Last week, doing warrior pose in yoga class, I remembered how, right after Trump had been elected, my usual teacher, Annie Hoffman, was out of town—so we’d had a sub that day. A wonderful teacher, the sub had prepared a themed class; a series of poses and movements readying us to become women warriors. “Cool idea,” I thought; my body felt differently. Moving slower and slower as if weighted down, I finally stopped altogether.
“What’s going on?” the teacher asked.
“I’m not ready to be a warrior yet,” I realized. “I’m still too sad.” ( So she Immediately set me up in a restorative pose. Where I cried. And felt my muscles twitch and relax.)
Since the tax bill vote I’ve been in a funk. (Yes, today’s news from Alabama is definitely lifting my spirits!) After a year of being a warrior, though, I no longer deny my occasional need to crawl under my quilt for twenty-four hours. “Re-covery,” my yoga teacher quips.
When in this melancholy state, a favorite Rilke poem, “Title Poem” from The Voices, always comes to mind (Eerily apt vis a vis that tax bill, yes?) :
It's OK for the rich and the lucky to keep still, no one wants to know about them anyway. But those in need have to step forward, have to say: I am blind, or: I'm about to go blind, or: nothing is going well with me, or: I have a child who is sick, or: right there I'm sort of glued together. . . And probably that doesn't do anything either. They have to sing, if they didn't sing, everyone would walk past, as if they were fences or trees. That's where you can hear good singing. People really are strange: they prefer to hear castratos in boychoirs. But God himself comes and stays a long time when the world of half-people start to bore him.
Yoga helps me greatly. It helps me restore myself.
Dear Patricia,
Well, hello, there, Patricia, and greetings and salutations to you and to you AND FOR VERY ESPECIALLY FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, my absolutely FANTASTIC soul sistahfriend awesomely precious and dearly special Christian Quaker woman who you’re FOR ALWAYS SO, SO VERY MUCH, and A Very, Very Happy Blessed Merry Christmas to you and to you and FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, sistah, and FOR VERY ESPECIALLY FOR YOU AND YOURS, Patricia, and for your absolutely AWESOME husband, for your marvelous Loved One in the long term care facility, for your gracious children, for your precious grandchildren, for you splendid siblings, for all of your beloved family, for your so, so very blessedly holy and pure in heart friendsfamily at your super Friends Meeting at Cambridge, for your so, so very cool in spirit and Spirit yoga friends, and for all of your superb friends, sisterfriend!!!!! Sister, I’m just so, so very glad, thrilled, overjoyed, and happy that I can FINALLY write to you and to your wonderfully empowering and brilliant blog, sistahfriend!!!!!! I’ve been sick and haven’t been on the computer that often, my dear, dearest, precious Patricia!!!!! WOW, I thank-YOU so, so very much straight from my very heart and spirit for my beautiful, absolutely beautiful and lovely, very lovingly heartfelt and sensitively caring Christmas card which I very blessedly and joyfully received from absolutely AWESOME YOU, Patricia, in the snail mail!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I just love so my very delightful Christmas card from YOU, my friend, and it is such a great comfort to me being sick and all!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I thank0-YOU so, sistah and friend of mine, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sister, I still have your Christmas card for you and for you and your preciously beloved husband and all of you and yours which is still sitting on my desk with pen and postage. I haven't been able to get it written on and mailed out to you yet and, in fact, I've not been able to do one Christmas card yet!!!!! Darn!!!!!! Sisterfriend, I'll get your very special Christmas card mailed out to you and to you as soon as I'm able, sistahfriend of mine, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 It is my very joy, honor, blessing, and pleasure, and such awesomely great and immensely blessed fun for me, too, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3
WOW, Patricia, your substitute yoga teacher sounds very deeply spiritually attuned and brilliant here, sistah!!!!!! WOW!!!!! So is wonderful Annie Hoffman as your regular yoga teacher!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 How sensitive and keenly perceptive and intuitive your substitute yoga teacher was in keying into your distress in how you were valiantly trying to do the women's warrior yoga pose when your heart and spirit were so broken and needed to be replenished, Patricia!!!!!! How insightful that your substitute yoga teacher was sensitive enough with such deeply profound and poignant empathy to gently suggest to you that you try a restorative yoga pose!!!!! WOW!!!!!! This is just great here and your substitute yoga teacher, just like your regular yoga teacher, Annie, with both of these absolutely amazing women are deeply caring full of such keen discernment and sensitive care, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW!!!!!! Sistah, YOU and very many of my other so, so very right on, wondrously wonderful soul sistahfriends white women love so and practice yoga. I've wanted to do the same but with my extreme, permanent, bad chronic physical disabilities and the pain that all in all goes along with it, and also with me being a not very tall but otherwise larger, full-bodied woman I thought that I couldn't do yoga. Great news, though, sistah!!!!! 🙂 <3My good neighbor told me to google chair yoga on the web so I plan on doing that and seeing if it is at all possible that I could do chair yoga, sister!