Last night I taught a yoga class and I wanted to share my dharma talk here:
This month we have been talking about the light – seeing the light within ourselves and others. With the recent holidays, we've spent more time with family. Sometimes how we relate to family is different from how we relate to friends.
This often makes me think of a passage in the book The Shack – I don’t know if anyone has read it but – there is a scene where Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God are cooking dinner and regardless what your faith/beliefs are there are important messages to gain.
In this scene, Jesus is carrying the main course, that God has spent hours making, over to the table. On the way he drops it and it spills all over the floor. At first there is a pause and then the three of them - God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit - start hysterically laughing. God kids Jesus and says he has slippery fingers and the Holy Spirit says Jesus was trying to see if the bowl could bounce. McKenzie – the only human in the room – is surprised by how they reacted and the fact that no one found fault with Jesus. To him, Jesus basically ruined the dinner.
McKenzie realizes that what was truly important here was the love they had for one another and the fullness it brought them, not whose fault it was that they could no longer share the meal God had made. He also noticed how different they treated each other from the way he treats the ones he loves.
Can you imagine? What if you spent hours preparing dinner and your husband, child, boyfriend fill in the blank dropped it on the way to the table? How would we respond? If we don't like our response, how can we work to change it?
Yoga teaches us to pause and to breathe and to hesitate before we respond. This hesitation or pause allows us to choose our words and our intention. We can then be intentional in our actions and seek to remember the love and see each others’ light.
I wish you all a happy light filled new year.
Namaste - I bow to the light within you.