Light
You do not need to fetch it or make it.
It is in you.
The chaos out there roars, so dark,
but sit still and listen:
“Let there be light” speaks in your darkness.
Let it be.
Let it become you. Fill you.
Ageless, it claims you.
Calm, unworried by what it falls on,
it radiates peace.
Let it shine in you,
a simple lamp by the window,
before you bear it
out into the world
that needs it so badly. ~Steve Garnaas-Holmes
I’m thinking about our capacity for limitlessness. This light that the poet writes of is very much inside each of us. That light is abundant, and living in its abundance, we experience limitlessness.
Of course, we humans are very much limited beings. We get sick, we age, we die. We hurt, have waves of angers, and griefs. We harbor resentful feelings, frustrations, and stress that leave us reactive and constrained by our emotions. But there is more: beneath the smallness of our human existence, there is light that radiates with abundant potential and limitless love.
I’ve been reading the myth of the goddess Parvati, who is Shiva’s beloved, and the goddess who embodies limitless love. She is the very container for the energy of love, such that every action from her holds the intention of love. I don’t know if any one of us can be this kind of container alone, but I feel each time I end a yoga class, the stillness of this light emanating. It comes through each student like a steady stream defying the dark brokenness of the world. It is whole and vibrant, and has the power to create unity as students learn to breathe together, to let go together, to see each other through the eyes of calm connection. When I see this kind of light realized, it gives me hope that there is limitless love abounding.
Our light gets clouded by the distractions and overwhelm of life. So it becomes difficult for any one of us to be a container for love. Recently, I’ve realized that my mission for the business has shifted to just this: to be a space where love and true health can abide and grow. In a world that desperately needs more of this, I hope we can be a small container for the community–not by me alone, but through the light of everyone who enters; who leaves behind their sharp edges and frustrations, and finds a bit of light to hold in them like a lamp in the window.
As we near the start of the summer season, may there be light around and within you. May the twinkling summer stars and glittering fireflies remind you of your own potential to shine. And may you move languidly through these days ahead, remembering your own blazing potential to be a source of love and connection in your small corner of the world. Or, at least stare up at the stars, eat some watermelon popsicles, and put your feet in the water. Either way, I hope you stay well through these summer months, and I hope to see you on the mat!