Why do so many adults love Halloween? I think it is because it lets us express parts of ourselves, perhaps even those shadow parts, which we rarely show. Behind a mask, a costume, we can embrace the qualities of our outer form. We may find ourselves not just acting the part, but feeling the part. But what does all this have to do with Yoga? Yoga poses have long been considered ways to “try on” the qualities of other characters and creatures – the mighty roar of the Lion, the proud carriage of the Warrior, the grace of the Swan.

This has been one of my favorite classes since I began experimenting with the theme in 2006. I have based classes on yoga animal and plant asanas as well as on Kali, a ferocious Hindu goddess. In college a senior left me her leopard pantsuit when she graduated and it has been the basis of my go-to Halloween costume for decades since. I’ve bought cute ears, pinned on a tail, painted on whiskers… You get the picture. I have even had the nerve to prance by the guards at the women’s prison, with my tail tucked modestly in my satchel until I get to class.

This year I centered my groups with an energy face massage. Rubbing hands together to create heat and a lovely vibration we brought the energy up to our faces. Before the hands touch the skin, there is a moment when our expression is hiding behind the screen of our fingers and we can “let our masks go”. How many faces do I wear in a day? What a relief to have permission to let my facial muscles relax. In this class we return again and again to this simple exercise to transition between the different characters we assume.

The Cock and the Lion set the tone for  in this class. Kukkutasana and Simhasana appear in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, an early Hatha Yoga text (probably written in the 14th to 15th Century A.D.), so I feel we are joining our energies with generations of yogis when we practice these postures. There is much controversy about where many of our modern yoga asanas actually arose, but  familiar sitting postures , spinal twists , inversions, forward bends, and backbends are included the Indian guru,  Satmarama’s, compilation of the wisdom of Hatha Yoga of his time. Once in a while I like to remind myself of the classics.

Try any sequence of your favorite postures, visualizing and imitating the energetic qualities of each character you choose. If there is a pose that has always been too much of a challenge, try making up your own version so you can add the energy of that animal or plant to your practice. Imagine each yoga pose as a Qigong frolic – a chance to explore and connect your playful inner child with the energies of the natural world.

Take a look at my suggested class, Halloween Yoga and at my post for the Kukkutasana, the Cock.

As a novice golfer, I am fascinated by the parallels between trying to coordinate the body and the intellect in golf and in yoga. Inner Golf by W. Timothy Gallwey describes the Law of Awareness that states that if you want to change something you must first increase your awareness of the way it is through attentiveness, or focused awareness. This is certainly true in yoga!

The lesson plan below encourages attention through sound, touch, and progressive body scans. Rachel Schaeffer suggests two Private “I” body scans in her book Yoga for Your Spiritual Muscles. The first is done standing in Mountain and the second in Sivasana. In both cases one scans the body without changing anything, noticing the right and left sides of the body, the front and the back. Where do we feel tense or open, heavy or light? Notice where energy or breath flow easily or feel blocked. Once we have observed where we hold and where we feel loose, safe, comfortable, and relaxed we can give ourselves a little shake and notice again. What changed?

Please play with this series to sharpen your focus on your own sensations and let me know what you found most helpful.

Inner Golf & Inner Yoga PDF

PS – How about listening to The Beach Boys, Good Vibrations to set the summertime mood?

The enthusiastic yoga students above just completed their chair yoga session at the Hearth, an independent living facility where my mother-in-law lives. She is more likely to attend the class if I accompany her, so I have been able to enjoy and learn from instructor Karen Suppies’s yoga flow. She has tailored her class beautifully around her students’ interests and memories. To provide a focus each week she brings in a tangible item: a vase of yellow flowers or a bowl of red raspberries, for example. The class has a conversation about the item to center and then begin to breathe and move together. YInyasa flows include rowing their boats, leaning back in recliners, squeezing lemons between their shoulder blades, and marching to Yankee Doodle Dandy. There are lots of smiles and we really move, adding ties and light weights for additional stability and strength. Thank you Karen for sharing your ideas so freely with me! Some of her ideas have seeped into my classes…

After nine months of teaching chair yoga at the West Haven Veterans Center, I have finally created a default lesson plan as well. My students are eager to learn a consistent series of postures so they can practice more easily on their own. I know I will keep bringing in a variety of readings and music and tinker with the centering and breathing practices. As I continue to experiment with props and postures (and borrow ideas from Karen) the asanas will evolve. I’m always curious to see what arises in the moment, and I hope my students appreciate a few surprises.

