October 2009

It's been a very long time since I've blogged. My apologies. Summer has a way of taking you away from things that winter has a way of returning. Like returning to the warmth of the indoors and the computer screen. I've published a poem below. Hopefully it's the first in a series.

Ganapati continues to emerge. A small group of like minded friends has gathered around the project and blankets have been purchased with donations from the recent Global Mala gathering through the Anahata Project...Thank You Amy!

Be well,

cw

New Poem

After 5

The way this works:


I collect you with what’s left of my efficiency
Your roiling energy meets my limp

I have so little to give you.


dinner from a freezer
a quickstep through homework
a handful of pennies
perhaps a bath

I bought the shampoo with you in mind,

tangerine
to match your sunny sweetness

like a high wattage bulb, you keep the lights on in here

in this space, between the old life and our future,
we are building
a monument with scheduled blocks of time

to continually remind me who we could be.

Community Involvement

Below is a link to an article on the Hunger Task Force's website. This was a project at UWM that I was involved with a few months ago....can you find me in the photo?

http://www.hungertaskforce.org/donate/great_examples_of_giving.php

Be well...cw

Kittens and Commitment

We've got new kittens and we're pretty excited about it.  Lucy and Eve both have their own special kitty-both girls-Namaste (grey) and Starry Night (black with white socks and markings). Really cute and a little naughty-just like kittens should be.  

Yoga News

Greetings Friends,

It's been a busy spring and summer is upon us. Teaching at Mount Mary is over for the semester, but it begins at the Pink House! I will be teaching at the Pink House Studio in Riverwest, 2474 N. Booth St. Monday nights through June, 5:30 to 7 pm. Come Join us.

Work is in progress on promotional materials for Ganapati. Thank you Val for coming on board! We are planning to have a Facebook page to begin a network of interested parties both teachers and non-profits. Again, stay tuned for our launch party. It will happen, but we are getting some more things in place for the project first. Any suggestions are appreciated and welcomed....

Blessings, cw

Ganapati receives another donation!

The Ganapati Project wishes to send a big thank you to Tracy E. of Hartland, WI for her generous and kind donation of gently used yoga blocks, straps, and mats. I can't thank you enough! If you or anyone you know has gently used or new props that they would like to donate, please email me at christinewolf@yahoo.com.

The Project is actively seeking certified yoga teachers to teach 4-6 week yoga sessions at Milwaukee area non-profits. Also, if you are affliated with a non-profit that would welcome yoga classes for their clients-please get in touch! Please stay tuned for launch party information! All ideas are welcome!

Peace! cw

Yoga Conference Lessons

Recently I attended the Yoga Journal Conference in Lake Geneva, WI. I had the pleasure of having workshops and classes with David Swenson, Seane Corn, Nikki Doane & Eddie Modestini, Paulie Zink and other accomplished yogis and yoginis from around the country. Like any movement, yoga in North America is full of different kinds of people, seeking varied rewards and outcomes from their yoga practice. The conference certainly reflected the diversity of the yoga community. I have heard somewhat disparaging comments among more "serious" yogis and yoginis regarding the housewives in their Lulu Lemon ensembles, meant to be comical, but nonetheless are negative and quite contrary to what we as practitioners of yoga should be focused on. On the road to gentleness and compassion that yoga paves for us, we need to be mindful that there is no room for judgments and taunts directed at your sister on the mat. She is also on the road you are on, whether her journey be easy or hard, heavy or light. There is plenty of room at the yoga table for all of us, no matter the motivation for being there in this moment. Remembering all the while that the reason someone is bothering you on some level, making you react, is because she is reflecting something in yourself that you don't like. Those among you in your yoga class that may be more interested in comfortable pants than enlightenment are still there, seeking, being, trying, just like you. I found the conference a great reminder that yoga is a family of people that may have a lot in common or not, just like any other family-and that we need to celebrate that diversity of thought and being and find ways to make us and the yoga community stronger and not as a way to divide us into subgroups. There is a place for us-all of us. Let us live out the best gifts of yoga and be one another's "Artha" or that which supports the path.