Wild Geese
“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.” - Mary Oliver
You are perfect in your wholeness. Your wholeness includes your scars, your weaknesses, your mood swings, the days of your life you’d rather pull the covers up over your head and stay in bed.
Yoga is a practice of peeling away labels of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and embracing whatever form of beauty you bring to your mat each day.
I thought this poem and this thought was well suited for the fact that we completed our Yoga Teacher Training today. We all came here with specific expectations of how this course would be, how our time here would play out, what we would be doing each day, the people we would be surrounded by, how we would be tested, the yoga we would be doing. I think we can all agree that our expectations were partially what we thought or hoped and many other things were surprises.
We have all worked so hard to complete this very intensive course . . . we are Yoga Teachers but we are not done learning. We all will walk away from Kranti Yoga Teacher Training with a wealth of knowledge that we did not arrive here with . . . . thanks to so many things, but in particular Juliia. She is a fabulous teacher, keeps us on task, is so organized, and has such a great way of delivering the material that it sticks in a way that we take it with us into our lives and our practice and our classes rather than memorizing it for a test and then forgetting it the moment our pens are put down and the ink is dry. We are not perfect but the love and passion that we have for yoga and for teaching it to others is our "soft animal" that will keep us striving to be the best we can be.
We were up bright and early at Moksha Shala for our Back Bending Flow with Julia. My back was the worse it's been since I arrived and I thought I would never make it through the class. However, I pushed through it because I know I need these classes more when my back is so tenuous because it helps to strengthen it. After class, Elaine, Cheska and myself decided we'd walk on the beach and cross over to the other beach where neither of them had gone previously and do our meditation there and opt out of Upendra's self led pranayama and meditation. It was the perfect choice. We took some yoga photos, we chanted the Gyatri mantra and the chakra mantra, reflected on our time here at Kranti, and just had a lovely time meditating on our surroundings and really soaking in the beauty all around us.
We got back in time for breakfast and it was study time to prepare for our Anatomy of Asana Alignment exam and the posture assessment. Everyone did very well. There were still 4 girls that were left to do their teaching assessment tonight at 5:15 so for them it didn't quite feel like they were done or could celebrate. We all encouraged them that they would be awesome.
Bex and I went through here sequence ocean side. I could already tell her sequence was going to be great. And . . . I was sooooo right. Everyone absolutely loved it. She even got to teach 2 drop ins and make a little cash on the side for her class. This was a blessing even though it initially made her nervous - we all still have yet to teach to people other than our peers and she got that straight out of the way. It was a fantastic way to end the whole experience. Her intention was beautiful and talked about visualizing a door and behind it being whatever version or story you choose there to be. At the end of Shavasana she had everyone open their eyes and look at their surroundings and take it in . . . how can the lapping of the ocean waves in that moment not be magical???
Bex and I went to Palolem to finish up some gift shopping. She bought herself a beautiful necklace that she had wanted at the beginning of the trip, and she ended up getting a much better price for it. We met up with Brooke, Elaine, Cheska, Lindsay and Laura at Dropade for dinner. The owner/chef of Ourem were eating there for dinner, which said a lot. We shared some white wine. It was lovely. We just cannot believe we have completed this journey.
I put my books and notes away this afternoon. I will start reading my book "The Journey Home" from Swami G and have some relax time tomorrow with the rest of the girls. Most people are leaving in the night Sunday.
Tomorrow is our fire ceremony to celebrate our journey and our successes. I am excited for that.
I've so loved my time here in India but I am so very elated to be going home to my family. I will miss my yoga family, but I know I will keep in touch with many.
Congratulations ladies and Jon, Dan and Anand.
Namaste
J
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