Six Months of Awesome

June 20 marked the six month anniversary of my Meetup group, South Wake Spiritual Community (SWSC)! Since our inception, we have had 42 meetups, covering a wide variety of topics - everything from Yoga, meditation and Reiki to Tarot cards. Currently, we have 39 fascinating members.

The mission of the SWSC is to create positive, tolerant and openminded spiritual community in the southern Wake County area. This is a place for people of all faiths to explore inner and outer landscapes, to learn and grow together!

One of the most popular events is our monthly Meet & Greet, at which we have gather to share our stories over tea. I keep hearing a recurring theme at these events: people are searching for an accepting spiritual community.  I encourage each new member to take a Diversity Pledge and ask them to agree to a set of ground rules that promote respectful, tolerant community. We seem to be headed in the right direction - our group has received numerous positive reviews and comments.

In other news, on June 25, I was initiated as an Ordained Priestess in both my spiritual tradition and by the Universal Life Church, an interfaith organization. This blessed event represents a lifetime of spiritual exploration and study. My mission as a spiritual leader is to bring people together in celebration of our shared humanity and stewardship of this lovely Earth. I am so blessed to have this opportunity to promote tolerance, diversity and healthy living in the southern Wake county area.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the South Wake Spiritual Community by participating, telling friends and neighbors about the group and by sharing your stories. Thank you also to all those who have provided listening ears, guidance and encouragement as I have stepped out into the public on my teaching and priestessing journey.

It's been a good summer so far. My garden is growing, my kitties are happy and just now, the blackberries are in season. Life is good and my heart is full.

Namaste - the light within me honors the light within you!

Asana: Not the Best Part of Yoga

 Finally, my chance to write about Yoga! But first, let me tell you a story.

The other night, we were having a gathering of my Meetup group. I forget now how it came up, but the topic of my weekly Yoga class came up. We were trying to describe exactly what we do in there, and it was a little tricky.

See, I don’t teach traditional Yoga. Well, I do, actually. I’m a Hatha Yoga instructor, trained by some very skilled old school teachers. But I don’t teach *just* traditional yoga.

No, I seem to have gone off the rails somewhere, into the unknown. I find myself letting it all hang out in the Yoga studio. My…err…colorful mode of speech comes out. We have “booty blankets” to sit on, for example. I’ve been known to fistpump and I crack jokes constantly. One night we danced. More than once, we pulled out colored pens and index cards.

One of my students finally said that I’m teaching “renegade yoga”. I like it. And thus the name of this blog was born.

But I kept thinking. The word 'renegade' implies a certain level of rebellion. I'm not actually rebelling against the tradition of Yoga. I love an honor the traditions. In fact, my way of teaching is in many ways more traditional than what you will find at most Yoga studios today. But we are doing something different in my class. So finally, I renamed my class to 'Wild Freedom Yoga'. 

Anyhoo. Back to asana. Yoga is freaking awesome. But asana, or the physical poses, are far from the best part of it. Oh sure, they’re important. One of the purposes of asana is to strengthen one’s body enough to sit in meditation. And I love me some meditation.

But here in the US, we have gotten fixated on asana, and performing all sorts of acrobatic feats. We even have such a thing as Acro-Yoga now. Blame it on the media, blame it on our relentless type-a drive for perfection, physical beauty, whatever. I’m not here to dissect our social problems.

The fact is that the art and science of Yoga is broad and deep. There’s really something in it for everyone. Like serving others and the world? Karma. Devotions to God (no matter what deity/archetype/concept you worship)? Bhakti. Are you the scholarly type? Jnana.

And those are just the branches on the big tree of Yoga. On each branch are scads of practices. Me? I like to meditate. I like to chant. I like devotion. I like service. Luckily, the Yoga police aren’t out to get me. I can do just as I please.

A great teacher of mine once said, “Yoga is liberation”.

Indeed.