Just Like Starting Over: More Thoughts From Olds Fibre Week 2012

Yesterday was a quiet day of reflection.  I unpacked, did a bit of housecleaning, laundry, sorted things back into the fibre room and thought about the classes I had taught, as well as one I audited for a few hours.  I haven't seen any evaluations from participants in my classes yet, although I've received a few emails about the Yoga for Spinners sessions, so I wanted to post my thoughts before I read what others have said.

"My" spinning corner in the townhouse.

Yoga for Spinners was well-received.  People enjoyed the sessions and learned a trick or two about keeping themselves safe and comfortable while spinning or doing other fibre work.  Apparently, the shoulder adjustments I gave were worth the price of admission to most people.  (You can't do these yourself.  This is unfortunate because I really, really need one and the yoga studio is closed until tomorrow.)

Word got around that yoga may not be what people think it is.  I need to work on descriptions and promotion for these courses, so that people understand that there are simple, effective ways to adjust your posture in order to spin without compromising your comfort and health and without bending yourself into a pretzel.

In hindsight, I probably asked too much of my Spinning as Meditation Practice participants.  They were models of patience and grace under pressure, doing all of the strange things I asked of them.  It is remarkable that they stayed for the day; not one jumped ship.  (It wouldn't have been the first time that happened.)  A full day meditation workshop of any kind can be exhausting for someone who has experience with meditation, let alone for someone with none.  I've taught this course as a full day workshop, a four week course and a half-day workshop.  My inclination is to remove the full day course and  stay with weekly sessions (at home) or a two or three hour class.  I look forward to comments from participants.

If you ever want to experience incredible teaching moments, be sure to take a class, any class, from Jen Black.  Jen has her Master Spinning Certificate from Olds College.  She's taught some of the levels for the course, but as someone remarked, she really came alive in her class which was the aptly titled, "Spinning For Fun."  Jen took things she learned from her studies and demonstrated that achieving spinning excellence can and should be fun.  Her class learned to spin everything from alpaca to cotton to yak.  Her students discovered that anyone who says, "You can't do that!"  is probably mistaken.  I would be happy to follow Jen around her classes, just to soak up a bit of her wealth of knowledge and her teaching skills.

Jen's in-depth certificate study was on spinning cotton and she knows a thing or two about cellulose fibres, including how to grow a boll-producing cotton plant in sunny Edmonton.  I'm intrigued with cotton at the moment, but I know that I can spin it much better than I do.  Jen had some advice for me.  

The small, light brown piece of yarn at the bottom is my original yarn.  The skein at the top is the same yarn after I had re-plied, washed and boiled the yarn under Jen's tutelage!  Amazing, isn't it?

Sometimes, working at staying in Beginner's Mind has its benefits.

Namaste.