Daily Archives: February 3, 2011

Groundhog Day 2/2/11

Darlings,

In Lady Yoga fashion, it is my goal to look back in history to see where we have come from, find the yoga in the moments past to keep us rooted in the present and passionate about where we are going in the future.
On that note...

It's Groundhog day. If it's cloudy when a groundhog emerges from it's burrow, it will leave he burrow and winter will end soon. If it's sunny, the groundhog will see it's shadow and retreat to its burrow for six more weeks of winter.
In LA, we don't have to worry so much about light, we have it and the warmth that doesn't seem to reflect the east coast right now, being pummeled by storm after winter storm. They can celebrate a snow day or two and retreat indoors for contemplation. We, well, we can celebrate lightness always and use it as fuel as we go through our practice. Whether the postures or difficult and challenging or a cake walk, we can always find the darkness and light, heaviness and lightness and in turn, the unity of balancing both of those energies.
So, let's explore the lightness as we practice or read this blog and bring it into our daily worlds of challenge.

"The joy after a period of darkness and struggle is greater than the peace of one who only basks in the light." JJ Dewey

Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light? ~Maurice Freehill

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. ~Chinese Proverb

There are two kinds of light - the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures. ~James Thurber

Moonlight is sculpture. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own. ~Ben Sweetland

Light gives of itself freely, filling all available space. It does not seek anything in return; it asks not whether you are friend or
foe. It gives of itself and is not thereby diminished. ~Michael Strassfeld

Live in rooms full of light. ~Cornelius Celsus

We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light. ~Mary Dunbar

You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in. ~Arlo Guthrie

There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. ~Edith Wharton

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within. ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. ~Maori Proverb

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. ~Anthony J. D'Angelo

A sensible man will remember that the eyes may be confused in two ways- by a change from light to darkness or from darkness to light; and he will recognize that the same thing happens to the soul. ~Plato

When you possess light within, you see it externally. ~Anaïs Nin

Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light. ~Norman B. Rice

From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Light is good from whatever lamp it shines. ~Author Unknown

When my heart is heavy, the sun helps make it light. ~Astrid Alauda

Love is not consolation. It is light. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't. ~Blaise Pascal

A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Joy requires one to be awake, Adjusting the heart's ambience to bright. Some prefer the dark, as is their right,
On grounds of agony, and to forsakeNot only bliss, but all that's blessed by light. ~Nicholas Gordon

Light comes to us unexpectedly and obliquely. Perhaps it amuses the gods to try us. They want to see whether we are asleep. ~H.M. Tomlinson

Sunshine is my quest. ~Winston Churchill

We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light. ~Earl Nightingale

Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. ~Benjamin Franklin

The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Your path is illuminated by the light Yet darkness lets the stars shine bright. ~J.L.W. Brooks

No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it. ~Terry Pratchett

Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark. ~Rabindranath Tagore

The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light. ~Matthew Arnold

The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light. ~Joseph Campbell

Lighthouses are more helpful than churches. ~Benjamin Franklin

Nothing travels faster than light, with the possible exception of bad news, which follows its own rules. ~Douglas Adams

It's a cruel season that makes you get ready for bed while it's light out. ~Calvin

I will love the light for it shows me the way. Yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars. Og Mandino

Though my soul may set in darkness, It will rise in perfect light, I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.~Sarah Williams

The stars are the street lights of eternity. ~Author Unknown

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart. ~Kahlil Gibran

Wine is sunlight, held together by water. ~Galileo

Your life is something opaque, not transparent, as long as you look at it in an ordinary human way. But if you hold it up against the light of God's goodness, it shines and turns transparent, radiant and bright. And then you ask yourself in amazement: Is this really my own life I see before me? ~Albert Schweitzer

Sadness flies on the wings of the morning and out of the heart of darkness comes the light. ~Jean Giraudoux

Live in rooms full of light - Cornelius Celsus

All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark. Swami
Vivekananda

Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark. Rabinidrath Tagore

There are dark shadows on the earth, but it's lights are stronger in the contrast. Charles Dickens

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light. - Helen Keller

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. -Plato

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success. - Henry David Thoreau

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle - Walt Whitman

All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience. - Henry Miller

Yours in lightness and helping guide you from the dark,
Lady Yoga