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David 원산 Kessel

@advised.elks

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holding coffee space @moondaycoffee
ashtanga yoga, authorized level 2 by Sharath Jois

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It’s easy for the day-to-day to slip from ritual to routine. You lose sight of the bigger picture, forget to zoom in and out, gross to subtle. At the core, yoga, and service work, are a practice of love. It takes hard work to surrender to the vulnerability of this truth. Practice, teaching, devotion to hospitality – they all work the energy body. The Gita says, śraddhā – faith – “is where one places one’s heart.”

I had started to write this as I was planning to return to India this February, for the first time in about five years. Going back to charge up at the source. (India is an origin country for coffee too.) I’ve had to fight for it, cracking open space, plowing through fear and resistance, deep grooves of attachment and aversion. Sometimes you have to climb a thousand dusty steps and elbow your way through the crowds to receive the blessings.

As anyone who does hospitality work thoughtfully knows, this work is mind-control, holding space a continual refinement of infinitely subtle awareness, an unraveling of layers and patterns of conditioning. If it is to be sustainable, it needs support. Tools need sharpening.

I went last week back to where it began for me, to convene with teachers, as students, bright eyes and open hearts. Guruji, our teacher – our teachers’ teacher – came from India to gather us around him. He died, suddenly, a bolt of lightning to the heart, in our midst, in the mountains, on a beautiful fall day, blue sky and crisp forest air.

The normally subtle conduits that flow between our hearts were torn wide open this past week. We held each other in a bounded, sacred space of healing and true collective self-practice that was almost too powerful for my heart to hold. Yoga only exists in relationship. Community is there. I’m so, so grateful, and I have so much love for you all.

Continued in comments by @advised.elks

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Hey friends! We’ve been working on a new thing: a little mobile coffee cart! Check out @moondaycoffee, if you’re curious, to follow our tiny journey •//•

Hope everyone’s having a sweet summer! taken in Portland, Maine by @advised.elks

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The Sarus crane is the tallest flying bird in the world – they can be up to six feet tall! They usually hang out in pairs or family groups, though they may congregate in flocks of up to 200 birds during non-quarant—I mean, non-breeding season. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀
The Denver Zoo says: "paired cranes engage in intensive periods of elaborate dance moves that include head bobbing, leaping, deep bowing, running with wings flapping, and short ritual flights accompanied by loud trumpeting calls." Says they build a large nest in a wet marsh or paddy field. Doesn’t mention sourdough angst-baking or tiny windowsill farms taken in North Adams, Massachusetts by @advised.elks

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This birdie was not in my field guide. If you spot one out in the wild... I don't know what to tell you 😬
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Big-ups to @johnbultman for the dope block print! taken in North Adams, Massachusetts by @advised.elks

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More bird sightings!
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The chukar is the national bird of Pakistan and Iraq. In Indian mythology, he's said to be in love with the moon. Happy new moon, little guy
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Some bird-facts, from the Cornell Lab:
-Chukar nests are simple depressions scratched in the ground and lined with dry grasses and breast feathers.
-Birds roost on the ground, often tucked under vegetation or a rock.
-The male performs a mixture of poses and behaviors, including tilting his head, turning sideways, pecking at objects, and circling
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Hope everyone's got plenty of dry grasses. Enjoy your nests! taken in North Adams, Massachusetts by @advised.elks

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The sun keeps coming up, so it must be working.
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Ку-ка-ре-ку! taken in North Adams, Massachusetts by @advised.elks

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The black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), a small, nonmigratory songbird, is the state bird of Massachusetts. I learned on Invisibilia this past week that its little heart beats 480 times a minute – "a tempo so fast, just listening to it makes me feel nervous."
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The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says: The Black-capped Chickadee hides seeds and other food items to eat later. Each item is placed in a different spot and the chickadee can remember thousands of hiding places. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀
Our Audubon field guide recommends, "While many species are rather tame, others are shy or secretive. Learn to move slowly and quietly, and avoid wearing brightly colored or patterned clothing and making loud noises. Please respect local laws, do not unduly frighten birds, and take great care not to disrupt nesting or resting birds." taken in North Adams, Massachusetts by @advised.elks

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”Who knows what form the forward momentum of life will take in the time ahead or what use it will make of our anguished searching. The most that any one of us can seem to do is to fashion something—an object or ourselves—and drop it into the confusion, make an offering of it, so to speak, to the life force”
-Ernest Becker, from Peter Korn’s “Why We Make Things and Why it Matters”

Thanks for the snaps and the memories, @ifilmyoga @livesonima. So real sharing the mycelial mat with everybody. Filaments in New York are vast and deep.
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Sri gurubhyo namah taken in New York, New York by @advised.elks

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North Adams; attic; fever-dream wallpaper. Verbs of motion: flop, tangle. taken in North Adams, Massachusetts by @advised.elks

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I love how osage orange ages (say that five times fast)! Spoon and chopsticks set, before and after about eight months of use. It seems our dish towel has aged markedly as well by @advised.elks

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8 years ago

Buongiorno, #lapavoni 😘☕️ by @advised.elks

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Dogfriends barking at the same nothing by @advised.elks

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