Wholistic Fitness

“A man and a woman sit near each other;
as they breathe they feed someone we do not know,
someone we know of, whom we have never seen.”
– Robert Bly

My Beloved Ananda is 4cm dilated.
My life without child is nearly fully contracted.
As much grief for my lifestyle ending
accompanies
my constant joy at the blossoming miracle of my daughters birth.

for a yogi who once worked for a Zero Population Growth board,
you can imagine how many decades i’ve spent contemplating the following
question:

What is Conscious Parenting?

My evolved answer is that it is not
too distant a cry from Conscious Fitness Training;
I teach myself through my students how to become a
graceful, skillful knower of the breath; through any discipline,
through any difficulty, through any joy.
Fear only enters when our breath is not conscious.

So, a Conscious Parent teaches one thing to their child:
how to become a lover of breath…
It is they, the Aquarian Child, that will take over the rest of the Teaching.

What with the season of the falling leaves at hand,
and my cutting of my baby girl’s cord,
i perceive no mere dull and chronic ache for a sport podium,
or the gnawing tint of needing to Awaken those who choose to Sleep.

This is September. The most brilliant high country month of all.
The woods ready themselves for slumber within their winter aspect.
A bear mother and her cub were lingering in the tall, fragrant wildflowers
right across the street, up at Dry Lake Hills.
A robin’s egg, placenta still intact, fell literally at Ananda’s feet.
The “Om So Ti” snychronicities herald the c(om)ing of our new Being non-stop.

My baby girl, having done her mingling of countless infant incarnations,
now swims toward me…
my strong and supple arms
well prepared to hold Her,
lean into Her,
cherish Her with kisses,
and
teach Her to breathe
the crisp, pranic September air.

“Enough. These few words are enough.
If not these words, this breath.
If not this breath, this sitting here.

This opening to the life
we have refused
again and again
until now.

Until now.”
– David White

photos of coach and Ananda by
Melissa Grimes Photography

Ananda’s new edition of her Blog is a beautiful one:

The Joyful Breath