HEAR ME ROAR!

I love when Karen growls in class.  Well, she's the lead teacher and studio owner, so can pretty much do whatever she wants to in class, but roaring is my favorite of her sweetly unorthodox teaching techniques.

She started the class by offering the idea that all of life is a gift.  I immediately thought of Christmas just past, and the gifts under the tree wrapped in shiny paper and big bows.  So pretty.  But as schmaltzy as it sounds, none of those gifts compared to the gift of my family gathered together to share food, laughter, and connections with each other.

I also thought of the gift I was giving myself of coming to yoga class today.  I've attended sporadically lately and I can feel it.  I have some "remedial yoga-ing" to do to get back where I was -- fairly strong, flexible, and balanced.  Any ego that wanted to shout out that I was a damn fine specimen for having just turned 66 years old has been silenced by the realization that it doesn't take long to lose all of those attributes if you don't keep up the practice with regularity.  I vow now to  patiently work to regain my sense of body well-being.

What does any of this have to do with roaring?  As we rose up from a low lunge into Warrior I pose, then into Warrior II, Karen began to growl.  Then she roared!  Repeatedly!  Then she reminded us (a class of only women today) that we need our strong Warrior Woman in the world now more than ever!  Stand strong!  Grrroooowl!   Rooooaaaarrr!   I thought of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" as we all roared together.

I decided the gift I'm giving myself with yoga now is the gift of strength, stamina, mindfulness, compassion, dedication, and perseverance.   I'm in training for the activism on the horizon that will begin with the Women's March in Seattle the day after the presidential inauguration.   It seems there are so many human rights for which we must diligently work to improve, to uphold, to ensure; our planet needs our action in order to survive; our country needs compassionate healing.  The job is enormous.  I can't just keep eating my daughter-in-law's amazing Chocolate Toffee and drinking Peppermint Mochas and expect to be able to rise up with my sisters and brothers and work for the values we share -- those which will progress a vision for a healthy, strong, compassionate, peaceful, equitable world.

The ultimate gift may in fact be the gift of ourselves, standing and speaking as Warriors for Peace...gnashing our terrible teeth, roaring our terrible Yoga-Warrior roars.  We are the wild things.  And we are here!©

Namaste,  donnajurene