Shakespeare Club meets, talks yoga and ecological land management
Controlled burn in 2020 in Riverbend Gardens, here in Manchester!
submitted by Joan Gaughan, Shakespeare Club
Eight years ago, before she opened Millie’s Coffee Shop, Anna Deevers brought Exhale Yoga to Manchester, and on March 14, she brought her yoga training to the Shakespeare Club. She emphasized that, although yoga is about connecting the mind, body, and spirit, it is not a religion. No special clothing or a mat is required, nor is it only for women. It is for any age, and you do not have to be flexible or physically fit to do it. Nor do you have to turn your body into a pretzel. Basic physical poses are used to build endurance, strength, calmness, flexibility, and overall well-being. One of the six branches of yoga, and the one with which most of us would be familiar, is Hatha. Within that branch there are about twelve types, including prenatal and restorative yoga. Anna then showed us a couple of simple poses that we did from our chairs, but she emphasized that yoga can also be done sitting on the floor or even outside while you are on a walk.
More information about yoga in general and a schedule and description of classes can be found at exhalemanchester.com. Or stop in at Millie’s Coffee Shop for a look at the new yoga studio … and maybe a latte.
Although the word “yoga” first appears in the Hindu collection Rigveda, the Thought for the Day was from another Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita: “Yoga is a harmony … a perfection in whatever one does. Yoga … gives peace from all pain.”
At the next meeting on March 28, Sue Furda discussed the difference between the Native American approach to ecology and our own. She noted that the disdain many of our ancestors had for Native American cultures caused them to dismiss conservation practices that had evolved from the Native Americans’ reverence for nature. Decades of placing productivity and profit ahead of conservation has not only depleted natural resources but has also contributed to devastating weather events such as multiple hurricanes, tornadoes, and drought such as the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and the gradual depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, which lies under eight of the grain-producing states of the Great Plains from South Dakota to Texas. Lately, we have begun to give Nature the respect she demands. One example is learning to use the Native American device of controlled burns to manage wildfires, particularly in the West.
The Thought for the Day was “Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.” — Jean Rhys
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