We have be focusing on using our senses as tools  to bring our attention back to the present moment. In the lesson plan below I recommend two meditations. In the first, a visual meditation, we rub our hands together until we feel warmth and energy in our palms and fingers and then cover our eyes.  The objective is to soothe and  still the eyes, gazing through the darkness at an imaginary point in the far distance. Fixing our gaze often stills the wanderings of our minds as well. Do you unconsciously tense up when you focus? Relax all the muscles of your face, especially all the muscles around your eyes, cheeks, and jaw. After a few breaths we close our eyes and remove our hands, adjusting to the light behind our lids before blinking our eyes open.

Chanting A-O-U-M, the second meditation, focuses our senses of touch and hearing on the healing vibrations of the sacred Sanskrit syllable, OM. The vowel “a” vibrates in the back of our throat and the rear portions of our brain. “O” and “u” vibrate further forward across the upper palate of our mouths and up into  more regions of our brains. “M” buzzes our lips and into our cerebrum, the thinking portion of brains.  Chant in a relaxed manner, listening to the OM resonating in your head without straining either to make the sound or to listen to the sound. This isn’t singing. Let go of judgment! Can you feel the vibrations sweeping across your scull, relaxing your mind?

All chanting serves as a pranayama as well. With each long exhalation, we empty our lungs of stale air. The deep inhalation between repetitions replenishes our oxygen supply and energy. Long, smooth exhalations also soothe the nervous system, inviting our bodies to heal and function properly. Relaxation practices bring our hormonal, digestive,  circulatory, and immune systems back into balance.

Once in a while a gentle, relaxing posture flow is very restorative, even if you normally prefer a more vigorous practice.. Regularly teaching chair yoga has helped me recognize the benefits of short sensory meditations and simple, repetitive movements on my own nervous system. Print the following  Chair Yoga PDF and take it to work for a refreshing practice at your desk. Yoga really can be practiced almost anywhere!

Click here: Chair Yoga PDF

This lesson plan is two pages long, but I thought the attention to detail might be helpful. Volunteer to pose for my camera and I’d be delighted to illustrate the class!

My latest airplane read was Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thalerr & Prof. Cass R. Sunstein. They point out that our choices are greatly influenced by their context or what they call choice architecture. (I promise this will come around to yoga.) When we choose a flavor of ice cream on a hot summer night we are pretty good at selecting a flavor we like without assistance. When we can sample an unusual one, our taste buds give us instant feedback to make our choice even easier. Choosing a new car, a health plan, or a retirement strategy is more difficult. We may not be as well informed and the feedback is slower. How about deciding to diet or practice yoga? There are so many choices to be made and inertia is incredibly strong. It is very difficult to change our habits when the results accrue slowly. Can choices be designed so we are more likely to behave in ways that benefit us?

Nudge introduced me to the concept of default settings as an aid in decision making. When I lose electricity at home, my digital clocks (on the microwave, the stove, my alarm clock) all blink 12:00 when the power resumes. The manufacturers set 12:00 as the default setting, but they could have picked anything. Some cars have a default setting that causes the car to beep if you turn off the key and leave the lights on, or they buzz if you don’t latch your seatbelt. These are examples of conscious choice architecture. I am grateful that my computer is full of default settings, yet I have the freedom to change them as I become more technologically savvy.

I’ve noticed that many popular yoga styles emphasize a particular routine. The flow acts as a default setting. Once a student rolls out his or her mat, he or she doesn’t have to make more choices. The student just plows through the routine as time permits. In my role as a teacher I want to broaden my students experience of yoga. I don’t believe in a magic sequence that is ideal for all bodies at all times. None the less, in my own practice I find I recycle familiar sequences and then flow into variations and explorations. Many yogis use the Sun Salutation as both a physical and mental preparation for their practice. As I center, it is easier to overcome my early morning lethargy if I only have to make one decision, “Table Warm-up” for example, and can then continue through an entire familiar flow without having to make another choice. Once I am moving, my body leads me into further warm-ups, postures, pranayama and meditation as time permits. Even though I just got out of bed, I end with a few slow breaths lying in Sivasana to integrate the benefits of my practice. In hotels in Italy, I could always fit in a standing series and a quick Sivasana before breakfast. Lubricating my joints before biking in Puglia, walking the streets of Milan, or flying home felt essential.
For the month of June I have chosen to work on teaching the same warm-ups each week to my different classes. The women on the minimum security side are learning the 8 Brocades, while my longer term students are creating flows from the Sun Salutation. Meanwhile, the veterans are learning a fixed seated posture routine, some seated on mats on the floor and others in wheelchairs or arm chairs. My goal is for my students to learn a default routine to nudge them to practice without my guidance, eventually grooving the behavior until yoga becomes an integral part of their lifestyles.

