Trying a few things on #reverb10

Tags

Bali, birthday girl, birthday wish, Dancing, Edith Piaf, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kali girls, Linda Sama, lounge room boogie, try, yoga retreat, yoga-curious, yoga-loving, zumba

Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it?
~December 18 prompt

Hmmm, in 2010 I wanted to bring more dancing back into my life and really, I’ve just not made time for that. Other than the odd lounge-room boogie, that is! Basically, yoga has consumed my down-time this year, not that I’m complaining!

But dance is definitely on the cards for 2011.

In fact, I’ve got a series of ten zumba classes paid for and I plan to start them in early January. I know zumba is one of the latest “crazes” and usually that’s enough of a reason for me to NOT try something. But heck, ten lessons for a bargain price of $37 was good enough for me. I’ll let you know how that goes!

Also, there’s something else I want to try and it’s a bit of a birthday wish of mine (and TODAY is my birthday – it’s also the birthday of Edith Piaf, Jake Mc-Hottie-Gyllenhaal and at least four other people I know in my own life).

I really REALLY want to try to meet up with my very good blog friend Linda-Sama!

We’ve been buddies now for well over a year. Probably longer actually, but I am terrible at keeping count of such things. We’re both straight-talkin’, no BS Kali girls and neither of us are afraid to call a spade a spade. There’s lots of kindred spirit between us and I just know we’d hit it off in person!

Linda is (*fingers crossed*) running a yoga retreat in Bali in May 2011 – and I really wanna go! But there’s a catch: in order for the retreat to go ahead, Linda needs a minimum of six people signed up.

I am one, but the only one so far! And for Linda and I to meet in person this coming year, I need five more wonderful yoga-loving (or even yoga-curious) people to sign on.

Note: It’s not just that I’m excited about meeting Linda, I’m VERY excited about doing some yoga with her too! If you haven’t read her blog before, then you should. She has lots of wonderful things to say about yoga, and from reading her posts, I can tell she’s my kind of yoga teacher with a capital Y and T…

My birthday wish…

So if you wouldn’t mind helping a birthday girl out, my wish is for you to share the news of Linda’s retreat far and wide. Share it with as many people as you can. Heck, sign up yourself if you’re so inclined coz it’d be awesome to meet more than one of my blog buddies at the same time.

We could have a party, yay!! And it would be in Bali, double yay!!

Please: spread the word and make a yogadork happy! 😀

And here’s one way you could help – please download the image below, post it to your blog/website and link the image to Linda’s retreat page. It’d be a whole lotta awesome if you did!

~Svasti

No regrets

Tags

Change, Edith Piaf, La Môme Piaf, No regrets, Non je ne regrette rien, Transformation, Yogic

Sung by the great madame herself – Edith Piaf – Non, je ne regrette rien (No, I regret nothing) is… vocally and lyrically a knockout.

At not even 5′, Edith was nicknamed “La Môme Piaf” (the little sparrow) – which morphed into her famous moniker.

Here’s one angry, tragic and passionate woman – with good reason! Abandoned by her mother and father, brought up in a brothel til the age of six, then re-claimed to work as a busker alongside her father travelling around France… her talent was obvious. She lost her only child to meningitis. Her singing career was dogged by those that wanted to take advantage of her.

Edith kinda lived fast and died young before it was ever fashionable to do so…

An English translation of Non, je ne regrette rien is as follows:

No, nothing at all
No, I regret nothing
Neither the good things
Nor the bad, they are the same to me

No, nothing at all
No, I regret nothing
It’s been paid for
Swept away, forgotten
I don’t give a damn about the past

My memories
I have burnt my memories
My sorrows, my pleasures
I don’t need them anymore
Swept away the love affairs
And all their tremblings
Swept away forever
I start anew

No, nothing at all
No, I regret nothing at all
Neither the good
Nor the bad, they are all the same to me

No, nothing at all
No, I regret nothing at all
For my life, for my joys
Today
They start with you

Now, this could be interpreted as a love song to another – but I like it better when thinking of it sung to oneself…

There’s some very kinda yogic stuff in there – expressing no preference for the good or the bad (its all the same), the past not being related to this moment (just a discontinuous moment-to-moment existence that appears to be linear)…

Its all about right here, right now. A transformation. A change sweeping through. A revelation. New beginnings.

How I wish I could take these words and make them my reality right now!

To have no regrets at all, not one (I’m working on it)… to see the world through fresh eyes with a heart that’s known no sorrow. Or… that none of it matters any longer. No regrets…

Now that’s something worth both living and dying for.

Oh, and happy birthday, Madame Sparrow… you woulda been 93 today (same age as my grandma), if you’d stuck around…

And now, a public service announcement:

Those who know stories
Within stories
Listen up!
Whispers thusly concealed
Must remain
Shine no light on them…
~Svasti