YogaRoots On Location & Reclaiming Savage
Felicia Savage Friedman & Maya Savage
August 28, 2024
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare”
* borrowed from “A Burst of Light” by audre lorde
** audre lorde is a phenomenal Black, lesbian, mother, warrior and poet
Where I Am From Poem (George Ella Lyon)
Use this template to draft your poem, and then write a final draft to share on blank paper. I am from ______________________________ (specific ordinary item)
From ________________________ and __________________________ (product name) (product name) I am from the ______________________________________________ (home description) ___________________ , _________________ , ________________________________ (adjective) (adjective) (sensory detail) I am from _________________________________________ , (plant, flower, natural item)
_______________ (description of above item) I'm from ____________________________ and ______________________________ (family tradition) (family trait)
From ______________________________ and _________________________ (name of family member) (another family name) I'm from the ____________________________ and ______________________ (description of family tendency) (another one) From _________________________________ and ________________________ (something you were told as a child) (another) I'm from ___________________________ , __________________________________ (representation of religion or lack of), (further description) I'm from _______________________________________________ (place of birth and family ancestry)
______________________________________ ,
________________________________ (a food item that represents your family) (another one) From the
_____ (specific family story about a specific person and detail) The _________________________________________________________ (another detail of another family member)
________ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives)
_________________________________________________________
_________ (line explaining the importance of family items)
The Original Poem: Where I’m From
By George Ella Lyon
I am from clothespins, from Clorox and carbontetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch. (Black, glistening it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush, the Dutch elm whose long gone limbs I remember as if they were my own.
I am from fudge and eyeglasses, from Imogene and Alafair.
I'm from the know-it-alls and the pass-it-ons, from perk up and pipe down.
I'm from He restoreth my soul with cottonball lamb and ten verses I can say myself.
I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch, fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost to the auger the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box spilling old pictures. a sift of lost faces to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments -- snapped before I budded -- leaf-fall from the family tree.
“Where I Am From”
Dr. Edwin Nichols’ Cultural Differences
chrome-extension:// efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https:// courses.oermn.org/pluginfile.php/26109/ mod_resource/content/3/Axiology_Rev.pdf
What other community agreements are important to include for your ACA Mentoring Artistic Residency to be whatever you want it to be?
Discussion: How do you practice being fully present in your life? What are the barriers to your practices?
No Mud, No Lotus
• borrowed from How To
Fight by Thich Nhat
Hanh
• * write your reflections in your journal
Transforming our anger and suffering makes happiness possible. Without suffering, there can be no happiness. We need mud to grow lotus flowers; otherwise, they cannot take root. Our anger and suffering are the mud we can use to cultivate happiness, compassion, and understanding. If we know how to handle and transform our suffering, we will suffer much less. The mud will become lotus flowers. To generate compassion, you have to understand and embrace your suffering. Don’t try to throw your suffering away. Hold it tenderly like a mother holding her crying baby and look deeply into it. Then insight blooms. Each person has a lot of anger and suffering. When we don’t know how to handle our suffering, we continue to suffer, making other people around us suffer. But when we understand that others are already suffering, we don’t want to punish them anymore. Listening to the suffering inside of you and inside of the other person allows understanding and compassion to be born. When compassion is born in your heart, it begins to heal and transform the anger and suffering in your heart and every cell of your body.
• Gentle Movements and Restorative yoga poses to contemplate
• Universal Meditation
• Check out the YROL Museum of Feelings and list activities and songs that bring you joy.
