Pinnacle Pop-Up Class!

Save the date! North Country slow flow! // March greetings

Mar 04, 2026

Welcome, March. Here we are, stumbling into Spring. One day it’s 60 degrees, the next it is snowing. When I go to the arboretum near my daughter’s school I see little shoots (snowdrops? crocuses?) reaching up with confidence through the cold cold ground. I open the front door and my body waffles about whether to contract or expand against the ever-changing air.

This morning I am writing to you from a Baltimore coffee shop after taking a wonderful class at a new-to-me studio (which I’m quickly falling in love with). I left class thinking about the Buddhist parable of the second arrow. This was not the theme of the class, there was no mention of this particular teaching, but this is the magic of yoga practice; we put our devices down, we move, we breathe, we step inside ourselves, and in doing so we allow for once-buried teachings, old & new, to make themselves known to us. Just like the arboretum crocuses.

Anyways, the parable of the second arrow goes like this:

The Buddha once asked a student, “If a person is struck by an arrow, is it painful?”

The student replied , “It is.”

The Buddha then asked, “If the person is struck by a second arrow, is that even more painful?”

The student replied, “It is.”

The Buddha then explained, “In life, we cannot control the first arrow. The second arrow is optional.”

The first arrow may be physical pain, anger, greed, craving, illness. Life. Being a human. The second arrow is the way we respond to the first — when we react with self-loathing, shame or judgment, we shoot ourselves again, which causes more suffering. Let us also remember the story of Sharon Salzberg asking the Dalai Lama how to work with self-hatred. Puzzled, he asked her in response: “what’s that?” seemingly unable to comprehend that type of violence towards oneself.

I don’t know about you, but I shoot myself with the second arrow all the time.

Tara Brach says if we turn on ourselves, we cannot love this life. I want to love this life. I want you to love yours.

Thanks to everyone who participated in Community Winter Meditation Group! Next on the docket isssssss…