Yoga Messages
Whether we know it or not, we transmit the presenceof everyone we have ever known, as though by being in each
other’s presence we exchange our cells, pass on some of our
life force, and then we go on carrying that other person
in our body, not unlike springtime when certain plants
in fields we walk through attach their seeds in the form
of small burrs to our socks, our pants, our caps, as if to say,
“Go on, take us with you, carry us to root in another place.”
This is how we survive long after we are dead.
This is why it is important who we become, because we pass it on.
It is truly amazing the things I discover without even trying. Sometimes it seems all I have to do is just show up and have my awareness switch turned on and I am blessed with words like those above. It was written by Natalie Goldberg in her book “Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America.” I heard that passage read yesterday at the conclusion of my yoga class. Yes, that’s right. The same yoga class where I heard the beautiful “Letting It Go” last January. Tuesday morning, 9:30 AM at Healing Waters in East Aurora, NY. The class that Coleen attended frequently and I have been attending much less often than she did.
This reading touched me deeply because it is such an apt description of what has happened as a result of Coleen’s death. It describes her and who she was and speaks so clearly of the rest of us, the one’s left in the wake of her passing. We received so much from Coleen and her presence that we all carry part of her in our bodies so that we can pass her on and she can root in other places. The whole concept of it is so beautiful to me. When I hear things like that so randomly, I have to just stop and wonder about the force that brought me to that moment. And be so grateful for whatever it was that put me in front of that reading that day.
I went to that yoga class today because I needed it. With Coleen’s one year memory day looming, I have been a little distraught and I thought yoga would provide much-needed relief. And not just yoga, but yoga at Healing Waters. There is a difference to me. I can do yoga in front of my television while watching a DVD or just by myself in silence. But the environment and atmosphere of Healing Waters is an entirely different experience. As a matter of fact, I could probably revise my intent of yesterday to say that my main purpose was to visit Healing Waters where I would also be taking a yoga class. Shortly after Coleen died I visited a friend and confidante of hers named Jillian. She is a bit clairvoyant and understands things about the other side that none of the rest of do. Jillian told me that Coleen would be able to communicate with me better in certain places and during certain activities. She said that One of those activities would be yoga because when done properly, it opens the mind to more spiritual matters. Healing Waters is the place Coleen always went for her yoga classes and it is where I have gone. Each time I go, I am reminded of Coleen being in that same room and I feel her presence there with me. I felt it very strongly yesterday throughout the entire class. It was especially strong during the Shavasana segments which is the relaxation before and after. During that time while lying on my back, eyes closed, and thinking of nothing, I am very open to communication and alternative thoughts. Yesterday with my eyes closed I was deluged with the color purple,. I was swimming in wave after wave of purple shapes and clouds. I have experienced that color many times before, each time identified as Coleen’s signature to me. Never as dramatic as yesterday though. Never quite as intense or powerful.
And speaking of showing up and discovering things at random, I was presented another gift at yesterday’s yoga experience. We were doing a variation of the Warrior pose where the arms and hands are stretched out in opposite directions. Our instructor described the forward hand, the one reaching out in front of our gaze, as being our “future.” She told us to pick a point of focus and reach out to it as it was our future. I got goosebumps when I heard her say that. It was another example of remembering my past, honoring it, letting it go a little bit more, and then recognizing my future, identifying it, know what and who it is, and them reaching out to it and embracing it. All in one simple yoga posture.
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