To give you an idea of the amount of arguably wasted synapses that fry themselves nobly to create this blog, I have been vacillating for

TOO MUCH ROCK....FOR ONE HAND

over a week about whether to combine all these different topics into one blog post or to split them up topically and generate a post each.  Many a lobe-crunching walk to and from Yaletown has been spent pondering the above, while I eat all my lipgloss off.  It’s a universal problem, the eating-your-own-lips-while-thinking thing.  I’m going to go ahead and just mash them up, I suppose I can extricate them later if desired, but in the spirit of the Sjanz Life Simulator [PATENT PENDING!] I’ll let you read them in the circumstances that they present themselves to me in my fevered little head.

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Mmmm...people...

In addition to my continuing schedule at the YYoga locations, I’m honoured [and stoked] to be starting to teach at Yoga For The People in Gastown.  What does that mean, exactly, you may ask?  Ah, the blog community…so inquisitive and detailed.  I like your style.  What?  Oh, yes.  YFTP is a pay-what-you-can studio for those of you wishing to get a great practice who, for whatever reason [location, $$$, &c.] are not able to attend class at other studios.  Of course my feelings wouldn’t be hurt if you simply followed me from studio to studio, like a Grateful Dead fan but with somewhat more clarity.   Tell your student friends!  Tell your friends who are in-between jobs!  Kick everybody’s butt who used money as an excuse for not practicing!  This place at their suggestion donation rate is now about the same as a movie matinee.  Srsly.  You can’t afford NOT to go.

This pic is from the NYC inspiration for YFTP:  this model of business, let alone yoga studio, is very exciting and they’ve had success on both coasts in the States.  Time to show the world that Vancouver is world class when it comes to offering a paradigm-shifting yoga experience!  I’ll be there on Mondays at 4 and Fridays at 12:30 starting in mid September.  Keep an eye on their website and maybe even follow them on this mysterious Twitter business if you’re into that, or join their Facebook group.

This is without a doubt the best garden we’ve ever had.  True, it’s just a little corner deck, but we’ve been working on it for 7 years and

These are the sweet 100s. This plant is twice this size by now (this was taken in June)

this year has been by far the most proper “crops” [such as they are] of tomatoes and lettuce.

These pics are when they were green and I have been a) too hungry and b) not organized enough to take pics of a harvest, when we go out for the San Marzanos and Sweet 100s and make good fresh pasta or salads.  Linguini with halved cherry and mini-orange tomatoes, tossed with some of our unusually successful basil and chives, with butter and fresh Padano, is quite the last-minute snack…but is far too pretty not to eat immediately after a long day of teaching.  Sorry.

The lettuce was something I’ve been meaning to do for years and every single year I tried it it bolted before we ever got anywhere.  What I did this year was wait for months, way

yummi lettus

after when you are supposed sow it, even right into the heat wave.  Inexplicably no bolting…just delicate Grand Rapids, Buttercrunch, a red leaf variety that I forget the name of, and a bit of baby red chard thrown in for good measure.  It makes me wish we’d planted the white beans this year.  I have a feeling it would have been a good one.

Well yo yo yiggity yo, as the BFF in “Juno” says, I think wisely.  Here’s me poking my pointy little head up after diving deep through layers and layers of yogic craziness, including the ol’ certification exam [which, whoa].  I’m literally in between my greatest teachers as the 3 day therapeutics training with John concludes and Immersion III with Chris commences.  Don’t tell Chris this but I packed almost all the homeworks from 6 weeks into after dinner on Monday and tonight.  My typing fingers are sore.

Today marked my first unassisted Urdhva Dhanurasana to standing, and my first assisted Handstand to Urdhva dropover.  And then my second and third.  This week marked my first Kala Bhairavasana attempt, which yielded me doing it backwards [which is way harder TBH] and my first motions towards Valakhilyasana.  In addition to my typing fingers, my obliques and forearms are sore.

And of course Flow Yoga reopened, the most anticipated diva in YYoga’s harem of superstar studios.  Variously described as “yoga heaven” and “a space station”, the place is cool, ginormous, and crammed full to bursting with great hearts and brilliant minds, including a whole passel of wellness staff, ready to palpate you into oblivion at a moment’s notice.  Maybe I should see them about my fingers, obliques and forearms.

In honour of my 33rd birthday, one month ago today

But seriously folks.  Is this thing on?  This summer has been a workout of spirit more than any other body part.  By which I mean the aspects of myself that are being tested are not the physical [although 14 classes a week definitely make my feet a bit punchy] but my ability to abide in a place of spirit while facing a pendulous email inbox and a hyperactive BlackBerry, while navigating the seemingly random and exquisitely pointless Granville Street construction, while taking notes on treating fibromyalgia while my eyelids are so heavy from unfiltered sake that they blur the already illegible text I’m trying to create.  What is this vigour that arrives where no vigour should be?  What is hauling my butt out of lovely bed every morning to go hand out nametags and practice fascia massage?

John, as is his wont, was disarmingly perceptive in his ability to dial into exactly what we are accessing when we attempt to teach and to heal…and what fire is there when we choose to be more disciplined in our study and commitment.  Man, I don’t know where I’m going to get the juice to assist for 4 days looking at people’s feet but I am completely confident that it will happen.  And as I expand what I believe is both possible AND desirable, my soul’s fortitude is increased and reinforced.  So as I keep leaning on a bigger energy, hoping against hope that when Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” comes blaring out of the Sony DreamMachine tomorrow at 6:30 and I have to pick through the foyer table’s change pile for the “Add Fare” to use my 1-zone transit pass to get to Burnaby, it’ll all feel very natural and in fact quite pleasant and exciting.

This is grace, because it will be all of those things, and the less I try to finagle it into some sort of ideal balanced diet of work and rest, te more the work becomes the rest itself.  I guess it’s the difference between doing a million abdominal crunches and Headstand.  The strength [virya] is also the courage to let things be zany, to be upside down and just address the upside-down-ness on its own merits without hardening or putting up little tree-fort walls against spirit.  As long as I can remember what I’m doing this for [smrti] I will feel myself borne along on a cushion of brightness, hardly holding myself up at all.  This is being supported by the “muscle” of the soul.  The more you work it, the stronger it becomes.

An ominous call from the government reminded me that Big Rock Fridays have not been adhering to their CanCon requirements.   Just kidding.  This week’s BRF is brought to you by student requests, and assisted by Resident Canuckistani Rock Expert M, late into the evening last night.

“Heart of Gold”, Neil Young

I wish this was a real guitar. It would probably be super uncomfortable.

“Rock N Roll Duty”, Kim Mitchell

“Lovin’ Every Minute Of It”, Loverboy [HELLZ YEAH]

“You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”, BTO

“Fly By Night”, Rush

“We’re Here For A Good Time (Not A Long Time)”, Trooper

“Closer To The Heart”, Rush

“Cordelia”, Tragically Hip [If you ever wanted to hear the sound of the Sjanz' high school career, this is how far down it really was]

“You May Be Right”, The Grapes Of Wrath

“Wheat Kings”, Tragically Hip [So many band camp slow dances]

“Angel Eyes”, Jeff Healey [shout out to my brother and sister]

“Lost Together”, Blue Rodeo

“Fiddlers Green”, Tragically Hip

“Helpless”, Neil Young