I have been blessed with the opportunity to spend precious time in Londolozi, South Africa. This is a very special place. A space where all is well with The Earth.
When you take the time to gaze back through your life, and at my age there is plenty to gaze at, you find that some, seemingly chance encounters and friendships lead to so much more.
I met BeJay at Ana Forrest’s first UK Teacher Training course held in Peterborough. She was one of the first people I met and then we moved into different teaching groups for the next month. However, by the magic of the Internet we stayed connected via Facebook. That is where I saw her advert asking if anyone was interested in teaching yoga at Londolozi whilst she took a two week break. It was a cold February evening in Manchester. Sleet was slashing against our back door. I had had a busy day and enjoyed a glass of red wine. My fingers twitched and suddenly before me was the email to BeJay asking if I could be considered.
Yes! And so it happened that on Wednesday after many hours of flying on three flights, the smiling face of BeJay greeted me to her corner of South Africa.
I am happily ensconced in BeJay’s lovely house and each day I get to teach whomsoever wishes to come to the beautiful Yoga Deck.
I was aware throughout last night of the vervet monkeys calling and agitating in the trees close to where I slept. We had very high winds in the evening. I have lived in The Lowveld before and there is a particular feel in the air when the weather decides to ruffle our complacency! It agitates and makes me feel jumpy and wired, not fearful, simply very awake.
The vervet monkeys hung around until dawn and then I spied them on my walk this morning. Not content with that they then made their presence known whilst I taught yoga today. They leap, they play, they sit thoughtfully and then one simply collapsed against the tree trunk, moulding itself around the bark and dozing.
My brain took all this in and then I thought about the significance of their presence.
Hanumasana is The Son of the Wind and last night the winds of Africa brought them so close to me. He is known for his mighty leaps and his great love for Rama. Hanumasana ‘will do anything but he cannot do everything’. This fascinates me because one of my reasons for being here was to think through what happens next in my life. I am now sixty years old and have had the realisation that for years I have endeavoured to do everything which lately has resulted in me being able to do nothing!
So, how important is it for me to get everything right and do I strive for perfectionism? Does that lead me to damaging myself? Oh most certainly the answer is yes!
Hanumasana is about devotion and service but in order to do that I need to care more for me.
So, finally as I conclude this post…I had a class of twelve people today, six lovely people being completely new to yoga and six being much more deeply involved in their practice. What to do? Take a deep breath, feel my feet upon this amazing Earth and then simply accept that my plans were no longer viable and I had to find The Path of Least Resistance. The Path of Ease where every single person was gifted with some nugget worth carrying back into their world.
Do less, breath more, enjoy Child’s Pose, down-level and feel fabulous about it. Finally, rest totally and feel the wondrous air of Africa surrounding you. My deep hope is that my strategy worked. However, setting aside my own need for ‘getting it right’ there is little I can worry about now as I and they are in a totally new space. Furthermore, because my internet connection is somewhat dodgy I am simply popping this out there into the universe whilst cyberspace allows and I’m gently acknowledging that my photograph is far from perfect but actually, perfectly illustrates my need to simply let go!
Namaste.