The Bikram Connection

Ok, first of all, don't all start singing "The Rainbow Connection"... oh geez, it's already too late.  Yikes.  I'm already on YouTube now watching Kermit and Debbie Harry. 

My topic was supposed to be the Bikram connection, which is even more awesome than rainbows.  Hah.

I am feeling contemplative on a rainy Sunday, and I was thinking: I just love how Bikram yoga is such a tight community.  Sometimes it's ridiculous how connected we all are.  Maybe it is a side effect of the big group trainings that everyone goes through together?  But it's great.  Every time I meet someone who's done Bikram yoga somewhere else, we have an immediate bond, and half the time we can find common friends or acquaintances.  I've found a new example of this almost every day this week!  I had a friend over at my house on Friday night who used to teach at my studio in Boston and has since moved to LA.  She taught the 8am and 10am classes on Saturday morning (I took them both), and then we caught up over lunch.  It was so great to take class at my "new" studio with someone from my original "home" studio!  Then this morning, I was working at the desk for the morning classes, and I signed up a girl who had just moved here from Boston and who knew my old studio owners.  (I was actually wearing my Red Sox t-shirt and Bikram Yoga Boston sweatshirt when she came in, just to make things OBVIOUS!)  Earlier this week, I visited another studio farther up north and took class from a guy who had just graduated from teacher training and was in the same posture clinic group as a couple of my friends.  This kind of thing happens ALL the time.

The connections definitely extend into the blogging section of the Bikram world.  I don't think any of us are more than a couple degrees of separation apart (NOT counting this blog).  I mean, I practiced at bikramyogachick's studio when I passed through Vegas (and will probably see her there at some point this Fall), Duffy is taking classes from teachers who I used to practice with in Boston (I used to see Connease on Tuesdays!), hannahjustbreathe arrived at my Boston studio right after I left it (and I ended up meeting her in the locker room when I was back there visiting), and ActionJoJo and I met each other in the lobby of Charlie's studio (after she'd already started randomly reading my blog).  And yes, Mei, I will be meeting up with you to create some mayhem when you get out of TT this winter.  And these are just SOME examples.

Speaking of which, thank you all for heading over to Charlie's new blog, Noho Yoga, this weekend and giving him a great welcome.  I think I have the best readers.  (If you haven't visited him yet, you definitely should!)

There are plenty of times when I really miss my original "yoga family", but it's a silly reason to be sad, because I've kept in great touch with so many of them (thank you, Facebook...) and I will always be connected to everyone who I've ever taken class from, practiced with, or just sat around with all afternoon and talked to about yoga.  (Blood is thicker than water, but did anyone ever say anything about sweat??)

There's been a lot of... er... stress in the Bikram studio community over the past month or so.  (If you don't know what I'm referring to, do yourself a favor and stay happily ignorant.  Seriously.  This is the first and last time that I will reference this issue, at least until something majorly dramatic happens.)  But... what's the worst thing that can happen?  There are hundreds of thousands of connections that bind us all together, and nothing can just come in and erase those!  If anything, maybe a little conflict is just what is needed to bring us all closer together.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!

P.S.  I thought about continuing my reader participation theme from the "Classic One-Liners" thread (which must be my favorite comment thread EVER) and trying to come up with the 1 or 2 degrees of separation between all of us... but geez, that must be a MESS.  How would we even go about it?  Flow chart?  Map?  Family tree??  But if anyone is bored/crazy/intrigued enough to take a whack at this idea, it is ALL yours.