Village fair and personal practice

Alistair and I came home yesterday to an empty refrigerator (our own doing) and then it started to rain. By 7:30 we were pretty hungry and decided to venture out during a break in the showers, taking our neighbor Rochelle with us. Half-way into town it started pouring, and we managed to duck under an awning to wait for the hard rain to pass. After about 15 minutes it let up enough for us to venture over to the food court and the town fair.

Last night was the start of the fair, which will go on for 10 days. It's for a Catholic holiday on August 15, but I'm not sure which one. We walked around looking at the food stalls, which were either meaty or very sugary - Rochelle and I ended up splitting some churros, which kept us alive for a while, although perhaps not the healthiest option (but what do you expect at a fair?). We stepped into the corner store to grab a few things to make at home, when we heard trumpets playing on the street. We looked out to see an 8-piece marching band and people dressed in these giant folklore costumes - they were dressed as different characters, and the costumes were a full 4 feet taller than the person (they rested on the shoulders, and had parts to cover the person who was wearing them). One character, a woman, was chasing the other characters, and even some onlookers. Rochelle, who is from Trinidad, said that there is a similar spirit in Trinidadian folklore. We watched for a few minutes and then wandered home.

It was also funny to see the village teenagers out and about. Arlen had told us it's where the local boys and girls go to be seen, and to find a boyfriend or girlfriend. They were out in full force last night, girls dressed in short skirts and lots of make up, boys showing off in the various ways that boys do.

Today is a household maintenance day, just catching up on some tidying and laundry, so I thought I'd write a little about my personal practices of peace that I am trying to focus on this year.

I've been practicing yoga for ten years now, and it's been an important part of my life since I started. Over the past 8 months I've been trying to incorporate more meditation into my practice. This year, I am making it a commitment to really practice both yoga asana and meditation every day, because it makes me feel good, and helps me to be more peaceful inside so that I act more peacefully in the world.

I am also trying to practice mindful eating, which is something I started working on when I went to the Kripalu yoga teacher training. We eat several times a day, but so often it can be hurried or mindless, so that when we are finished, we almost don't realize what we've done. Mindful eating is a meditative practice, mostly just about being present while eating. It's harder than it sounds! No TV, no reading, just...eating. My brother gave me a book called Mindful Eating by Jan Chozen Bays, MD, and it has some great exercises to practice. I'm trying to practice mindful eating, but it is easy to forget.

Another practice is nonviolent communication. I also read a book, so titled, but Marshall B. Rosenburg. It is perhaps one of the most practical books I've ever read, but harder to practice than you'd think. The basic idea is speaking and listening empathically, by observing, without judgement, your (or another person's) feelings and needs, and making a request based on that. It involves changing the way you think in a very fundamental way. However, I think it's very practical and worth the effort, so I'm working on that too.

So those are my goals. To integrate those practices into my daily life, so that hopefully one day they will be automatic.

On that note - off to the meditation cushion!