.......airport connections

Yogis,

Flying back from vacation the connecting flight was delayed. A three-hour layover turning into five. There are only so many times you can walk the terminal wings and check out the shops and only so much mediocre food you can eat (although I NEVER complain about the food as I am old enough to remember what used to be.) Eventually the only option left is the bar........

Airports are a funny place.  Everyone only passing through on their way to someplace else.  Not a destination and not a place to accomplish anything specific. I notice the outfits each person consciously chose that morning while getting ready for their trip. Comfort clearly high on the list of priorities as I look about. Plenty of sensible shoes, sweatpants, fathers carrying dolls for their daughters and teenagers lugging their pillows along.  

I begin to observe the happenings at the bar. I watch a middle aged black woman in a conservative skirt and sweater sit in the open seat at the end next to a middle aged white man in an older suit. For a while they both face forward, ordering their drinks and snacks. She pulls out a book. Appearing from where I sit to not have much in common. Eventually something causes them to speak to each other.  An hour later as she is getting up to leave they are warmly shaking hands and appear to be sharing some form of information on their phones. Smiles abound with direct eye contact. Hearts facing. An airport friendship had sprouted.

I overhear the young blond white woman sitting next to me telling someone on her phone how she is delayed. She then slowly sips her glass of wine and plays with her phone. Being a young woman alone at a bar can be uncomfortable and the phone is the ally. An Indian gentleman arrives in the empty seat beside her.  I sense her eye gaze staying more toward my side. Yet again a conversation ultimately begins and soon she has swiveled her chair, and thus her heart, in his direction and I can literally feel the connection growing. 

I watched this over and over.  Young and old, male and female, different backgrounds, different beliefs. I decided we all need to be stuck in airport bars more often!

Much of the hostility that appears in our society stems from fear. Fear of different. Fear of the unknown. Assumptions made and held onto without ever having the chance to connect to test them.

The chance encounters we have during our day aren’t enough to draw our diverse population closer together. Even with neighbors only a couple doors down we often have surface relationships.  We must go deeper and I am not sure how that happens. 

I keep thinking that each of us should be required to spend one day a year in a mandatory service project where we are paired up with others that are completely different from ourselves.  Where we are forced to talk, work together, figure things out and look each other in the eye. Breaking down barriers by getting close enough to see that we aren’t that different after all. Breaking down fear. Facing our hearts toward one another.

Perhaps the inconsistency of our airlines has a bright side after all 😊

My heart is facing yours,
SARAH

.......the weather

Yogis,
Sometimes I have to laugh at us humans. We believe ourselves to be all knowing, in control and most certainly in charge of this world.  Funny when you stop to think about it.

There is more ocean than land.  There is more land without human feet on it than land that we touch. Add in the sky, moon, sun and outer galaxies and we become a mere speck in this vast universe. But my how we puff out our chest.

The weather is a perfect example and March is one time of year I notice it.  We somehow seem to think (or perhaps wish) that we have this weather thing down.  This year I began hearing the chatter in February.

We had an extremely warm February with one day reaching 79 degrees.  Early in the month the crocus was already brilliantly displayed against the bare brown earth, and by the last week of the month the forsythia was beginning its show. Many trees had their buds and the daffodil’s heads were bowed down in that final pause they take before lifting their smiling faces.  Even the cherry blossoms were threatening to begin their bloom.

“It’s too early……. They are going to freeze……  The trees are confused….. This is supposed to happen in the middle of March” and so on. 

I was gone the whole following week, expecting to see a full bloom on my return, but nature had another plan. The cold had set back in and the landscape appeared suspended in time. Wind, snow and below freezing temperatures at night sent us all back inside.

“This weather is crazy…….It’s mid-March and should be warmer……. I’m sick of this…… We are way below normal…… Spring is supposed to be starting” and so on.

Every year it’s as if we have never lived through a March!  I have been listening to the talk everywhere I go and do admit that I am one of the worst offenders.  Somehow, we have convinced ourselves that Mother Nature is always out of whack and that we are in the know due to some arbitrary numbers on the squares of the calendar page we have hanging on the wall.  But we have it backward.

The trees, not us, are guided by the whisper in the wind.  The flowers follow the sun’s direction.  The birds hear the stirrings in the ground below.  The owl hoots with the moon. They are the ones that know. There is no confusion there. We would be better off watching and following their lead. We simply don’t like not holding the reins.  It makes us uncomfortable. 

When is the last time that the tulips didn’t bloom?  Or trees didn’t turn green with leaves?  Have we ever had a year where the ice didn’t melt?  As always, spring will arrive and in no time we will be complaining about the heat and allergies and what an unusual summer we’re having.

We are funny creatures. How about we all let out a big exhale and release into and embrace whatever comes. But what would we talk about if not the weather?