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I sure hope, so, my so, so very dearest and darling friend, Patricia!!!!! 🙂 <3 Yoga sounds just very awesome and very blessedly rewarding, Patricia!!!!!! Sistah and friend of mine, Patricia, I thank-YOU so, so much as to how you've as usual as always once again very graciously and generously featured and included such a very interesting, informative, and fascinating link here with your very uplifting blog post article here!!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW!!!!! It is such a powerful joy and blessing to look at all of the very empowering restorative yoga poses in these very astounding pictures here, Patricia!!!!! WOW!!!!!! I thank-YOU so, so much for this brilliantly beautiful and inspirational link here with this masterfully composed blog post article all in all being such an outstanding writings here with a perfect quote here for your title from the very creative genius's poem. our Rainer Maria Rilke, along with the picture perfect picture accompanying it, sister!!!!! Sisterfriend, I love that you've very graciously and generously included again this very aptly applicable poem here by our very astute so chock full of such wisdom Rainer Maria Rilke here. I joyfully enjoy this and joyously remember how you've featured and included this very same poem by this very sagaciously creative man before, sistah!!!!! Sistahfriend, what a great joy to revisit this very fitting poem here again, Patricia!!!!! WOW!!!!! I thank-YOU so, so much for this and all, sister!!!!!!! 🙂 <3
Sistah, I can very much relate to your sadness when you were simply unable to do the woman's warrior pose at yoga class, Patricia. She was so right with her keen quip in saying, "Re-covery." I can so connect to your melancholy state with the state of affairs in our hurting country and throughout our great society and world. YOU are one wise woman, Patricia, such a good woman of faith, a good woman of Spirit full of such spirit and Spirit, my so, so very dearest and darling friendsister!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sometimes we all DO have to take a time out and just escape from it all like in taking a much sorely needed 24 hours to crawl underneath your quilt-kind of like a restorative health break in every way, sistahfriend!!!!! 🙂 <3 I can for sure relate to you with this, my friend, and I'm with YOU here, sister!!!!! 🙂 <3 I, too, am absolutely elated that Doug Jones won the Senate Seat in the deeply red state of Alabama!!!! WOW!!!!! I was just so uplifted in my spirit, too, that I had trouble being able to go to bed and to go to sleep with me having trouble pulling away from the news coverage of his miraculous victory on the TV news!!!! WOW, Patricia, WOW!!!!! I think, Patricia, that things are very gradually starting to look up for the better, my friend!!!!! My friend, I am such an eternal optimist and a black Pollyanna, and I truly think, feel, and believe that we all must never ever lose heart, never ever lose spirit, and never ever lose Spirit!!!!! We all must somehow someway keep on keeping on in keeping our very faith and hope alive with such a sweetly abiding and abundantly enduring positive optimism. Our SO, SO VERY SWEET, LOVING, EMPOWERING, FOR ALWAYS THERE FOR US SPIRIT is FOR ALWAYS THERE for each and every one of us, Patricia, helping us to find a way out of no way and come what may will always help us in loving and cherishing all of us to have to strength to cope with whatever may come are way despite how bad and desperate our circumstances might be and Spirit will for sure help each and every one of us to navigate the very tricky terrain of all of these very harsh and uncomfortable, dire situations which we face, endure, and experience!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I truly think, believe, and feel all of this with such a trusting faith and hope with all that I have with all of my very being!!!!! 🙂 <3 We've all survived horrid stuff before and we will all overcome again and have just what we need right on time to tough things out, my friend!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 We can for certain count on our STEADFAST AND LOVING, POWERFUL GOD FOR THIS IN ALL OF THIS, Patricia!!!!!!! 🙂 <3
My friend, you've been such a woman warrior all year since that vast atrocity when that vile man won the so called election for president as you've been a woman warrior all of your very life, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 It makes such perfect sense that you needed a much needed break with the very impetus of the restorative yoga pose and other healing stuff to re-energize, reinvigorate, rejuvenate, and renew your very body, heart, soul, mind, and spirit, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 YOU are not alone, Patricia!!!!! 🙂 <3 I've needed the very same healing properties as I, and we all, know that very many other folks needed to be restored as well, my friend!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 My friend, as I reflect at this very endearing and engaging time of Advent with Christmas fast approaching and as I do as usual as always anyway I think of and reflect upon in rejoicing praises and such deep appreciation in showing my gratitude for all of my richly overflowing bountiful blessings!!!!! Spirit just so, so very much loves and cherishes ME and each and every one of us, and I just so, so very much love and cherish Spirit with all that I have with all of my very being and thank God profusely for being God and for being my very life and eternal blessings forever!!!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I'm just so, so very grateful and blessed with YOU, my dear, dearest, precious Patricia, and with my other very, very many, so, so very right on, wondrously wonderful soul sistahfriends white women just so, so very much loving and cherishing each and every one of you with you all being my very, very heart!