I recently bought a plane ticket to India; the plan is to leave March 18 and return April 6.
It's been nine years since I visited the Motherland; in the interim, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois passed, I received guru mantra, completed many more teacher trainings, legally changed my name, made it through menopause, gave up my journalism career, bought a new computer, led many, many retreats, and nearly stopped writing (except for my Yoga Chicago columns and spiritual diary).
I have the sense that that is all beginning to change, as I read this, written by a longtime Chicago ashtangi and dear friend, and re-consider where my gifts are and how they may best be used to serve others.
* * *
*the photo above shows me wearing the shorts Miss Amy KR gave to me the day before, shortly after she'd gone into hospice. She asked me to send her a picture of me wearing them, and this is what I sent.
She had originally loaned those same shorts to me in the early 2000's, at Sri K. Pattabhi Jois's workshop at the Puck Building in NYC. I'd shown up bleary-eyed in jeans, and without yoga pants; within a few minutes Amy - whom I barely knew - offered me her extra shorts. Long story short, over the years (although I was ostensibly the one in the role of "teacher"), she taught be a whole lot about love, selflessness, inclusiveness, joy and generosity. Jai Ma!
