Hope

I struggled with the Be You Yoga Hub’s April mantra.  The mantra was Letting Come.  I was asking myself and our community to trust the seeds that have been planted.  Don’t force it.  Embrace the unfolding.  Be patient and wait for the blooms.

O but this was so, so hard.  It is hard to be patient and to trust when there is much heartache and destruction in our world.  It is hard when our global community is at war.  It is hard when normal life continues to be shifted.

I could feel the hard in my personal practice and my teaching. It was labored - hardly the “letting come” mindset I prescribed. What guidance could I possibly be? 

A famous quote from Desmond Tutu helped me.  He says, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”

Rev. John Kellogg (Christ Church + Washington Parish) talked about hope during the Easter service.  Sitting in the pew that day, it wasn’t the first time I’d heard the quote, but it was the first time I felt the power of it.

I’ve sat with, meditated on, journaled with, and practiced with these words for the past 10 days.  I will continue – there is much to explore.  And it feels right that HOPE be our Be You Yoga Hub’s mantra for May.  “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”

I just finished re-reading BKS Iyengar’s book Light on Life.  In the book’s closing statements he says, “I am a hatha yogi, which means I want my students to see the sun, to experience their own sun, their own soul.” 

Yes!  I underlined, starred, and folded back the page on that.  Exactly.  Be your light, your hope.  The sun gives us light.  The hatha yogi drives their freedom from their soul as their light. 

To continue my job as a yoga teacher I must hustle in a very muddy environment.  I must do this through ebbs and flows, even in the darkness. I’ll keep the light on.