Yoga Tales from Rural Maine: Namaste

I nearly canceled class tonight. I have been coping with the residue of an act of personal violence (against me), and I'm having a hard time navigating the mixture of anger and grief. I was experiencing so much of my own anguish, that I felt I couldn't possibly be of service to my students tonight.

I was afraid that if I tried to teach, I might just start weeping, and what would happen to my students then?

But when I imagined that, what I knew of my students was that we would support one another and learn and love and practice and it would be okay, no matter what I brought to my mat. It would even be okay if I simply began practice by saying, "My friends...I feel so sad." My students would have taught me what to do and we would have been alright.

So, I went to class. And this is maybe the truly magic part, the part I can rely on every week: things got better.

No matter what is going on with me, no matter how sick or tired or sad or angry or sore or lost I feel, when I step into my teaching space, literally and figuratively; when my yoga teacher self arrives and occupies my body and my mind, this beautiful thing happens. I feel well. I feel beautiful, the kind of beauty that lives on the surface of a sparkling pond in Maine in August.

And, bless them, tonight as always--every single one--my students brought Light with them. They showed up, for starters. They were happy to see me. More than half the people in the room told me a story about how they almost didn't come, but then they felt a strong faith that they should come; or providence intervened and a noise woke them from a nap just in time. My students were there, on their mats, smiling, sharing their news, being together in this lovely little community, this "Kula" we have built for ourselves out of lovingkindess and sticktoitiveness.

I sat on my mat in the training room of a volunteer fire department in the small town where I grew up, and I didn't feel like crying any more. I felt like teaching. And taking care. And being where I was.

So that's what I did.

And I think we all left feeling better for it.

My theme tonight was "Namaste." The word, the concept, the practice. My darling students, tonight especially, The Light in Me Salutes the Light in You.

Namaste, my friends. Namaste.