“I have heard the meaning of the word yoga to be yoking or union. It is the yoking of my attention to my body and the universe within. It is as if within each line of my body, each sinew, bone and cell, an entire system of worlds exists. Each pose and contemplation brings me to a new awareness of this myriad of being. In yoga I recreate flow and strength, connection and letting go. It is stepping into the magic pool that is the presence of my own being, a ripple in the universe.”
Let no one keep you from your journey,
no rabbi or priest, no mother
who wants you to dig for treasures
she misplaced, no father
who won’t let one life be enough,
no lover who measures their worth
by what you might give up,
no voice that tells you in the night
it can’t be done.
Let nothing dissuade you
from seeing what you see
or feeling the winds that make you
want to dance alone
or go where no one
has yet to go.
You are the only explorer.
Your heart, the unreadable compass.
Your soul, the shore of a promise
too great to be ignored.
a star said to me, once,
you and I are just the same
though our shores
are far from near,
in time and motion
we together rhyme
we travel paths:
unseen but old
share endless currents
surf the hidden waves, as one
our edges are outlined -
in skin, in stone -
but be not fooled
that boundaries define us
for spaces and dimensions
would belie the truth
take a moment, if you will
and cast away your frame
let your memories drift apart,
mingle in the rain
let your senses stop, release,
until you wash away
and see if not the wooden floor
and you, and I
and even music, softly,
have not become the same
and so we dance
at the end of midnight’s slumber
when first light
breaks the dusk
you and I look up
and see the same
and see another
for although the morning star
gives her beams to countless skies
no lesser is the one of us
who sits amongst the sunshine
and contemplates the light
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for,
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, f
or your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow,
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own,
if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful,
to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself;
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul;
if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it’s not pretty,
every day,and if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,
and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair,
weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you,
from the inside, when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
At night outside it all moves or
almost moves - trees, grass,
touches of wind. The room you have
in the world is ready to change.
Clouds parade by, and stars in their
configurations. Birds from far
touch the fabric around them - you can
feel their wings move. Somewhere under
the earth it waits, that emanation
of all things. It breathes. It pulls you
slowly out through doors or windows
and you spread in the thin halo of night mist.
.......William Stafford
Sangha
Teach me what I cannot learn alone.
Let us share what we know, and what
we cannot fathom. Speak to me of
mysteries, and let us never lie
to one another.
May our fierce and tender longing
fuel the fire in our souls. When we
stand side by side, let us dare to focus
our desire on the truth. May we be
reminders, each for the other, that
the path of transformation passes
through the flames.
To take one step is courageous;
to stay on the path day after day,
choosing the unknown, and facing
yet another fear, that is nothing
short of Grace.
Danna Faulds
