I love the expression of the source as the “Infinite Ground-of-Being”, a Buddhist understanding of true self. I struggle with any understanding of esoteric ideas to reach past my limited intellect’s bias of learned conditioning. What does that expression mean to my lost, wandering, confused state of mind when I am hurting and in need of a simple hug?
For me, spirituality is useless unless experienced through a life of touch—to hug and to feel connected to something greater. The sensation offers a pure grace of being visible and valuable. My soul needs to be expressed in touch, the sound of laughter and the moan of tears.
I am a human living a life of seeking something more than ideology, dogma, and rules of religion. I am a seeker of honesty rooted in the gut of life’s deepest fears and struggles to understand anything. I don’t have anything to offer except love and acceptance in being alive.
Human beings are fragile and make mistakes. We all experience loss as the crack in the armor of the ego. Keeping that small space in the heart open becomes the profound gateway for the light to come through.
It’s 25 years this month that I fell into the Midwest. What I thought would be a few years visit turned into a deep-rooted homeland. Yoga Among Friends was a beginning for me to establish a place to teach yoga. I had no idea it would be the start of something so much more.
It has been and continues to be a community of love and profound healing for many amazing souls that somehow find their way up our long and winding stairway. The courage to begin some new path is more than a quick fix. It is a deeper doorway into something unknown.
Over the years, I have been protective of our mission to remain unique and offer more than just a place for a “workout”. It is a safe zone in a world filled with corporate dialogues and driven product numbers. Each soul that enters into our space is given attention and welcomed. Respect and care for the journey; offering safety and support in being awkward and confused.
In a constantly fluctuating outer world, our mission has been to create a place to fall apart and discover the deeper richer places in each of us. The soul matters, and collectively we need community and belonging to let love in and also to shine it out. Where technology has become way too overwhelming, we offer a place to remember to be still, to listen to those quiet inner sounds of intuition, to risk the mystical entering into our consciousness, and to be present and alive to this feeling of being “grounded in being.”
I am always amazed at the shifts that take place as students continue their practice over the years. The door opens with new students with hesitant feelings of uncertainty. For each, beginning something new is a huge moment of courage beyond their familiar comfort zone. I admire and encourage beginnings. Regardless of what is going on in the outer world, we come into a place of acceptance. I like to call it the Magical Zone of the Unlimited Self!
This month I am also welcoming my 65th year of life, a time to redefine my life’s expression. Yoga is my vehicle, but healing is my love. I am not fond of only teaching information; my inner desire is to share the tools for transformation—offering love, compassion, kindness, and forgiveness. I am passionate and committed more than ever to keep the doors of our center open as we welcome this new decade. In turbulent days forward, there will be moments where we need community to feel stability and peacefulness.
In a world where many of us are invisible, and touch has been misused, and healthy boundaries have been disregarded, I remain steadfast in my commitment that touch as a hug is a healing tool. To live in the physical body and connecting to the greater essence of our consciousness, we must experience safe touch.
The teachers at YAF respect and understand when a person chooses to be invisible at times, since the world can be exhausting, and privacy is needed for deeper listening. The center honors where you are and acknowledges it’s an individual journey as much as a collective anchoring. I willingly accept my role as keeper of the space!
We begin the new year with the commitment to be the “Infinite Ground-of-Being” and to sustain the effort of practice as we nourish our inner souls. I am forever in gratitude for the brilliance of our teachers and the love they shine out. I welcome 2020 with joy and peace for a healthy and vibrant new journey of the heart. I am a student always and learning each day to be more in love with life!
Blessings of love,
Laura