pictured above: my Sacred Animas River manifesting full throttle the manifestation of White Man’s stupid attachment to monetary greed
my precious lifelong Sacred River – many of my friends who used to poke fun at me since i always refer to the Animas as, ‘Our Sacred River,’ are NOT poking fun at me now! – is now a fluid ribbon of toxicity which requires me as a Blessed and Sworn Dharma Protecter to dig deep into my yogic/spiritual warrior quiver to re-iterate my LifeMessage since 1985:
The Outdoors is Sacred>Care For It Unconditionally!
yeah, my kids are using ‘real’ yoga mats like the ones my ‘peer’ teachers and their mass of rich, white adult students are using a few mountain passes away at the Telluride Yoga Festival…nope, we hand cut these Emergency Material pads from a hardware store….wanna help get my Rez Kidz some REAL YOGA mats? contact me at: steve@wholisticfitness.com
sure, of course, i love running, snowshoeing, skiing, mountain biking, hiking, and nowadays taking my daughter along the sinewy sweetness of the massive network and drop-to-your-knees beauty of the Four Corners trails! doh!
but, what only a few of you know?
i love creating and maintaining trails even more!
why?
i love the seduction; trails beckon us further, higher…toward purer terrain. Trails are metaphors for our own yogic, fitness, and life journeys.
i want to do my part in protecting the vinyasa of trails for my daughter’s generations and many more…
Dear Coach Ilg –
i first got turned onto your work from TOTAL BODY TRANSFORMATION…as an artist? I have got to say that your body of work c(om)pletely (as you would probably write it!) revamped my entire way of thinking of ‘art.’ So many who called ourselves ‘artists’ have little – if any – conception of what ‘art’ means when it comes to to transforming the current palette of our body/mind/spirit into a Higher Fitness/Consciousness as you have so beautifully demonstrated throughout your life; you have changed everything from your sports, your paralysis, your writing, your everything and now, perhaps as the most exquisite and most recent brush to your life journey; your fatherhood.
my big vice is NEWS! yes, that’s right…news. i feed upon headlines, articles, breaking reports…i know this must sound horrid to you..yet, as you have Taught me, “We all have our addictions, it’s just a matter of vibration.”
so, if you’d be soooo kind to answer me this ONE QUESTION (i’ve enclosed a Temple Tithe for your time and consideration):
where do you get your “Outer World” news?
stealing another line from you:
Head Bowed,
Stacy
NYC
COACH RESPONDS:
when White Brother came to Turtle Island, this month was named “March”
to the Natives of Turtle Island it was named something more appropriate.
among the Navajo, upon whose treasured lands within the 4 Sacred Posts (Four Sacred Mountains) feeble ilg has spent lovingly and longingly most of this life, this month is known as : Wóózhch’į́į́d = the premature voice of or cry of an eaglet
ahhhh….
doesn’t that just Vibe higher within our Soul than..
MARCH
?
come, cuddle close to my Tribal Fire tonight…i’ll teach you more about Wóózhch’į́į́d…
invoke an image of a tribal fire, each of us close…stars beyond count winking at us beneath our blankets as the Trickster Clan howls from a far off ridge…
Dighándíshwo’go bee shidziil…
(Running makes me strong)
***
running felt more natural to me than walking.
why walk,
when you can run like a Wolf?
until i broke my spine.
nowadays?
i still run.
i still race, kinda.
it ain’t the same.
not carefree feet flirting like Dewa’s upon and across Mother Earth’s skin.
not any more.
– Full Snow Moon – February
Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February’s full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as
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Photo of Coach and daughter Dewachen, living the Path (upside down!) by www.jamesqmartin.com