Yoga at Ground Zero, Louisiana

"Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind." -Alex Karras
 
When I first started teaching yoga back in 1999, I noticed a student taking notes in my yoga class.  I was honored and wanted to be sure to give her plenty of attention. So I approached and gave her a nice adjustment in a forward fold. There lay her open notebook and pen. I couldn’t help but sneak a peak expecting to see her notes about something I’d said.  But much to my surprise, I saw that she’d been drawing a picture of me.
 
Her sketch showed me with a giant belly, squatty legs, droopy pectorals, saggy arms, a crossed out mushroom soldier, negative biceps, and a thought bubble above my head with a derogatory stoner thought: "Who am I?"  Let’s just say I felt about as low as a child actor in rehab on a rainy Monday smoking a Camel filter while coming off crank.
 
Now here was the conundrum. I could confront the lady about her drawing, but confrontation is very un-yoga like. And, I had no business looking at her private notes in the first place.
 
As class finished, the lady had the audacity to approach me, "Class was great. "
 
I couldn’t help but ask, "What’s with the ugly drawings of me? Did I ever do anything to offend you?"
 
"Ugly? Not ugly. So cute look at this!" she said in a babyish voice while pinching an inch in my belly.
 
Then she pinched a little in my right chest and said as if speaking to a 4 year old, "And what’s dis right here?"
 
And then she pinched the little part under my chin and said, "Yeah you’ve even got a little here don’t you?"
 
And she walked off, a very strange woman in a very strange world. Little did she know she left her "picture" behind. (To see her picture, click here)
 
*****
 
This past weekend,  I taught a Livin the Moment workshop in Slidell, Lousiana.  Slidell-ers are some of the friendliest, warmest people I’ve ever met. Southern hospitality to the extreme. And these people have been through more than I ever imagined. Slidell was right smack in the eye of Hurricane Katrina when it barreled into the Gulf Coast in 2005. The region is still dotted with downed trees, bent signs, and cement slabs on which once stood post offices, schools, homes, and stores.

Needless to say, many a soul was scarred by the wrath of Katrina’s massive storm surge and fierce winds. And God knows if it’s one and done.  Every summer, Mother Nature goes bowling, the Gulf her alley, the structures dotting the coast, her pins.  Seems like such a careless way to describe it, but staring at a once proud 100 year old oak tree whose clock stopped forever on August 29, 2005 (see above photo), that was the image in my mind.
 
The struggles wrought by Hurricane Katrina seemed to whet Slidell-ers appetite rather than sour their perspective. They have some of the strongest, most vibrant souls, and a hunger for life, grits, daiquiris (to-go), family, college football, and of course, yoga.
 
Sometimes the "picture" seems cruel, unfair, harsh…with a mindless thought bubble that speaks of a God gone wrong. But maybe the Artist sees it differently. And what we perceive as imperfection and pain, is to the Artist, just a place to pinch an inch and nudge us toward the edge. The poet Patrick Overton wrote, "When you have come to the edge of all light that you know and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: there will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught to fly."

To pre-order my book Yeah Dave’s Guide to Livin’ the Moment which comes our March 10, 2009, click here. If you pre-order, email me, let me know, and I’ll forward you a never-before-seen chapter I’ve written entitled "Redneck Aliens on Ritalin."

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