The last time I posted something it was literally twelve months ago. I don’t really know why I keep torturing myself like this. I’ve become one of those “boys who cried wolf” in regards to getting back to blogging.
i think i have every single writing prompt book created by the san francisco writer’s grotto. i’m off work until march/april (yay for seasonal working, oh yeah, new job, i’m living my dream of being a dark humoured and witty, passport wielding, and office managing twenty-something; yikes.), so i figured what better way to spend my days hibernating with tea (thesearecaffeinated, in order of preference) and writing. you make a new (lol) habit in two weeks right?
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I do what I want with semi-colons. Fight me.
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I have a new Twitter to highlight my wholesome behaviour; I might have recently followed you (@asanamami). I’m really trying guys, seriously. Eat well, yoga, be nice, work on my yamas, same old same old. Hold on, can we talk about that for a second?
So basically whether you’re going in accordance with the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (five yamas) or the Upanishad (ten yamas, more “complete” aka harder for me to try to make loopholes), yamas are like the first step towards living in harmony with everything around you. I refuse to say that the yamas are like the ten commandments because the yamas in my opinion are more general guidance based and the commandments are…well they’re just that, direct commandments.
If you’re interested in the yamas seen in the Upanishad, Eknath Easwaran has a great translation, much easier to understand. For Patanjali, I’ve heard really good things about Iyendar’s Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, but I’ve never read it. I have Edwin F. Bryant’s The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, but I wouldn’t suggest it unless you’re into deep analysis or doing self-study (it kinda reminds me of one of those academic bibles).
In the toughest parts of 2016, what I started doing with my agenda was using one of those long post-it notes to write out all the yamas and then wrote out a little piece of commentary on the sutras (according to Patanjali) and used it sort of like a bookmark. My agenda is always open on my desk at work, so having it in a place where I was constantly looking at it and flipping back to it throughout the day really served as a great reminder. A few years ago when I was still at Dawson (SMFH) I had this amazing prof Sarah Allen who gave a class called Body, Mind, World: Western Encounters with the Yoga Tradition (aka the only class that was keeping me before I left for good), and I don’t really remember what it is she said, but in regards to living your yoga practice she said you have to remember that your yoga practice is supposed to continue on even when you’re not doing physical and entering asana practice (doing yoga poses).
The yamas don’t disappear just cause you’re not on the mat. The same way you get on your mat to deal with life, the same way you need to take what you’ve learned on the mat and take it back into the world when you step off.
I have to email her. I wish I could get more instruction from her, sigh.
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I’m using a Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter (translation: red-threaded bag companion) agenda this year. Yes when I heard about this brand from Deutschland on the Pen Addict podcast two years ago, I made note of it. When I saw it at Papeterie Nota Bene (where I spend way too much time plotting how to pull the biggest stationary heist known to man) I squealed. Paper is important. Yes, I dusted off my old German dictionary to translate begleiter.
The one I have sorta feels like the Moleskine weekly in medium. This A5 recycled paper (128pgs // light 70g in off-white, not for fountain pens tbh) agenda is lovely for 2017, and they have an academic option! I also noted that they have address books (I just got back from five weeks in Barbados, where my auntie Ann rationalized the use of address books because tbh, sometimes my phone dies and nobody memorizes phone numbers anymore), to do/shopping lists and even a midwife calendar! I’ve never seen anything like this, but I know there’s a surge of black women becoming doulas and interested in bringing life into the world, so this could be great for you if that’s where your interest lies. Basically the Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter is my childhood dream, you get one of the Taschenbegleiteren and it lets you put different books you want together into one sorta pocket folder thing. It’s genius. If I had more money, I’d give it to them.
I’ve accepted my embarrassing admission of nerdom. Fight me.
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I’m going to really try hard to not spend any money. Being home until March/April, waiting for the ground to thaw so I can go back to work (hint: I work for an irrigation company, and with the ground frozen from December to March-ish…mad vacation time) means I’ll probably be on Amazon a lot and clicking numerous random links all leading me to things I want but can’t afford.
I’m limiting myself to 100$ a week, cash. NO CARDS.
Basically, on Sunday morning, I wake up with 100$ in cash in my wallet, and it’s gotta hold me until Saturday. Anything left over on Saturday night gets put in a savings account, be it 10¢ or 100$. If I really need to purchase something with a credit card, I gotta be able to cover it with whatever cash I have on hand and put said cash on my card ASAP.
I’ve already got a pretty great budget (as much as I bounce around, the budget has pretty much stayed the same) so this definitely seems doable. I’m only getting older you know, kinda gotta get my spending and everything in order. There’s no more Oprah to cry to when you’re deep in the hole anymore.
I also need to stop buying so much food; I really act like I can’t cook you know. Luckily, the lovely chef extraordinaire Ahlexandria makes not only takes amazing pictures of the mouth-watering food she makes but she also hold you down with simple recipes and grocery lists (when she sends them straight to my DMs I feel special, can’t lie). Speaking of food, have you heard of Cooking in America? Basically Eater has this new series with the mother of 5food1 and Mrs. Guavababa herself (congrats again!) taking you through the delicious and different foods immigrants are blessing America with. I’m always really interested in new restaurants but I don’t trust Yelp because some people would find the water in my Brita spicy, but I trust Pelin.
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So last night I was coming home on the train right, and after meeting up with my yoga mentor, Kesha (hey boo!) and talking about some upcoming projects I’m working on, I started thinking about blogging again. I think I’m taking it too seriously again. Tbh, I wrote this in my Notes on my iPod and I’ve just been adding little quips throughout the day. I used to “blog” like this, drafting things in my Blackberry notes before dragging the .txt file over to whatever host I was obsessed with at the time (once the Tumblr for Blackberry app dropped… #SOCLUTCH). Blogging should be this intense. I shouldn’t recoil at the thought of it. It’s not that serious. Just write.
photo taken by the one and only ghost