Watching the stars for direction,
SARAH

......the vacation lens

Yogis,

Whenever I am on a vacation, especially in a new place, I find I see myself clearer……and not always in the best light. It may be that the different background on which my thoughts and habits are projected make them stand out. Or the fact that with new scenery as my stage, the more familiar role of ‘me’ catches my eye more often. It’s as if there is a vacation lens on life that I am peering through.

Whatever it is, I notice.

Looking through the vacation lens.........

Here is some of what I saw last week. I feel that perhaps I have written about a few of these before, but I don’t plan to look back to check. If they are still catching my gaze, then they must need to flow onto paper yet again. 

1. The first day of a vacation is hard for me.  I am grumpy in transition. Nothing is as I expected it to be. The town has more traffic, the rental house seems darker and beach accesses are hard to find. Two days later I love it all!  Why, oh why do I always have to throw day 1 away?
2. I am a horrible back seat driver. Throw in a steering wheel on the right and driving on the left and my shrieks only become louder. I have a permanent lean toward the right and my hand white knuckles the handle.  Hand signals develop to indicate I believe I am about to be impaled by a branch on my side or that we aren’t slowing down enough to yield to the mayhem of a roundabout. I know I am annoying. I can’t seem to stop myself.
3. I don’t like dinner. Not sure why but it became crystal clear this week. I love morning and my late breakfast. Afternoon arrives. I am reading my book, lying in the sun, taking dips in the water. Relaxed, happy, free. My vision of the perfect day is staying right there until around 4, a late lunch at a beach bar and hanging out back at the house in the evening. I find dinner jarring. Too much food, too formal and an interruption to my bliss. Does anyone else feel like that?
4. If my hair could speak it would be yelling YES!!! after many salt water dips and sun and breeze dryings.  Its as if it comes alive. If I could, I wouldn’t let shampoo touch it the whole week, but not sure everyone else would be as happy with that.
5. The absolute best sip of beer ever is the first sip on the hot beach of a bottled IPA that has been in the cooler all morning. Heaven.
6. I have become a complete wuss when it comes to swimming in the ocean.  Even in the Caribbean. I will drive around until finding that small tucked away cove with perfectly calm, warm, clear, shallow water. I know it is there and once found becomes ‘my beach’.  Not sure where my fear originated but it follows me. The bonus though is these coves tend to be absent of vendors, restaurants and water sports, which therefore leads to an absence of most other humans…...which suits me perfectly.
7. Of course, I overpacked. Again.

See what you notice next time through your vacation lens. Noticing provides a window to change. Some of the above I will tackle and others are perfect exactly as they are.

I have learned to love winter but my soul is still a summer,

SARAH

......they

Yogis,

The new 300 Hour Yoga/Ayurveda training began here in my studio last weekend.  Eleven of us linking arms on a learning journey that will span eighteen months. 

Most of us didn’t know each other.  We are a diverse group ranging in age from 30 to 63, representing 4 ethnicities and coming with varied expertise spanning the medical, yoga, art and education fields.  After only one weekend we have already formed a bond.

I have been reflecting this week on the power of these trainings.  Yes, we will absorb a lot of information, learn new meditations and chants, and discover how to eat based on Ayurvedic principles……but underlying all of this is a current that is carrying us one step closer to inner peace.  That which we all seek.

We will then be taking what we learn back to our families, our communities and our workplaces. That is what yoga is at its core.  Developing a state of calm, trust and unwavering faith in ourselves and the Universe and then helping others to do the same.  This is how change happens…….

Let me give you an example.  One of the women is a principal at an inner-city school in DC.  She took her initial yoga teacher training and suddenly saw her school and her students in a completely new light!  She now leads them in yoga and meditation, which they need and love.  When she saw this training advertised she immediately jumped on board to get MORE that she could bring back to them.  She didn’t wait for DC schools to implement a program – she simply felt it in herself, walked out and shared it with the world.  She didn’t wait for ‘them’ to fix it.

Another person has an inner calling to become an Ayurvedic doctor.  A dharma which he is listening to.  And when asked why he was in the training he answered that he wanted to learn to heal to be able to bring healing to those that couldn’t afford to pay.  He isn’t waiting for ‘them’ to fix our healthcare system. 

Another woman works with adult immigrants.  She can’t wait to bring back these teachings on how to heal yourself with food.  She too isn’t waiting for ‘them’ to take care of those who have come here to find a better life.  And it goes on…..and on. 

We love to use the word ‘they’. But there is no ‘they’.  They are simply us in different clothes, roles or locations.  Speaking ill of ‘them’, waiting for ‘them’, blaming ‘them’ all take a little of the ownership off our own backs.  As Gandhi so simply stated – Be the change that you want to see. 

That is the essence of yoga.  Following our innate inner longing for peace and a connection to source…..and then helping others to do the same.  Acting from that space. This is how change happens. 

An ounce of practice is worth a thousand words.
                     ~Mahatma Gandhi

Noticing now when I use the word ‘they’,
SARAH