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Dolphin Love

Dolphin Pose. Fish River, Alabama, August 2015. Photo: LBuffett & MBuffett
Dolphin Pose. Fish River, Alabama, August 2015. Photo: LBuffett & MBuffett

This weekend while paddle boarding with my mother and her sweetheart on Fish River in Lower Alabama, dolphins appeared and swam beside us.  It was an extraordinary blessing and reminder that all sentient beings are essentially bonded to and by

Nature, Spirit, and Love.

In their honor I did a variation of dolphin pose on my board.

“Dolphins have a wise, innocent, purity of being which reaches out to our inner nature. Follow their lead and open yourself to the energy of love, harmony, and balance. Express your inner truth, be true to yourself. Follow your inner joy. Dolphin is asking you to go back to your roots, to the depths of your being and rediscover the love that you truly are.
Dolphins spend most of their day playing. Their life is lived in joyful harmony with each other and their world. Apparently they have learned the lesson that love is the most important factor in life.
Dolphin wisdom includes – knowledge of the sea, change, patron of sailors, harmony, balance, communication skills, freedom, trust, understanding the power of rhythm in your life, water element magic, unselfishness.
Dolphin reminds us to get out, play, breathe and most importantly to love.”
-from shamanicjourney.com, Dolphin Power Animal, by Ina Woolcoat
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the cOMplimentary union of yoga + pilates

Reformer Asana Play at Romney Pilates. New Orleans, August 2015. Photo: MBuffett
Reformer Asana Play at Romney Pilates. New Orleans, August 2015. Photo: MBuffett

“Good posture can be successfully acquired only when the entire mechanism of the body is under perfect control. Graceful carriage follows as a matter of course.”  -Joseph Pilates

“It is through the alignment of the body that I discovered the alignment of my mind, self, and intelligence.” -B.K.S. Iyengar
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Thought Wings

Ustrasana Variation. New Orleans, August 2015. Photo: MBuffett
Ustrasana Variation. New Orleans, August 2015. Photo: MBuffett

Every object and being in the universe is a jar overfilled with wisdom and beauty, a drop of the Tigris that cannot be contained by any skin. Every jarful spills and makes the earth more shining, as though covered in satin…

You knock at the door of reality, shake your thought-wings, loosen your shoulders, and open.

-from The Gift of Water by Rumi

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Dance When You’re Broken Open

Natarajasana (Lord of the Dance Pose). New Orleans, July 2015. Photo: BKane & MBuffett
Natarajasana (Lord of the Dance Pose). New Orleans, July 2015. Photo: BKane & MBuffett

A secret turning in us makes the universe turn. Head unaware of feet, and feet head. Neither cares. They keep turning…

Something opens our wings. Something makes boredom and hurt disappear. Someone fills the cup in front of us. We taste only sacredness…

Dance, when you’re broken open.
Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.

Dance, when you’re perfectly free.

-from The Turn: Dance In Your Blood by Rumi
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Make Like A Bird

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Eka Pada Koundinyasana II (One-Legged Arm Balance Pose). New Orleans, July 2015. Photo: BKane and MBuffett

The Yogi conquers the body by the practice of asanas (postures) and makes it a fit vehicle for the spirit. (S)He knows that it is a necessary vehicle for the spirit. A soul without a body is like a bird deprived of its power to fly.

-from Light On Yoga by BKS Iyengar
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Joy Is Home. Keep Knocking.

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Ardha Chandrasana (Half-Moon Pose), New Orleans, July 2015. Photo: MBuffett

Be courageous and discipline yourself.

Work. Keep digging your well. Don’t think about getting off from work. Water is there somewhere.

Submit to a daily practice. Your loyalty to that is a ring on the door. Keep knocking, and the joy inside will eventually open a window and look out to see who’s there.

-from The Sunrise Ruby by Rumi

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Don’t Go Back To Sleep

Sunrise, The Backwaters of Kerala, India. March 2011.
Dawn, The Backwaters of Kerala, India. March 2011.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn’t make any sense.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back-and-forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.
-Rumi
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Aspiration: Lighten Up, Do Something Different

FLOATING GLOBES, Pubic House, Chicago, July 2015. Photo:MBuffett
FLOATING GLOBES, Public House, Chicago, July 2015. Photo: MBuffett

Being able to lighten up is the key to feeling at home with your body, mind, and emotions, to feeling worthy to live on this planet.… This earnestness, this seriousness about everything in our lives – this goal-oriented we-are-going-to-do-it-or-else attitude, is the world’s greatest killjoy… When your aspiration is to lighten up, you begin to have a sense of humor. Your serious state of mind keeps getting popped. In addition to a sense of humor, a basic support for a joyful mind is curiosity, paying attention, taking an interest in the world around you.… Curiosity encourages cheering up. So does simply remembering to do something different… Anything out of the ordinary will help. You can go to the window and look at the sky, you can splash cold water on your face, you can sing in the shower, you can go jogging – anything that’s against your usual pattern. That’s how things start to lighten up.

-from Comfortable With Uncertainty by Pema Chodron

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The Space To Realize Dreams

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DREAM STATE, New Orleans, February 2015. Photo: MBuffett

Sometimes we hitch ourselves to large but essentially empty dreams, maybe because we are so busy just getting through the day that we don’t believe we can actually live according to our deepest, most genuine desires. But the truth is that right here in our daily life, every breath and every step can become a concrete part of making our true dreams happen…. If you feel that your dreams aren’t coming true, you might think you need to do more, or to think and strategize more. In fact, what you might need is less – less noise coming to you from both inside and outside – so that you have the space for your heart’s truest intention to germinate and flourish.

-from Silence by Thich Nhat Hanh
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Awakening Is A Choice

Chonor House, McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala India, March 2012. Photo: MBuffett
Chonor House, McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala India, March 2012. Photo: MBuffett

Breathing in, breathing out, feeling resentful, feeling happy, being able to drop it, not being able to drop it, eating our food, brushing our teeth, walking, sitting – whatever we’re doing could be done with one intention. That intention is that we want to wake up, we want to ripen our compassion, and we want to ripen our ability to let go, we want to realize our connection with all beings. Everything in our lives has the potential to wake us up or to put us to sleep. Allowing it to awaken us is up to us. 

-from Comfortable With Uncertainty by Pema Chodron