Elle Potter

mildly hilarious, exceptionally fun, and usually barefoot.

(off) Road Rage

I sat down moments ago with my cup of hot tea at a sunny table in the window of a hip cafe here in St. Louis.  I pulled out my laptop, plugged into the opera station on Pandora and started to brainstorm what I wanted to write about.  Not five minutes later, a woman walked past my table and bumped into it so hard that it spilled my tea all over the table.  I pulled my laptop to safety, jumped up with a loud exclamation of nonsensical surprise and realized the tea was narrowly missing pouring itself from the tabletop into my bag on the floor.

That woman did not say one word of apology.  Did not even so much as look back over her shoulder after making solid contact with my table.  Her friend, who was walking behind her, saw it all happen.  He did not say anything to me, either.

I was am still pissed.  Honestly, I half wanted to rush out after her and tell her what she’d done.  How nothing bad had happened, but that I was disgusted by her lack of attention and care.  Instead, I asked the barista for a little help with clean-up on aisle four.  As she kindly helped wipe down my table and replenish my cup of tea with more hot water, I found myself having to consciously restrain from saying nasty things about the culprit to the sweet barista.  Things that involved the words “fat,” “dumb,” and one in particular that rhymes with “pitch.”

As I nestled back into a different chair at a different table, fuming with road rage.  At first, I starting musing about what it must mean to be experiencing road rage without being behind the wheel, but now I’m wondering why being on the road gives us an excuse to be angry.  To call people names.  To feel ignored, taken advantage of, or inconsequential.

How often do we feel wronged or see something happen and immediately start throwing out strings of verbal abuse?  It happened for months during the election this year (“what a d-bag this guy is”).  It happens when someone cuts me off in traffic (“gee, thanks, a-hole”).  It happened when that woman knocked into my table moments ago (“inconsiderate b*tch”).

I see it as a reminder to remain thoughtful and considerate in my day-to-day actions with other people.  But maybe it’s time to start seeing it as a practice of compassion.  The really annoying kind of compassion where you have to be compassionate even though the person you’re practicing compassion towards is a complete and total idiot.  (I clearly have some work to do with this.)

Step one is to cut out that hateful language, at least outwardly to begin with.  Then I can work on step two, which is not calling someone a great string of names on the inside.  I reckon the final step would be to stop seeing these little injustices as intentional attacks on me directly.  Or maybe that’s really step one.  I’ll just have to start trying all three steps at once and see how it goes.

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Thank You Song – Me and Bobby McGee for Mom

My “elle learns a new song project” has turned into a fundraiser!  For donating at least $25, you get to request a song and I will learn it to play for you.  Awkwardly, on the guitar.

First request: Me and Bobby McGee a la Janis Joplin for my mama.  Thanks Mama!

Want a song of your own?  Read more about my fundraiser here.

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Feeling Bright on the Darkest Day

Happy Winter Solstice, you little pagan monkeys, you.

I’ve spent the past week sorting through nearly a thousand blogs (I am actually NOT exaggerating, honest) of people who write about their fitness goals and found a lot of inspiration/frustration within the majority of them.

Allow me to clarify – these bloggers are the folks who write about how they lost 100 lbs, or how they never played sports and now they run 5ks.  They highlight their favorite workouts, their favorite healthy meals and they inspire the pants off of one another – sometimes literally, depending on how much weight they’ve lost.

A typical work day

The inspiring part of these blogs: They make me realize that if these folks can be healthy/active/fit/runners, then so can I.

The frustrating part of these blogs: That I’m not doing this whole “writing” thing more.  These people write on a consistent basis – sometimes even daily.  Twice daily.  Every hour (exaggeration).

