Let's go back to my first yoga class. Walking out of the intro class grateful to have found something to hold onto in the midst of chaos. To lie on the mat and fold into myself for a few minutes at a time felt like the greatest gift. Walking out of that class I could overhear the muffled moans coming from the next room and I knew that something special was happening in there. I assumed I would never know.
Months went by and the people at the studio encouraged me to try everything, go to any class, do what you can and learn. It's not a contest. There are no points in yoga, and all that other cliche yoga bullshit that I now put forth as my own founding principles and personal Magna Carta. All of it is true and it takes a lot of effort to push aside cynicism and hear the voice of sincerity.
Tonight, in that class I never thought I would be able to survive, after 75 minutes of submission and surrender to discovering the further limit, the teacher told us he was leaving for the Badlands, Oklahoma specifically, which is bad enough for me. He said that teaching us yoga has been the greatest reward in his life, and something he never thought he would be able to do. This class in particular, known only as CORE, has served as a testing ground for many people looking to find what they had inside themselves.
At 41 years old it is hard to be a student, and harder to find teachers. I don't know this guy beyond "Give it all you've got" and "Find some stillness" but between those words is a lifetime of learning. Thank you John Hazelton.
Y'all ready to go?
Juancho
6 comments:
What's the name of the place you guy. I keep threatening to give yoga a try
Journey's. @ the Winn Dixie plaza on Magnolia. Let's do it.
I'm interested, but admittedly not mentally there yet; I'm still at the bottom of a scheduling wall that looms to the very heavens.
When I started I told myself that I would drive 7 miles to class only until "season" started and then I'd do yoga all by my lonely at home - which is fine - but after 6 weeks of it, I will climb over the line of cars to and from the island if I have to for the sanity of body and mind that it's giving me. Maybe Kathleen, like John, is one of those special teachers but really, how often do we find warmth, dedication and professionalism in anybody? So give John a Christmas gift from your mom for helping her boy. :)
This makes me want to go back to yoga.
Ditto, Nicol. I do a little, most mornings on the mat in my house, but it's so routine by now, it's barely yoga.
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