It's no surprise to you. If you've been taking my Daily Yoga Tip for any time at all, you know I'm a "word nerd." I know at least one of you has called me by that term of endearment.
So you'll not be surprised that I've always liked a book I read a long time ago called Amo, Amas, Amat. It's a book of Latin phraseology, amusing and provacative.
The title conjugates the verb to love. "I love, you love, he/she/it loves," the book cover announces. (We all love Latin! Or, the little voice way back there seems to whisper, we should love it.)
I recalled this a fews days ago while listening to an inteview with Karen Armstrong, a beautiful woman and scholar who refers to herself as an "amateur theologian."
She made use of the term amateur in a way that occurs for me like an attempt to rehabilitate it from the perjorative by pointing me to its etymological origins. Hidden in the word amateur, previously unseen by me, lurks the Latin word amat.
An amateur is not some bush league hopeful who didn't quite make it into the realm of real professionals. Rather, an amateur is someone who truly loves what he or she does, regardless of rank or revenues.
I love yoga.
But only when I do it.
In this regard, I am a happy amateur.
Won't you join me?
Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!
Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org
p.s., The Sanskrit Word of the Day from my previous Daily Yoga Tip was go. Go means cow, as in gomukhasana, the cow-face pose.
p.p.s., Today's Sanskrit Word of the Day is nidra. I'll tell you what it means next time.
p.p.p.s., For those of you who might be interested in a blast from the past I wrote about sequencing back in April, 2005. The Daily Yoga Tip is called "Sequence and Intention." You can read it here.
In that Daily Yoga Tip I refer to a web site that tracks the 86,800 most frequently used words int he English language. What's fun is that the web page displays all of the words graphically. And you can search for words, too.
Just for your information, today "love" is ranked 384. It is surrounded by "economic" and "means." "Yoga" is ranked 18,879, exactly where it was back in 2005. Hmmmm.
p.p.p.p.s., Our Experience Paradise yoga vacation in Yelapa, Mexico is coming up in February, 2007. Watch for more details in future Daily Yoga Tips.
Copyright 2006. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.
Kevin Perry
Mo Yoga LLC
1305 Elmerine Ave
Jefferson City, MO 65101
(573) 680-6737
