I’ve been practicing, studying and trying live yoga since about 2000. In all that time, I have never learned more about myself and about how this glorious practice works its magic than since I started teaching it full time.
Like many of you, I started doing yoga as part of my exercise routine. And like many of you, I discovered immediately, after that very first class, that yoga offered something more than a great workout. I left class feeling relaxed and invigorated, not exhausted; open and expansive; strong, but also soft, receptive.
Yoga speaks to my heart through the language of my body the way that poetry speaks to my heart through the language of words on a page. It asks me to slow down, acknowledge the rhythms of natural things, and observe what’s happening right here, right now.
This month, in honor of National Poetry Month, instead of writing one big newsletter, I will be posting daily poems and commentary on my website, with a weekly digest going out through email on the weekends. You can subscribe to the blog here, or follow my Facebook page.
Today, I give you one from Hafiz with the reminder that you don’t have to travel to exotic places to feel the wonder of nature, and experience the divine within you.
My back yard.
The Place Where You Are Now
by Hafiz
This place where you are right now
God circled on a map for you.
Wherever your eyes and arms and heart can move
Against the earth and the sky,
The Beloved has bowed there –
Our Beloved has bowed there knowing
You were coming.
I could tell you a priceless secret about
Your real worth, dear pilgrim,
But any unkindness to yourself,
Any confusion about others,
Will keep one
From accepting the grace, the love,
The sublime freedom
Divine knowledge always offers to you.
Never mind, Hafiz, about
The great requirements this path demands
Of the wayfarers,
For your soul is too full of wine tonight
To withhold the wondrous Truth from this world.
But because I am so clever and generous,
I have already clearly woven a resplendent lock
Of his tresses
As a remarkable truth and gift
In this poem for you.
~Hafiz
Yoga with Lesley 