Carlos Pozzi

This one's for Carlos.... he was a big fan of Lionel Messi.

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The paradox holds true: life in death, opening in closure, and finality in the flow. We were late, but perfectly on time.

Five years after his passing, my father is in his final resting place. A journey has ended as his ashes now lay deep among roots, in the rocks and pebbles of the James River near its source, flowing on the water, buoyed on the weaved red and white wool cross made by a student a decade ago, soaring above the Lotus lake by the temple and settling down into the twilight on calm clear waters.

A turbulence of times, historia y memorias of pain, disease, inspiration and love has finally resolve itself into a peaceful merging with nature, God and imagination.

Sublime simple noon-time Ceremony
at Yogaville Ashram ‘s Memorial Grove,
Under a black walnut tree, the ashes poured by hands into a small opening,
By my hands,
By my children’s hands,
By my wive’s hands
By his students’ hands.

His ashes crowned by 10 white roses.
Three Jewels placed on them:
A white rock found in morning in the charcoal of the Thanksgiving bonfire.
It was brought and placed by his seven year old grandson.
A radiant black walnut his three year old granddaughter found among the leaves.
A white rose put there by me.

The puja waters, the banana and the incense,
The camphor and the candle light.
The rosary blessed by Pope John Paul II
Brought by Swami Sarvaananda
Who made this ceremony
Into a celebration
Of Carlos Pozzi,
Father, teacher and musician.

The altar, the golden wood on his handmade Argentine guitar, in his opened monogrammed leather case, covered by the flag of his fútbol team River Plate and quotes to his passion for healing and the spirituality of the sensual and tactile, of the paradoxes in common sense, and the aphorisms and folk wisdom of his native land.

After death, life is slowly distilled into its essences, its potency intensified as it spreads in waves of love.

I am grateful for having had a father whose life engraves a pattern that marks time in such a clear and beautiful way.

We originally intended to do this at 10:30, but ran late. We finally began at 11:30 and began to pour the ashes after the bells from the temple chimed at 12.

We were told that the most auspicious time of day to inter ashes according to Swami Satchidananda is from 12 to 12:30pm.

We finished as the temple bells rang at 12:30.

Thank you to my in-laws Candy and Fernando Fernandez, Spencer L. Turner, Kate Jackson and Brie Jordan-cooley for making the long trip and accompanying my friend-in-life Tania Fernandez and our kids through this deeply meaningful experience.

My father Carlos Pozzi was the perfect refutation of everything that is being politicized today by demagogues:

1. He was a very sick Latino immigrant arriving here at age 37 who spoke no English, with one blind eye. At his memorial, over 200 people paid their respect: from the journalists who covered his work, his surgeon who said he made him a better doctor, and his many colleagues, students and his friends. He died a citizen in every sense of the word.

Immigrants contribute: yes, even the ones you have to take care of.

2. He was an artist, a musician and teacher.

3. He survived only because the healthcare insurance system provided by the Argentine government paid for his dialysis and three kidney transplants. Ironically, it was an atrocious dictatorship that while it persecuted our friends and family, still provided good social safety net because of strength of unions and the biggest middle class in the world at the time.

4. He taught classical guitar in the public school system for 25 years.

5. He arrived in Richmond, VA, capital of the Confederacy, at the start of the Reagan years and managed to eventually bring his public school Guitar Ensemble composed of a majority of black students to play at the Inauguration of Governor Douglas Wilder, the first black governor in US history.

6. We lived our first two years in Richmond, VA in the Ronald McDonald home for sick children, which is located on Monument Avenue overlooking the Jefferson Davis memorial, under which he took me every day to elementary school.

7. He was a Catholic:
Who played for over 20 years at weddings and events in a duet with a flute player, Henry Maizels, a child of Holocaust survivors.
Who married a Jewish woman.
Who became a yoga teacher in the late ‘80s.
Whose favorite places were spiritual retreats in the mountains and nature, especially the Ashram in Yogaville, VA.

In the city, he lived for the sauna and steam room at his gym in the Weinstein Jewish Community Center. He took great pleasure in the Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture of John Kang. And could be found at the vegetarian lunch buffet ordering large quantities of homemade ginger brew from his favorite place, the Liberian and Caribbean restaurant of Chef MaMusu.

You had the best chance of running into him in aisles of a health food store, in the eighties and nineties at The Main Street Coop, and later at Ellwood Thompson.

In music, medicine, love and community: he was without borders or boundaries. He was multiculturalism.

8. He passionately loved fútbol: he would get VHS tapes from his Central American friend in DC of Argentine games. He and Juan Carlos would chat on the phone about games.

9. He liked Hip Hop and would have it playing in his car radio, unless it was Eduardo Falu or Atahualpa Yupanqui.

10. He used the public library every day to check out books ranging from the newest Eric Micheal Dyson to tracts on poetry or new ways to cleanse your liver because he had Hepatitis from a blood transfusion.

Ceremony for Carlos will be at the Lotus temple, on the James River. It will start around 11:15.

Next week on Saturday at 10:30am at Yogaville, we will be celebrating Carlos’s life with a small yogic ritual and the placing of his ashes in the James River.

You are welcome to come and say something, play anything, or just sit in peace. Lunch is on us if you come.

Please RSVP if you are planning to attend.

from the Richmond Free Press

Hey kids! It's Rafiya!

Julian contacted me tonight, and he's in Richmond, finalizing some things at Carlos' house. He's gonna need some help moving Carlos' things to a thrift store. If you knew Carlos, you're aware that he didn't have a lot of stuff. Mostly boxes of papers, a couple of tables, a bed, and recliner.

If any of you are available tomorrow around 11 AM, let us know. If you show up with a truck, you'll receive our deepest praises.

Anyone available?

Spur of the Moment:

Tomorrow. Wednesday DECEMBER 5th at 7:45pm
at the Quaker Meeting, 4500 Kensington Ave,

In honor to the yoga lineage that Carlos practiced and taught for many years (Integral Yoga) we will be chanting the

Healing mantra "Om Tryam Bakam..."

for Carlos' peaceful transition, but also for anybody experiencing pain, suffering, loss, illness, sadness or any other painful condition where there is change involved.

This mantra is a universal mantra for healing that has been used for centuries and it carries great power. When chanted together in a continuous way, it helps feel more calm and peaceful, in touch with the essence that resides within each of us which is the same in all, and has been called by many names like soul, spirit, essence, love, God, etc....

Everybody is invited, whether you have experience with yoga chants or not, whether you are just curious or just want to experience a little peace of mind.

Please bring a cushion to sit on the floor. There are also chairs available.

For more info please e-mail me at [email protected]

Blessings to all, Peace, nora