The readings I have selected for this theme both relate to practice. When your practice slips, begin again without judgment. You are always welcome. And know that the benefits of yoga are not a matter of faith, they are a matter of practice!

Practice PDF

Let me know what routines work for you. If you are having trouble getting started, let me  suggest something just for you. Please comment by clicking the header of this post and I’ll e-mail you a response.

The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on the brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;…

Excerpt from Saint Francis and the Sow, by Galway Kinnell

As the shrubs bloom outside, it is the perfect time of year to recall that we all blossom. We all need water and sunlight, or encouragement and recognition. Taking the time to attend to ourselves and others actually helps us grow emotionally and physically. Recent brain science demonstrates that we can build new neural connections through yoga asana and meditation as these activities demand focus, attention, and compassion. According to studies published in the June 2010 Yoga Journal, areas of our brain exhibit more involvement in skills we practice, so try practicing a little self blessing:

Self Blessing Lesson Plan – Click to read or download the complete lesson.

I caught a spring cold and found the energy shower and face massage very soothing and draining for my sinuses. It was a challenge to motivate myself to practice, but reviewing restorative postures and meditations allowed me to be creative and self-nurturing. I begin each practice by reminding myself that I always feel better after I’ve reconnected with my breath, and my physical and emotional bodies. – And it’s true! I almost didn’t teach today, but I’m so glad I showed up.

Next week I’ll be biking in Italy, volcanoes willing. Look for photos and commentary in about ten days….

The irony is not lost on me that after I spent a week encouraging myself and my students to slow down and pay attention, I let my attention and front wheel wander as I was bicycling. The mulch on the side of the road grabbed the tire and bike and I fell and spun on the blacktop. What a beautiful example of the shadow side’s presence! When we focus on courage we notice our insecurities, when we try to loosen our hamstrings we become even more aware of their tightness, and so on. When I’m trying to pay attention, I notice how often my thoughts wander! Needless to say all my lesson plans are first and foremost directed at myself. Three hours in the ER, of course I fell on on a Saturday, and at least three stitches later I limped my bruised body into my husband’s car and home. Fortunately I have no broken bones and I’ll be up and riding in time for a Backroads trip in Puglia, Italy  in May with  Terry and friends. Ice is wonderful!

A stranger saw my dramatic tumble and invited me into her house to clean me up. Her husband had recently had surgery and had lots of gauze and tape already in the kitchen so they wrapped me up neatly before racing off to a lacrosse game. What a lovely, spontaneous gesture of kindness! I sat in their driveway on a bench in the brilliant sunshine, listening to the birds and icing myself until Terry returned with the car. He was a charming caregiver all day, the one that determined that stitches were probably in order, and kept me lubed with ointment and protected with fresh gauze. We happened to have a sailing team from the College of Charleston staying at our house for the weekend while they raced in New London at the Coast Guard Academy, so Terry fairly single-handedly provided dinner last night and breakfast this morning for all of us. What a star!

I planned to take some photos of the Forward Bend Vinyasa to illustrate this week’s lesson plan, but my hip is too sore to pose. Are my written instructions helpful? In the plan I also introduce mulabandha, the root lock, a gentle lifting of the perineum that extends up through the diaphragm and the soft palate to stabilize the body and bring energy up the spine. Lying in Supine Child is a comfortable way to locate the lifting sensation while still breathing. As mulabandha becomes more familiar, the technique makes side bends, back bends, and twists from any position more stable and comfortable. Please let me know if you have questions or a better way to explain the root lock. Click on the title of the post above to open to a page where you can comment.

Slow Down PDF – Click away for a PDF with poetry and flow instructions that you can print out and try out on your own.

