Elephants, A Forgotten Dream Come True

I love elephants.

I’ve always had an obsession with elephants ever since I was a child but probably more obsessive when I was in high school or so.  Here’s a small portion of my crazy collection of elephants that I acquired but mostly others have given me (it was quite easy to shop for me during those years).

I dreamt to meet one.

During those “madly in love with elephant” years, I often dreamed about meeting one in person, and not at a zoo behind a cage.  I wanted to hug one, to look one in the eye, and to stand in his/her presence.  I did ride an elephant once when I was  about 10 or so but I vaguely remember the magnificence of being so close to such a creature… probably because it was at a zoo and all I remember was standing in line for what seemed like days and then we were piled into the riding box and the elephant walked around in a circle.   My heart is aching just saying that now.

A dream forgotten.

In the midst of moving so many times in the past 7 years or so, I stopped collecting elephants because I just got tired of packing and repacking all my stuff.   Naturally much of the “junk” that I collected got thrown out, except for the elephants.   They were wrapped up neatly and stored in a box for the last 7 years.

A forgotten dream come true.

Last week, I traveled to Bali on a yoga retreat.  I had no idea what was in store for me.  I was intrigued by the culture, the people, the sites, the smells, the food, etc.  Then half way thru the week, I learned that we were going to the Elephant Safari Park to visit a baby elephant that was just born two weeks ago.  How exciting is this?!

Not only did I get to meet an elephant, but they cuddled me, looked me in the eye, and let me feed them.  Elephant Safari Park was built to save about 30 elephants from the island of Sumatran who would otherwise be killed from deforestation and habitat loss.   Sumatran elephants are the smallest of Asian elephants and have recently been moved from the endangered to critically endangered species list.  

Just as I was about to explode with happiness, I met her:

Baby Fajar.

Her name means Dawn as she was born at 5:50am.

Why I love elephants.

Elephants remind me of who I want to be.  They are so magnificent and their commanding presence says so much.  So big but yet so gentle.  Their eyes tell the story of their journey.  Sometimes you see love and compassion and sometimes you see sadness and fear.  They are definitely expressive.    I love how they play and how they care for each other in their tightly connected family pack.  They are wise and passionate creatures.  Did you know that elephants mourn the death of their loved ones and go back to the site of death every year?  It’s so amazing that they are intuitively connected to each other and also connected to the mystical spirit world around them and they never forget.

I’m so glad the elephants didn’t forget about me and my dreams.  I will never forget my magical moment with the elephants from Bali.

Warning… you might just die because your heart will burst with so much love from watching this video.

 

Day 2: Life’s a Beach

It’s 4:30am and Mr. Rooster cocka-doodle-doos in the distant.  I turn over and bury my face while grumping about the sound.  Roosters don’t come with snooze!  I fall back asleep but Mr. Rooster didn’t.  For another half hour he continues to annoy wake up the world.  By that time, I’m wide awake and now am having a debate with my myself… I should want to get up and do my yoga.  Yes I do want to.  And the difference between “want” and “will” is just a simple decision to just get up.  Well it took me another half hour to close the gap between the two words but I’m sure glad I did.  This is what greated me during my practice on my front porch at Lumeria:

early morning rain not only brings a nice soothing sound during practice but also a beautiful rainbow for my drishti

Then it was off to do a photoshoot for my new website at Ho’okipa beach park on the North shore side of Maui:

Ho'okipa Beach Park

With only an hour or so left before taking a 3 hour handstand workshop, I had to fuel up… local style of course:

Hawaiian style shoyu and ginger po'ke (ahi tuna)... yum! so fresh!

The 3 hour workshop with the amazing Jennifer Lynn was playful and fun.  Learned so much.  Can’t wait to bring what I learned to class   I had the strength to hold a handstand but I discovered that I was missing a very key piece:  melt my chest towards the ground more than I ever thought I should.  It was physically a challenge with my tight scapula… or maybe it was something more than physical that was my challange so my second manta for this week:  I will let my heart fall to the ground and let it be my foundation.

What a discovery!  So of course I had to go sit and let this idea of “letting my heart fall to the ground” settle in… at the beach of course!

Keawakapu Beach in Kihei

Waiting for the sun to set at Keawakapu Beach in Kihei

Sunset over Keawakapu Beach in Kihei

The 2nd night ended perfectly with a delicious meal from Coconut’s Fish Cafe.

This casual cafe just turned 3 and was named after a cat!

