Paros Musings 2017 Pt 2
I’ve always known there was something bigger than what I had been exposed to that was waiting for me, ever since I was young. It was because of that knowing that conventional education did very little for me and seemingly asked everything of me.
Paros Musings 2017
I’m lying in bed at 3am after getting a solid 3 hours of sleep following 36 hours of transit with a full 15 minutes of snooze time getting to Greece. This world traveler couldn’t sleep on a plane if his life depended on it, and so after the coma-like slumber I fell into at 9:30pm wore off, here I am back on Montreal time.
In Ways That Matter
Arguably, we don’t discuss mental suffering enough in public forums, as stigmas are alive and well related to such issues and we have a tendency to bypass what elicits sensations of discomfort in our bodies. But the issue is getting more and more exposure as more and more people speak about their experiences and give us faces to put on the dis-ease(s) many of us have only heard about. What we don’t hear nearly enough about is how those who live with, love, support and accompany those managing their mental suffering.
My Work
There’s a lot I don’t want. But like it or not, this is. It all is, undeniably. And I have a choice as to whether I’m going to rant and rave and object and age into a curmudgeonly, bitter man, or if I’m going to do everything I can to work with my own feelings of anger, disbelief, disappointment and fear so that I acknowledge and experience them fully, and then occasionally alter those vibrations into different ones that lift my spirits.
An Homage to Luna Yoga on its 14th Anniversary!
I first came to Luna Yoga in the late summer of 2008. Until that point, I had practiced a much gentler style of yoga with the first teacher I was blessed to find along my journey, Joan Ruvinsky. I was initially introduced to the deeply-rooted philosophical teachings that Joan incorporates, but I soon found myself craving a more physical practice. I had quickly formed a home practice after first starting in yoga, and as I found myself attempting more advanced postures at home, I always kept an element of caution to my movement, knowing I needed to find a space where I could be supervised as I went deeper into it. My sister from another mister, Sonia Papasimakis-Collins, was at that time the Store Manager of the Ste-Catherine St Lululemon store and had been telling me for months that I had to come try this teacher whose studio was in Old Montreal, and whose classes were beyond what she ever could have expected from a yoga session.
The Beat Goes On
When, as a teenager, I would complain about something to my mom, she would bring attention to the frivolity of my moaning by asking me, “Have you lived? Have you loved? Have you suffered?”
Mother’s Day Musings
On this Mother’s Day, which is every day, in my opinion, let me just say this to all women, ladies, girls, etc: without you, we men are nothing.
Love4Ewan
As part of an effort to continue to Pay It Forward in honor of Ewan, Caroline and Sam, myself and my good friend Mauro Petraccone have created a special event to help elevate the Love4Ewan project while raising money for the Montreal Children’s Hospital. Mauro is part owner of the NDG restaurant Pasta Casareccia, and he has generously offered to provide dinner at the restaurant free of charge for every person who donates at least $75.00 to the Montreal Children’s in Ewan’s name!!!!
H I S T O R Y
This paragraph is taken from a page of my great-grandmother’s autobiography, referring to Montreal and Canada approximately one hundred years ago. Read it. We are still a country that embraces newcomers seeking safety, security and opportunity.
The Most Important Decision We Have To Make
I feel and learn from the poignancy of this life multiple times every day. The ephemerality and meaningfulness of it all is the spark that motivates me into the world. At times it gets me down, lower than I could ever express in words. At others it propels me to do, teach, help, speak and write even louder and more emphatically than I ever thought I could. But at the end of it all, I choose to live and feel all the feels, all the moments, all the love, all the tears, all the heartache, all the joy and all the sublimity. This is the choice I’ve made, the choice that we will all have to make.