Last Days of Summer

August is winding down, and with it - summer.  We've still got a good 12 days left, and I intend to make good use of them.  Still...the unseasonable cool and wet weather we've had these past couple of weeks in New York are hammering home the reality that soon it'll be autumn.  The Back to School commercials are already dominating the airwaves, so it must be real!

We're encroaching on a time of year that always feels a lot like New Year's to me.  I don't think I've ever been able to release myself from the New School Year conditioning, and somehow the way my life and jobs and moving to and from new cities always seems to center around Fall Semester, Spring Semester, and Summer.  I never seem to have a big transition smack in the middle of March or November, it's always May and August/September.  I wonder how much of that is conscious and how much unconscious!

This is yet another way in which Karma Kids is a perfect job for me.  We slowed down in the summer and will pick back up again in September, schedules packed and rarin' to go.  Today, after I substitute a class at an Upper East Side school for a fellow teacher, I'm finished with teaching for at least two weeks.  It's really strange and hard to believe, and hammering home this time of transition, reflection, and recharging more than ever.

Coming into the last few months of 2011, I'm trying to stay committed to my number one goal for the year which was to have a daily meditation practice.  I've had times of practicing every day and I've tried a lot of different practices, but I still feel like I haven't really dug in deep with one particular practice.  Swami Satchidananda, founder of Integral Yoga Institute (where I do my fabulous Thai Yoga Massage trainings) has been so widely quoted on this subject that I can scarcely find an actual quote, so I'll just paraphrase.  He says you cannot find water by digging many shallow holes - the only way is to dig one deep hole.  Essentially, finding enlightenment, peace, whatever you're meditating for is not going to happen if you're doing something different every week.

I mostly agree with that, but I think the only way you know which technique really works best for you is to try the variety.  I'm not so sure I'm out of the experimentation phase - or if I ever should be, at least not completely.

These are the things I have time to think about when I'm not working all the time.  Not a bad problem to have, granted, but it's hard enough to find the time every day to sit and meditate without spending the entire time wondering if you're making the best use of this time you're giving yourself.

I've decided this time I'm just going to sit each and every day and meditate and try to be as consistent as possible.  I'll let you know how it all turns out.

In the meantime - get outside!  Go to the beach!  Go anywhere and enjoy this beautiful weather.  (And bring an umbrella)