Jesus loves me barney bubble blowing necklace

-
What do you give a stellar yoga teacher who comes to your home and give a private lesson for free? One who resists the commodotization of yoga and who teaches economics for the love of it? And what gift does one give when she brings along her lovely med student partner who gives wonderful advice as well?

After some thoughts of beautiful statues, donations to nonprofits, gifts from India, my mind settles on a memory from the past.

I think to myself with satisfaction that the answer is a Jesus Loves Me Barney Bubble Blowing Necklace. A tiny purple plastic dinosaur about three inches high, hollow and filled with bubble making juice (what is the technical term?). On its tiny green belly is written "Jesus Loves Me." You can twist off the tiny cap and blow the smallest bubbles ever. It comes complete with a little woven purple cord so that you can wear it around your neck. I bought five of them for 17 cents each at Crazy Franks near Mineral Point. And I gave them all away, carefully, over several years. I don't have a single one left. But that, I have decided, would be the perfect gift.

Of course I was left questioning why.

And then I realized that the gift requires the right mixture of love, spirituality, humor and downright joy and fun. For years, the Jesus Loves Me Barney Bubble Blowing Necklace has been an icon of this very thing. Transcending commercialism and branding and media hype and all the issues around children and TV, just look at the amount of functionality and fun in the tiny plastic thingy. It was only 17 cents, it was used and not thrown in the dump. A precious treasure discovered in some remote location and lovingly transported back to civilization. Its value increased by years of love and laughter. And right on its belly -- in the soft spot, was that reminder that in joy there was something sacred.

OK, maybe highly commercialized Barney items aren't usually about joy and spirituality, but that is probably where my sense of humor comes in. Right now you might be thinking its a questionable sense of humor, but I myself loved this little item. And I passed it along. I hope it was just as appreciated by those who have received it.

And for our lovely yoga teacher, well, its that wonderful heartfelt laughter mixed with spirituality and generosity and joy that I wish for her. Maybe I can't wrap that up in a little bubble blowing necklace after all.

And so on the day of our yoga session, we had no ordinary gifts in hand for our teachers. But during the final asana, I could hardly keep quiet with all of the laughter and joy in my heart.

And then I thought -- if we were all enlightened right now, we would be called "Laughing Yoginis."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prayers for Prague, Day 1 of Yoga Training

-
Dearest Prague , I learned today that the first day of yoga training is the hardest. You're going to do great, just know that its the hardest because everyone has a story about how they aren't good enough, or how they are going to mess up -- or god forbid that they aren' t afraid at all because they think th eir perfect (rarest of all). I know you are not one of the proud ones, so when your story gets going about how you aren't good enough or how you're gonna mess up, just remember to breathe -- we your Yoga brothers and sisters in training have all been through that time and you are not alone. Breathe dear, and stay with it. You ARE the one dear, now BE the one. I can't wait till you get home and tell me all about it.
Read more

Glimpsing compassion

-
It comes on like warm rum rolling from the heart and emanates in the ten directions of my body. It rushes into every part of my being, warming my soul and melting old scars. As it reaches the limits of my being, it falls back into itself -- a tiny spark chain reacts and promptly goes supernova. It burns and melts everything within me to light and I ......who am I? The light turns to liquid and burns through my veins, my nerves and melts everything.  Just when I must cry out, I must laugh, I must do something because I cannot contain it, the fire in my veins, in my blood, in my heart consumes into clarity. Everything seen is lit with the blaze of it - and everything heard and felt. Everything perceived is permeated. The atoms resonate, vibrate with it. Just when it cannot be contained, it burns cool in the veins and turns to oceanic clarity. Vast and deep and broad, the countless drops form waves and return again to ocean state. Out of that emerges form. Coo...
Read more

Birthday Thank You

-
If you do not know, when I was five years old my mother had to work on my birthday. She was a single parent at the time, and she was very sad to have to work. But we talked about it, and she arranged to have a wonderful all-day party for me, sponsored by some of her closest girlfriends of the time. We had a lovely time, and about an hour or so before my mother was supposed to be home, I looked out the window and a couple of blocks away there was a large hot air balloon going up and down, up and down, up and down. So we agreed to go check it out. It turned out they were giving away free hot air balloon rides. We were all very excited and got in line. We waited in line for about 20 minutes, all the while I was watching this giant flame burst forth and heat the air in the balloon. Now, I come from a whole family of firefighters. My mother, uncle and grandfather were all firefighters at the time. And as I watched that balloon go up and down, I started to suspect that it was not the safest ...
Read more