Impressions

Here in Rockville and Springdale we are blessed – we have Yoga ant Tai-Ji classes! It is hard for us to choose where to go or to find time for both. Ann Rutz teaches Anusara Yoga and David Rutz teaches Tai-ji. They are both wonderful teachers, what a family!

This time I will talk about Tai-ji which we usually have on David’s terrace, and that is how we usually see him :

And this is us, his most devoted students: Susan, Genevieve and Nida:

It all started several years ago – David got engaged in his Master’s Chungliang Al Huang classes in Oregon and even invited him to our canyon one of the beautiful autumns maybe a couple of years ago.

Here Chungliang is in the middle of the circle teaching us to relax in our movements, to dance in his class and through life.

He also showed us how graceful he is while doing Chinese calligraphy:

At the end of the classes as usual we were taking pictures with him:

But then he left and David decided to continue teaching us the Five Elements and Four Circles of Life. So we are enjoying every minute of it:

Especially when the weather is nice enough (which is almost always we have it on the terrace with the magnificent views of Zion:

That is why when we come to class we at first all exclaim what a wonderful weather we have here, how beautiful the mountains look and how grateful we are for that:

Then we do the Five Elements and Four Circles of Life created or choreographed by Chungliang, trying to be as graceful as possible and also trying to feel the energy floating around and through us:

And at some point we always discuss things like whether there is a bad and good energy or just the energy we need and use and the energy we don’t utilize (Susan’s brilliant thought). We discuss Chinese symbols, some philosophy and then David tells us something in pure Chinese language, which to him sounds musical and to me – not so much . He is a very good student of everything Chinese! There are quite a few Chinese paintings in their house, so when the weather is not the best -we do Tai-Ji in the house and admire the art:

There is also another Buddha outside who watches us while we dance and gives us a hint to be as Present as possible:

We usually end the class with the healing movements of Spring Forest Chigong and then usually Ann, our Yoga teacher, comes back from walking their dog Lao-Tzu and we have a nice chat with her:

And then David sees us off, till next Saturday:

Thank you, David!

Here is how our Zion National Park looked this winter. It is usually like that every winter, except that this winter we had a lot of snow. While I am writing this it is already 28th of March and I can still see snow powder on the slopes of Mountain. But the pictures were taken not now, but at different times in December and February. Here is the entrance to the park and the main scenic drive:

We were so happy to catch that beam of sun on the edge of the mountain:

Virgin River by the Temple of Sinawawa:

There were some bright colored ducks swimming in the river:

As every temple the Temple of Sinawawa it has an altar and a pulpit:

There was much more snow in February and those are a couple of views on the top part of the park – the Canyon Overlook trail:

Hello again! After this trip to California spring started bursting in our Rockville, so I had to take care of my garden first. Feeling a little late with my impressions from Monterey…

Here what I saw from the airplane flying from Las Vegas to San Jose. It was the Death Valley underneath us and one could clearly see the white salts of Bad Waters! Boy, I liked it seeing from above just weeks after we visited it on the ground level :

Then the Sierras showed their snowy tops:

California on the other side of Sierra Nevada mountains is very green – quite a difference:

And here is the Silicon Valley with San Jose in the middle. Can you feel the tremendous and concentrated brain energy pulsing in the air?

Luckily the Bowen Workshop was held not in San Jose but in Monterey – it was a beautiful drive to there! I just couldn’t take pictures, the car was too fast…But believe me – there were lots of flowers on the green hill slopes by the road! You will see some of them growing in Monterey where I could walk and enjoy them. But fort of all – the House of 4 Winds (sounds impressive) where the workshop was held:

I mean the smaller one on the right. The bigger one is the Museum of Art. We parked the cars to unload the massage tables and were greeted by Karin Twohig – the workshop coordinator and John Wilks, the teacher for this topic: “Bowen for Back Pain” :

Everything was organized very well for such a sizable class – 34 participants. The House of 4 Winds had a big hall for listening to our teacher and performing the assessments he taught as well as some minimal number of moves on each other:

During small breaks we had chats in the kitchen while drinking tea with cookies, nuts and other snacks. Those breaks seemed always too short because there were so many information to exchange among participants or answers to get from the more experienced ones. I bet Sandra Gustafson never had a minute off…

Then again – back to demonstrations and studies. In this particular one John Wilks was showing us how to do the Pelvic procedure on a lying person:

During the lunch break I wondered around and saw some outstanding views:

The bright yellow flowers could be seen all the way from San Jose to Monterey. As I looked closer – they are from the same family as Irish shamrocks:

This time the sea lions didn’t fight for their rocks, they each had one and were peacefully resting:

Sometimes I wish I’d stop admiring flowers so much…

Returning back to Bowen workshop – this artistic house was on the way:

Here is the whole group of us students – Bowen practitioners:

I guess we were so in a hurry after the class that we didn’t take the untidy massage table away from the view…sorry about that…

It took me a long day to fly that 1h and 20 min flight form San Jose to Las Vegas…They found they had to attach some little thing to the airplane and it lasted for 4 h’s. So this is the evening view of Las Vegas Strip before circling it and landing:

Now with our sharpened skills in Bowen Bodywork we continue helping people to live and enjoy their lives without pain.

