Dragon Yoga

I recently went to a lecture offered in town about children and creativity.  The lecture was accompanied by a suggested reading list so I promptly went home, logged on to Amazon and ordered several books.  (I'm nothing if not obedient!)  I spent Thanksgiving reading several of those books and as a result got totally burned out on the topic.  I won't go back and discuss these books now (The Element: How finding your passion changes everything by Ken Robinson and Your Child's Strengths: Discover them, develop them, use them by Jenifer Fox) as I still have the third to read and can cover discuss them when I get to that third book.

As often happens when burned out on one topic I head the opposite direction and read something very different.  So, I turned to an old love....fantasy.  I think I was in junior high when a friend turned me on to authors like Terry Goodkind, Robert Feist, and David Eddings and they definitely struck a chord.  (Case in point, our oldest daughter is named after an elf Queen from the Shannara series.  I'm sure we will hear about that someday.)  I picked up Eldest by Christopher Paolini.  This is the sequel to Eragon which I read several years ago and enjoyed.  For some reason I have always enjoyed the stories where an average person is thrust into, and told they need to save,  a world they never knew existed.  (Think along the lines of Nickolas Cage's movie The Sorcerer's Apprentice which I recently watched with my kids.)  I am also slightly intrigued by the fact that Christopher Paolini was only fifteen when he started writing this series.  I can't really remember exactly what I was doing at fifteen but I can guarantee you it wasn't anything as industrious as writing a 500 page book!  While the story is slow to develop in parts, it has managed to keep me coming back and I am looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Another current interest of mine is yoga.  Ever since reading Eat, Pray, Love I have been curious about yoga as something more than simply a way to get in shape.  While perusing through Amazon one day I ran across Return to the Sacred:  Ancient Pathways to Spiritual Awakenings by Jonathan Ellerby.  The reviews were mixed, but I was intrigued by the idea that he was offering up numerous options for getting to a better place in your life and not just saying, "Here, do this and everything will be better!"  I have always thought it obvious that different people need different things at different times in their lives.  The first part of the book was WAY more information on his personal journey than I really needed, but once he actually started talking about the twelve pathways I got sucked in.  According to him there are 12 master paths split into four groups, body-centered practices, mind-centered practices, heart-centered practices and soul-centered practices.  He says that every human being is a "complex expression of the four main dimensions" but that each of us tends to favor one over the others (p.64).  I haven't read through them all, but have discovered that I lean toward the body and mind centered practices which include yoga, meditation and prayer.  What I do with this information is yet to be seen.  :-)  I have been going to more yoga classes at the Y, but I'm not sure that is necessarily what the author had in mind.

It turns out Ellerby is also something of a poet and while poetry has never been a strong suit of mine I can appreciate it when I find it.  Here is one I liked:

In a circle of stones

We turn toward the sky

Our hearts become the drum

Songs sung by our ancestors

Become sunlight dancing around us

We turn ourselves

Into prayers

We hold our hearts

Candles flickering in the wind

Hold on

Burn just a little longer

We have come through such a dark dark night

Call to the Patient Earth

Call the Divine Light

Everything wants this Mercy

All things want this Grace

We touch the ground

and surrender who we once were

In exchange for hope

And a world reborn.

--J. H. Ellerby

p. 69 of Return to the Sacred