And what has become the usual place: YOUR HOME!
If by chance, we have exited the need to be at home, we can work out the details of that later; but most indications suggest we will be in a cautious mode still for some weeks longer.
I will include both links here, for signing on to the Zoom classes; please be sure to click on the correct link for your day and time.
At the end of the Winter Quarter, as the Pandemic chapter emerged, we were unable to complete two classes that were make ups for snow and ice days! Those students who were in the Winter Quarter, wishing compensation for those missed classes can see the tuition possibilities below, and pay less for Spring. I am wanting to be sensitive to those who are truly in need at this time, suffering from loss of work and income, so will certainly invite you to connect with me if tuition as it stands is not possible. Additionally, I am working on inviting people who are exposed and on the frontlines during this time, offering some scholarships to them for some relief from stress and strain with a yoga practice.
For paying tuition, please send a check. If this is not possible for any reason, please inquire about other possible ways to send your tuition!
FULL TUITION FOR 6 CLASSES: $80
NOTE: **** IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DEDUCT FOR THE TWO MISSED CLASSES, AND YOU WERE FULLY PAID FOR WINTER QUARTER, YOU CAN ADJUST YOUR TUITION SUBTRACTING $25 FROM THE TUITION ABOVE.
IF YOU NEED FURTHER ADJUSTMENT, PLEASE DO LET ME KNOW!
A poem of Hope:
In the Time of Pandemic
by Catherine O’Meara
Greetings! We had our first online Tuesday class yesterday; I will send a follow up email with details for enrolling in forthcoming classes, after this evening’s free class, for both Tuesdays and Wednesdays. At present time, I am grateful for the interest in Yoga Nidra classes, and will be holding off until further notice. Part of the teaching for me in this extended “moment” is in releasing overwhelm, and finding enough “slow time!” Based on yesterday’s experiment, please take note that the email I sent with Zoom links, had two links– one for each class– please use the link specifically for the Wednesday class, or you won’t find the rest of us! Yesterday a couple of students met up in the Wednesday link classroom. So sorry if the two links were confusing! Technology learning is deep at present. I welcome feedback from all of you, as I learn a new way of being present with yoga community! See some of you this evening. I hope all of you who read this are finding your way in this current time of collective changing of habits.