All this came to a head on Monday, when I found myself feeling very claustrophobic at my computer, spending too much time reading and sorting for my job.  I was spending all this time reading about active people and was the furthest from doing that myself.  I couldn’t stand it, so the next morning I woke up at 5am and went to the rec center to just move.  I even RAN.  RAN!  Like, on purpose!  And I discovered that now that I am in St. Louis (newsflash; I’m in St. Louis now), there is way more oxygen than in Denver.  I can run a quarter mile without even getting winded.  It’s incredible.

delicious kale chips

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that today being the shortest day of the year, things can only get brighter from here.  If you’re not happy or feeling content doing things the way you’ve been doing them, there is always an opportunity to change your habits.  It’s not easy.  It’s frustrating.  But believe me, it is absolutely do-able.  I’m using today as my excuse to make a change.  But you can choose whatever day you want.

Last year I spent a magical Winter Solstice eating a raw food feast with my sistercousins.  This year I celebrate finding the light in a different way, by going on a horse-drawn carriage ride through the park to look at Christmas lights.  And from this point forward, I will continue to find new ways to celebrate brighter days ahead.

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A Very Holly Anjali

((12/22 – links have been updated and are now working, I promise!))

I had just gotten home from almost a month on Maui last December when I came to Studio Shakta to teach my special Christmas Eve Restorative Yoga class.  I had taught it the year before, but considering I hadn’t been teaching for a few months, I wasn’t expecting a huge turn out.

bluebird christmas tree

I showed up an hour early to begin preparing for what I assumed would be a dozen students.  I only had enough props for maybe 15 complete set ups, but figured it would be more than enough.

Students started showing up for class about 20 minutes before.  And they kept coming.  And coming.  And coming.  More and more, and mostly people I had never met before, they came through the door until we had thirty-four people signed in for class.

There was simply no more room at the inn, as it were, and a few of my teacher friends gave up their spots on the floor and became my Anjali Elves – my assistants who would help me manage this suddenly huge class.

Because we had no more props (and I refused to turn anyone away), I borrowed people’s jackets to roll up as bolsters, tucked people who knew each other under one shared blanket next to each other, and propped heads up with bunched up scarves.  When I would ask someone if they could spare one of their props to share with someone who had just come in to the room, no one once ever said no or even looked upset that they would have to give something up.  It was incredibly beautiful, and it took all my control to not become overwhelmed by the heaping amounts of love pouring through that room.

My friend (the incomparable Peggy Dyer) recorded the class on her voice recorder, and just shared the file with me yesterday.  And so, I present to you, the full-length Holly Anjali class from 2010.  Please enjoy it and forward it along to your friends and family.

The group singing Silent Night at the end of class (the sniffles you hear are half of us crying – it was truly an incredible experience): Silent Night: Holly Anjali with Elle Potter 2010

Instructions for enjoying the class:

  • Find a nice, quiet space to set yourself up in.  Maybe even under your Christmas tree!
  • The volume of this class is soft, so you might want to use headphones to be able to hear everything.
  • Lie on your back and cover up with a blanket.
  • Roll up a big fluffy blanket or pillow and tuck it under your knees.
  • Put a washcloth or eyepillow over your eyes.
  • Try to follow along with the instructions given through the class – or just stay there for the duration of the class!  Do what feels good and allows you to relax.
  • Remember: Less is more.  Let yourself be still and quiet.  Know that all the moving around you hear in the recording is from the 30+ beautiful souls who attended class, and let that love permeate through your being as you enjoy some quiet time.

The whole 90 minute class can be listened to and downloaded from here: Holly Anjali: Christmas Eve Restorative Yoga with Elle Potter 2010

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Roadtrips

I’m getting ready to board my flight to Phoenix, where I will be meeting up with my darling buddy Troika for a 9-city tour with Lord of the Rings, Live in Concert.  Troika has been collecting the super-cool movie props for the past decade or so, and it’s no small deal.  I’m pretty stoked to nerd it up and make my friends jealous.

As I was reorganizing my computer last night, I discovered some video from two and a half years ago of me driving by myself from Kansas City to Iowa City to see my best friend graduate with her Masters in Theatre.  I’m not sure what exactly I was going for here, but I think I may have achieved just what I wanted.  I hope you enjoy this fly-on-the-wall experience of roadtripping with me.

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