I guess – every little town has someone. We have Susan Taylor. She simply shines. Not only that she eagerly helps in every Rockville event, but her presence is more than her help. Seeing how people love her I dare say that she lifts the vibrations not only in me. Today – March 10th – was Susan’s Birthday. Here is how her house looked in the morning when we came to congratulate her:

Susan’s daughter Marie organized the most beautiful Birthday party for her I have ever seen. It was in Rockville Community Center and how many people participated?…Sorry, I was so excited that I didn’t count, but my guess is – no less than a hundred… Here is how it looked:

And here is our Susan, alone and with Marie:

And with our outstanding photographer Jim who is reading a poem specially created to Susan (he and his wife Carol are also poets). He was also very excited, he could hardly see what to read:

Though the invitation said “no presents”, Susan got two. Well, she got some more, but the others were not official. Under the experienced direction by Alison a bunch of women created and sewn a fantastic quilt – a very personalized one for it had the pictures of Susan and her friends on top, several of Susan’s best pictures of Zion park, Buddhist monks and Rockville under snow (which rarely happens) and Buddhist prayer flags on the bottom. It emphasized not only Susan’s social talents, but her talents as a photographer as well. I bet she likes the quilt because she is a picture lover and keeps boxes and boxes of them.

So here is the quilt:

And here is the other present:

This fancy man (Agent 007) simply emerged from the box while Susan was unwrapping.

There were lots of cards, but this one requires to be shown separately. It is made of metal and is huge like a sculpture:

This is the most magic moment – and what do you think – she blew all of the 58 candles at once! What a lung capacity!

And here are some of Susan’s friends, sorry, I didn’t take them all…Some pics were blur, too excited to have steady hands…

Alison and Johnny:

Oh, I have to mention – almost all of us has green dots on our noses – to show we belong to “Susan’s gang”:

Delores is embraced by the man who is not her husband – she is the artist of the metal card! Such a delicate and tiny woman and so strong…

Ann Weiler Brown with Trista and Allan:

I can’t mention our wonderful Yoga teacher Ann with the best yoginia’s:

Susan with Sandra, Kim and the legendary La Berta:

With Margot:

And with Fay:

Logan is the journalist and politician – he helped to introduce democracy in Lithuania and other Baltic and previous Soviet Union countries, not an easy task. He even knows some words from each country he has worked and always greets me with “Labas”. On his teeshirts he always has something peculiar. Good that Lenin here has this punk comb on his head – otherwise it wouldn’t be funny to me, having lived through his established regime:

Robert Perkins with Fay (both artists and neighbors as most of the people here):

The end.

We did the Artist Drive then stopped at Golden Canyon and walked up a little. Very dry, no flowers or anything, except maybe one bush. But the rocks are spectacular:

And only when we reached the Visitor’s center which is by Furnace Creek – we saw the abundance of Desert Sunflowers – the ones we were seeking…Maybe I’ll place too many pictures of them here, but I can’t help. I want to share their beauty, their ethereal nature and my big feeling of ‘Awe’ -when you think: tender lush flowers in a harsh desert environment…(but you shouldn’t think, just be present – as Eckhart Tolle advises us). This is the place where the feeling of stillness and sacredness fills the heart and there is a possibility to connect with the Great Consciousness or God…

The sun was setting, so we drove back through Furnace Creek, which is a little oasis in the valley – they have some good palm trees and look like an island of life:

And then up to Zabriskie Point. When I was young and lived in Lithuania I saw a movie by this name by Italian film director Antonioni – a very existentialist movie that was forbidden in former Soviet Union. But as the constrictions were getting looser some enthusiasts showed the movie for small audiences and I never forgot it (well, and never even for a second did I dream to see the place with my own eyes). It ends with lots of naked bodies making love on the slopes of Zabriskie Point…It is a beautiful scene, but when you see the surface and structure of those slopes in reality – as one person said – making love here would be the last thing on my mind . You can decide for yourselves…

And the sun is setting, heading home…

I highly suggest to see Death Valley NP, but not in summer. If you can’t go during the flower season which is March, warm yourselves up in winter or late fall. But if you are going for extremes – they say it feels like in a oven in summer. And I would also suggest not to take our bad example (in and out in 5 hours) and stay there at least for a night so that you could enjoy more of it and see its morning! There are many more good pictures to be made if the sun shines from different side. Best luck!