Ah, I love it when the Universe speaks out... Check her latest message:

 1- Go to www.google.com

2- Type in "Failure", without the quotes

3- Instead of hitting "Search" hit "I'm feeling Lucky"

4- Look at it and laugh at what comes up

5- Tell other people before the people at Google Fix it

Forgive me, I feel like I'm channeling Brondu today...

A long-term client of mine gifted me the beautiful book pictured above when we completed our counseling relationship last year. For every day of the year, the book offers an amazing photo of people and/or places across India accompanied by words of wisdom from masters such as Krishnamurti, Gandhi, and Svami Prajnanpad. Today I decided to read the "June 15^th" passage before sitting for morning meditation...

 

Wakefullness is the way to life.

The fool sleeps

As if he were already dead

But the master is awake                                                                                                            

And he lives forever

 

 

 

To be awake is to die and be reborn

So awake, reflect, watch

Work with care and attention

Live in the way

And the light will grow in you

 

 

Opposite the passage was an amazing photo of a mother from Gujarat with her baby wrapped in a maya sling at her belly. Having just entered my third trimester, I felt deeply connected to the image and the passage. I continued my morning rituals, all the while contemplating the ideas of birth, death, and rebirth; as well as considering what I must die to in order to honor the light that I am as well as to become the best mother I can be to the "light" growing inside me. And then I got in the car...   

Apparently I left the windows of my car open after I returned from water birthing class last night. Due to this oversight, my car was filled with Canadian Soldier Bugs this morning. (My apologies to our friends from the Great White North, I really think that is their official name...) Most of the bugs had died during the night (which left little corpses on my dashboard and in my center console) some were still flitting around inside the car.

Anywho, both the recently departed and the currently agitated insects were causing a bit of distraction as I was driving to work this morning. So much so, that I almost didn't notice that traffic had come to a complete stop in order to allow a pair of geese to walk their newborn offspring across the street. I came to a screeching halt in time to prevent any damage to my car (or the geese).

The force with which I stopped my vehicle caused a few of the tiny insect corpses to slide off of the dashboard into the strawberry-pineapple-yogurt-protein-smoothie I was drinking on my way to work. As the pause in traffic was providing me with time to contemplate whether I was going to pluck the floating carcasses out of my glass and finish breakfast, or simply cut  my losses, the compilation CD I was listening to during my commute (which just happens to be entitled "Funny Shadow Mix", and just happens to have been created by the other [better?] half of the most transformative relationship I've ever been in) transitioned from Stuart Davis' "It's all Just Because" to "Practice Dying". (I know, right!?!)

Just as I noticed the irony of all the birth-death-rebirth messages flooding my awareness, the geese finished their crossing and we were all on our ways. I took a moment for one, long, inhale to take in all that had just occurred before commencing my commute. (Oh, and I finished the smoothie)

The Universe must truly trust that I am a morning person to offer me so much insight all before  8am.

A friend of mine sent this along this morning with the subject line "You'd think they'd have postponed your 'grand reveal' until you could fit back into the outfit..." and I thought I'd share.

Gotta love friends who still think you're a super-hero even when your only 'acceptable form' of exercise has recently been relegated to doing water aerobics in a horribly obnoxious, mu-mu-esque, purple and green Esther-Williams-style skirted swimsuit!

Don't try to wrap your brain around the pregnant-lesbian thing. Just don't.



From: The Associated Press

Years after she first emerged from the Batcave, Batwoman is coming out of the closet. DC Comics is resurrecting the classic comic book character as a lesbian, unveiling the new Batwoman in July as part of an ongoing weekly series that began this year.

The 5-foot-10 superhero comes with flowing red hair, knee-high red boots with spiked heels, and a form-fitting black outfit. "We decided to give her a different point of view," explained Dan DiDio, vice president and executive editor at DC. "We wanted to make her a more unique personality than others in the Bat-family. That's one of the reasons we went in this direction."

The original Batwoman was started in 1956, and killed off in 1979. The new character will share the same name as her original alter ego, Kathy Kane. And the new Batwoman arrives with ties to others in the Gotham City world. "She's a socialite from Gotham high society," DiDio said. "She has some past connection with Bruce Wayne. And she's also had a past love affair with one of our lead characters, Renee Montoya."

Montoya, in the "52" comic book series, is a former police detective. Wayne, of course, is Batman's true identity but he has disappeared, along with Superman and Wonder Woman, leaving Gotham a more dangerous place. The "52" series is a collaboration of four acclaimed writers, with one episode per week for one year.

