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If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create.
John Lennon
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Earlier this month, I received a special gift from a fellow yogi: a full 60-minute playlist of Beatles love songs to use in our Valentine’s Day class. This gift inspired a contest – whoever guessed the number of times the word “love” occurred in the lyrics during the class won a prize. It was SO much fun!
In appreciation for the playlist, I compiled a list of Beatles lyrics and quotes in the spirit of yoga wisdom. Each quote went down on a little decorated card and was placed inside a repurposed Altoids Tin.
Have you ever liked a song so much that you listen to it a gazillion times and you think you have the song all figured out, then years pass and you grow out of that song and move on to other songs until one day you hear the same old song again, but suddenly something in that old, tricky song has shifted and a whole new world of meaning opens?
Of course, it’s the listener that’s changed, not the song, right? Hmmmm…or is it?
No man ever steps into the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
–Heraclitus
Or perhaps it’s the zeitgeist that changed. On a grand scale, I think this happened in the collective consciousness with the song, “Baby It’s Cold Outside” on the wake of the “Me Too Movement.” What seems like the innocent flirtation of one era turns into nefarious intent in another era.
Recently I experienced a song’s shift (in a good way) when I heard Madonna’s “Vogue.” ‘What just happened here? ‘ I wondered to myself after hearing the song with these 2020 ears. There was a lot more depth there than I remembered there being in 1990 when I first heard it. (Can y’all believe that song is 30 years old now?!) I had to go look up the lyrics and then the etymology of the word “vogue” to discover that in addition to the “fashion forward” meaning of the word, it’s also a boating term indicating the “drift, swaying motion (of a boat).” It’s from Old French voguer, meaning “to row, sway, set sail.” [according to vogue | Search Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com)]
So this week in my classes we are going on a sailing adventure.
All you need is your own imagination
So use it that’s what it’s for
Go inside for your finest inspiration
Your dreams will open the door
-Shep Pettibone & Madonna/Vogue
Suffering should be creative…(it) should give birth to something good and lovely.
–Chinua Achebe
Darkest before Dawn is a theme I have in the works for a yoga class. Aspects of the playlist and sequencing are coming together as depicted below.
Beyond that, I’ve been pruning the Rose of Sharon and the crepe myrtles, cutting back the monkey grass, planting spider lily and crocus bulbs, repotting the amaryllis. And there were more rescued flowers. Does gardening count as creative work?
I vote yes.
There was also banana pudding with the custardy pudding made from scratch. I followed a recipe, so I’m as not sure if that qualifies as “creative.” But I stirred that pot for half an hour of my life and the ingredients transformed into something beyond what matter I started with, so that counts as alchemy, right? And it was magically delicious.
Sound or vibration is the most powerful force in the universe, and music is a divine art…
–Paramhansa Yogananda
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The consciousness that went into composing music will come out through the listener.
I’m still contemplating the truth of that sentence, so feel free to respond with a dissenting opinion. From my understanding that is the basis of Nada yoga.
Music can heal. It can calm…agitate….energize. It can stir up all sorts of emotions and reactions.
El-D has pointed out that I play a lot of music in the minor scale in my evening yoga classes. I didn’t set out to choose minor songs, it just happened when I was putting the songs together for a class I wanted to be relaxing and peaceful.
One of the yogis in Tuesday night’s class described it as “soothing.” I think they’re best enjoyed in the dark with flickering candles. 🙂
Here are a few songs from the playlist:
And I can’t find a youtube with Kitka’s rendition of Otche Nash, but this song of theirs is somewhat along the same lines…
My Little Spacebook 