a yoga testimonial

When I met my friend Michael a couple of years ago, he was frustrated with his career, frequently, socially self-medicating with drugs and alcohol as so many of us do, and expressing interest in finding out more about yoga. He'd already earned his Masters degree in religious studies and fascinated me with stories about his strict Christian, Pentacostal upbringing. (They're the ones who speak in tongues!) He knew plenty about academic spirituality, but had little experiential "zen." In the past year, I have watched Michael go through a radical transformation from the inside out. He dove into practicing meditation, tai chi, and yoga with gusto and devotion. He seems softer, happier, more connected. In his own words:

"I wouldn't have thought so a few years back, but settling into my own skin has been the greatest adventure of all. For nearly two decades now, I haven't aged. Don't get me wrong, my body has certainly transitioned into a "less-than-peak" stage. Inside though - emotionally, mentally - I have continued to coast along feeling like a teen trapped in a thirtysomething's life. I have watched friends marry and reproduce. I have lived very different lifestyles in very different places, I've gone from rock-bottom to top of the world and back down again. Friends have come and gone. Family has disappointed and surprised. All said, I feel like I've been a spectator to the many lives of other people - only all of these people look like me; they are me.

Only now, sitting on my back porch, enjoying the slow groove of a Sunday morning, am I beginning to understand my own mortality, my own destiny of "being." To be present is to be myself. I don't owe the past a thing even though I owe it everything. A thing is just...well, a thing. What I have now, here, RIGHT NOW!, is my breath. The closest, dearest, expression of life. It's not a thing to be possessed. It's a moment to be experienced.

Tomorrow, is another day, another collection of breaths."

What a beautiful testimony to the power of cultivating a spiritual life. Yoga has real, tangible, visible benefits. The more you practice, the more you understand. Thanks, Michael, for reminding me of these truths!