A word from Layne Morrison: Don’t Miss Circle in the Park
erinm on 4:35 pm May 11th, 2012 / Be the first to comment! »
Boundless teacher and generally amazing person Layne Morrison will be teaching yoga tomorrow afternoon in Meridian Hill Park as part of Boundless Circle (come early for the yoga!). Layne wrote this beautiful post to share:
I was thrilled to hear the next Boundless Circle will be at Meridian Hill / Malcolm X Park, which has a special place in my heart and practice. During Boundless Yoga Therapy, we’d eat lunch and study in the park. On Sundays, during the drum circle, the park becomes a swirling circus of yogis, Acroyogis, hoop divas and jugglers. Slacklines demarcate the playground. I now live across the street (not by accident), and the park is on my commute to the studio. Almost every day, I beat a quick path through the park, compulsively checking time on my cell phone, calculating the invariable window that renders me either ‘late’ or ‘very late’ to my favorite teacher’s class. After yoga, a transformed version of me glides home, peaceful and lambent, under the majestic oaks, my heart wide with appreciation.
Yoga is Spirit, Spirit is Nature, and the park is the closest we come to Nature in the urban pulse of U St. Kalorama and Columbia Heights: the sparkle of the fountain in the morning, spring blooms in the moonlight. What comes to mind is Howard Thurman’s brilliant description of his childhood spirituality in his autobiography, With Head and Heart. This great theologian found a stillness and comfort in the expanse of night and a silent grounding in the oak tree, while the ocean and river “offered a sense of timelessness, of existing beyond the ebb and flow of circumstances.”
These moments of timelessness – amid the trees, the air, the fountain, I see and savor because of my yoga practice. I do yoga to be reminded to put down my iPhone, step away from the computer, to walk rather than rush, to breathe “for real” (as Kim might put it). You see, I’m not a natural yogi. My first inclination is to race through life as if there were a finish line. Left to my own devices, I devolve quickly into performance-based anxiety. And that’s where you come in: my yoga tribe. Over the years, with the help of Boundless, I’ve built my community of practice, of like-minded souls, of buddies with good habits…I rely on you, my teachers, friends and acquaintances next to me on the mat, to remind me what’s really important, what nourishes my spirit.
So, I’ll be there at the Boundless Circle this Saturday, May 12, enjoying my park and my community. 4-6 pm. Be there at the Circle or be (you know it!) square.
