It occurred to me, after a fantastic front row practice in a heated 90 minute yoga class
last night in the city, the subject of practicing what you preach. Walking back to my car in the cool rain I was in the perfect state of mind. The one so many of us aspire to through our meditation or rigors of the practice.
Sometimes the perfect storm of eating lightly, hydrating, joint lubrication and energy in the class can lead us here. This is where we preach from when we parent or give advice to our friends, family and co-workers. We don’t really know that. But where does that voice come from if we aren’t always sitting in the calm background of our chatterbox mind?

If we preach for others to take their time when we see them rushing than are we doing that as well on our mat? Are we missing the transitions in their beauty and rushing to stick the pose. Where are the poses between your poses? Do you feel them, and know them? Can they be discovered again and again with new nuances?

If our advice offers sound moderation when we see overspending, overeating or other potentially inbalancing habits, than are we finding that balance in our sequencing? Is our breathing leading us to an extreme push to hold the pose longer, or can we hear that it is asking us to find ease, maybe lay down in child’s pose until we  can find a place to begin again? (Always begin again).

I experienced something that felt like a betrayal from someone I considered a friend recently. It’s been heavy on my mat since. What might I preach if you (third person) might ask for advice on the matter? I would preach forgiveness as a huge gift for you. Maybe I would say practice letting go or allowing the controversy fuel positive change. Change is inevitable, suffering is optional. If wearing your emotions on your sleeve is actually a thing people don’t do, it surely affects you and me.

So last night that’s what I set out to do. Or maybe it had started when it first happened. It’s a process, not a formula. What was so interesting to me was that I noticed a change when I got home. Something was lighter and easier. People in my world seem to respond to it. There is suddenly new energy and new people coming into my life that was not there before. It feels like swimming into a current of a big river. You can make wrong moves and hit a rock and it hurts, maybe a lot. But the pain can teach you to swim better and flow easier into the direction of your stream. Making the river feel smaller and less dangerous. Ultimately, it may be perilous. But the fear of outcomes doesn’t serve us.

I’m hooked on the hardest, most physically challenging practice that I can do. Finding the slightest variation in my practice that makes my yoga new on my mat is my geek/nerd side that only a few enthusiasts care to talk about. But if I practice practicing what I might preach I get to discover my truths on my mat and off.

Namaste – Joe

FRENCH ROAST: je ne sais café

posted 9/9/2011 This was meant as an anal sex reference….It did not register with anyone…

Driving up the coffee highway….

Posted 9/10/2011 song lyrics reference

Coffee, coffee , give me the news, I’ve got a bad case of loving you….

Posted 9/11/2011 Alanis Morissette reference

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the coffee-lottery and died the next day
It’s a black fly in your Latte
It’s a death row Via two minutes too late
And isn’t it ironic… don’t you think

It’s like decaf on your wedding day
It’s a free Starbucks when you’ve already paid
It’s the good ice coffee that you just didn’t take
Who would’ve thought… it figures

Posted 9/12/2011 Airplane movie reference

Stewardess: “We are about a million miles off course and bumps you feel are asteroids smashing against the hull of the ship”
Passengers: “Oh”
Passenger: “Miss, are you telling us everything?”
Sterwardess: “We’re also out of coffee”
Passengers:”Arrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” (chaos)

Posted 9/13/2011 Old school television reference

This is a test. This station is conducting a test of the Emergency Coffee System. This is only a test.

(OUT OF COFFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE)

If this had been an actual coffee emergency, you would have been instructed where to tune in your area for news and official hot beverage information.

Posted 9/14/2011

Coffee in the hole! (boom)

Posted 9/15/2011

Coffee-ness is next to Godliness…

Posted 9/16/2011 Basic Training reference

I don’t know, but it’s been said
Coffee’s best when served in bed
I don’t know, but I’ve been told
Ice cubes make your coffee cold

Starbucks 1,2 Caribou 3, 4…

Posted 9/17/2011 Bugs Bunny reference

Shhh! Be verwy, verwy quiet, i’m hunting woffees….

Posted 9/18/2011 Apollo reference

Ah, Houston, We’ve had a coffee….

Posted 9/19/2011 Wizard of Oz reference

we’re off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of coffee..

Posted 9/20/2011 cheering reference

Coffee, Coffee he’s our man, if can’t do it no one can….

Posted 9/21/2011 Parenting reference

Parenting cliches 101: Just because Billy drinks a hot cup of coffee while he jumps off a bridge, does that mean you have to?

