Rescuing the Turtle

Whose turn to rescue the turtle?

As I was driving down Youngblood Rd last week, someone up ahead of me slowed and stopped on the side of the road. Unable to tell what was up but concerned for the other car and driver or a possible injured animal, I slowed to a stop. Some guy got out of the car and, looking both ways, headed toward the far lane reaching for a painted box turtle who was having a perilous afternoon stroll on warm pavement. "Hmm, just what I would've done. Just what I have done!," I think. "Ah, but it's HIS TURN to rescue the turtle!!!"

Laughing with many layers of glee, I left the scene of the good-deed-doer and the rescued turtle, grateful for my reminder moment. Yep, I've rescued a few turtles in my day. My first turtle rescue will always be untoppable for my memory - but mostly for those people who knew me when....

I was in my first few months of driving. I think it was Springtime and since I'd just turned 16, the year was definitely 1977. Yep, and as I continue my investigative reminiscence, I'm thinking it must've been prior to June 28th ... because that's the date that my lifelong friend Stephanie would've turned 16 herself ...and I was taking her home after our Sunday morning at church when we made the fateful stop to pick up that turtle in the middle of Park Road.

But all was well at that point. We just had to stop and save the helpless fellow and when we got to Steph's house we found a shoebox with a lid to keep him in on my solo ride home. Why was I holding on to this shelled creature and not just setting him free in Steph's backyard? Well, true to my nature-lovin' character, I'd planned to share him with my young nieces who were visiting at my house ... and since he had a pointy face we thought he might be a snapper so the lidded box seemed a safe plan.

I'd just dropped Steph off and was heading out the back way of Barclay Downs home for Sunday lunch and a housefull of out-of-town relatives. The turtle box was settled on the passenger floor and all was fine till Mr. Turtle nudged the lid up a bit and I panicked about him roaming free so close to my ankles. A reach with my right hand to reposition the lid, a glance down in my effort, a sudden but almost imperceptible shifting of the car - something akin to the liftoff of a plane - and life as I knew it became a new story for everyone to tell over and over again at my very sensitive and youthful expense.

Just looked through the boxes. Can't locate the photo but ONE does exist. Picture a 1970's station wagon balanced perfectly on the guy-wire of a utility pole, pointing nose skyward, tailgate "sitting on its sitzbones!" It was an impossible feat. The wire should've broken, I should've slammed into the pole or turned the car over. Angels carried me there and devilish friends and family have never let this story die! Used to be I was so mortifiably embarrassed that I'd leave the room or yell some juvenile retort to anyone who dared tell the story or worse yet, bring out the photo. Today, I too am amused and just a wee bit proud of my unique tale. And, look at me, I'm publishing the tale here in this e-news ... and I promise I'll let ya see the pic if I can find it!

I learned some good and huge early driving lessons about keeping eyes on the road at EVERY second and how when one reaches to the right, one's left hand and body may turn the steering wheel to the right too. Lessons learned from rescuing a turtle. And I still save a turtle or two as needed.......and many dragon flies and snakes who get caught in garden netting and birds who have hit a window and need calm time to come to and needy people, of course...and oh so many so ons and so ons!...

"It's HIS TURN to rescue the turtle," I thought to myself and giggled down the road as I enjoyed this delicious new awareness that's infusing so many areas of my life these days. My lesson last week was about opening up spaces around me for others to take their turn. And I am seeing all sorts of ways that other folks need and want to share their gifts and callings around me and I am willing, ready, and able to make that happen! So I told the whole story about the turtle and the car just to make this point? Yes...and I'm sure it was healing for the 16 year old Jan to say it all out loud too!

So check out how Riverbirch Yoga is growing. And let me know if you feel a call to do your thing here too! Honest, you too are part of all this.....

Some Weekly Yoga Classes Resume

As the Spring Series of weekly Yoga classes came to an end, I received a most beautiful gift: someone else was feeling a call to teach! Moreover, she asked to move toward making that happen for a new Riverbirch Yoga Fall series. My heart couldn't have been any more full.

This has been a most fulfilling Summer for me. I have spent wonderful moments in study with, Anne, a longtime Yoga student and a new Yoga teacher in training with me. Then another long-ago former student called for the same. The Riverbirch Yoga Guided Sadhana Program has new life breathed into it. (check out the GSP article below) And I too am breathing anew.

"Anne Yoga"

As for the Fall Class Series, all particulars aren't set in place but do know that a fresh opportunity is headed our way sometime toward late September. Probably Tuesday evenings at 6pm since that's the time we've had comfortably ongoing.

And I can assure you that you will be grateful to sign up for Anne Yoga! She is teaching me as I am teaching her and what a mutually deliciously glorious thing that is...

What about mornings? Not sure yet. Create the vision!

