The Blessing in the Conversation (on AND off of the mat)

Since the article which started the firestorm of emotion within the western yoga community, I have been asked quite a bit for my opinion. I think I covered that in the last post, but I have been thinking about the practice OFF of the mat. One of the things I say in class is that we practice embodying heart qualities in HERE so we can take the same qualities out THERE...into the big bad world where life gets messy.

It often happens when someone will come up to me after a class and tell me that the theme I had chosen for that day's class was exactly what they needed to hear. It has certainly happened to me enough times when a teacher has said something that resonated with me so strongly I walked away chewing on it for several days. I think when you come to practice with an open heart, you are more apt to listen and take things in from a place of softness. I listen better, basically to receive whatever is offered in the "Great Conversation" as my friend Loren calls it.

Before I wrote my last post I received a letter from a friend of my Mom's, Abby. Abby is a yoga teacher in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.  She also went through what I consider the absolute worst thing in the world a human being can experience. Abby lost a child.

I am lucky to spend a week every year visiting my parents and taking classes with the Ponte Vedra Beach Kula. I had known about the accident and was so deeply saddened. I wanted to do something, but felt that it would be presumptuous to reach out to someone I did not know very well. I have a small book with reflections on Grace. I asked my mother to please give it to Abby and tell her that I was thinking of her and her family.

I received this email a few days ago. I was deeply touched and I asked her permission to post it.

Courtney,

Happy New Year! I heard you and the boys had a wonderful time with your parents over the holidays. I wanted to tell you a story about the opening up to grace book you gave me a while back. 

I went to synagogue this week-end with my husband. I was raised Jewish, he Catholic, though we regularly go to synagogue in PV because of our close relationship with the Rabbi there. It is custom during every service that you say a prayer for the deceased. It is called Kaddish and it comes at the end of the service. Another tradition is to say aloud the names of those dear that have passed on. This is relative to the Holocaust, when people no longer were recognized and acknowledged by their names, but by a number. There is no sweeter word, believe me, than to hear the name of your loved one that is no longer here.

Well, before the Kaddish prayer, our Rabbi asks us if anyone would like to read a passage from the prayer book that we use. There are about 12 prayers reflecting on passing, love lost, etc...
I ALWAYS carry my book with me from you, so I asked to read one of the passages. It was the following:


None of us is exempt from sorrow, hardships, and storms of living. Not the amassing of fortune or friends, or even good deeds exempt us. The most we can wish for is the abundance of grace, the possession of faith in the fundamental goodness of the world, the healing presence and power of love, and the strength of heart and character to handle what will inevitably arrive from time to time to try us.....

 Courtney, thank you for the book. There was a family there with a very fresh grief and they came to me after to tell me how much that passage meant. My Rabbi came and told me how moving it was. I was glad to bring some peace to those that are desperately in need of it.
 
Blessings and love,

 Abby


Yoga means yoke, or union. We are all here to listen better, support one another from a place of grace and loving kindness. We continue this great conversation, giving and receiving authentically and it grows. How you live your life and participate in the conversation, both sharing AND listening is part of the practice. You might fall in class. Hopefully you pick yourself up and continue without letting your ego or fear get in the way and listen to your body and inhale and exhale and move forward. When we fall in life, hopefully yoga helps us do the same off of the mat. Hopefully we are more empowered to support others, in and out of the Kula, when they might need it. 


Thank you, Abby, for allowing me to share this. Thank you for sharing your blessings and contributions to the "conversation" with those in and out of class. You remind me why I practice.