And the big news - might as well say it here at the beginning of the post - is that I'm only going to be in Baltimore for six more days. I'm teaching my last class here (for now) on Saturday morning, then I'm driving up to Philadelphia to spend the weekend with a friend from California, and then on Monday I am driving to my new home in Providence, Rhode Island! And yes, of course I will still be teaching yoga. I'll be at Ocean State Bikram Yoga in Pawtucket, just outside Providence. It's a beautiful new studio that just opened in last summer. I visited as a guest teacher last August and had a great time, and they've been saving a spot for me there ever since Labor Day.
This week is bittersweet. I feel sad about leaving all my great friends and students in Baltimore, but I'm absolutely thrilled to move back up to New England. I grew up in western Massachusetts, I went to college in Cambridge, and I got started on my yoga path in Boston. (Providence is only about an hour from Boston.) By the time I left Boston in 2008, I already knew that I was going to be a Bikram yoga teacher (eventually, in the future). So I have a lot of ties to that area, and it will be amazing to live up there again and be closer to both my families - my parents and my yoga family.
I was living in my first apartment in south Boston - okay, technically Dorchester - when I started thinking like a yoga teacher. I started thinking about the dialogue and the teaching and the students, and I started dreaming about the view from the other side of the podium. I had wonderful supportive teachers at the downtown Boston studio, especially Jill, Brad, and Tomo, and I also started venturing out to the West Roxbury studio where I met Diane, Teri, and so many of the other people who have become my friends and mentors. The teachers let me tag along with them to lunch every week, and I picked up some priceless information at the lunch table over pickles and pizza. I've visited that block on Centre Street almost every time I've gone back to Boston over the past three-and-a-half years, and it's always been a home to me. So yes, I'm happy about this move - I feel like after all these years of wandering and exploring and growing, I finally can go back and be home. At least for a while, until my feet get itchy again!
Meanwhile, the past couple of weeks have been amazing. The best part has been taking class with Lauren. I've probably mentioned her here before. (Let's be honest, I'll talk about her to anyone who stands still for more than a minute.) She was a beginning student of mine just one year ago. She came in with a Groupon and came just a couple times a week. Then I tricked her into signing up for the 60-day challenge, and the next thing I knew, she had turned into a serious, kick-ass yogi! She's lost over 100 pounds with the help of the yoga - it changed her life completely. In June, she decided to become a teacher, and I helped her study dialogue by the pool all summer. This fall, she rocked out teacher training. (Bikram loved her and her amazing backbend.) And on November 23rd, she taught her first class!
At teacher training, people always talk about how you "close the circle" when you teach your first class. Well let me tell you - there's a whole other circle that closes when you first take class from somebody who used to be your student! She's taught 6 classes now, I've taken 3 of them, and each one has been better than the last one. I don't think I've ever been so proud of somebody other than myself! This may be how parents feel. My first yoga baby....
I'm sharing Lauren's apartment right now, so we've been seeing each other constantly. This means I have been hearing all about her teacher training withdrawls! She misses her TT friends so much. I remember what that felt like. All day long I hear, "oh, Tereza commented on my Facebook photo".... "oh, I got a message from Mithu".... "oh, Yael taught 2 classes today".... It is heartbreaking!
But I keep trying to tell her (and she probably doesn't believe it yet, but eventually she'll find out on her own) - she hasn't really lost any of these people. They are still there, and she will see them again.
This is what we do, as Bikram teacher. This is how we are. At teacher training, you learn to live in this giant yoga bubble. You're always surrounded by other yogi, trainees and teachers, from all around the world. And after 9 weeks, you disperse. Everybody catches an airplane, and the group spreads out to all the corners of the world. And it's very sad, when that bubble pops. You feel like you'll never see those friends again.
And then... you see them again. All of our paths criss-cross across the globe. At one time or another, all those connections come back. When I went to Kentucky last summer, I ran into Mike from Malaysia, who now lives in New York. The last time I was in Boston, I saw Ben from Australia in a yoga class. Every time I got back to visit training, I reconnect with other people who I've known - half the staff of this last TT were from my training! Every time I go to a seminar or a master class, I see familiar faces. I have friends and teachers who I only get to see once a year, but I always know where to find them and I know that their doors are always open to me. My friend Teri's rule is, don't even ring the doorbell, just let yourself in. The last time I went to her house, I punched in the door code and harassed her cat until she came back from grocery shopping. It's a family.
This weekend, I went down to D.C. for a couple days of yoga with the international champions, Joseph and Yukari. This was the first time I've met Yukari, but I've known Joseph for years. The funny thing is, I can't remember how I met him. I've seen him at seminar and trainings, and I've seen him compete many times, and at some point I guess I introduced myself or someone introduced me. So now whenever I run into him, once or twice a year, we say "hey!!" and "how are you?!" and have a nice hug. Yoga family!
Lauren came down with me for the advanced class on Sunday, and she couldn't believe that Joseph and Yukari were here in D.C., because she had just met them a couple of weeks ago in LA. All day it was, "I can't believe you're here!" The class was at the Tenleytown studio, where neither of us had ever been, but of course we knew a couple of the teachers there. I knew the owner from a seminar, Lauren knew her son from a posture clinic, and I knew one of the other teachers (Yasmin) from our mutual friend Charlie Hubbard. I even ran into a student who reads my blog - Hilary Glassman, here is your shout-out!
Lauren and I had a couple of great classes - the champs absolutely killed us or maybe we just killed ourselves. They were so gracious and helpful, with lots of tips and encouragement for everybody. Lauren was amazed at how much attention they gave us, how generous they were with their time and energy.
And I just keep telling her - yes. This is how we are. This is our family. Your family, too, now - welcome to the family. Do you understand yet? Can you believe it? I know, it takes some time to sink it. It seems too good to be true. But this is who we are, and this is what we do. Share, teach, grow. We disperse for months and then come back together. You'll see your friends again - and the people who pissed you off, too, you'll probably see them again, and sometimes you'll even see them in a better light the second time around.
The next time I write, I'll probably have left Baltimore already. But Baltimore's been my home for the last year and a half, and now it will always be a home for me. I know which doors to knock on, and believe me, I'll be back. I just need to go back to New England now and have some time with another part of my family. I'm going to meet more students, more teachers, and let my family grow even bigger.
In yoga, you never lose - you only gain.
More later, from the other side of the move!
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