There are many variations of the Bridge posture, setu bandhasana. The following series of photos includes an alternate sided bridge warm up, snow angels, a traditional bridge, the wheel, the hammock, and the fish. Normally they are not all performed together, but you can try this back bending series as a vinyasa flow. See even more details in the accompanying Setu Bandhasana PDF. These postures stimulate the thyroid gland and their regular practice may benefit those with hypothyroidism and permit them to decrease their medications. Please confirm with your doctor. For those with nagging back pain, these poses can be very soothing. In general, listen to your body and choose an appropriate level of challenge for yourself. If you have an eye infection, unmedicated high blood pressure, acute back pain, or neck issues; this may not be a beneficial posture series for you. End with a supine hip opener,  then hug your knees to your chest and twist them side to side. Take a moment to belly breathe, and finally melt into sivasana, or relaxation.

Alternate Sided Bridge

Snow Angels

Setu Bandhasana

Wheel

Hammock

Fish

Belly Breathing

Sivasana

Click on this PDF for more detailed instructions and photos.

Setu Bandhasana Series

This past week I went to York with an acceptance lesson plan to honor the women’s resilience after a week of lock-down. These are women that listen to music, read novels, and write letters to feel connected with the freedoms and the people they miss. When I can speak of their resilience under stress I feel that they are not forgotten or invisible. I view myself as a bridge between the narrow confines of prison and the outside world.

In my lesson plan for this week I included a reading from Rachel Schaeffer’s Yoga for Your Spiritual Muscles which speaks of our body as a bridge that can lead us from struggle to forgiveness. Sometimes when we are still, we can sense the flow of activity around us more clearly without having to enter in to the drama. We can be like the steady bridge with the tides ebbing and flowing beneath us.

The bridge posture, when held until sensation builds, builds heat and energy in our bodies. Slight changes in pressure in the feet change the tilt of the knees and the tension in the buttocks. Pressing more or less into the shoulders or arms shift the curvature of the spine. Experimenting with deeper breathing and micro movements  keeps our attention on the sensations within our bodies. We notice where our bodies open to breath and where they feel more constricted in any given moment. We can choose to relax  and find our equilibrium as sensations eddy through us.

The Bridge Pose is a heart opening back bend which can often buoy are spirits. When we feel isolated or frustrated, a postural reminder to nurture our own  hearts can help us to open our compassion towards our neighbors as well. When we feel better emotionally, situations and people around us seem more accommodating. Have you noticed that when you are rested and relaxed, your days flow more easily? When you are exhausted and tense, do you find everything and everybody more difficult?

Here is the full class:

Acceptance & Sadhana Prayer PFD

Try the following vinyasa as an exploration of the vayas, or patterns of energy in and around your body. I described the vayas in an earlier post, Yoga Energy Flows. Sorry it has taken me so long to post photos! I recommend incorporating a standing vinyasa in your practice after you have loosened your spine, joints, and muscles with some gentle, repetitive warm-ups. Search Yoga Table Warm-up in the Search box if you want a review of the concept of vayas and the post should appear.

I have posted many photos, but the flow can be executed fairly quickly if you hold each pose for only a few breaths. As you become comfortable with the postures you may want to hold them longer to feel the energy intensify. Some days you may want to omit some of the asanas. Muscling through a series that exhilarates me may not be appropriate for your body. Notice how you feel at the end of the series. Relaxed? Limber? Energized? Find the variations and intensity that result in the most delicious Sivasana for you.

For a printed list of the series click here: Hamsa / Ganesha PDF

Begin as you would for a Sun Salutation with your hands in Angeli Mudra. Close your eyes for a moment and sense the flow of your breath. Can you feel your heart beating behind your thumbs?

Lower your hands and your gaze to honor the earth. This downward movement initiates the following rebound upwards, just as the downward flap of a bird’s wings propels it higher.

Reach high to the sky.

Swan dive down while chanting OM.

Let your hands fall to the earth in Forward Fold, bending your knees as much as necessary. Feel your weight.

Hold your elbows and prepare to swing side to side, coordinating your breath with your movement. Still holding the image of a swan in my mind I like to think of ruffling and lifting my feathers as I breathe in and stretch one side of my rib cage and then the other. The feathers lie flat and smooth as the intercostal muscles relax on my exhalation and I sink deeper and deeper into each Forward Fold.

Folded swing to the right.

Folded swing to the left.

