Young Nervous Adorable Pharmacists Pulsate Discombobulated Dusty Spiders

Warning – Eight limbs of yoga being practised ahead! That’s how I interpreted this sign.  “It’s about anchoring,” says the person who sent it.  “That’s what I’m saying,” I replied.  I can never remember what the eight limbs are though.  I enlist the mneumonic maker spacefem.com which, spookily, concludes with an eight-limbed being.  Synchronicity abounds – delight!

Yellow moment 20/363.

Bring on the pain!

“The pains which are yet to come can be and are to be avoided.” So says one translation of sutra 2:16. It’s a sutra I’ve considered a lot.  But maybe I’m thinking about it all wrong. 

For a long time I didn’t blog any yellow moments.  I realised I was affected by having read about yellow appearing in all  seasons except winter.  What if I wrote too much now and used up all my yellow? Every day I walked through this tree’s scattering of yellow leaves without seeing them (it’s the gingko in Logic Lane, Oxford).  But what if I run out of growing things and have to use warning signs? Would that have happened? Would it have been so bad? – I was sent some great yellow signs that languish in my in box.

Today I see the relation between this and my fear of hand balances.  In always stopping myself falling forwards I stop too soon and never get up enough to balance – or find the courage to write yellow in fear that my supply will be exhausted.

Yellow moment 19/363

You’re not poor because you’re stupid; you’re stupid because you’re poor

Attended a lecture by Eldar Shafir earlier this week. He talks about how some people were divided into two groups.  Both group took the same IQ test.  At the same time as taking the test they had to think about how to manage because something had just gone wrong with their car which would cost £x to repair.  For group one £x was managable; for group two £x was rather more OMG.  How people scored in the test depend on how well off they were.  Well off and OMG bill – test fine.  Less well off and OMG bill – test crash and burn. The outcome being that so much of the mental bandwith was occupied by the bill, that you make poor decisions. 

But it’s not just about money.  Prof Shafir also talks about how lack of time leads to poor decision making in a similar way.  Basically our problem solving bandwith is not big, and something that worries us eats it up so we’re trying to manage our life with one brain cell.  He talked about (particularly with regard to time) how the problem can be ameliorated by creating slack in your life.  He puts time with self in his diary.  When people ask if he’s free he says, ‘sorry I’m in a meeting’, because this is an acceptable reason.  He just doesn’t mention that it’s a meeting with himself.

I reflected that yoga helps me access this feeling.  Suddenly a few breaths can seem like a long, long time when you’re trying to hold some impossible pose and wondering if your teacher is ever going to say and now something else…..  The day after the lecture I was sent this picture – yellow moment 18/363

Perfect yellow moment

Found on Merton Street, Oxford. For a collector of yellow moments, it doesn’t get much better than this.  I’m rushing past to a meeting and almost don’t stop.  Then I pause to take this.  For once, I am completely in the moment.  Yellow moment 17/363

Yellow in Oxford … could anything be more perfect?

As an Oxford based yogini collecting yoga moments could anything be more perfect?  The doors from Merton Street to this part of Merton college unusually open for a delivery reveal three yellow pots of flowers.  Yellow moment 16/363

Back in the land of the yellow

A sunny morning and a beautiful big bee lands on my yellow gardening glove lying on my yellow tub.  And all my pent up yellow screams for release.  Yellow moment 15/363

The moment everything changes

You’ve a des res on the hill overlooking Sumner (Christchurch, New Zealand).  Next, post earthquake, moment you don’t.  It’s gone.  Or suddenly being perched on a hill seems undesirably precarious.  It’s a reminder that the moment is all we have. It’s a Hottentot Fig (thank you interweb).  And my yellow moment 14/363 – which seem to have become about the moment at least as much as the yellow.

Golden Wonder – yellow moment 13/363

A glimpse of golden skin against dark earth when harvesting potatoes makes my heart lift. Yellow enough? Feels like a yes.

Moments of yellow 12/363 – it’s about time

Sunday morning seemed too beautiful to go to my usual yoga class, particularly as the forecast said it wouldn’t last.  Passed this field of hay bales full of yellow prickly sow thistle (thank you internet).

After hours of walking, we arrived home, I grabbed the washing, and the rain came down moments later. Just felt like, for once, I was doing the apposite thing for that moment.

Thanks to Robin.  Arrgh wish I’d brought my camera, I said.  He produced his out of his pocket.

Moments of yellow – 11/363 – sweetcorn and unexpected kindness

Grrr.  The day is FRENZIED.  I sprint to yoga to find the class already full.  Trudge to bus stop.  Miss bus by a breath.  Next one arrives 20 minutes late. Go to the Co-op for dinner supplies. The self service tills overcharge me for my sweetcorn.

So the assistant clears one, giving me two for the price of one.  This takes me below the £5 spend I need to get a sticker – we’re collecting for a toy for our nephew.  ‘Can I still have one?’ I ask.  ‘The promotion ends this week and I’m borderline on getting enough.’  He asks, ‘How many do you still need?’  ‘Five’ I answer.  He gives me five.

“Gentleness is everywhere in daily life, a sign that faith rules through ordinary things: through cooking and small talk, through storytelling, making love, fishing, tending animals and sweetcorn and flowers, through sports, music and books, raising kids – all the places where the gravy soaks in and grace shines through…one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.” (Garrison Keillor)

Thanks to Isabel Eyre.  I meant to photograph the actual cobs I bought.  But I forgot and ate them (yum).