Posted 9/22/2011 Madonna reference

Like a coffee, ooh, ooh
Like a coffee
Feels so good inside
When you hold me, and your cup beats, and you love me

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Ooh, baby
Can’t you hear my cup beat
For the very first time?

Posted 9/23/2011

Drexting = Texting while driving
Sexting = Texting while talking about sex
Subtexting = Texting while riding public transportation
Sbuxting = Texting while drinking a deluxe Starbucks coffee

Sbuxt me…..

9/24/2011 – a Rodney King reference

“People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get a coffee?”

Posted 9/25/2011

Today, my Jasmin turns 7…Baby, we’re just getting started…and…Happy coffee to me, Happy coffee to me, Happy coffee dear, Joe…Happy coffee to me…

Posted 9/26/2011 Beasties reference

You gotta Fight for your Right to Cofffff-Eeeeeee….

Posted 9/27/2011

coffee-gasm…

Posted 9/28/2011

Does this coffee make my butt look fat?…

Posted 9/29/2011

Coffee….The other dark meet….

Posted 9/30/2011 Mary Poppins reference

Super coffee latte-listic with extra shot and cream-scious- if you say it fast enough it makes you sound precocious….

Posted 10/1/2011

When we are together the moments I caffeinate, with every beat of my heart. To touch you, to hold you, to drink you, to need you. There’s nothing to keep us apart.
You’re once, twice, three times a coffee, and I love you. I love you.

Posted 10/2/2011 Shakespeare reference

A coffee, a coffee! My kingdom for a coffee!

Posted 10/3/2011 Shampoo reference

Directions: Pour, drink and repeat

Posted 10/4/2011 Johnny Cochran reference (at the O.J. Simpson trial)

If it doesn’t fit, you must take a sip..

Posted 10/5/2011

Forgive me Father for I have sinned it has been 1 day since my last coffee. I accuse myself of the following sins.

Drinking Tea
Only 1 time, Father – Enjoying a High fructose pumpkin style latte
Under tipping the (metro-sexual) Barista
Using the Women’s bathroom in Starbucks when the Men’s was locked
6 times Lusted for several people while on line waiting for them to call “tall red-eye” or “short hammerhead”…
Not downloading the latest Starbucks app for my iPhone…

I ask your forgiveness in all my humility, honesty, and penitence…Are we on for coffee tomorrow, Father? 10:00?…Amen…

Posted 10/6/2011 – the day Steve Jobs died:

iCoffee….

Posted 10/7/2011 Brady Bunch reference

Here’s the story of a lovely latte
who was bringing up three very lovely drinks
all of them had foam of milk, like their mother.
the youngest one was curdled.
Here’s the story of a man named Coffee
Who was living with three mugs of his own.
They were four drinks living all together
yet they were all alone
Till the one day when the latte met this coffee.
And they knew that it was much more than a hunch,
That this group must somehow form a family,
That’s the way we all became the Coffee bunch.
The Coffee bunch, the Coffee bunch.
That’s the way we became the Coffee bunch

Posted 12/28/2011 – Mission Impossible Reference:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, Mr. Brew, isn’t mission difficult, it’s mission impossible. This coffee cup will self destruct in 5 seconds…..

Posted 12/29/2011

When the going gets tough, the tough get coffee….

On father’s day in 2010 I bought myself – a single father – my soul mat. Since that time my practice has melded into my life. Traveling with me on business and personal trips where it unfurls in studio after studio. and hotel rooms where podcasts awaken my spirit. And always with me at the heated studios of choice at home.

I have found transitions I had not dreamed of which have literally been metaphors for all the changes that happen for me daily. Gaining power and strength and finding solace in quieter thoughts – sometimes utter silence in them.

My Manduka Black gracefully taps a sound as sweat drips from my downdogs and twisting triangles. It holds the runway in view as I fly in airplane and then reach into half moon.  It watches my fingers press it’s face into the floor and dares me to push harder and more. We have grown younger and wiser together. When I air it out in the sun I like to think it is getting a tan.

It’s the nicest gift I gave to myself. I cherish it and listen to it when it unrolls on the floor. It’s always the same solid sound, ready for the work ahead, even if I have my doubts about what space I’m in. We work together to find room to grow and time to listen. Namaste.

So. You can post general ramblings about your coffee or anything at all.

Here you can post about your yoga discoveries and observations or, again, anything at all :)