“To the world you may be one person, but to one person , you may be the world.”
~Josephine Billings
Go ahead and cry, I’ll catch your tears…
A few weeks after one of his classmates died, an 8 year old boy decided to visit the classmates’ home one day after school. Later, when he came home his Mother was surprised to find out where he had been. “What did you say?” she asked him gently. “Nothing,” he replied, “I just sat on his mom’s lap and helped her cry.”
We just never know how much a simple smile can do. We never know the impact from that moment we take to make eye contact or to hug just a second longer. People are hurting, and hurting people…hurt people…
Today, will you stop to help someone in need, or will you turn away?
We can talk for days about the homeless problem. Do they just spend my dollar on booze or drugs? Are they making so much money pan handling that they don’t want/need to work at Wendy’s? Are they lazy, are they addicts? Maybe I’ll just avoid eye contact and take a sip of my $4 Starbucks and get back to my oh-so-busy day.
These are the thoughts that have been swarming around in my head in the wake of the latest bouts of violence in Orlando, Baton Rouge, Dallas, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City…no SLC hasn’t been in the news yet for horrific violence, but my friends, it’s just a matter of time. If only these individuals had felt loved, valued, connected.
I observed something fascinating last week in a yoga teacher reunion. On a beautiful weekend in Utah, 60 loving, kind, beautiful and brilliant yoga teacher training graduates came together to unite and celebrate their connection to our training brand “Yoga Assets”. In the evening social, I watched as they formed small groups, gravitating toward people they had known in their training. There was very little mingling between groups until we came together in a large circle. We talked about our favorite moments in teacher training. We laughed, and we cried. And we connected. Not as individuals. Not as us and them. But as US. A whole. A circle of people who just want to help bring more peace into the world. If we can’t cross this small divide, how can we possibly ask that of the world?
In our little corner of the world, the yoga scene is getting a re-do. Several teachers of a well-known studio have left to open a new space. And our yoga community is reeling. Us and them. Leave this place, come to this new place. My yoga is the true yoga. Our yoga is better than your yoga. I’m more peaceful than you are.
Friends…Yoga means UNION. UNITING. Coming Together. Not apart.
So back to the question…today, will you stop to help someone in need? Will you thank the over-worked bank teller? Will you take out the cans for your neighbor? Will you go to the house of the grieving widow and just listen for a minute? Will you join us in a free community yoga class and meet (really meet) a bunch of really cool people? It will take something. It will take you coming out of your shell and reaching across the divide. Please, I beg of you, make the effort.
For one person, YOU may be the world.
Beautifully said!!