It's been awhile since I've used blogging as a medium to communicate, and now, with the pending move for me, I feel it's time to bring back the blog, just in case there are some Yoga students, friends, family, (and future connections yet to be made) that want to hear from me, my voice, to stay connected, and possibly (if I get the hang of things) I'll post pictures of my journeys from time to time. But, I'll start small, and mighty, just like Sunrise Yoga. Speaking of Sunrise Yoga. I dearly miss her, the space, and the community, along with all the good soulful work we collectively manifested through her Sunrise Yoga. I oƒten refer to Sunrise Yoga in the feminine and it's not only because of my love and practice of Goddess Awareness, but also because, like a woman, she gave birth to many great things.
Through Sunrise, we fed four people for an entire year relative to the Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes program. We raised $2000 for Japan to help bring aide for Tsunami relief. We raised $250 for Cares, the Kalamazoo organization that cultivates awareness and support for HIV and Aids community in Michigan. We collected bags upon bags of warm outer wear and clothing for the under-served communities, families, and homeless of Kalamazoo which was donated to Kalamazoo Gospel Mission along with last year collecting clothes for Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. YWCA of Kalamazoo benefited by Sunrise Yoga's collections for their "needs list" that included diapers, baby formula, facial tissue, hair products, toys, and clothes. And lastly, but certainly not least, we collected Christmas presents for under-served families in Kalamazoo that were donated to Kalamazoo Gospel Mission's Christmas Project.
I find myself wondering, with Sunrise Yoga now closed, how will the community be affected by the closing? Who will now raise donations for great causes both locally and globally? Who will host drives for collecting needed things for Kalamazoo's communities under-served population? Who will also offer Yoga at affordable prices, not just on the weekends, but everyday? Who will create classes for our diverse communites? Gay Men's Yoga was a success and stood at a positive position for growth, expecially with the pending remodeling of Sunrise Yoga, but all offerings came to a sad end on Dec. 22, 2011.
Family matters. The needed remodel came to an end because of the need to help my family. So, I will continue shedding as much light, being light, and living in light, as best as I am able. Through writing, through the teaching of Yoga in Prague, Czech Republic, and who knows what will happen when I eventually return to live in Kalamazoo, after an extended stay in Prague, but I will carry Kalamazoo with me, all that we collectively manifested together at Sunrise Yoga, and I vow to myself, as much as to those who continue to support me, to do good work in the world.
With every opening there is an expansion and then a closing, the cycle of life fashions itself in that continuum like a flower opening, expanding and then ultimately dying. Pema Chodron is noted saying that "everything comes together then falls apart,"and that this is the cycle of life, but we are more settled within ourselves when things come together and are less at peace with the falling apart, but the falling apart is often where we learn our greatest lessons and gain our strongest blessings and I have been experiencing that since the closing of Sunrise Yoga.
There has been an outpouring of support, love, and gratitude. I have grown closer to my family and friends. I have been faced with seeing my strengths and also my weaknesses. I also have gained a greater spiritual connection, that place that lies in the belly of our being, and am infinitely grateful for that experience.
I hope this blog finds you well. I hope you are happy. I hope you are safe. I hope you love, are loved, and continue to live in peace, with good health, happiness, and when those times of suffering surface, as they will, it's a human condition, when things fall apart, that you remember you are never fully, or truly alone, spirit is with you, walking with you, in you, of you, and that the spirit comes in the form of breath. May you continue to live in the light, be the light, shine your light, dance the light, sing the light, laugh the light, speak the light, write the light, travel the light.
Mantra for this blog: I am light. Light lives in me and I have the choice to shine my light. I choose light. I choose life.
With Love, Infinite Blessings, & Dancingly Yours,
Krista