The comics will introduce other diverse characters as the story plays out. "This is not just about having a gay character," DiDio said. "We're trying for overall diversity in the DC universe. We have strong African-American, Hispanic and Asian characters. We're trying to get a better cross-section of our readership and the world."

The outing of Batwoman created a furor of opinions on Web sites devoted to DC Comics. Opinions ranged from outrage to approval. Others took a more tongue-in-cheeck approach to the announcement.

"Wouldn't ugly people as heroes be more groundbreaking?"  asked one poster

I, for one, am hella excited that DC is finally representin' for sexual minorities! Here's to seeing they do it "justice"...

 

Okay, more exciting tales from Student Eval Land...

I really do "take in" student feedback about my courses. I find it is the best way to ensure student receptiveness and involvement in future semesters. As I've stated before, I am not above playing to my audience!

In addition to the whole six-year-old incident I blogged about previously, my students' responses indicated two exercises that stood out as their "favorite part of the course": the reincarnation exercise and the e-mail exercise. I thought I'd tell you about the latter here. You'll have to wait for the former on another day (I know, I know, I'm such a tease...)

As part of the course on Death and Dying, I have the students plan their own funeral as if they were to die two weeks from now. (It's an all encompassing exercise that urges them to confront their own mortality, increase their awareness around the rising costs of funeral expenses, reflect on their lives thus far, identify who and what is important to them, etc.) Some of my students expressed difficulty with the "write your own eulogy and epitaph" portions of the project. In response to their pleas, I suggested that they send an e-mail to several of their friends, asking them to describe the sender in one word. That's right, one word. I offered that the responses from their friends and loved one's could be used as fodder for writing their eulogy and/or epitaph.

Now, I told you that to tell you this: nearly one fourth of my students listed this exercise (which really wasn't even an intended part of the course, rather a spontaneous suggestion to a presented dilemma...) as their favorite part of the semester. Their reasoning? Most of them said something about how it was eye-opening to read what people had to say about them, how they would describe them, etc.

Go ahead, try it!   E-mail your friends, relatives, co-workers, etc. and ask them to describe you in one word. You may be surprised by what comes up!

 

Spring Semester ended a couple of weeks ago (for those of you new to the program, I'm a college professor...) and the results of the end-of-the-term student evals are in. Now, typically, results of these evals are reviewed and recorded by the University College, returned to the respective Department Chair for review, and placed in the professor's mailbox. But, as we know from experience, my life is rarely typical...

Today, my department chair stopped by my office to hand-deliver my evals to me. Apparently, some of my students offered peculiar responses to item #22: "What was your favorite part of this course?" Their response? "I liked it when professor Barto acted like a six-year-old". I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised when Dr. Kennedy stopped by my office to ask me what the f#@k%*g deal was!

You see, I taught two sections of a course called "Death & Dying" this semester. During the portion of the course where we explore children's encounters with death, I take on the persona of children of different ages and have the students role play answering children's questions about death. It's quite a powerful exercise. Many of these individuals have never given much thought to how they would explain death to a six year old, or how to initiate a conversation with their teen-aged sibling, nephew, daughter, etc. after his or her classmate completes a suicide attempt. I can talk about facilitative versus nonfacilitative ways to approach these issues until I'm blue in the face (and believe me, I have) but nothing seems to compare to the experience of being put on the spot by a professor who asks, in her best child or adolescent voice: where Grandpa is, whether Mommy was mad at me when she died (because she didn't say goodbye), where "dead" is, etc.

This semester, a very sweet 30-something woman responded to one of my questions by trying to calmly explain that "Grandpa went on a long trip, and that we wouldn't see him for a long time, until we got to heaven." I jumped on the opportunity to show how sugar-coating the truth can backfire on you and proceeded to freak out about how Daddy left for a trip last week, how I didn't believe Daddy was coming back, etc. My student tried to reason with me, but those of you with children can resonate with how futile that is... The exercise ended with a fruitful discussion about how euphemisms about death as "sleeping" or "taking a trip" can be confusing for children and exploring alternative ways to approach these topics with kids. Much better than a lecture, if I say so myself.

I'm not sure my department chair agrees, however. After hearing my (much more detailed) explanation of the exercise, she continued to stare at me from my doorway, silent, with her head cocked to one side, still clutching the student's course evaluations. She eventually muttered, "Huh", sort of matter-of-factly and then handed me the evals. "Apparently, the students liked it" she offered, and then wished me a good day.

