Life update:New Orleans and Randy's workshop at Yoga Tree

 

“Everything in New Orleans is a good idea.” — Bob Dylan

"New Orleans has a real spirit. It’s the most authentic of all American cities.” – Brad Pitt

“You don’t need a guidebook to see New Orleans. Just a good pair of shoes.” – Jonah Hill

Jeff and I went to New Orleans  weekend before last.  I was moderating a session that Charity organized at the  APA and we had not been there together in a while, so we used some frequent flyer miles and had a great trip.  Lots of food and drinks.  Some highlights were the Sazerac Bar, Felix Oyster Bar, the mule driven tour, and going out with Becky Lloyd. We also went to the aquarium, though it was a little crowded which detracted a lot from the experience. 

Becky is a friend from Iyengar yoga land. It turned out that one of her favorite local bands,  https://www.alexmcmurray.com/   was  playing at Saturn Bar, so we left the touristy track and headed there.  The music was awesome and it was just a low key place to hang out that had lots of cool people that it just felt like we would be friends with.  Then we went for an awesome meal at Cane and Table.   I saw Becky

 last year when Lenore and I went to NOLA for a conference and the Saturn Bar was on the graffiti tour Lenore and I went on, so that was kind of cool that I knew where we were.  

Then, later it turned out that  Jeff's friend Anne from Ridgeback land, who is married to a local rabbi, knew the musicians so that was very small world-ish. 

I caught a bit of fun philosophy. Connected with some folks who were students of Rosen's students at the reception and that gave me a new way to frame what I'm writing about with respective to philosophical community and legacy.  We were all just more bonded after we drew out those connections.  

And as one of the quotes said, we spent a lot of time walking around.  I sprained my ankle and pulled a groin muscle, but the experience was worth it. 

There were some unsettling things about the trip.  Lots of poverty, lots of people just passed out on the street,  under and over currents of violence.  We saw someone hit another person with a piece of metal  in the middle of the day. It does make me feel that society is hanging on by a thread and we are not too far from  the war of all against all. 

We came back to a very busy week of various medical appointments and action packed Baylor week, even after the finish of the six job candidate visits.  

Then this past weekend was  Randy's workshop at Yoga Tree.  It was a short workshop  11:30-1:30 Sat and Sun, but it made for an excellent reentry to workshop land post hip surgery.   I did pretty well. though it was not a lot of bent leg stuff or forward bending. Randy's teaching was fun and insightful and inspiring.  

He talked a bit about  3:17

and linked that  to the concept of  Be here, now.  

which struck me as an excellent segue back to 1.1.  

Probably the best part of being in the room was Sunday morning when Randy zoomed in his regular Sunday class.  I got to wave at so many yoga friends from over the years.  David Larsen, Kathleen, Prakash, Jill Frankel. I know them from so many different aspects of life in Iyengar land and then I also saw the Yoga Tree folks  who used to come to my class when I taught there in the before times, like Lee Ann and Marsha, and Karen,  and got to see Melinda who is a regular zoom inversion attendee and then just connecting with all the Austin folks like Karuna, Patti, Vicky.   It really felt like the center of the yoga universe. 

Randy has Prakash do the invocation and a sutra reading.  And I thought that was a nice way of bringing the Zoomlanders and the Yoga Tree live folks all together.  Prakash mentioned the importance of samyama in Pada Three. He mentioned a  Facebook post he reposted from a few years back. He makes the point that it is one of Patanjali's favorite works. It occurs 12 times in Pada Three and is clearly the subject of  9 other sutras in the Pada. 

Saturday night we went out to dinner at Thai Fresh which was really good. 

And the weekend before NOLA we went down to SAT for a crawfish boil at Dirk's. 

That is a lot of socializing for us and it was all really great.  And we are heading to Houston/Galveston this weekend to see Jeff's family. Madison turns 19.  Hard to believe. I think she was like 4 when I first met her.  

Yesterday,  I recovered from the workshop. I was pretty sore and went to Devon's class and had an appointment with Dragon and went to PT and got an MRI for my shoulder.  

Today, I decided I really need to start lifting some weights at the gym.  I do a fair bit with hand weights at home.  So I did three leg machines and two arm machines  and  I actually felt stronger already. 

I also voted today.  

Spring Break  is off to a good start.