By mary on February 24, 2010
On our way home from lunch today, we passed a church being built. My four-year-old-sage-of-life son asked, “Mom, God’s in there, right?” As I opened my mouth to tackle this question, he followed up with a quick, ” ‘Cause He’s there and in the other one, too, so He’s in two places at once, and how does that happen?”
Ok. Where’s my mom when I need her?
My response: “Well, He’s so big that He can be in all of the churches all at once.”
Posted in all levels yoga, beauty, family, inspiration, stuff to ponder | Tagged backbends, God, Long's Peak, stars, sunshine, twists
By mary on February 17, 2010
A few nights ago as I rifled through the bathroom cabinet looking for the “good” toothpaste (not the baking-soda-blech one, but Tom’s of Maine cinnamon-clove. Oh yeah.), I spied my electric toothbrush. Dare I say that we had a moment?
I hadn’t used it in a couple of weeks in favor of my new dentist-provided old school toothbrush. Since I was feeling pretty feisty, I pulled out the electric one and fired it up.
Oh man. It barely spun. Oh no!
Posted in all levels yoga, family, inspiration, stuff to ponder | Tagged smile, toothbrush
By mary on February 10, 2010

my son, saying a resounding "YES!"
About two years ago, our then near three-year-old had this hilarious habit of asking
questions and then immediately asking, “Yes? Or nope?” And we could really get him going with it. If he forgot to ask yes-or-nope, we would ask “yes?” and he would say yes-or-nope over and over and over and over and over and, yeah, you get it. It sent us, as well as innocent bystanders, into fits of giggles nearly every time.
Posted in all levels yoga, family, inspiration, play, stuff to ponder, yoga | Tagged hillary rubin, no, ski, yes
By mary on January 19, 2010
Balance.
This time of year, the time when we’re already reviewing and reflecting on our New Year’s Resolutions, there is a focus on balance. Balancing life and work and play. Balancing relationships in order to give more, take less. Balancing family relationships, marriage relationships, significant relationships. Balancing your checkbook so that you know that the bank knows that you know how much money is there.
I’ve noticed that after reading through my own resolutions, they fall within the categories of community, relationship, learning, and family. (One of my resolutions is to reread my resolutions once a week.)
Posted in relationship, yoga | Tagged balance, dharma, new year's resolutions, yoga journal
By mary on November 30, 2009
My husband refuses to speak Starbucks. While I found it frustrating at first, since I am fluent and enjoy practicing my language skills, it’s now kind of funny. My drink: a grande-soy-no water-chai. His drink: a grande-triple-nonfat-latte. When my husband orders, it’s a medium-chai-made-with-soy-milk-and-no-water and a medium-skinny-latte-with-an-extra-shot. The baristas correct him ruthlessly, every time, with me snickering in the background. To me, ordering in Starbucks is easy and rolls off the tongue, since that’s where the majority of my chai ordering has been. For him, he worked through college as a barista at an independent coffee shop (truly yummy coffee, and my many thanks to our friends Matt & Kelly for the caffeine that kept me going through college) and has a festering dislike for the man, aka Starbucks, and Starbuckese makes absolutely no sense to him.
This is a preview of
How to order coffee, and the art of non-attachment.
.
Read the full post (494 words, 2 images, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)
Posted in stuff to ponder | Tagged amy ippoliti, anusara, ashtanga, aspen coffee, coffee, de west, iyengar, iyengar yoga center of denver, jeannie manchester, non-attachment, omtime, richard freeman, the yoga workshop
By mary on November 4, 2009
As I googled images for “joy” recently, there were myriad photos of older folks laughing, loving, and living fully. It reminded me of the hallway in the recreation center where I teach yoga, which is lined with a photograph exhibit of people in the prime of their lives.
I love walking that hallway.
It’s filled with flirtation, laughter, orneriness, accomplishment, community, and family. There isn’t an emotional mask of any kind. It’s raw, naked, fun; proudly portraying deep laugh lines, wide open smiles, and hands grasping hands in a hedonic banter.
It’s purely and simply…bliss.
Posted in stuff to ponder | Tagged ananda, deepak chopra, hedonic, joy, laugh, midlife misery, old people
By mary on October 7, 2009
I am always amazed at how lessons in life happen. While they seem like subtle nudges if I look at each of them individually, I get a lot of nudges in a short period of time. Something way bigger than me is making sure that I don’t miss the signs.
This week’s nudge/shove was all about time. And it is…about time.
Posted in all levels yoga, stuff to ponder | Tagged elena brower, ganga white, nudge, present, time, yoga journal
By mary on September 23, 2009
This is one of my favorite quotes from the movie, “The Lion King.” As one who frequently mashes up quotes, cliches, and song lyrics, I feel a kindredness with that little warthog. Bless him.
I actually googled this quote. Hundreds of millions of hits later, I sat in awe, my fingers not knowing what link to click. We spend a lot of time, money, and effort trying “put the past in our behinds”, or leaving our pasts behind, as it were. The quote above actually popped into my head during a massage this evening as my back begged miracles of the therapist’s hands. I needed her to help undo what I had done to my body.
Posted in intermediate yoga, power yoga | Tagged confidence, experience, past, radiant, stained glass, vulnerable, yoga today
By mary on September 7, 2009

Douglas Brooks, a professional scholar and teacher of the Rajanaka Yoga tradition, recently blogged that “yoga…makes roots in revelation.”
Yes!
Quite a few years back now, pretty soon after we moved to Colorado in fact, I really opened up to yoga. It was during a tremendously painful and emotional time in my life; one during which my old ways of coping betrayed me. In those vulnerable moments on my mat, I began to heal. Prayer finally made sense to me through meditation. The frightened and protective fist around my heart began to let go, revealing a bruised yet hopeful soul. I was astonished at the depth of teaching and receiving that yoga gave and the insight unveiled by moving through the physical to get to the emotional. It was a revealing experience in what I have dubbed, my “revelation revolution.”
Posted in all levels yoga, stuff to ponder | Tagged dance, douglas brooks, healing, insight, rajanaka, revelation, revolution