What Happens When You Finally Surrender

There was about 15 of us and the sun was just setting.  I raised my arms like I’ve done a million trillion times to begin a sun salutation.  But this time was different.  I had the magnificent blue sky above me to stretch towards. To reach.  To connect and lock my energy with. And the only thing that seperated me from the powerful earth below was my yoga mat.

This was my first time doing yoga outside in the middle of the desert with the setting sun.  This was the first time I heard an owl hoot as I stood in warrior pose.  The first time I felt a cool breeze roll from the mountain side and sit at the nape of my neck as I bowed in uttanasana.  As I transitioned from one pose to the next, a posse of dust and twigs would dance across the mat below me.  I became mesmerized how the sound of my breath echoed the wave of the palm trees.  And comforted by the saguaro cactus’s as they stood watch.

I felt completely nurtured by Mother Nature herself. She had knelt down lovingly so I could crawl upon her lap.  And when she laid the sun to rest, I felt her caress and coo in my ear pointing to the constellations that she glittered the sky with…just for us.  A group of dedicated yogis out in the desert on a Saturday night.

When savasana finally arrived, the final pose of the night, I didn’t take my eyes off the infinite sky.  Instead I imagined that all the love I felt at that moment–all the love I possessed for this incredible life that I live–I imagined that it became a stream of water that began to flow out of my pores.  I stared at that sky and could feel the water rushing over the other souls that laid there too–and it pushed past them into the desert–out towards the street, onto the highways.  It flooded houses and stores, it made it’s way everywhere across the country and ran rapid filling each continent north and south.  My love flowing in that river met the oceans on each side and Mother Nature herself guided it to countries so far away.  To souls touched and tormented by poverty, war, hardship, and deep sorrow.  The river rushed into little grass huts, into farmlands, big cities, and ancient ruins.  It left not one soul untouched.

And as I took a deep inhale,
As my yoga practice on the mat that night came to a close
The river came flowing back to me, over me, and straight into my heart.