The food was nothing but casual.  It was fresh and packed a mouthful of flavor.

The best mahi mahi fish tacos I've ever had and grilled ono with wasabi ginger cream sauce over brown rice. The best surprise was the cole slaw that was made with coconut cream instead of mayo... yum!

 

To top the night off, I spotted this restaurant/bar sign that just re-affirms my week’s mantra. How perfect!

This week's mantra: Life's a Beach

 

And of course, I had to attempt a handstand in front of the sign and entertain some of the drunks at the bar:

Handstand outside the bar

 

This was my last night at Lumeria before going off to Hana and roughing it at Kipahulu campgrounds.  So if you don’t hear from me by wednesday, call a rescue team

Buddah watching over Lumeria

 

Aloha!  I hope you will let your heart fall to the ground and let it be your foundation.

Sunday Sutras: 1.1 Atha Yoga Anusasanam

Here, now begins a series of posts… sunday sutras… let’s start conversation and learn the sutras together. 

How appropriate is this first sutra to kick this series off, to kick off my 365 day handstand challenge, to kick off 2012.. focused on learning.

“Atha” means now and “Anusasanam” means instruction, discipline.

Sutra 1.1. Atha Yoga Anusasanam: Here, now is the teaching of yoga. 

It doesn’t matter where you are in your life, in your situation, in your <insert favorite excuse>, the practice of yoga begins right now in this moment.  Each moment is the right moment… the present moment is the right time, right place, and provides the exact conditions for us to begin the practice. 

“If not now, then when?” is the cliche phrase that describes this so well.  You don’t need to wait until you’re stronger, more flexible, have more time, have more money, have more <insert favorite excuse>.

All that it (Yoga) requires of you is a ‘yes.’

This is where I will begin time and time again.. especially on those days when my practice starts to wane, when I start to feel discouraged, and when I feel like giving up… begin again.

Source:  The Wisdom of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra by Ravi Ravindra and The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Gary Kissiah

Wordless Wednesday

Yesterday was the free monthly build at the Lego store featuring Frankenstein.   Being the great mom that I am, I took my kids to the event.  Learning from the last two times, I made it there an hour before the event started.. thinking that was early enough to not be at the end of the line that wrapped around past two other stores.  No, no, no.  We were still too late.. stuck only a couple of feet from where we stood in line last month.  So I braved up and asked the person in the front of the line what time they got there.  Two hours prior!!!

Anyway, we stood behind this man who never said a thing to us and every now and then would turn around and smile at us.  After an hour past, the man looked around as if he was looking for someone.  I figured it was his grandkids or someone like that.  He turns to us and mumbled “I’ll be back” very quietly.  I barely heard him but knew what he said because his lips moved like that and his hand gestures suggested it.   “Sure,” I nodded and smiled back.

About 15 minutes later he returned and started scribbling on his note pad.  He turned around and handed me this:

Click image to view larger print

Ahhhh that would explain everything.  No kids in sight still and I figured he was a regular at these events and they allowed him to build because of his impairment.  Boo!  I caught myself judging him and later discovered that he was with two other hearing impaired people and two kids.  I wondered if they were his and whether they were hearing impaired too.  Then I wondered if he heard my thoughts because he turned around again with another note that read:

“Just in case, do you know anyone who is 45 or older that is single and petite like you? deaf or not?”  followed by a big smiley face.

After I smiled and shook my head no, I shut up.  I stopped complaining about the long wait; stopped wondering if the wait is really worth it; stopped trying to figure out why a grown man was in line by himself and no kids were coming; stopped wondering what it was like to be deaf and how nice it would be right now to not be able to hear the screaming kid behind us, yadah yadah ya!

For the next 15 minutes before it was our turn, I stood quietly in line with my kids  All of us just stood there not saying another word.  I stood there listening to all the noises around me and enjoyed people watching with no judgements.

I am inspired to post wordless wednesdays and not say anything on my blog (aka write) and just post a picture.  I will also resist the temptation to write a caption (unless it was to give credit) because I often find myself rambling on in my head or feeling the need to always explain myself and especially justify myself to others.  I mean how often do we just give a straight up answer without having the need to justify our answer?  For example, someone asks if you can sub their class and you really don’t want to but can’t just say no so you proceed to find an excuse to tell that person exactly why you can’t.   Before you know it, you’re giving the other person your whole life story about why you can’t sub their class.

No words.  No judgements.  No explanations. Just be. Let’s see how it goes.. this will be a good opportunity for me to start playing with my camera more too…