Cleared for Landing

An end is the beginning is a cathartic journey rewinding through retrospect.

I could never have imagined the width and breadth of the events that would transpire when I walked into my first yoga class at 3 West Superior Street over three years ago. I wasn’t even sure what yoga was or even why I was there but I ended up finding myself transported on to a path that has ushered me into a new place of being and living in the world and my heart bursts with gratitude for it.

In the beginning it was if my eyes were seeing for the first time; the veil of morass, negativity and conditioning lifted with each chant, each posture, each breath.

The unfolding continued through deep valleys and ravines of sorrow, despair, rage, betrayal, sadness and finally joy, openness, surrender, serenity and awareness. I met myself many times on my path, in my teachers, in the students, in the community and in my bathroom mirror.

I came to have a minimal understanding of projection, assimilation and growth. I came to recognize that what I saw in someone else I also possessed; both greatness and weakness, strength and futility, positive and negative. It was not so shocking that I possessed the same debilitating negative character trait as someone else. It was shocking that I also possessed the greatness I recognized. Over time I realized it was true for many people; easy to accept the negative, hard to accept that which makes us great.

I also came to have a minor understanding of how to traverse both worlds, inner and outer. I now recognize the connection between all beings and events; spoken, seen, heard, invisible. I watch my mind and when I am present, understand that the stories I tell myself are not true; simply projections of a mind determined to live in the past and the future rather than RIGHT NOW.

I have had to say goodbye many times over the last few years and this to, has been an astounding dance of consciousness. I have said goodbye to homes, friends, relationships, my father, teachers and ways of living and being in the world that no longer serve me. The circle of birth, life and death is one that none can escape. Change is inevitable. The recognition of this cycle, this dance, is a gift that I deem invaluable as my path continues into uncharted territory.

In the end I found even the ability to surrender and let go to be another invaluable gift. Birth, life and death demand that it be so, it is only our own egos that get in the way of the natural flow of being in this world…

Going forward I hold it all in my heart. I hold the community and the connections that I made deep in my being; solid roots sinking into the fertile earth. Thank you to everyone who participated. The gratitude I feel for you and for the space at 3 West Superior Street is immeasurable and indescribable; thank you, Namaste, Sat Nam!