We Are All Unique - Yet We Are All The Same

52 @ 50 - no. 4 - An Alpaca Experience

I was given a unique gift for my birthday this year - a trip to an alpaca farm in Hampshire to get to know a little more about these strange creatures from the camelid family. 

We started by learning about their wool and how it is sheared, graded and used to make garments, then we were told how they are becoming popular as pets. People who have a paddock or large garden are buying a small herd (they need each other's company so they are sold in groups of at least 3) to keep the grass and hedges trimmed. They have feet like camels which are tiny and light so they don't churn up the ground and make it muddy like horses do so the paddocks stay closely cut and very neat and tidy. They don't cost much to feed (their food apparently costs just 30p a day!) so therefore they are a cheaper option than a ride-on mower and employing someone to do the grass cutting for you! They also used as guardians to protect flocks of sheep as they are good at protecting their herd. An alpaca costs upwards of £600.

Alpacas come from South America. They are similar to llamas but are much smaller - more like their wild relative the vicuna. Llamas have been used for thousands of years as pack animals, transporting goods across the mountains of South America, but alpacas are not quite as placid or obliging and obviously can't carry as much so tend to be kept just for their fleece. We got to test this theory as headcollars were put on and we took them for a walk. 

My beastie was called Frederico. He was extremely handsome and rather lovely, if a little flighty... but what do you expect from £14,000 worth of prime breeding stock?! Actually, none of them were particularly well-behaved - they are easily startled and they didn't want to go for a walk. When the lady from the farm tried to ease them along with an arm behind their backsides they kicked! They wanted to stay together too so it was hard to get one to go on it's own. You are supposed to walk by their shoulder rather than pull them along but they have bendy necks so are difficult to control in this way. It was all slightly shambolic but, once we got into our stride so to speak, we were ok. 

They really are strange creatures. Their heads are tiny and their leg bone from knee to ankle is very short and the upper leg bone is long which gives them a very funny gait when they run. Although they were all the same breed, I was struck by how different each one was. They all had their own hair-do's and facial expressions (yes really they did!) and I expect that, when you get to know them better, each would have its own individual character, preferences and idiosyncrasies. A bit like us really.... 

Chatting with Frederico - we have the same fringe! 

New friends

Penny and the alpacas and me - we are different yet the same...

At the most basic level we are like the alpacas - we want food, shelter, safety and community.  Our yoga practice teaches us that we are each a unique being, and yet we are all the same too. We all have a body but our bodies are different and so, therefore, our practice is individual. But we are all practicing to feel whole and connected..... does that make sense?

When we unroll our mat to do our yoga we do it for ourselves - to increase our ease of movement, strength and flexibility and to have a quieter mind. But it also reaches out further than that. When we roll the mat back up again afterwards we might be a little more aware of ourselves and how we act and react. We might give our friends and family a little more of our attention. We will hopefully feel, having said 'Namaste' to each other at the end of class, a little more compassion for our Self and each other too. What we say and do has an effect on others. We are connected. 

I love this quote from Rumi, the ancient Sufi poet:

      “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”

... and this is one of my favourite teachings about connection, from the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh:

"If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist... If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. Without the sunshine the forest cannot grow. In fact nothing can grow without sunshine. And so we know that the sunshine is also in this piece of paper. And we see wheat. We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. The logger's mother and father are in it too. When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.

Looking even more deeply we see ourselves in this sheet of paper too. This is not difficult to see because, when we look at a sheet of paper, it is part of our perception. You mind is in here and mine is also. So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper. We cannot point out one thing that is not here - time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper... As thin as this piece of paper is, it contains everything in the universe."

I love the story of Indra's net too:

"Far away in the heavenly abode of the Great God Indra, the protector and nurturer of life, there is a wonderful net which stretches out indefinitely in all directions. At the net's every intersection is hung a single glittering jewel and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering like stars of the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, which sparkle in the magnificence of its totality. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that the process of reflection is infinite. As each gem reflects every other one and everything else in the universe, so are you affected by every other system in the universe."

This week's recipe... Smashed Avocado on Sourdough Toast, with Goat's Cheese, Lemon, Chilli and Mint

I'm not a huge fan of avocado (except in green smoothies where it makes everything really creamy) so my husband tested this recipe out for me and he liked it so much he had it for breakfast two days in a row. He said it was the perfect thing to replenish him after his long run and his cycle ride.

You will need: 

Half an avocado

Half a lemon

Pinch of salt and pepper

1 teaspoon oil (rapeseed but we don't have that so we used olive)

1 stalk of chopped mint

quarter of a red chilli finely chopped

40g goats cheese (without rind works best)

1 tablespoon of creme fraiche

1 teaspoon chopped chives

2 free range eggs

1 slice of sourdough bread

And here's how to make it...

• Use a grater to remove the zest of the lemon and mix with the chopped chilli and mint.
• Peel and chop the avocado into large pieces. Gently crush with a fork, squeeze the lemon juice over, add the seasoning and oil and mix well.
• Mix the goat's cheese with the creme fraiche and chopped chives.
• Gently poach the eggs in simmering water.
• Toast the bread, spread on half of the goat's cheese cream, top with avocado and place the eggs on top.
• Spoon the remainder of the goat's cheese cream onto the eggs and sprinkle over with the lemon zest, mint and chilli.

This Week in the Garden... I had intended to get all my border clearing done, all my pots and tubs filled with bedding plants and all my seedlings potted on or put out into the borders.... Alas, despite a mammoth 12 hour (!) session in the garden yesterday I still have a lot on my To Do List. Sigh.... I was a little frustrated until I looked at my Instagram feed this morning and saw the picture quote below. It gave me some perspective....

it still all looks lovely even though there's lots to do -
Mother Nature just quietly doing her thing

This Week's Musical Offering... is Spacious Offerings by Desert Dwellers. This track is slow and rhythmic - perfect for doing your Sun Salutations along to. 

 

This Week's Video.... on the theme of 'we are all the same'. This is quite an eye-opener, a heart-opener and a mind-opener!!

This Week's Class on the Thrive Yoga Site... is a 45 minute Vinyasa Flow class with an emphasis on Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana) and Garland Pose (Malasana).  Click here to view the website and join me for unlimited access to all the classes for just £9 a month. 

Namaste yoga friends... have a great week....