Today, I want to talk a bit about a few things that can warm you up including: Yin + Yoga Nidra class, Yoga Nidra teacher training, New Year’s Yoga, and my French Riviera yoga retreat.
I love the winter.
In truth, I MOSTLY love the winter.
I do love how mystical and quiet and still the winter can be. Winter landscapes are breathtaking.
I want to share one of my favorite winter poems. I’ve shared this before but I reserve the right to be redundant with stories and poetry, the two things I love sharing the most, because with any good story and any good poem, the meaning and depth of the thing changes with each subsequent visitation. Who we are in that moment and the kind of listening we can offer in that moment are completely different.
So I’d like to treat you to Shoveling Snow With Buddha (again) and perhaps like shoveling our way down the path of life, perhaps this next plunge will take us a bit deeper, a bit further.
Shoveling Snow With Buddha
By Billy Collins
In the usual iconography of the temple or the local Wok
you would never see him doing such a thing,
tossing the dry snow over a mountain
of his bare, round shoulder,
his hair tied in a knot,
a model of concentration.
Sitting is more his speed, if that is the word
for what he does, or does not do.
Even the season is wrong for him.
In all his manifestations, is it not warm or slightly humid?
Is this not implied by his serene expression,
that smile so wide it wraps itself around the waist of the universe?
But here we are, working our way down the driveway,
one shovelful at a time.
We toss the light powder into the clear air.
We feel the cold mist on our faces.
And with every heave we disappear
and become lost to each other
in these sudden clouds of our own making,
these fountain-bursts of snow.
This is so much better than a sermon in church,
I say out loud, but Buddha keeps on shoveling.
This is the true religion, the religion of snow,
and sunlight and winter geese barking in the sky,
I say, but he is too busy to hear me.
He has thrown himself into shoveling snow
as if it were the purpose of existence,
as if the sign of a perfect life were a clear driveway
you could back the car down easily
and drive off into the vanities of the world
with a broken heater fan and a song on the radio.
All morning long we work side by side,
me with my commentary
and he inside his generous pocket of silence,
until the hour is nearly noon
and the snow is piled high all around us;
then, I hear him speak.
After this, he asks,
can we go inside and play cards?
Certainly, I reply, and I will heat some milk
and bring cups of hot chocolate to the table
while you shuffle the deck.
and our boots stand dripping by the door.
Aaah, says the Buddha, lifting his eyes
and leaning for a moment on his shovel
before he drives the thin blade again
deep into the glittering white snow.
But Here We Are …
There are so many things I love about this poem but what really warms me in this reading is how the author says that it seems wrong, this situation, shoveling snow with Buddha, but here we are.
But here we are…
So many things seem improbable. Impossible, even. Ever look back at where your life has gone and wonder how in the hell you got to where you are? I do.
But here we are.
In the poem, I like the juxtaposition of Buddha and the snow, the author’s incessant commentary, and the Buddha’s concentration.
But the Buddha isn’t without desires or wishes. I love how he asks about after they finish, whether or not they could go inside and play cards and how the author also suggests making hot cocoa when they finish.
I’ve been a hot cocoa connoisseur since a young age. For Christmas, Sen and I bought ourselves an espresso machine with a fantastic milk frother and in addition to the perfect espresso, I’ve been mastering the perfect frothy, sweet but not too sweet hot chocolate. Mostly for Elio but if I’m really honest with myself, for me too.
I love how the Buddha pauses from his work for a moment, allows his mind to think about playing cards. There’s so much to say about dealing a card and working with whatever is dealt. That’s the game. It’s a game of, “but here we are.” I love the moment the buddha takes as he considers the cards, the hot cocoa, the boots dripping by the door, then comes back to the present moment and takes another shovelful of snow.
Leave a comment and tell me what you hear in this poem.
Yin + Yoga Nidra
My one regret in my yoga schedule is that I don’t have a regular evening class. So, I jump at the chance to sub evening classes when they work for my schedule.
Tuesday, December 17th, 2024, I’ll be subbing a Yin + Yoga Nidra class at Mosaic Yoga in Salt Lake City (1991 South 1100 East—in Sugarhouse Alley just north of Best Friends Pet Adoption and Sugarhouse Coffee, if you’re familiar with those).
Whether in person at Mosaic Yoga in Salt Lake City, or via Zoom from your living room, please come in outta the cold and join me for a deeply grounding, relaxing, and warming yoga experience.
BYOHC (bring your own hot chocolate).
If you’ve never been to the studio before, look for The Local Coop. Mosaic Yoga is located in The Local Coop.
New Year’s Yoga
Ring in the new year with intention and movement.
This class will feature a moving but accessible flow practice, pranayama, and intention setting. The last 25–30 minutes of this class will feature a Yoga Nidra practice for the new year. This will be a relaxing guided meditation that will help us plant the seed of our intentions for 2025.
You’ll leave this class feeling purposeful, invigorated and ready make 2025 your best year yet.
When: January 1, 2025 9–10:30 am MST
Where: In person at Mosaic Yoga, 1991 South 1100 East Salt Lake City, Utah (in the alley just north of Best Friends Pet Adoption) or via Zoom (link at the top of this page)
How Much: By donation: Venmo, cash, jazz vinyls
31-Day Meditation Challenge
Also, please consider joining me for the 31-Day Meditation Challenge, 2025. It’s 31 days of meditating every day—in any style you wish, at any time you wish—for 15 minutes a day every day. There will be days that we can meditate together. I’ll give you tons of resources in the form of daily emails for ideas and encouragement, as well as guided meditations, Yoga Nidra recordings, PDFs, and things so you can feel fully supported and ready to start your year off mindfully.
Live Yoga Nidra Teacher Training
I’d love to have you join me for my next live Yoga Nidra teacher training, June 24–27, Tucson Arizona, or via Zoom wherever you are.
You’ll get a 150+page manual, life-time access to all the recordings of each session, and 4 days of illuminating personal and spiritual growth. You’ll also get 30 hours of continuing education credit for Yoga Alliance.
You don’t need to be a meditation or yoga teacher to take this course. It’s perfect if you’re a teacher, coach, theapist, energy worker, parent, etc.
You have a particular style, perspective, and personality that is uniquely perfect to deliver this practice to a particular audience.
Do this for yourself and do this for all the people you could help along the way.
I still have a few spots left for my French Riviera retreat in June 2025. Spots are going fast and I’d love to have you join me so please consider joining me. It would take me a half an hour to tell you all the amazing things we did this year at this same retreat and that we will do again but with some cool additions, so please just come and experience it for yourself.
I hope you’re enjoying winter. We are almost to the Solstice!
Namaste,
