Roots

I've been thinking a lot about roots lately. This started just before I left on my trip. It seemed like a pretty natural response to my intention for this journey: to expand my reach and carrying my yoga practice, both as student and teacher, to somewhere that felt like home in SE Asia. Since I had no idea where that somewhere was, this trip was organized a little differently then how I normally travel . Instead of going to one place and getting to know it well, I planned to explore as many countries as I reasonably could in 6 weeks. In general, this seems like a pretty ungrounded idea for me and I wondered how I would fair.

My yoga practice has always been one about grounding down, getting back into the body and shedding the trappings of the mind in favor of the unexpected gift of the moment, so in some ways, I am made to travel. It's just that I like to have a home base, a place I can retreat to and recollect my center when the world overwhelms, but for this trip, I knew if I wanted to stay centered, I had to be my center. It was time to take root in myself.

It's been a delightful process, really, and one so much easier to accomplish thousands of miles away from home then it would be in the land of the everyday. No doubt. But regardless of the circumstances that surround my rootedness, I am reminded of the tale of the old fabled musk deer who searches the whole world over for the beautiful scent that lies within. Actually, I'm not just reminded, I am the musk deer herself, but the search is over. Not the work, mind you, the work is just beginning, but the search for that sweet, dreamy, creative ground where spirit and jest live like two hands joined together on one body, that search has dissolved at its source.

It is timely and interesting to me, although not at all surprising, that my roots are flourishing within at the same time as they are nourished without. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Do I feel rooted because I have found home or have I found home because I feel rooted? There is no difference.

I love Bali. It feels like home in a way that home never felt like. And while I am fully aware that I am on week 4 of my vacation, which is a pretty easy reality to fall in love with, I am also fully aware that my perspective is a choice. A choice that I am entirely capable of wielding successfully. I can live my whole life like this if I want to, as a traveler who is rooted within, flowing through each new moment, each simple experience to the tune of some unseen rhythm.

And that, is exactly what I choose to do.



An old Chinese Proverb, for you:

If there is light in the soul,
There will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
There will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world.