Drumming, Meditation, Movement

Kennon Knight will be bringing us some drumming and meditation experiences this Fall! Kennon is following a new call in his life to share the inspiring and therapeutic practice of drumming for individuals and circles and he calls this practice "rhythm rhyme reason." A Reiki practioner, meditator, and lifelong drummer, Kennon, has played with tons of bands; most recently with Square Roots. He's shared his gifts this Summer as part of Lake Wylie Music Fest (which had a most grand finale last Saturday August 14th!) and Kennon had folks banging on the tops and sides of their boats as well as a small circle of drums on the beach. Check out these Riverbirch familiars (Anne and Nancy) below ... in fierce concentration during July's drum circle on the beach!

So come on,

bang the drum!

Whether your hands have ever hit a drum or not, you gotta give it a try. You'll like it! You'll love Kennon and you'll find the banging of a drum to be a grand crescendo to your day!

Watch your INBOX for a schedule of opportunities and join us!

EVERYONE

DRUMS!

And so it is....

Where is all this going? Dunno .... All I can say is hang on and enjoy the ride because we're in a beautiful spiral of creative energy .... all of us.

Can you feel new creative life force in your life? Please share! Look for our Online Sangha Forum to be up sooner than later...

And remember, in Louise Hay's famous line at the end of all her affirmative thinking, "And so it is." Is - there's where the power is in our visions and dreams.....so make them so ... HERE and NOW!

And so it is.......

Guided Sadhana

Has your experience in Yoga touched you and called
to you to reach deeper? Do you crave to feel the
personally-inspiring connection that your Yoga has
begun to show you? Are you ready for a richer
practice on and off your Yoga mat? Do the words
"Path" & "Practices" ring with a certain magic to you? Do you hear a call to share your Yoga with other individuals?
The Riverbirch Yoga Guided Sadhana is here for you;
for you who seek a more focused commitment to
your practices just for you - or perhaps to become a teacher or other such practioner . Guided Sadhana is designed as a passage through
self-study and self-naming; exploring and enhancing your particular gifts and challenges, callings and truths. It's all about you...all about YOUR Yoga. Your program will offer you opportunities to define and re-define yourself and to move forward in your "dharma," - your work of Love! And it can be your own practitioner certification program co-created as
an apprenticeship with an experienced Sadhana Guide. Up to you. All about you!

Riverbirch Yoga Guided Sadhana ... check it out online and talk with Jan... it's an ongoing program that receives new Sadhaka (students on their own Paths) every day, each moment, every breath.

Food for thought

From Ram Dass Paths to God ...

"So when you are listening to your dharma, there is very little likelihood that you're going to hear the 'pure message.' You're just going to hear another message. But you keep tuning and tuning - through study, through meditation, through falling on your face. And slowly, slowly, as your methods start to work, your attachment to the whole business starts to get less and less. (After all, the ego can only trap you as long as you think you are it; when it's just out there doing its thing - when it's just 'ego-ing,' like eyes seeing or ears hearing - it becomes merely a functional entity. Nothing more interesting than that.) In the meantime, you do the best you can. You look at the next step you're about to take and ask yourself, 'what seems to be the right next thing to do?' Then you become quiet, and you listen inside for an answer. You get as quiet as you can, and you listen as clearly as you can...."

For your Path ...

Second Saturdays 8am-11am-ish

Second Saturday Sadhana

"Your Monthly Wholistic Yoga Event!"

8-10am ... On the Mat "Re-union at 8"

Reuniting with true you! - A Yoga Immersion in Being

10-11ish- "Market"

A "marketplace" of Yogic flavors and fun, tools and toys!

Bring something to share!

What do you have to share? Info, garden produce, herbs, arts, used goods, services, healing arts practitioners (brief chair massages, reflexology sessions, energy experiences,) artful gifts displays, informational sharing, community connections, tea time chats, live music....

Or simply come & BE in nature and the community of others who share Riverbirch Yoga....

Pay as you feel called to pay.

Pre-REGISTRATION ReQuested for

"Re-union at 8"

Ram Dass ...

"I see my life as an unfolding set of opportunities to awaken."

Make plans now for another

Weekend Retreat at Riverbirch:

December 10-12

Give a nurturing gift to yourself this "holiday season!"

Please know that we are working to make the retreats affordable to most everyone

massage therapy
energy sharing
partner practices
personal quiet time
whole foods
playfulness
nature
breathwork
music
creative expression
vigorous Yoga
meditation
dancing
soundings

"Look no further than the True Self Within"

Jack Hawley's intro to The Bhagavad Gita, A Walkthrough for Westerners

Day Trippin'

LEAF October 14-17

Interested in a Fall Day Trip to the Lake Eden Arts Festival in Black Mountain this fall? October 16th ... Email Jan

Wanna go for the full weekend? Check out their website and holler if you wanna get a Riverbirch group together!

We have eggs!
eggs

Call ahead and I'll have a dozen or a half set aside for you.

Rumi ...

I could go on, I could fill pages with these elegant verses

But this is a tale for the heart and soul, not the lips.

Riverbirch Yoga on Lake Wylie offers explorations in Wholistic Living through Personal Yoga, Creativity, & Spirituality

jan@riverbirchyoga.com | 704.905.3652 | www.riverbirchyoga.com

Location Address: on Lake Wylie in Charlotte, NC

Mailing Address: 2879 Hwy 160 West, PMB 4100 Fort Mill, SC 29708