Dear Yogis,
SCHEDULE:
ZOOM: Friday 6.45 Learn the tarot/FREE CLASS. Sunday 10am CCP. Monday 6.30 Teacher Training. Tuesday 7.30 CCP
STUDIO: Friday yoga 5.30. Monday 1pm (full), Wednesday – one vacancy, Friday 5.30 one vacancy
SATURDAY ART CLASS: Now that lockdown is coming to an end (earlier than anticipated – NEXT WEEK), I think it will be better to wait until we can set up a date to actually come to the studio for a class. Everyone is hanging out for that. TENTATIVE STUDIO DATE 2pm SATURDAY 30TH OCTOBER? Let me know what you think about that.
Wild and wonderful weather is now a fact of life… it is here to stay. Alongside that we have fabulous spring sunshine. I went 
out walking yesterday and along the Five Mile Creek (now a river) everything was lush and green – as I said to the a walker who asked what I was doing, “this is my green grocer”. I picked dandelions, miner’s lettuce, plantago, but there was lots more – especially salsify (oyster plant). Raspberry pants, Blackberry plants, eucalyptus… all with new shoots. I am going back today.
I actually went to get pine needles to make pine needle tea, a mainstay of the American Indian medicinals. My mum used to pick it as it is a great diuretic, plus it clears the chest and boosts the immune system as it has more vitamin C than lemons, plus antioxidants. You would think it would have a strong taste, but no, it is quite mild. I add my hawthorn tea leaves, lemon and honey for a refreshing tea hot, or cold.
As I am walking and picking people stop and chat. The number one question is “Aren’t you afraid you will poison yourself?”, and words to that effect. No I don’t worry about that because I don’t pick plants I don’t know about. If they look promising but unfamiliar I pick a leaf and a flower put in a plastic bag (like the forensic scientists), take it home and research. I handle everything I don’t know about with great care – however, there is so much out there I DO know about, that I don’t have time to pick and deal with things I don’t know about. Not now anyway. My advice – Don’t rush out and pick things unless you too know what you are doing, even pine can be of dubious benefit if you don’t know which pine.
If you would like to come walking with me, learn about the plants, bring them back and learn how to deal with them, then let me know and we will set up a class. I am not sure how we would manage on Zoom, but I am sure there is a way. In this time of uncertainty – empty supermarket shelves, high vegetable prices… you might like to learn how to REALLY save money. Everything you need is already waiting for you. Don’t be like the first settlers – they starved to death because they didn’t have the confidence to eat the lush flowers, leaves and fruits that were growing all around them.
Call me and chat: yogafirst2@bigpond.com
CCP – COMPASSIONATE COMPANIONS PROJECT
This course is not just about human to human, it is also about how to work with animals. Here is a photograph of one of our students, with a parrot she rescued and “breathed to wellness”.
I know from the photograph you will think she is with a tame bird, but this is not the case. It was a bird that was battered in a storm, but suffered no visible damage but was not able to fly. The bird was able to recover and go back to the wild in a number of hours because it was treated properly, in a way that assisted healing the way birds (and most animals) respond to, not how we think they should heal.
I got an email from a potential student asking about the course who said she wasn’t interested in animals, or this or that, and only wanted to learn specifically about the “Death Doula” part. If you feel like that, this is not the course for you. We deal with death and dying (and living) every which way. We learn about animals, about the the Egyptian way, about American Indians… anything that will help us understand the “passages” of our lives. That is why it is such an important course for everyone to do.
SEE YOU ON THE MAT
NAMASTE. JAHNE