Shedding

There it lay draped across the water faucet in our outdoor shower. The shape and texture enough to make me jump ... but it was just an empty snake skin ... its owner long slinked off and shining up her fresh new hide.

Lately it's been snowing brown, white, green, beige, black fluff. All over my property are feathers of varied colors and shapes. My girls are lookin' a bit scruffy these days and Lil' Roo looks like half a rooster since his long tail feathers dropped off. My little chicken flock is molting - loosing the old feathers in preparation for fresh new cold weather insulation.

Jon and I took Friday off this past week and headed out on a brief motorcycle vacation. I rode my bike and he was on his with a duffle bag full of camping equipment strapped to the luggage rack. I named it the "big green blob," that army drab sack that contained all we needed to tent camp wherever we ended up for the night. It's been some year. Well, it's been quite a couple years actually... since we've been working on building a new life with varied income streams...several new businesses plus many creative pursuits while maintaining our foundations. While we have absolutely no regrets for our independence from "employment" and our efforts to create our own lives, we are two tired bodies these days! Tuckered out. Give out. Candles whose ends burned down long ago.

And surrounding all our exhaustion is a general sense of responsible tension that just doesn't let go when you are hypervigilent over finances and client needs and the tiniest of business details that our 2-person corporation must deal with without staff support. As we left home, my innards were wound tight around the many things I must deal with in order to leave home...care of my Mama and the yardbirds and Amos and the house and the dishes I left in the sink. The further we rode, the deeper I began to breathe. And breathe I did. Focused, intentional, and conscious breathwork in the saddle. I need to exhale big time. Deep LOUD sighs of release and thankfulness. Growls and happy whoops. No one can hear ya when your bike's roaring anyway. Besides, who cares about my noises way out here except the cows I've just roused from their naps?

Miles and country miles into the foothills then mountain roads and mountain curves into the skyviews. Sun on my shoulders, wind around and through me. Ahh-ohh-mmm. The layers began to wash away. Mother Sun and Father Wind washed off the thickening walls I had developed over months of pushing life. Breathing in and out I let go and let go. A Prana Ride, I am shedding my skin, dropping the old feathers and preparing for new and fresh living. Om Namah Shivaya again and again. I bow to the transformative power of The Creator, the re-creative energy of Life Force. Ahh-ohh-mmm.....

The trees are shedding...sure it's partly because of our lack of rain but it's also a perfectly natural time to shed. Might you too respond to Mama Nature's Autumn call....clean out a closet, let go of some responsibilities, surrender to the burn of The Madora Bowl, break loose from the chains that bind your energies. Here we are at another shifting point....it's the Autumnal Equinox, the beginning of Fall.

I celebrate the ritual of emptying out.....

Anne Yoga - It's about Paying Attention

Anne Lane will be teaching Tuesday evening classes for the Fall Weekly Series that begins September 28th. A longtime student of Riverbirch Yoga and an advanced Yoga Teacher in Training, Anne is ready and eager to share her Sadhana - her personal path and practices. "It's about paying attention," Anne explains with her gentle Yogic passion. And as she reminds you to connect with your body and breath, paying attention is indeed what you find yourself doing.

Tuesdays 6pm for 10 weeks (excluding Thanksgiving week)

"All a teacher offers really is his or her own being." (Ram Dass)

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.

Guided Sadhana Report

Since the above article came out in the last Lovin' the Light, there are several students in Guided Sadhana....4 currently and some interest from others. If you too feel a little tug, talk with Jan. It's an individual program but we're building in some group opportunities to accomodate shared learning.

Food for thought

As Autumn winds enter our world to brush away the roughened coating of our sundrenched Summer bodies, so does the AIR element. And so we focus again on breath.......

From Stephen Cope Yoga and the Quest for the True Self ...

"The first step in the process of connecting with the wisdom of prana is conscious breathing - using the full yogic breath, or diaphragmatic breathing. The breath immediately penetrates the frozen stucture of the false self. Says the poet Lao Tsu:

'The softest stuff in the world

Penetrates quickly the hardest.

Insubstantial, it enters

Where no room is.'

Anything that brings us back to the switching station of breath has the potential to loosen our identification wiht the gross body and to heighten our connection with the prana body. What happens when we redirect our attention to breath is that we immediately enter the world of energy, of movement, of arising and passing away, of constant change."

For your Path ...

THIS SATURDAY

September 25th

8-11am

Energy Awareness & Practices - a playshop for everyone

What's "energy work?," What "gifts" do I have?, How can I develop my energy awareness & practices to best serve myself and others?

Jan and Kathy will be sharing their experience and gifts in Energy Awareness and Personal Practices to help you begin to answer these questions for yourself.

Fall Weekly Class Series

Tuesdays 6pm

Beginning September 28

10 weeks

Second Saturday Sadhana

OCTOBER 9th

Live Drumming!

Kennon will be sharing his gifts in hand drumming and creative percussion as a part of our morning.... accompanying our mat practices during Reunion at 8 then for Market time 10-11am you get the chance to try your hands at beating the skins!

8am ~ Reunion at 8

10am ~ Market

MORE INFO:

WWW.RIVERBIRCHYOGA.COM

PARTNER YOGA PLAYSHOP!

Sunday October 24th

1-4pm

A fun little playshop that will leave you saying ahhh! Share postures in pairs and small groupings. Dive deeper into your breath and body with encouragement & support, break free of personal barriers through gentle assistance. A little Thai Yoga Massage, a little Monkey Yoga, a little restorative breathwork, a lot of nurturing fun! (you don't need to bring a partner...but you can...)

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

REGISTER EARLY and watch for more info to come

"Come, come, whoever you are,

Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving - it doesn't matter.

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times

Come, come again, come."

Rumi

Looking for Autumn Fun?

LINK TO CAROLINA EVENTS

I put together this little list of varied activities around NC and SC every week. Check it out weekly for music & food events, festivals and such. (It's something I do for our online motorcycle magazine)

"There is no place to seek the mind;

it is like the footprints of the birds in the sky."

Zenrin, The Gospel of Zen

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