The Royal Mind
Hmmm, Our Monkey Mind
Our Mind Monkey~
Is restless, and random,
Rebellious, and junky?
Silly, and scattered
Like a toddler in its movement~
Won’t settle down,
And needs vast improvement?
The mind is a problem,
That we need to control.
It’s random, and restless
And a bit of a troll?
That’s nonsense, we say!
And quite derogatory!
The nature of the mind
Is going for glory!
The mind is evolutionary,
progressive, dynamic.
Always seeking and moving
toward that which is magic.

So, think NOT monkey mind
More like, mind is royalty~
A King to Serve
With Love and Loyalty.
But, how can we Serve,
The Great Intelligence of our minds?
By meditation and mantras
And movement refined.

By exceptional quality
Of the company we keep,
What we see, what we hear,
How well we do sleep.
By lavish feasts of sutras,
Of songs, and of silence,
Of settling, and stillness
And speech for your Highness.
Much of your activity
Will settle in bliss~
Yet portions of Royal Mind
Will continue to hiss.
And that, my dear friend~
Is the Great Intelligence~
It wants more and more
Of higher elegance.
The Discipline of yoga,
Now, you see,
Is in permitting and inviting
This process~ to BE.
~inspired by my meditation teacher Paul Muller-Ortega~



As Earth Day approaches this year, I am struck by what it means to truly foster Peace on this planet. I remember as a child, learning about anti-nuclear protestors who chained themselves to fences and were forcibly removed and jailed. These brave souls became my heroines and heroes in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. I was moved to tears singing Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” and hearing stories of civil disobedience and the message of non-violent resistance. Later in the 1990’s, when I danced barefoot on my very first Earth Day, a lump would form in my throat when I celebrated each small victory (and the Gigantic Hearts) of environmental protestors who sacrificed so much to save a single tree and worked to preserve open space for our children’s children. Peace.
Unlieable – To be filled with ones own truth, to the extent that no lies can enter ones being, either form within or without
Charlotte’s Web is a celebration of the quiet virtues. It reminds us to keep a soft tender heart, accept our true nature, and value the unique gifts of our friends. The two main characters of Charlotte’s Web, Charlotte and Wibur, highlight the awareness of our own unique inner story.
So you finish your practice~
Your inner bliss continues