Return to Forward Fold. Bend your knees and walk or jump your feet back to plank.

Press back towards your heels and down into your hands (do not let your weight roll out towards your pinkies or strain your wrists) to keep lengthening and lifting your spine in Plank. Your transverse abdominus muscles lift to support the spine. You can either hold the posture (breathing into your back, chest, and sides, but not belly) , try a few push-ups (elbows at a 90 degree angle and snug into the sides of your ribs), lower your knees to hold or try push-ups, or simply transition to Downward Dog, skipping Chatarangha.

Lower into Chatarangha, the push-up pose, on your way to the floor. Can you see how I am still pressing back through my heels?

Return to Plank.

Begin to lift your hips to transition to Downward Dog. Keep your heels lifted.

Lift your hips and lengthen your spine while still on your toes. If your legs don’t straighten, don’t worry.

Prance your feet, bending one knee to stretch your toes still further and then the other while the opposite heel reaches for the earth.

Finally hang out in Downward Dog with your heels lowered. Again, don’t worry if they don’t reach the ground. Think of spiraling your inner thighs up between your legs while keeping your feet parallel. Don’t let your heels rotate outwards. If you were to bend your elbows, would they track backwards towards your knees? Is your weight level on your hands? Keep consciously pressing through the mound of your first finger to keep from rolling towards your pinkies. So much to think about! Are you here in the present moment?

(Rest in Child whenever you need to… Shake out your wrists.)

Child Pose

Return to Downward Dog

LIft your right leg into Donkey Kick …

and begin to circle your knee

a few times in each direction.

Swing your right leg forward into lunge. If you straighten the front leg, it may be possible to straighten the back leg and then gently bend the front knee while pressing back through your back heel.. If you can’t reach the floor, place blocks under your hands for the lunging series. Notice if your foot is directly under or in front of your knee. In the long run, your knee will not be happy if it is bent past your ankle. The front foot should also be flat on the floor.

Lower your back knee and flatten the top of your back foot, coming into a low lunge. This posture helps us feel apana, the downward energy flow as we exhale into the stretch. If you want to add a relaxing breath, try making a buzzing “brrr” sound on your exhalation and dropping your head. I call this Horse Breath. Repeat a few times.

Lift your arms, balancing in a deep lunge.

Rise up on an inhalation, straightening the front knee until you feel the quads in your back leg firm up. Sink back on the exhalation. Lift and drop a few times with your breath until you find your midpoint with both legs engaged.

Without dropping the head backwards, reach your arms back. What a bird! Ruffle and smooth out your feathers with your breath. Appreciate the upward moving, udana, energy flowing up through the crown of your head as your firm legs ground the posture.

Sweep your wings down and dip your right wingtip down into the water on an exhalation. Relax your neck as you look for goldfish in the clear, still water below you.

Ruffle the feathers on your left side as you lift your gaze to the sky.

Come into Child or

slide your hips back coming into a stretch of your left hamstring. Experiment with flexing your left foot for more of a calf stretch. Then slide back into lunge. You can slide back and forth a few times, coordinating the movement with your breath, and then hold the hamstring stretch.

Come back to lunge.

Clasp your hands to prepare for Ganeshasana Mudra.

Shiva was absent from his consort, Parvati, for so long that he did not recognize his son, Ganesha when he returned home Parvati was relaxing in the baths and had instructed Ganesha to let no one enter. Ganesha dutifully refused to let his father, as stranger to him, into the building. Siva was furious and in his misreading of the situation cursed his child. When he tried to make amends by offering Ganesha the head of the next being to come down the road, an elephant wandered towards them. The resulting elephant headed Ganesha is much beloved in Southern India and is often invoked for good luck at the beginning of any enterprise: a kirtan, an exam, a voyage… In the context of this posture flow, think of the elephant as a heavy counter weight to the image of Hamsa, the swan.

Extend your middle fingers to create the elephant’s trunk and twist to the right, hooking your left elbow over your knee and gazing over your right elbow. (In this photo I am twisting left.) Try to keep your elbows level and your shoulders down. Exaggerate the downward energy, sinking into a low lunge. I learned this mudra and lunging twist from Jennifer Reis at Kripalu. Check out her website at Sacred Fire Yoga.

Return to center and rest in Child.

Begin to slide forward into

Caterpillar. Your hips remain elevated as long as possible and your elbows bend backwards along the side of your body.

