Life is Like a Spinning Top

Maureen was here yesterday for a yoga session alone with me. It is always fun to be able to work with a student one-on-one and try new asanas and be able to converse as we go along. I'm already looking forward to today's session and expect again no more than a couple students. Don't get me wrong - I like teaching large groups, also! Any teaching of yoga is FUN. ------ The funeral for Faye's mother is today. My heart is with her and the whole family. The death of one's mother takes us very deep into ourselves with feelings arising that may never ever before have surfaced. It is a time for quiet and reflection and enjoying memories. It is a time for sadness (at least in our culture) and recognition of our own mortality. Yesterday my reading included a comparison of our lives to a spinning top. Remember those toys? Some you could push a handle down many times till the spring got tight and then turn loose and it would spin on its own for a time. Another kind my father was very good at using involved wrapping a string around the top (wooden, usually) and then rapidly pulling the string as he dropped the top to the table or floor and it spun around on its own. My reading compared this to our lives - we spin around and then life simply stops - unpredictably. Watching the top spinning, you could see it begin to slow down and then wobble a bit and finally go down on its side. I'm tempted to go on writing about this, but I think you might enjoy it more using your own thoughts.