Dear White Lotus Community,

If you are on the front lines, we salute you, be you doctors, nurses, hospital janitors, farmers, grocery workers, food bank volunteers, mailpersons, et cetera. We humbly thank you for your courageous service. If you have experienced the virus yourself, we send prayers of well being and if you have lost someone, you have our deepest condolences. If you have redesigned your right livelihood to support those of us trying to do our job by laying low and staying out of the way, keeping our heads down to dodge this gnarly piece of RNA till testing, treatments and vaccines become apparent, we thank you and acknowledge your creative spirit by turning your restaurants into pantries and your bed sheets into masks.

I assume we have all settled into some sort of relationship with this novel time in our lives. We hope that revelations and meaningful change will emerge from this period of enforced inquiry and quasi-monastic living. Personally, one of the best aspects of this time has been the opportunity to learn and study, both myself and numerous areas that enlighten my spirit. In addition, out of necessity, I have had to develop more of a relationship with technology than I ever cared to explore.

Part of what is being asked of us at this moment is to learn to hold fast and to hold still. Stillness, in the same way we describe the nature of balance in White Lotus principles, can reveal a dynamic internal state. Doing "nothing" doesn't mean that nothing is going on. Stillness may appear unmoving, but it also requires us to observe within, and learn to balance the ebbs and flows of energies and our emotions. Stillness is a balancing act. It is a meditation, and like most everything observed, can reveal the nature of things. Stillness is an opportunity and a gift, when taken.

We understand how people need to be working, moving, socializing, and surviving. We understand people are getting antsy, anxious, or simply responding to the natural rhythms of spring rising in their veins. It also seems we are needing something to give, to relent or shift somewhere. And yet. Just wishing things to be "normal", does not magically create normalcy. There is no "return to normal". There is only a new normal which is being created moment to moment and it relies on intelligent responsiveness. How will we take what has been meaningful about this time forward with us?

As human beings, we are up against a cusp requiring transformation--personally and collectively. This moment calls for great flexibility, creativity, resourcefulness, empathy, wisdom and compassion. Not having the answers initially or immediately is not a place in which the mind sits comfortably. And yet.

Hold fast. Hold still.

Yoga--the cultivation of deeper inquiry and insight, finding and accessing a place that understands one's own nature within greater Nature, having a resource to dive into--that Yoga, is invaluable in our lives.

Hold gently, Hold still.

In kinship,

Tracey, Ganga and the White Lotus Family

From the White Lotus Kitchen

It's a Wrap
T&G's Miso-Tahini Wrap

This miso-tahini wrap is one of our go-to lunches that I mentioned a couple of newsletters back on the What We Are Eating List. It's a great quickie when Ganga and I are in the midst and want to grab something easy, but yummy and healthy.

You can use any wrap you like. We typically use either organic corn or corn and wheat tortillas which we heat over the open gas flame on the stove, but you could also use a toaster oven, or even steam your tortillas. The thing that makes this so delicious is the simple, homemade miso-tahini "secret sauce" that you can either pre-make by blending the ingredients, or just wing by layering each item right onto your wrap. We love the organic chickpea miso by Miso Master. It's a light yellow miso with a salty, slightly sweet taste. Use a greater ratio of tahini to miso paste. This miso, while lighter than some versions, is still a concentrated condiment and is intense.

Literally anything can be placed inside your creation from last night's crispy tempeh or tofu with a garden salad, to steamed or roasted veggies. The "secret sauce", plus...

What Brings You Joy

My Corona Workbook:
Twelve Things You Can Do to Meditate and Get You Thru
with Tracey Rich

corona [ kuh-roh-nuh ] noun, ...light seen around a luminous body...

Favorite pastimes and new rhythms have emerged during this shelter-in-place and have inspired inclusion in this newsletter. Here are some ideas to keep you engaged in your life in both lighthearted and meaningful ways. Enjoy, wash your hands, keep the peace, keep your immune strong and carry on.

My Corona Workbook:

• Collage: Sounds hokey, turns out to be fun and cultivates both the meditative and the waking dream state. Use a page in your journal or workbook, cardboard from package deliveries, shoe boxes, 5x8 poster board cards, or just go ahead and do your whole bathroom. Materials: use old letters, photos, fabric, magazines, junk mail. Create an ode to this time, a visual letter to someone loved, lost or missed, or some inexplicable piece of modern art.
• Create a new recipe: If you already like to cook this will be a positive challenge. If not, even better! Start now--as if necessity has not already dictated you try (because we're sure you're done having cereal for B-L-D). Follow your taste buds and use your imagination to create something you might be craving. Modify it to fit what you have on hand. Or copy a recipe from a book or online for something you already adore. If you're new to cooking, that's good enough. You're already a success. But if you are anything like me, you will always go rogue on a recipe and add your own twists. Whatever you make, write it up in your workbook, even if its a flop. There's always the next meal to triumph and convince your taste buds to trust you again.
• Daydream: Just do it. You're doing it anyway, but now be aware of it. It's good for your brain and a form of lucid dreaming or meditation. Write your observations in your workbook. Some of your most creative ideas come from this space.
• Doodle: Some of us do and some of us don't. Think of this as a moving mind-to hand meditation. It's much less stressful than trying to create a drawing when you don't consider that you have skill sets. And, in fact, its good for you. Doodling is a wonderful way to be mindless. This is actually stress reduction. Doodling lets your mind wander free and that becomes calming and creative.
• Dream-Dream: We all dream and we have come to learn how important it is to well being. Some people don't remember their dreams. If you're someone who doesn't usually remember their dreams, then before you go to sleep you can tell your mind that you want to remember your dreams and it will begin to respond. Keep a notepad by your bed and scribble things down if you wake in the night, ideally with no light and little movement. Definitely write down any dream or dream fragments, upon waking, in your workbook. The language you use in the flow of writing down your dreams can be extremely informative to reaping meaning and the results can be quite nourishing.