my thoughts

[soundsof71]

McLennon, March 18, 1965 at the Marietta Hotel, Obertauern, Austria. (Some question about the photographer; great story about it here.)

[soundsof71]

[soundsof71]

Bob Dylan, Washington DC 1965, by Rowland Scherman

[soundsof71]

[soundsof71]

Pink Floyd: David Gilmour. “Anyway…”

[soundsof71]

Jim Morrison, mod!

[writingsforwinter]

When We Slept Together and You Told Me You Wanted to Die

In the darkness, your wrist with every red thread was brighter

than the moon, and my hands the needle, trying to stitch you up.

There were mornings when the wind came in from the sea

and lifted the papers nailed to the yellow corkboard walls

until they rippled like moving flesh, each one covered

with tally marks for every day you looked out a window

without trying to scare yourself away from jumping through it.

Every bone was a bridge to the next, back of your spine

like some creaking shadow box I filled with all my favorite things as a child,

discovering each new knob with more joy than the first.

For awhile, I felt like the same person I had been before,

lying there tucked to your chest, everyone else waking

to make coffee or trying to convince themselves

to get up on the right side of the bed, but then I remembered

how you had touched me as if trying to turn the ocean

into a completely different shape, to make it full instead of shapeless,

touched me like mountains were something you could move,

and even though nothing was really different,

everything was.

[persephonesdaughters]

We Made It

“When we tell our stories, when we choose to use our voices, we empower others as well as ourselves. We join in the chorus of human experience.”

You get better. You get better at saying Yes to love. You get better at saying No, I won’t let you hurt me like that. I might not be perfect but I made it – to today, to this very moment – and right now that is enough. It takes a lot of tears and laughter and mistakes and even more patience and forgiveness. It takes a lot of work, but I know now recovery isn’t a finish line or a destination. It’s the music we listen to on our journey.

-Sierra Demulder

[writingsforwinter]

The Morning After I Killed Myself

The morning after I killed myself, I woke up.

I made myself breakfast in bed. I added salt and pepper to my eggs and used my toast for a cheese and bacon sandwich. I squeezed a grapefruit into a juice glass. I scraped the ashes from the frying pan and rinsed the butter off the counter. I washed the dishes and folded the towels.

The morning after I killed myself, I fell in love. Not with the boy down the street or the middle school principal. Not with the everyday jogger or the grocer who always left the avocados out of the bag. I fell in love with my mother and the way she sat on the floor of my room holding each rock from my collection in her palms until they grew dark with sweat. I fell in love with my father down at the river as he placed my note into a bottle and sent it into the current. With my brother who once believed in unicorns but who now sat in his desk at school trying desperately to believe I still existed.

The morning after I killed myself, I walked the dog. I watched the way her tail twitched when a bird flew by or how her pace quickened at the sight of a cat. I saw the empty space in her eyes when she reached a stick and turned around to greet me so we could play catch but saw nothing but sky in my place. I stood by as strangers stroked her muzzle and she wilted beneath their touch like she did once for mine.

The morning after I killed myself, I went back to the neighbors’ yard where I left my footprints in concrete as a two year old and examined how they were already fading. I picked a few daylilies and pulled a few weeds and watched the elderly woman through her window as she read the paper with the news of my death. I saw her husband spit tobacco into the kitchen sink and bring her her daily medication.

The morning after I killed myself, I watched the sun come up. Each orange tree opened like a hand and the kid down the street pointed out a single red cloud to his mother.

The morning after I killed myself, I went back to that body in the morgue and tried to talk some sense into her. I told her about the avocados and the stepping stones, the river and her parents. I told her about the sunsets and the dog and the beach.

The morning after I killed myself, I tried to unkill myself, but couldn’t finish what I started.

[yogazest]

Finding light amidst the darkness #upwardfacingdog #urdhvamukhasvanasana #health #fitness #yoga #asana #peace #yogaeveryday #yogalove

[yogazest]

My very first yoga on the beach!! #yoga #yogaonthebeach #beach #downwardfacingdog #adomukhasvanasana #wellness #health #nature

[yogazest]

#warriorone #veerasana #yoga #asana #health #flexibility #spinalstretch #balance #energy

[yogazest]

Breathe

I was never taught how to breathe. None of us are. It is part of us. Inhale and exhale, as simple as that. Sometimes I am not even aware of my breathing process. Well, who is? We all are so busy with our lives, that we often forget the very reason behind its existence. Think for a moment. Just try to hold your breath, for as long as you can. Oh… did you experience that? That feeling of life being taken away from you! Gosh, I just took a deep inhale right now!! Okay now let me come to the point to why I am writing this. It’s Friday night. Yeah TGIF!! And I am just lying in my bed thinking about my yoga practice that I did in the evening. I often do that, just think back and recall how my Yoga practice was!! And tonight for some reason I just feel like celebrating the joy of breathing that Yoga brings to me. The technique of Ujjayi Breathing allows me to feel my inhalation and exhalation by balancing and relaxing my soul and reminding me the importance of breathing:- Breathing is what keeps us alive. What are your thoughts after your daily Yoga practice?

[yogazest]

Enlighten #padmasana #lotuspose #yoga #asana #meditation #enlightened #breathe #wellness #focus

[yogazest]

Where yoga meets nature #yoga #nature #lancaster #ustrasana #camel pose #asana #wellness #backbend #getaway

[kinoyoga]

Why do we need advanced asanas? Why does yoga need to challenge you? Take for example Skandasana from the Ashtanga Yoga Third Series. You might ask whether it’s enough just to put your leg behind your head and why we need to add difficulty to something already hard. It’s important to understand that no matter how advanced, asanas are tools to gaze within your inner self not the goal in and of themselves. The more the asana challenges you the deeper you can gaze within. I believe we need to experience ourselves at the edge of our comfort zone in order to access the limitless self within. You only truly know yourself when you are tested. It’s easy to be happy and peaceful when everything goes your way, but harder to remain calm and compassionate under stress. Advanced asana are meant to make your mind stronger and your heart more open so that you can be a better person and add meaning to your life. The postures are there to teach you how to go to the places that scare you, use adversity to make you stronger, and love your shadows as much as your light. Advanced asanas are not just fool hardy tricks, they are powerful tools of inner awakening. Rather than trying them out once or twice, the magic of asana happens when you commit yourself to it as a daily devotional practice over many years. Taken on my @gopro

[sassyyogi]

Yes. Yes. Yes.

[stephynow]

Life is breath. Yoga is a personal practice. I think that’s what I love so much about it. So many lineages, styles, acrobatics, and dances - the asanas look the same and they don’t. We have the spreading yogi-toes and the beautiful dancer-points. So many ways, all so poetic. The practice of yoga changed my life in one big way, through breath. It’s the separating factor in all the physical forms of movement. The conscious breathing hones in on the posture, I can find balance, strength, flexibility, and the moment when my breath leads the way. Through physicality, it brings awareness to my mental being. Allowing my breath to let my thoughts fall way-side, saying “yes”, moving from “I can’t” to “I am” and being present. My breath is not my workout but my work within. It teaches me that our physical, mental, and spiritual being is all-encompassing in the moment. #yogaeverydamnday @yoga_girl

[yogazest]

[girls-do-yoga]

Yoga girl http://girls-do-yoga.tumblr.com/