Sometimes I love being the black sheep of the department.     

 

Traditional yoga buffs may not dig this one, but I absolutely loved it!

My yoga instructor, Puma, swapped our typical soundtrack (Krishna Das, Eastern Instrumental, New Age, etc.) for one she had ripped from http://www.yeahdaveyoga.com/  today. Basically, "Dave" is all about blending his love for yoga with his passion for all things rockin' and he has developed song lists for yoga practice with songs featuring everyone from Sinatra to Puff Daddy.

I wasn't sure how I felt about the change at first. I rather enjoy being wrapped in the soothing sounds of our typical class and, admittedly, I was slightly distracted by the Beatle's accompanying my sun salutations...

After a while, however, I really got into it. My yoga practice certainly took on a different flavor as I found myself raising my arms rather theatrically into Warrior One during the intro to "Teenage Wasteland" and the woman next to me actually burst into laughter as we transitioned into Warrior Three during the song's bridge. By the end of the song a few of us actually broke out of Warrior Sequence and began dancing like high schoolers at the prom circa 1987. (And believe me, you haven't lived until you have seen a woman, 6 months pregnant, reliving her high school glory days to the sounds of The Who!  All we needed was some big hair and acid washed jeans...)

Typically, when I leave Puma's class, my triceps ache from my oh-so-vigilant efforts to avoid putting pressure on my neck during headstand... Today, however, my cheeks ache from smiling so much! Admittedly, the class felt more energizing than it did relaxing or centering, but I welcome the change.

