AntivirusGy 7 : Breathing with a black woman, dancing with an indigneous man, chipping bora


Breathing

Morning time, sitting in boxers and drinking coffee  and avoiding  the details of the news beyond the headlines. Seeing some posts, type some comments, delete them, feeling the body tensing as I dodge the virus, the racism, the voting recount, the violence and other things

Carlotta Marcia is live.  Early morning ritual of breathing with her. A few minutes. Breathing ritual in the morning. I could breathe with her and detach from the madness or I could be drawn into the madness. 

And so after the few minutes of breathing, centring.. I am not feeling so bad that I can't change the world right now.  Breathing alone is good, breathing with others is also good.

Wondering if all the people at the GECOM Convention centre, if the Chairperson led some collective breathing rituals in the morning, midday and before they go home.. if maybe things would be different. Breathing together rather than separately.



Dancing

 Kenrick Cheeks has a repertoire of dancing, yoga, martial arts. Since Covid, he has been going live doing different things in the afternoons.  One day I said to hell with it, let me go move with him. Follow his moves. He is on his verandah. I go downstairs as I would shake up the house if I dance with him.  So moves on the video, plays the music and I listen and move.. but differently from him.

Last time I danced like this was at a final chowtaal session night before Phagwah in Canal.. a lot of years ago.  Parts of the body hurt. I promise to do again.


Praying is another thing I have done live in this times. I have participated in satsangh more since the virus started.. and there is more I could probably join in if I wanted.

There is a generosity in how Pandits and their families, kirtan singers, others have turned their homes into studios to encourage prayer and worship.  The same generosity of those who are breathing, dancing, teaching.


Chipping bora
Bora looks good after a few days in the fridge. Looking at it and expressing gratitude to the farmers.
I say arite, breathe. Cut off the tops and some of the tips. Take my time. Not thinking of time as I would normally want to finish this quick and the bora could be like humanity, all different sizes.

Thinking of embroidery and how every stitch was supposed to be even, chipping the bora, not so much diversity,  got the kind of nice small pieces. 


And in not thinking of the time and rushing the chipping ,  I finish it and realise that it did not really take as long as I thought it would.

And that it is good to use time for quick, fast things like dancing, or for slow things like chipping bora and breathing.



(AntivirusGy is a collection of ramblings on things which have changed since Covid 19 entered our vocabulary




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