Prepare for Cobra by grounding your hips and lifting the upper body without using your arms. The legs exhibit heavy, apana, energy, while the upper body rises with udana energy. Feel both.

Practice a swan necked Cobra, keeping the shoulders low. I knead the carpet like a cat, pulling backwards to draw my heart forward.Grounding the hips and drawing the heart forwards helps to elongate the spine.

Lower and windshield wipe your legs with your knees bent. This gentle twisting of the low back relieves tension that may have built up as a result of the back bending. Over time you will learn to lengthen rather than compress the spine in back bends. If you are a beginner, be gentle!

Prepare to return to Downward Dog by tucking your toes under and bringing your hands back beside your ribs. Press into your hands and toes and lift your hips.

Once in Downward dog we will repeat the series to the left.

Lift your left leg in Donkey Kick and circle the left knee in both directions.

Swing your left leg forward into lunge. Add a few horse breaths. “Brrrrr…”

Lower your right knee and begin the lunge series: Reach arms up and back; Side Bends: Hamstring Stretch; Ganesha Twist; Child

Slide out onto your belly and rest with your forehead on your forearms. Once your breath has normalized, reach back for your right foot and press down on your toes, stretching the top of your foot (a counter stretch to the prancing you did earlier in Downward Dog). Relax the foot as much as you can. This is a healthy stretch for anyone who suffers from plantar fasciatis.

Prepare for the 1/2 Bow by grabbing your ankle and flexing your right foot.

Grounding the hips lift the right leg and try to keep your shoulders square.I could have brought my forearm closer to my chest so my left shoulder could be more level. This may be your full Bow posture. If you feel discomfort in your right knee, try to lift more with your hamstring and upper back muscles and pull less with your arm. Always make adjustments or come out of a posture if you experience joint pain.

For more challenge, reach out with your opposite arm and leg into a 3/4 Bow. Release after a few breaths and relax. Windshield wipe your legs to nurture your sacrum.

Repeat the 1/2 bow and 3/4 bow to the other side, relax, and windshield wipe your legs again.

Are you familiar with the swan boats in the Boston Common? In keeping with my avian theme, I like to call the full bow the Swan Boat. To prepare, grab both your ankles and flex your feet.

Ground the hips and belly downwards and soar into the full swan boat – or not. Remember to stay in the moment, to breath, and revel in the postures. Don’t push into variations that are beyond your enjoyment level, as that is when injuries occur.

Release the Swan and sink onto the floor. If you are ready to end your practice, roll over onto your back and see what your body wants to do before you spend a few delicious moments in Sivasana. Don’t cheat yourself of the fruits of your practice. These few restful moments while you relax your whole body and let your body breathe are when the body heals itself. Trust your body’s wisdom. There is nothing for you to do, just BE. You are already kind, wise, and brave. So hum, Ham sa!

I spent a night at Kripalu last weekend to serve on the Leadership Gift committee. While there I attended a presentation by Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul. In his talk and in his latest book, Writing in the Sand, he acknowledges the structural and psychological dangers inherent in many Spiritual communities while encouraging his audiences to delve deeply into the scriptures of their childhoods. I was raised a Protestant, but am convinced that my favorite childhood stories influenced my spiritual development as much as the Bible verses I memorized in school. This Easter week I will share DuBose Heyward and Marjorie Flack’s The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes in my classes.

DuBose Heyward was a white gentleman from Charleston, South Carolina who was fascinated by Gullah culture. Although he was a prominent business man, his novel, Porgy, 1925, may be the first in the South to portray Blacks without condescension. Ten years later George Gershwin used his libretto and his lyrics for nearly half of the arias in the celebrated opera Porgy and Bess. When I listened to the tale of The Country Bunny as a child I never considered race. None the less I was teary eyed (still am) to follow the success of the “little country girl bunny with a brown skin and a little cotton ball of a tail” in her competition with the “big white bunnies who lived in fine houses and the Jack Rabbits with long legs who can run so fast”. If you haven’t read this quintessential tale of compassion, wisdom, bravery, and yes, speed – get your cotton tail down to your nearest bookstore. Whatever your faith, this book is not to be missed!

Nor is my class:

Easter Lesson Plan (PDF)

Please click on the title of this post if you have questions or comments. I will be delighted to elaborate by e-mail.