It’s official everyone: the better, cooler weather is finally here.
As we speak, I’m sitting in front of a wood burning stove, listening to the New Mexico wind howl outside, while enjoying a hot cop of coffee.
It has been a busy couple of weeks and it doesn’t look like I’ll be any less busy in the next two or three.
The relaunch of my site has gone a lot better than I thought (thank you to those that purchased prints) and I’m finding myself more and more excited to take photos. Even if they aren’t any good or they don’t turn out the way I want, the process is what excites me the most. Figuring out a different angle, or trying a different lens, all of it, gives me a sense of creative accomplishment.
Last week I spent a few days on a story, following a Gulf War veteran as he ran his business, practiced yoga, and tried to figure out life after the military.
Being the type that likes to immerse myself in the story, I went with him to Bikram yoga.
For those unfamiliar, several years ago a few yoga instructors and practitioners became bored with the humdrum, typical yoga practice at a comfortable temperature. They decided what was missing was a sauna so they moved their practice into studios at temperatures above 100 degrees.
Now you could spend an hour stretching and meditating while sweating like you were in the middle of Death Valley in July.
That still wasn’t enough for some people.
One yogi, thinking about how to torture himself and his students, decided, “we should turn up the heat and do this for 90 minutes.”
And thus Bikram yoga was born.
Bikram, of course, is Hindi for “sadistic asshole” and gives practitioners a sense of survival once their session is over.
A few days later I drove to the Crossed Arrows Ranch in Santa Fe, NM where I’m participating in a horse therapy program for veterans (again for a story) and have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
I’ve seen a lot of sunsets in a lot of different places— India, New Zealand, Thailand, Montana, etc.— but the New Mexico sunset is definitely in my top three. The way the colors of the tired sun bounce off the crags are so vivid it’s almost like you’re on a different planet.
I was watching one of these sunsets a couple days ago when I remembered a thought I had about a year ago that wouldn’t go away.
We never just sit anymore.
The fall has typically been the time of year when musicians and bands release new albums or new singles. It’s almost hard to keep up with and listen to all the new music coming out.
But when was the last time you just sat and listened to a new album? Not as background music as you drive to work or do the dishes or workout at the gym. Just turned up the volume, sat in a chair, and soaked in the notes and the lyrics.
I’m willing to bet most of my generation hasn’t done that since we were kids, sitting in the back seat on a long road trip with a borrowed Discman. That used to be one of the only form of entertainment we had any control over. Older siblings or parents could take over the TV remote, the computer made those weird sounds while the internet took twenty minutes to boot up.
In the back seat though, the bulky headphones attached to the CD player so only you could hear, you controlled everything. You let the music surround you and let the lyrics consume you.
But now, there’s always a purpose to our music. We force it to have a function rather than just enjoying it for its own merits.
Maybe we’re all just getting older and busier or maybe technology has created an expectation that we don’t waste time just sitting (unless we’re watching Netflix). Maybe we don’t sit and watch the sunset anymore because we can just go on Instagram and see sunsets from around the world.
It seems that’s what a lot of us are craving with the popularity of meditation and mindfulness exercises: just a few minutes to sit and be with no distractions. Although, even that has been streamlined and made more efficient with “walking meditation” and mindfulness you can practice while driving.
Perhaps, it’s time we all find an album, turn up the volume, and just sit and listen.
Keep your feet moving