whole foods market is a trip. it's eye candy for the consciously hungry, and torture for the starving indecisive. i journeyed all the way over potrero hill this evening after a long, active day of dana yoga church, chilled thai coconut soup at cafe gratitude, teaching my alice arts sunday diva yoga class, and dancing (doundoumba, komodenu, and serouba) in alseny's sunday dance class party.
as soon as i arrived at the whole foods palace, i immediately forgot about everything dana addressed this morning in regards to "lightening up your luggage." in between ESG jams, shoulderstand and backbending, dana described the travellers in India who had backpacks dangling below their knees and towering above their shoulders. apparently they didn't look very comfortable with all their extra stuff. it seemed to hold them back a bit from fully experiencing India.
i come from a "stuff" family. in my childhood home there was a whole extra bedroom for my mom to keep her "stuff:" unfolded laundry from 1979, piles of blank birthday cards, stamps for the next 10 years or until they changed the value. we also had a basement where we stored enough food to feed a small village in west africa, under the condition they were open to eating canned progresso soup and pop secret light microwave popcorn.
being comfortably surrounded by stuff followed me into young adulthood. in 2004, when i went to live and teach in ghana, i boarded the plane with 3 LARGE suitcases. this was after dasha helped me downsize my tank top collection! imagine the looks on the children's faces when i pulled up to my village with 3 giant suitcases...
i naturally gravitate towards stuff. even in the yoga world. in the last 6 months i've gone from 1 set or mala beads to 4. i've purchased tiny statues of ganesh and hot pink buddha heads for my sudo-alters. i own 4 different colors of the laughing lotus signature cotton pants. almost every book on saul's reading list is under my night table. my music collection has tripled in size with the addition of every kirtan cd i can find. and yes, i have my very own copy of erich schiffmann's freedom style yoga dvd. if you don't, you should.
this evening at whole foods i began super market sweeping through the store. filling my basket with fresh corn on the cob, bright peaches, a bag of cherries, melon agua fresca, heirloom tomato salad. then i paused in front of the organic seedless watermelons. with jackson five blasting and a young girl laughing, i asked myself: "do i really need this?" no. the corners of my mouth perked up as i promptly removed the cherries and agua fresca from my basket, leaving a little extra space in my pack.
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5 comments:
Because I had to move 13 times as a kid, we always had to throw out 10% of our "stuff" every year or two. Now I have an issue now with throwing out "stuff" and putting "stuff" away. I was always in and out of boxes, and it's almost like clutter makes me feel comfortable. Even though it doesn't. It just clutters my life. I had a garage sale last weekend and donated a bunch of "stuff" to charity. It felt great!
I'm already an avid reader of your blog, Debbie. Thank you for sharing your energy with me it yet another way.
Deb! Stuff is the stuff that makes us human - what other animal needs so much? It has been a continued personal effort of mine to de-stuff and I've been dealing with with everyday for the past two years. So glad you started a blog, watch out, it's addictive!
I go through some systematic prunings -- like when I decided half my books had fungus and chucked them -- and generally consider stuff a bourgeois delusion, which is not to say I don't collect plenty of delusions.
I might love you for this post.
Its so... me...
Oh dear...
So what book is your favorite?
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