Maturity

I have just finished reading 'Maturity' the second of the two books by Osho that I bought in the Borders Administration sale (the other being 'Body Mind Balancing'). I recommend both of them to you. Osho defines maturity as growing-up. All of us grow old but few of us grow-up. If the title puts 'younger' people off reading this book that would be a shame because it would be useful to read it sooner rather than later! Osho describes the changes that we go through in 7 year cycles and the lessons and experiences appropriate to both. As I move into the 8th cycle some opportunities have passed me by but I can still make the most of the remaining ones if I wake up now.

I don't feel that Osho's teachings are particularly provocative. They seem to me to come from the same source as those from mystics and teachers of various traditions but, with the emphasis on taking responsibility for yourself and dropping your conditioning, I can see how they might get up the nose of the authorities! I guess that because of the era in which Osho was active, the improvement in communications and his widespread popularity he was more of a threat than other teachers and writers. Read the book for yourself and make your own mind up!

This little bee is after some nectar

I am looking forward to visiting Diane Long, my teacher, next month and taking some lessons with her. Yoga is an ongoing journey, there is always more, but it's hard to see your own habits and blocks. Hence the need for regular input from a good teacher. (By the way, my definition of a good teacher is one who knows from experience not one who has accumulated a lot of information - BIG difference!)
Like a bee visiting a flower over and over to collect nectar a little at a time to make honey so I visit my teacher  over and over to collect a little more raw material to work with.

Structure of foot and effect of pronation on body on YouTube

I have been looking into rebounding and came across this video on YouTube http://rebounding.tv/how-to-stand-correctly-on-a-rebounder/. It has an excellent description of the structure of the foot, pronation and how it effects the body in everyday life. I learnt things I didn't know about the foot from watching it and highly recommend it.

Yesterday was the longest day and we had a magical moment during class. Around 8pm the Buddha statue set back in the fireplace was spotlit in bright sunshine. This was wierd because the buddha is facing east. The sun was being reflected by a window in a neighbouring house directly onto the statue. It lasted just a few minutes and then was gone.

I haven't forgotten this blog it's just that I've been rather busy recently. Among other things I've been teaching myself xhtml and css. I created our websites (www.yogawithanne.co.uk and www.yogawithmark.co.uk) using MS publisher (in my defence I didn't know any better!). It didn't take long for me to become frustrated by Publisher's quirks, foibles and limitations. Not being able to make some improvements for s.e.o. was the final straw. I decided to ditch Publisher but what to use instead? Feeling I didn't want to go down the package route again I resolved to learn html but didn't take it any further.
Mark's new aikido club wanting a web presence gave me the opportunity to create a website from scratch although the need for something to be done quickly to promote the club did put additional pressure on me! I got something basic out fairly quickly and, in a fairly short time, it has evolved into a functional, well organised (though I say so myself)  site. Check out the results of my efforts. xhtml and css haven't been too difficult to pick up but IE's interpretation of standards, it's little foibles and catering for IE6 & 7 as well as IE8 has driven me to distraction! The website will never be finished (I've already plans to implement printer friendly pages, include more photos, video clips, random quotes, search facility, more pages...) and I will never be satisfied of course but I'm happy with it as it is at the moment. So I am putting future development on hold while I convert the yoga websites. I'm going to start with www.yogawithmark.co.uk as it's the smaller and less complicated of the two sites. The plan is to use the Wellsprings format and 'simply' incorporate data from the current site. I have still to make up my mind what to do with www.yogawithanne.co.uk There is a lot of material on the site which I don't feel inclined to convert. My feeling at present is to convert the core pages and perhaps leave the rest as an archive (but I'll have to do something about navigation). Hopefully as I work on Mark's site over the next few weeks the way forward will become clearer.