For those of you that might be interested in amping up your yoga practice, I highly recommend traipsing over to Dave's site and checking out his song lists. (Check out the archives section, there are tons of recommendations...) I certainly wouldn't trade my usual yoga class for this new rockin' version on a regular basis, but I have to admit it was a welcomed surprise!

~~~Namaste~~~

Strange coincidences...

Last night, before retiring to bed, I thought of blogging about how I blew off yoga class to play wth a friend and how it was just what I needed. I opted not to pull away from the experience and, instead drifted off to sleep without taking any formally reflective stance on my day. This morning, after sitting briefly for meditation and making myself a protien smoothie, I came across Paul's Blog about being "bitten in the butt by practice apathy". Having just played hooky from my own practice, I felt the irony was too rich not to indulge in some reflection:

You see, Spring Semester is finally over. (An experience that professors enjoy just as much, if not more, than the students. Don't kid yourself.) I had planned to head to New York to assist with Intergral Institute's ILP Seminar this week, but those plans went a bit awry for petty yet complicated reasons... Lamenting the loss of the oportunity to participate in such a powerful experience, I have been a tiny bit obsessed with finding a way to bring depth and richness to my practice this week. Now, typically, I work 'til 9pm on Tuesdays, but yesterday, yesterday I was out of the office by four! Hmmm, what to do with this new-found time.... I opted to call my friend Mike and see if he wanted to cut out of work a bit early and pick up a yoga class with me. Yummy, yummy, ILP.

When Mike got to my place, we began speaking about the gorgeous Spring weather and I realized that I hadn't seen the sunset on a Tuesday night in months! With a mischievious grin I asked how he would feel if we didn't quite make it to yoga class...

Now, now, I'm not that mischievious! Sheeesh! Minds out of the gutters people!

Anywho... In lieu of yoga class, we washed both cars, started the coals and cedar chips on the grill and  then headed to the Farmers' Market to grab a bunch of locally grown veggies and some stuff to make falafel. We spent the night catching up on each other's lives, enjoying the season's first taste of cedar-grilled veggies, and breathing in the Spring air.

I told you that to tell you this: This experience provided me with an opportunity to reconnect with the idea of  Integral Life Practice in its most profound sense; life as practice. Ever since recieving the completed version of the highly awaited ILP Kit, I've struggled with an uncomfortable feeling that it was too top-heavy (read: doesn't pay enough attention to the social and the cultural; the 'We' and the 'Its' quadrants). This morning, I feel like offering a bit of energy to considering these 
quadrants ...

You see, I believe dinner on the patio with Mike offered a more significant part of my practice than yoga class ever could have at that time. Honoring my internal need for communion with significant others as well as communion with nature, indulging in spontineity without allowing it to run amuck, and openning a space to recognize that one's soul is fed in a variety of ways that are not necessarily modular or scalable were invaluable lessons for me. It is in this spirit that I encourage you to open your own hearts and minds to the ways you reach beyond mental, physical, and spiritual training in order to bring holistic integrity into your lives as well.

For me, this signifies the difference between having a practice and living my practice.

Namaste.

~Korenna~

So, I stopped at the Mystic Goddess One-Stop Pagan Shop on my way to the gym today. (Gotta love any story that starts that way...) I wanted to pick up a black candle. 

(Every now and again, during the new moon, I will engage in a little 'releasing unwanted baggage' ritual. Seeing that my roommate and I recently vacated a house that held a lot of meaning for both of us, we felt the quickly approaching new moon would offer a perfect opportunity for some intentional "out with the old, in with the new" work.)

Anywho, I digress. As I walked into the shop (triggering a chorus of wind chimes hung over the door to announce my arrival like a faerie symphony, thank you very much) the gorgeous and matronly resident Goddess behind the counter coos "What can we help you with, Darling?" I quickly inform her that I am looking for a black candle...

Before I can even get the rest of my sentence out, she tisks at me and sighs "The new moon is less than 5 days away, child. We are all out of black candles."  

The matter-of-fact way she informed me of this stopped me in my tracks! My stomach sank. I felt ashamed. I imagined this must be what people experience when department store cashiers chide them for purchasing Christmas gifts on Decemebr 24th! I believe I managed to breathe an "oh, thank you anyway" as I tucked my proverbial tail between my legs and shuffled out the door. (Cue faerie symphony again.)

Certainly a surreal way to start my day!

An amazing thing happened yesterday and I just had to share...

There is a a mom & pop style mexican restaraunt just a few blocks from my apartment that my friends and I frequent. The staff is friendly, the food is great and the margaritas are delicious. In fact, I would say the only thing that keeps this place from being "perfect" is their use of styrofoam containers. 

Shortly after we discovered this little place two years ago, I began bringing my own container to cart home leftovers.( I wasn't about to stop patronizing them due to their use of styrofoam, but I didn't feel right participating in it either!)  Now, at first, the staff would give me a funny look when they asked if I'd like them to box up the rest of my dinner and I would reply "No, I've got it" and produce my own container for carrying home goodies. Most times it lead to a lively discussion about the hazaards of styrofoam and/or the long-term effects of a 'disposible mentality'. At this point, I think everyone is pretty much used to it!

BUT, a few months ago, the owners were actually in the restaraunt as I packed the rest of my veggie fajitas into my pyrex for lunch later in the week... Puzzled, one of them asked our waiter what the hell was wrong with me and he suggested the two of them come over and ask me themselves.

What followed was a cordial discussion about the ramifications of purchasing and using styrofoam containers (from the dangers caused by the making of styrofoam - to the possibility that a patron might choose to re-warm their leftovers in the microwave, still in the container - to the horror that awaits us as these substances linger in our landfills) as well as an exploration of the alternatives.

Yesterday, we were back at this restaraunt for dinner. At the end of our meal, Mike, our favorite waiter/assistent manager, produced two boxes made partially from recycled paper with our check. Smiling he told us that the owners couldn't stop talking about how concerned I was about the styrofoam containers and actually looked into trying something else!

Evidentally, the paper containers even cost a little less than what they had previously been using!

Mike told me that all of the staff members have been instructed that, while presenting these new containers to customers, they are to tell people that the restaraunt had recently switched over to paper containers after learning about the hazaards of styrofoam and to offer that this is "just one more way we are trying to let you know how greatly we appreciate you"!

I love it!

You can blame Coolmel for this one... Some of us have been having such a good time with an online "find your philosophical bend" quiz, thought I'd offer up one of my office's favorite time-sucking quizes: the belief-o-matic. You know you can't resist taking 10 minutes to find out what religions your personal beliefs allign with most clearly...

My results:

1.	Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2.	Mahayana Buddhism (93%)
3.	Neo-Pagan (89%)
4.	Liberal Quakers (89%)
5.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (85%)
6.	New Age (82%)
7.	Theravada Buddhism (78%)
8.	Hinduism (75%)
9.	New Thought (73%)
10.	Taoism (69%)

Which I pretty much knew (I worship at a Universalist church and have a strong Buddhist bent to my own spiritual beliefs... ) But who'dve guessed about the Quakers? 

I'll leave you to muse about what sort of "Bowl of Elightenment" breakfast cereal would be created if the Buddhists and the Quakers ever joined forces...