Home~ Day #6 (Week 2)
- By Richard Fahlander
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- 18 Apr, 2020
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April 18
The other day a friend of mine commented that during this stay-at-home period she is doing a lot more yoga. A home practice lends itself to digging deeper into the physical and mental spaces that call to be opened up. There are conveniences home yoga – no commute to a studio, no worries about what you are wearing, less judging your performance to others, easy bathroom breaks. And when you join online classes, you can swim in the miraculous flow of electrons that keeps us connected.
The week before the Covid-19 lockdown I led a yoga class for inmates at the Northeastern Correctional Center in Concord, otherwise known as the prison farm. About a dozen men enthusiastically engaged in meditation and movement themed around noticing the body and calming the mind. After class, several guys asked if they could have more classes and the prison official present said that could be a possibility.
But not now, of course. People in institutions are particularly virus vulnerable, as are those living in crowded apartments or on the street. For most of us home is our safe space and I ache at the thought of not having one. Home happens to rhyme with the sound of Om. Voice either out loud and the reverberations are both personal and universal.
On The Mat Yoga Blog
“There is a light in the core of
our being that calls us home—one that can only be seen with closed eyes; We can
feel it as a radiance in the center of our chest. This light of loving
awareness is always here, regardless of our conditioning. It does not matter
how many dark paths we have traveled or how many wounds we have inflicted or
sustained as we have unknowingly stumbled toward this inner radiance. It does
not matter how long we have sleepwalked, seduced by our desires and fears. This
call persists until it is answered, until we surrender to who we really are.
When we do, we feel ourselves at home wherever we are. A hidden beauty reveals
itself in our ordinary life. As the true nature of our Deep Hear is unveiled,
we feel increasingly grateful for no reason—grateful to simply be.”
—John J. Prendergast, PHD, The Deep Heart
Seems like it’s been rainy,
windy, dreary for eons. Which may have helped us shelter inside a bit more. I
remember reading years and years ago in a Seth book that weather can be
influenced, and even created by mass human emotion. Why not? We are far more powerful
than we currently acknowledge, and science is beginning to validate many
phenomena that had seemed inconceivable before. Those seemingly endless days of
“bad” weather seemed congruent with the emotional tone of covid her in New
England. And now SUN! Glorious, warming, invigorating, hope-filled Sun! Today I
will be outside basking and gardening and thanking. And I’m sure the whole
neighborhood, and most of New England will go outside, stand with our faces to
the sun and breathe a huge healing breath of joy. And maybe the collective
energy of that will resonate out across the word as a promise of brighter days
to come.
