July: Generosity of Fruit - Giving - Service - Apples and Berries

Jul 1

1. Consider the aspect of Giving and the Gift and the basic tenet of Kimmerer’s book The Serviceberry. In your local area, in your life, in your practice, where do you see this natural generosity flourishing? What stories have you been inspired by? What parts of Kimmerer’s writings enhance this possibility in your life? What could apply to both the local and global? Where do we gather and harvest together?

2. How has the notion of “Service” evolved in your life? Where is it at right now? Where do you serve? Where would you like to serve?

3. Compare our Western Christian Apple origin story and this sweet Cherokee tale about the origins of the Strawberry, popularized for children in a book shared with Under 5s by Dolly Parton’s reading scheme (now disappeared because of the various cuts etc)

4. How do you delight in your hunter gatherer nature during the berry/fruit season? What memories do these times hold for you?

5. What are you harvesting from our Salon time together? What are its fruits? Where will you scatter the seeds?

6. The word Abundance has been overused in wellness circles but it’s coming into fashion again in a wider circle! If you are political at all, there is a call on the left to move from doomsday panic talk to aspirational discussion as in Thompson and Klein’s new book Abundance about opportunities missed and to be developed - in housing, energy, environment, transport etc Look for the many interviews (some quite controversial!) with these 2 authors if you don’t want to read/listen to the actual book.

PRACTICE CONSIDERATIONS:
1. Most yogis are giving sorts of people. How is this reflected in your actual asana and yoga practice? How does the word gift, offering, generosity inspire (or perhaps drain!) your energy within a pose, within a practice, within how you seasonally pace your practice?
2. How do we balance the giving and receiving so there is no division but also no sense of overwhelm, depletion, even resentment?…. on a cellular level
3. Relishing, harvesting, pausing, celebrating. This is the way we juice our yoga. How is your flying swami? What other poses bring these qualities to life? Can you harvest and pause within the pose, between poses, at the end of mat practice?