so, this morning, Durango’s entire scholastic and business systems were put on Pause as my friend, Jake Turner’s vision of a 7-mile long Human Chain running the length of the precious Animas River Trail attempted to manifest…i laced on my inline skates, picked up a cowbell and a camera and met my girls along with 8,000 other Durangatangs who gathered along the sinewy riparian paradise known as the Animas River Trail to honor all of the Trail’s amazing volunteers who helped make it happen…
Here it is, Noble Sangha…
one of my most treasured, hallowed halls of Wholistic Fitness™ Sacred Sweat: Missionary Ridge to Burnt Timber Turn-Around; 16 miles and nearly 4,000′ of vert to almost 10,300′ in altitude ALL uphill…then, turn around and soar down like Raven Sister slicing through these sexy southwest skies…this morning i averaged 7 mph to the summit; took me 2 hours and 17 minutes to get to the high point turn around…you wanna think ilg wore an iPod? Guess again…it was all Mantra, Blessings, Gratitude Prayers through my heaving breath to the Higher Ones for just allowing this most feeble, most injured of all mountain yogis to just be Present with each deliciously high heart rate beat and every morsel of foot-pounds upon each pedal stroke…c’mon…i’ll take you with me! you’ll enjoy the beautiful colors along this sacred ribbon of dirt which slants like underwater sunlight upward, upward, oh, so upward!
pic by ilg this morning before heading off to my 50-mile Road Race Championship where i had the bulls-eye on my jersey…
and…WAY more importantly?
what a 5th Birthday Party Day it proved for ALL of the humble ilg clan today..
my full race report ONLY for Members…
i TAF’d i was going fast tonight…
i pretty much did go fast…for an old yoga guy on a not fancy bike…
covered a hilly 15-mile course with wind in 36 minutes…
that’s nearly 25 mph average…solo…no drafting…just you and the clock; that’s why Time Trials are called, “The Race of Truth”
evidently, however, in this tiny town at the foot of the San Juan rocky heights?
it wasn’t THAT fast…
If i could take more than a m(om)ent to ruminate over the past five years, i could probably c(om)e up with some pretty snappy prose about these past 5 years…yet, Parenthood – especially at age 50 and trying to eek out a living as a yoga teacher? Well, rumination is a trait of my former life…not the current Time Trial within which my Practice now must evolve…instead of de-volve or dee-minish entirely!
Why exactly are we so frightened of death that we avoid looking at it altogether? Somewhere, deep down, we know we cannot avoid facing death forever. We know, in Milarepa’s words: “This thing called ‘corpse’ we dread so much is living with us here and now.”
ilg doesn’t know if this will help you or any other Parent out there, yet, i’m gonna offer you the same words i offered Joy tonight as she was in tears about Dewa’s tantrums…i wanna go on record however, even with over 3 decades of deep, wholistic coaching of hundreds of families…when it c(om)es to raising Chi-ldren? it’s like fishing in a dry gulch; it’s best to give up all your grand plans and expectations, and just Practice being present and grateful for the ride…
“The next breath, or the next life…we never know which may come first,” as my Tibetan Spiritual Teachers drilled into me…ilg shall never forget this m(om)ent when i first looked at my daughter’s blood-splattered snowsuit on the ONLY TIME i did not supervise her winter sledding and she ended up in the ER…below, Daddy Warrior KB relates a similarly Divine M(om)ent of our Spiritual Testing of Attachment/Aversion and how his reliance upon WF helped him…
Most teachings are for Wholistic Fitness Members only. Some are complimentary.
These teachings are the "Rasas" or "sap" of Wholistic Fitness. You’ll find insights to ponder, student chi to keep your own chi topped off, and plenty of proven training techniques to test on your own body, mind, and spirit! Also, you’ll find my very popular Race Reports, and news of our Sangha’s (community’s) latest transpersonal fitness adventures!
You have access to thousands of posts going all the way back to 2002. The Archives makes for ideal Svadhyaya, and if you don’t know what that important term means ... all the more reason to dive into these amazing WF Scriptural Recordings!
Checking out one or two archived teachings every day or so is an AMAZINGLY EFFECTIVE way to stay connected with your Tribe AND maintain consistency and motivation in what matters most: your own practice.
Note: We'll be fixing broken image links, and cleaning up the categorization of archived posts, over time.
Photo of Coach and daughter Dewachen, living the Path (upside down!) by www.jamesqmartin.com
