Seek Only Union

Yesterday I had both the pleasure and the honor of officiating at a friend's wedding. She is a beautiful and magnificent yogini and yoga teacher. We had to go with the flow and change plans because it had rained all day due to Hurricane Hannah.

While I waited for preparations to be completed, I spoke to the bride's dad for a while. He shared with me how he lives near Lake Michigan and I discovered he bought a kayak around the same time that I bought Grace. He was extremely interested in knowing how I felt the very first moment I pushed off into the water - his questions were probing and exacting - he wanted me to explain what I felt and what I experienced in detail. No one had asked me this before, and I found myself telling him things that were so deep within me. We also shared our experiences of being in the rhythm and the flow with the bodies of water we both visited, and how effortless paddling can be when you let go and surrender and find your stride.

Shortly afterward, the rain did stop and the clouds parted, and we were able to have the wedding outside after all. The groom later noted, that because we were able to be in the moment and adapt to it - and go with the flow - things worked out wonderfully and we had the ceremony outdoors as originally planned.

It was a beautiful wedding - full of meaning and visible emotions and feeling - and the vows written by the bride and groom were the most exquisite I had ever heard. They were so honest and penetrating. The bride began with this poem. I do not know its origin or source:

"I love you without knowing how,
or when, or where.
I love you straightforwardly,
without complexities or pride;
so I love you
because I know no other way than this:
Where 'I' does not exist,
nor 'You,' so close than your hand
on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close
as I fall asleep."

I reflected for a long time on those words, and as the bride uttered them, gazing into her Beloved's eyes - they were both consumed by this beautiful and pure love they had for one another.

After the ceremony outside, where the bride and groom were surrounded by friends and loved ones toasting, the celebration continued inside and a wonderful time was had by all.

I had a chance to spend time with the Matron of Honor - a beautiful young yogini and yoga teacher in her own right - who was once a student of mine - and with her husband, a special young man so full of light, with whom I meditate from time to time, since we both belong to the same lineage. It was wonderful to reconnect with people that by God's grace, had been brought together again.

The bride, her attendant, and myself, had seriously started our dedication to yoga in the same place - but we had all taken very different turns in our paths. The bride chose to dedicate herself to Baron Baptiste's style of yoga, and her friend chose to follow and study with Shiva Rea. And I of course, chose to dedicate myself to Anusara Yoga as envisioned by John Friend. Of course, none of this matters. We are all practitioners of yoga, and our own experiences are further enriched and deepened by knowing and respecting, and sharing with one another.

Truly, the paths are many, but the Truth - and the Source are One. The experience of this wedding and reconnecting with friends, including a few others that were present, was a reminder to seek and experience only Union. This is the goal of our lives...