I can hear the wind blustering, see the leaves on the camellia bush outside my window waving furiously and when I went for a walk with the dogs there were tree branches and palm fronds scattered across lawns, sidewalk and into the street. Nothing like a windy day to evoke the wildness – in nature and in people. What is it about the wind that gets us going? Here in L.A. we have Santa Ana winds that blow off the desert, warm and dry they are known to make men (and women) mad. Only temporarily, of course, but I am sure crime rates go up, as well as traffic accidents and luniness, in general. Of course there is no hard evidence of the latter, but those who live in it know what goes on, how we all get antsy, itchy, and no manner of scratching can relieve the need to move or just do something inanely destructive. Who says we aren’t affected by the forces of nature?

Navigating around town on this bright, smogless day was invigorating. I hit some of the spiritual spaces/places that I have come to cherish over the years. It’s one of things I love about L.A. – these places where people are making an effort to provide food for the soul, where you can go to read books on great spiritual traditions, listen to uplifting music and inhale sandalwood incense. This is the Bodhi Tree, a metaphysical bookstore on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, where the floorboards squeak and the stacks are a warren of respite from the Borders and Barnes & Noble of the world. It has a devoted clientele and in spite of the lack of parking and encroachment of high-end shops and office buildings, persists in its determination to provide spiritual sustenance to the community.

Before getting to the Bodhi Tree I stopped at our “family” yoga center, Yoga West, on Robertson Blvd to pick up some meditation music. The vibe there is so welcoming and gentle. For many, many years our teacher, Yogi Bhajan would teach classes there, always drawing a full house, booming out his messages of “Keep up and you’ll be kept up,” and “It’s not the life that matters, but the courage you bring to it.” A lot of yoga has been done in that space, a lot of meditation. Tears of joy and pain have been shed on those floors as students stretch not only their legs and arms and spine, but their understanding of what it is to be human, to be a spiritual being. It is another one of those places where it’s not about the money made but the difference made every day with every inhale and exhale.

After Yoga West and a quick stop at the bank (even I have to take care of business sometimes) I headed over to Elixir, a tea and tonic shop just a block west of Bodhi Tree to meet with my good friend, Heidi. We met a few years ago at a David Whyte seminar at Santa Monica University, where we sat in the same row and ended up doing some “exercises” together. She’s a great astrologer, writer, stage director, mom and all round caring and loving person. She ordered a “Virtual Buddha” and I got the “Depth Recharger” purported to replenish “jing,” revitalize liver & kidneys and clear “heat.” Sounded good to me, so I ordered mine hot and we took our beautifully sculpted mugs of tea out to the garden in the back to catch up on what has been going on in our lives. The water fountain gurgled, the sun sifted through the bamboo and the sounds of a woman’s voice singing (either next door or maybe from the CD playing) floated over us like an angel of the highest order. It was just good – good to be somewhere so nurturing, with a friend sharing warm tea and sweet muffins, an environment where giving and receiving kindness flowed so naturally.

In the Bodhi Tree I picked up a couple of books of poetry, The Forbidden Rumi and The Penguin Book of the Sonnet. Below is a poem from each book. I hope you’ll also enjoy a track from a CD I bought at Yoga West from Healing in Africa by Siri Dharma Kaur and The Alexandra Community Choir.

May the winds of change ever inspire you to be more and more yourself and may you get a little crazy every once in awhile, feel the wind-spirit blow you to new territory, new frontiers of consciousness. Up, up and away!!

The Eggshell of the Body

If you want to feel rapture,
then give up thinking, and quit worrying.

You’re like a bizarre bird
in the shell of the body’s egg.
You can’t fly because you’re inside the egg.

But when this egg is crushed,
you’ll fly free and save your soul.

Rumi
The Forbidden Rumi
Tr by Nevit O. Ergin and Will Johnson
Inner Traditions, Publisher

The Forge

All I know is a door into the dark.
Outside, old axles and iron hoops rusting;
Inside, the hammered anvil’s short-pitched ring,
The unpredictable fantail of sparks
Or hiss when a new shoe toughens in water.
The anvil must be somewhere in the centre,
Horned as a unicorn, at one end square,
Set there immoveable: an altar
Where he expends himself in shape and music.
Sometimes, leather-aproned, hairs in his nose,
He leans out on the jamb, recalls a clatter
Of hoofs where traffic is flashing in rows;
Then grunts and goes in, with a slam and flick
To beat real iron out, to work the bellows.

Seamus Heaney
The Penguin Book of the Sonnet
Edited by Phillis Levin
Penguin Books, Publisher

Heidi Rose

A rainbow of Buddhas inside Elixir 

Teapots

The fountain and back garden at Elixir

Bodhi Tree front window with stained glass mandala. 

Inside the Bodhi Tree 

Bodhi Tree Checkout 

Teachers Bench at Yoga West