And it’s a wrap for Kids Yoga this summer. These are a few of my amazing students.
No more entrances into the Community Center where the lady at the front desk will raise an eyebrow and announce over the intercom, “That yoga guy is here. Again. “ No more “Smell a flower/Blow out a candle”with the kids. As the weeks went on, the class became more theater, less yoga. More music. More games. More yelling “Never give up your shine!” while in Star pose. They know all the animal poses now. Cat. Cow. Frog. Snake. They also know if they call out an animal, I will make up a pose. Today it was Yellow-spotted Leopard and Bear. It was great fun. My work here now is done.
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10 years ago I made a big decision and left my position as Producing Director for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS after 20 years. This lead to many adventures including becoming a yoga teacher.
This article, which appeared in Playbill in February 2014, explains a bit about the “Before-Yoga-Teacher-Times.” Thanks to all my students and friends who have been on this journey with me. I’ve been volunteering to teach yoga for kids this summer. Like, small kids. Really, really small. Seventeen 3-5 year olds.
The only previous time I taught kids was leading a class for orphans at Bandekee Orphanage in Thailand back in 2017. My friend and fellow yoga teacher Tammy Hayano was sponsoring the orphanage and invited me to co-teach a class. That’s a photo of us doing “tree” pose with the kids. They were beautiful, incredibly open-hearted and literally would not let us go when it was time to leave. In the van back to Chiang Mai, I was feeling grace and grief in the same instant. The American kids are not like the Thai kids. Not at all. It takes more energy to engage them. And I’m still not sure how to interpret the chaos: does the fact that a third of them are running around the gym screaming mean I have lost the room or that I have unleashed their inner Bodhisattva? These kids have parents so there is no clinging when I leave. But at the end of class last week, several of them insisted on telling me about their dead pets. All of them: the dog, the cat, the snake. At this young age, they, like their Thai counterparts, already know loss. And I don’t dare tell them what lies ahead. I am an unlikely yoga teacher. I can barely do half the poses. It was never a path I imagined myself on. But it was the door that opened at a time when others were slamming in my face. And so I walked through. The woman that trained me, the brilliant @magipierce, says “the only way out is through.” And so it is. I am a good teacher. On the rare days when I am in the flow, a great one. Doesn’t actually matter. Next Tuesday it will be time for kids yoga. Time to begin again. Honestly, I don’t care if they learn a damn thing about yoga. I want them to have fun. And I hope, on some perhaps unconscious level, that they leave with an inner strength to face the unimaginable losses that lie ahead. But, I remind myself, it’s just a “tree” pose! And notice that the kids are undeniably cute. Covid-19 has been a beast in so many ways. But it brought me back to yoga teaching so that is a small gift amongst all it has taken away. And I’m grateful for that.
Grazie = Gratitude. I’m glad to have that as part of my name as it reminds me to practice it in my classes. Any new age yoga teacher tendencies I have are tempered by my New York Gen X cynicism. And I generally feel uncomfortable stepping into the role of “wise yoga teacher” or telling my students what to do or feel. So I sometimes feel shy about getting too touchy-feely in class. Life is not all unicorns and rainbows. But this practice of cultivating gratitude really calls to me. It feels quite practical actually. Making conscious what I am grateful for and focusing my attention on it is a simple way to shift my perspective. As does remembering what I am grateful NOT to have in my life, whether that is illness, physical pain, poverty or lack of connection with others. So I feel a little thrill when I take a moment to cultivate gratitude with my students. And truly, I am so grateful to be back teaching. Upon returning from Thailand after teaching yoga at the New Life Foundation, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever teach again. I was living in a new city, trying to find my way socially and in terms of work. I didn’t have connections to any yoga studios in Philadelphia so the teaching fell by the wayside. It was not a good time. But when the pandemic started and I noticed others teaching on Zoom, I thought I would give it a try. I like it more than I expected. I miss all being together in one room. I miss hands-on touch. I miss a group of people breathing together. And I miss sensing the energy in the room. But it has been a great gift for me to reconnect with students I’ve met from all over the world, even if it’s only for a couple of classes. It has rekindled my passion for teaching and made me feel that perhaps I have some gifts in this area that I forgot about. And it’s given me a community of people that I am thrilled to see - even if it’s just on a screen -- and share with each week. Connection in this time of separation. So, Living in the Zoom Room, is not so bad after all. Grazie is grateful. |