air

On February 1, we had a new child join our kid's class - a 10-year old boy. When a new person or people joins the class, there's usually quite a bit of excitement, bubbly bouncing around, as the experienced kids orient the new to our routine of foot-washing, setting up mats and props, making a cup of tea or Emergen-C and preparing for sharing before opening meditation and class begins.  

The Ayurvedic way of describing this energy would be "a whole lotta VATA." VATA dosa is associated with AIR and ETHER - (light, dry, wind, movement, sound). 

As we settled, I asked the kids to think about the elements of air and ether and the qualities associated with them. I guided them for a minute or two so they could relax and quiet down as they came to lying on their bellies.  to see what came up for them. Some of the answers:

One child said he thought a Vikings he said he didn’t know why he thought of Vikings but he did. We talked about Vikings being excellent boat builders and how the wind would push their boats along as it hit their sales. So we talked about the power of the wind, of air blowing moving things, so that

Another child said air is like God because like God, air is everywhere. And it’s powerful. It can strip leaves off of Trees, and how air is a carrier. It transports things like seeds that then fall to the ground and become new plants. and erode mountains overtime. So it has the power to transform material things. When child said he thought about breathing how we take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, so the cycle of respiration and how trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen so that complete cycle

And then we discussed whether hot air cool air cold air is heavier how to make air heavier we talked about how air in the ether are buoyant and light, especially ether ether his weakness or almost so

So then we talked about what makes air heavier, more grounded. Putting something in front of it if it’s wind blowing and when there’s water in the air, when it’s humid how the nearest heavy and waste. In my adult class the qualities of airiness came up as light and getting us and again hell air can transport things, carry things like viruses, like the flu.