Perfect

I had the most wonderful day yesterday. Meg, Dan and I went into town because Meg has some errands to run. It was just so beautiful outside and the temperature was finally comfortable. We cruised down the 1 with the windows down, The Postal Service blasting, and with my feet out the window. Bliss.
While Meg was at her appointment, Dan and I went to a beach. We laid out on the sand, went swimming, I half-filled my belly with salt water, and he read aloud part of a book he was reading. All I can think of is the word "perfect." It describes the sky, the temperature, the mountains on the horizon, the sand, the water. Meg came and joined after she was done and we went swimming again. It's only a little warmer than the water in Maine, but, again, perfect. We ate burritos for dinner and headed back to the mountain for our meeting.

Our meeting was run by a man who's lived here since the beginning (35 years? ish?) and I can't remember his sanskrit name (most people here have them and they are all so difficult to remember) but I'll call him SD. He is a teacher at the Mount Madonna School and has done some really amazing things. He talked to us about karma yoga and yoga in general. Very intelligent man with a lot to share.

Karma yoga is really a fascinating practice, and it really is a practice because it's sincerely difficult to stop your brain from thinking a certain way after it's been programmed your whole life. Karma yoga doing something (a job, a role, etc.) because it's what you're motivated to do- not because it's what you're being paid to do, or because it's what you've been told to do. SD worded it so eloquently- I wish I could remember what he said verbatim. It's working for the sake of the task, not for any result or for recognition or reward. It's really quite powerful. And even though I came here to "work for free" I still hadn't quite shifted my viewpoint. I was going to work because that's what I was signed up to do. And after last night, I'm genuinely going to try to work for the greater good. I'm going to go scrub that floor because it's needs to be scrubbed and because the greater community benefits from it. It will certainly bring me more joy and peace. It's a shift- and it'll take some practice to think this way on a more regular basis, but I'm pretty psyched about all this new stuff.

Alright- enough for now. Meg just informed me that she's headed to Santa Cruz again. Another beach day????

Perfect.