Taking Time To Care 

When and where was the last time someone showed deep care for your well being? 

“ The great gift of human beings is that they have the power of empathy. We can all sense a mysterious connection to each other.” (Meryl Streep)

I’ve experienced  plenty of yoga teachers over the years who’ve helped me  maintain decent strength, balance and flexibility as I’ve attempted to age gracefully. To accomplish these goals, I am thus well versed in the body movement logistics of each pose ahead and know when to ease off my physical effort as needed. But I often seem unable to feel the deep spiritual advantages offered by my practice.

So that leads me to discuss why I enjoyed taking  a yin yoga class to begin my summer from  a young female instructor who recently emigrated from Bangalore, India. Notably, while completing  each pose in a set order, her style of yoga practice featured numerous attempts to show compassion for us as individuals while we synchronized her smiling presence with steady breath control awareness. In this regard,  I particularly enjoyed those  spiritually enlightening  periods of slow body/head bows  and rhythmic vocal chants which we performed  with her in unison. I also felt a welcoming slow down of my busy “monkey mind” chatter and instead visualized her spreading images of goodness in myself and the gifts of “Mother Earth” surrounding me. 

Whether I take her class again, I do not know. Yet for one summer morning, this empathetic stranger reminded me that genuine care often comes unexpectedly. So stay tuned this June and July as Ruth and I once again travel America’s highways hoping to share stories and photographs not only about the planned fifteen places we visit, but also of caring people whose kindness enriches our journey along the way in an unexpectedly. You can view our intended itinerary map in the blog cover photo above.