Darlings,
I love history and look at it as a point of reference when we come together on the mat and see the yoga in all of what we came from so we can arrive in the present moment and fuel our future. Think of it like a collective intention GPS. We need to know where we came from to know where we are and where we are going.
On that note...
On June 11th back in 1935 in New York City, two recovering alcoholics, one a broker and the other a physician, founded Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), a 12-step rehabilitation program that helps countless people cope with alcoholism.
The thing that I respect most about this group is the collective. Like us, we come together, people of different backgrounds and belief and we find a common thread to connect us together – YOGA.
Although ‘God’ is used in the 12 step program, it is not of a religious domination and neither is yoga. If you tap into the divine source - that which connects us all together, we find that even in our challenges, we can surpass them with the collective help and support of those around us.
The 12 step program has been used to help many addictions far beyond alcoholism and many people check in daily, weekly and monthly to surround themselves with people who understand where they are coming from. YOGA.
To a non yogi, Yoga is a mystery. To a non alcoholic, AA is a mystery, but one thing is for sure – it’s the connection that keeps us going.
To tap into the source and check in with others and ourselves along the path is imperative for growth and progress.
So let’s come together and begin…
It takes community to maintain a human. Earon Davis
Our highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing men together.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Shared joys make a friend, not shared sufferings. Friedrich Nietzsche
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. George Bernard Shaw
The love in your heart wasn't put there to stay. Love isn't love 'til you give it away. Oscar Hammerstein
From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life. Arthur Ashe
The peace I am thinking of is the dance of an open mind when it engages another equally open one. Toni Morrison
The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference. Audre Lorde
Whatever we possess becomes of double value when we have the opportunity of sharing it with others. Jean-Nicolas Bouilly
We confirm our reality by sharing. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
What life have you if you have not life together? There is no life that is not in community. T. S. Eliot
Our strength is a contented and intelligent community. Rutherford Hayes
The body is a community made up of its innumerable cells or inhabitants. Thomas A. Edison
In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it. Marianne Williamson
But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Khalil Gibran
One step at a time,
Lady