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I think so, so very highly of all of you as such absolutely FANTASTIC white women thinking of each and every one of you as such good people caring about and for each and every one of you in thinking that all of you are so, so very goodhearted and goodnatured, sweet, loving, gentle, nice, kind, caring, sensitive, nurturing, friendly, and such wonderful people being such the very, very epitome of such overall awesomeness as such absolutely AWESOME white women, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 You all as such precious white women are my by very, very far very favorites among white people and also my by very, very far very favorites among all people in general, too, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Each and every one of you as such marvelously super white women are just the very best and the greatest, Patricia!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I'm just so, so very grateful and appreciate my so cool in spirit and Spirit church friendsfamily here where I live in my beloved Iowa City, Iowa at my wonderful church called Faith United Church of Christ where I've been a rejoicing and proud member since the 1990s!!!!!! I love everybody there as my so cool in spirit and Spirit sisters and brothers so, so very much and I just so cherish them all!!!!!! I'm just so, so very blessed and grateful for being a rejoicing and proud member of my very, very many, multiple 12-Step Programs and all of my friends there and from my very blessedly learning and beneficial, healing meetings!!!!!! And I'm so, so very in my very life and eternally grateful for all of my strong recoveries in these very, very many, multiple 12-Step Programs of mine like with being a rejoicing and proud, recovering alcoholic and addict in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous since Sunday, August 5, 1990!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I'm just so, so very blessed, grateful, and appreciative of all of my other friends everywhere both near and far!!!!!! 🙂 <3 My friend, I'm must so, so very grateful and appreciative of so, so very many abundantly overflowing blessings that I could go on and on, my sistah, Patricia!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 At this time of Advent and with Christmas coming celebrating the observed birthday of our Sweet Jesus I dwell on at this time and all of the time how I so love and cherish with all that I have with all of my very being our SO, SO VERY DEAREST AND DARLING JESUS, AND HOW I SO APPRECIATE AND LOVE JESUS BEING SO, SO VERY GRATEFUL FOR AND APPRECIATIVE OF OUR LOVING JESUS!!!!!!! 🙂 <3
Sistah, what a joy, honor, blessing, and pleasure it is for me, and such awesome fun for me, too, to pray for YOU without ceasing, Patricia, and in praying for and thinking of all of you and yours, sistahfriend praying without ceasing sending to all of you such greatly strong positive energy for YOU and FOR YOU, Patriica, for your very special husband, for your so, so very dearest Loved One in the long-term care facility, for your dear children, for your wonderful grandchildren, for your awesome siblings, for all of your magnificent family, for all of your blessedly holy and pure in heart friendsfamily at your stupendous Friends Meetings at Cambridge, for all of your so, so very cool in spirit and Spirit yoga friends, for all of your other dear friends, and for other folks, too!!!!!! 🙂 <3I thank-YOU all so, so very much for thinking of and praying for me-I can for sure feel all of your loving and caring, strong prayers and thoughts for me which are truly helping me a whole lot and I can for sure use all of your very uplifting prayers and thoughts in keeping me covered in all of your prayers and thoughts just as I keep you all covered in my steadfast lovingly heartfelt, strong, and sensitively caring prayers and thoughts, too!!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW, now I feel even better and more bright with more greatly added cheer after very joyfully and blessedly reading this very encouraging blog post article and very joyfully and eagerly with such sheer delight responding with my very heartfelt and detailed thoughts, ideas, and comments, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Patricia, YOU are my very life and eternal blessings and I thank-YOU and Spirit for YOU and FOR YOUR VERY PRESENCE IN MY LIFE!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW!!!!! YAY for YOU, Patricia!!!!! WOW!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Patricia, please have such a superbly super Sunday, a wondrously wonderful rest of your weekend, and may all of your very days be so, so very especially blessed!!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 My friend, Spirit so, so very much loves and cherishes YOU A WHOLE LOT AND SO DO I A WHOLE BUNCH, TOO, Patricia!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I pray, wish, and hope for all of you and you and yours A Very, Very Happy Blessed Merry Christmas to one and all and a blessedly happy New Year, Patricia!!!!!!! 🙂 <3
Very Warmly and Sincerely For Always, my so, so very FOR ALWAYS awesomely special and dearly precious soul sistahfriend Christian Quaker white woman who you're For Always so, so very much, Patricia, sister of mine, with My and Spirit's Very Peace and Love FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, friend of mine, and with SUCH BLESSINGS and SUCH VERY EVEN MORE BLESSINGS FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, sisterfriend of mine, 🙂 <3
YOURS FOR ALWAYS soul sistahfriend Christian black woman AND FOR ALWAYS in the very great spirit of unity and solidarity, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa 🙂 <3