Mangaliso..... What Yoga Means to Me.

I was sitting in a room full of light and beauty, new friends coming in and going out.  The back doors had been spread wide open, a beautiful fragrant breeze was making its way into the space. A space that had been filled with laughter, tears, teaching, games, bodies, song, dance and yoga.  I had called this place home for a couple weeks, soon it would be ending.  Actually soon it would only be beginning.

I've written in the past about many a journey.  I have watched myself touch level after level of vulnerability. I have then discovered the immense lack of true vulnerability.  I have metered out what I wanted to say, still within my heart attempting to discover what this journey can be about.  I have touched more questions than answers. I've learned that most answers are fleeting. Walking with the questions is where the real journey lives.

Upon this day, I wanted a word.  I wanted a word. A Zulu word to be exact.  I had met this vibrant and beautiful South African woman.  Her smile lit up any room she stepped into, her spirit immense, her strength a wonder.  I wanted a word for life.  A word that would embody a concept that would capture energy, light, truth, beauty and wonder.

I will never forget when the sounds danced off her tongue.  "Mangaliso!"  I asked her to repeat it numerous times.  It is such an immense sound.  The meaning of it will capture your heart and hopefully cause you to soar.  "You are an amazement."  Such a fabulous word! Such a delicious sound!  The reality of it penetrated my being as I sat with it.

Yes, this is what I will bring into my Spiritual Direction practice.  This is definitely what will form out the life of yoga within me and as I step into teaching.  To watch and view and hold each human being with the eyes that see" Mangaliso," in each and every one.

Tonight as I rested, I remembered a  vision, a story.  Not at all unique to me whatsoever.  There is a story in Ancient Hebrew text of a man named Ezekiel.  He took a journey with the One who had created man. One can read the story where it is said that the Creator bent down and taking a piece of earth breathed into it and man became. Breath!  Ezekiel would step upon other soil watching Creator once again breathe forth life back into the dryest of bones.

The story is found in a book baring his name, in the 37th chapter.  As I thought about the familiar story I found a new joy.  As I took a deep breath in and let the words of the story course over and into my being.  I found amazement.

In December 2014, I stepped upon a yoga mat for the first time.  Dry bones. Dry bones meeting new soil.  Dry bones being added to... Dry bones having muscle and life touching their frame once again.  Dry bones needing breath and having a new and fresh wind of Spirit blown into them.  I would come to the mat time after time.  I would bring my dry bones to sacred ground, my mat.  I would receive breath into my body.  Deeply into places that hadn't touched life and oxygen and breath for ions.

Within months I would say to my husband, "My body feels airier. I feel lighter, I feel more alive." I touched the reality that I had not breathed into my being, truly breathed into my being for far too long.

That Ezekiel passage reads like this:

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’ Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.’”
 
So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.”’” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

I will never forget those first days and weeks, when time after time I would bring my body into a beautiful space with  beautiful people.  The question that was reverberating deeply in my own heart echoed Ezekiel's words... "Can these bones live?"  I needed breath to enter me so that I could come back to life.  Places in my heart and life had had a metaphoric slaying. The breathe wouldn't be metaphor.  

There is power in breath.  There is dignity in a body. There is beauty in essence and light that make up humanity.  I would touch Namaste.  I would touch Sat Naam. I would feel breath and strength and light and love and Spirit touch my body and empower life to reenter dry bones.

This journey has been walked forward. It has not been without tears and sorrow but it has also had the most immense joy and strength and life.  Yoga has brought Mangaliso into my days and into my life and into me.... 

 I have been reminded that I am an amazement.  I am light. I am strong. 

 Yoga has awoken my eyes to the light and beauty in each one I pass, see, journey next to and love.  People.. humanity stands simply and profoundly as an amazement.  The reality of us all is that the light in each one of us is amazing and offering that light and life and breathe to one another brings dry bones back to life. 

 Ever so grateful for each one who has walked alongside me in this journey.  Each one.. all have added.  Those that have understood and cheered me forward and those that have carried concern and wonderment of what this process actually was.  I am not being coy here... nor am I being flippant.  Each one who has understood, attempted to understand or has journeyed with their own struggle... You.. each of you are an amazement to me.... The beauty of yoga and this life is that the light that grows strong in me recognizes and honors and cherishes the light that is beautiful and grows strong in you... 

Sat Naam... Means I see the essence of that which you are.. The truth of your name.. The truth of your being... You are seen. I am seen. Let's discover together the beauty and wonderment and live amazed.