This is my vacation, my treat to myself after a long year of work with no play, and after convincing myself that I actually deserved it, here I am. I have always wanted to visit this part of the world, Banff and Lake Louise in particular. So today I drove west on the Trans Canadian Highway #1 (excellent road, by the way), anticipating my first sight of the Canadian Rockies. Unfortunately, there are severe wild fires in British Columbia, the heavy smoke drifting eastward into Alberta and as far away as Manitoba (geography hats on, people!). So, driving today was like being in an in-between place, a surreal, colorless sky, a long stretch of road with limited visibility - the way life can sometimes feel. As I got closer to Banff, the road turned and suddenly, rising from out of nowhere, a mountain loomed up at me. It was huge. (remember, I live in Oklahoma now- no mountains there). What was really extraordinary was that after that mountain, there was another and another- they kept emerging out of the smoke and haze, as if a magicians' silk scarf was being lifted to reveal larger and larger mountains, one behind the other. Presto Change-o and Abra Cadabra! I felt like a distracted, gawking flat-lander as I tried to keep the car on the road while driving 110 (kilometers that is - metrics are so civilized), struck by awe, breathless at the sight of an impossibly big, beautiful mountain right in from of me.
Okay, I'm going to go all yoga on you now. Sometimes we move through the world with limited visibility. We get distracted by the process of living day to day, our hearts becoming covered with layers and layers of magicians' veils. Smoke gets in our eyes, preventing us from seeing the true magnificence of our life.
We practice yoga to clear the smoke, to lift the veil away from our hearts and break through illusion so that we can see more clearly. Yoga is anything that allows you to feel Adbhuta, the wonderment of being alive, or anything that reveals and helps you recognize your true nature. As I walked back to my room, I watched the moon, almost full, rise over a bank of clouds, shining luminously through the haze, revealing her light. Magnificent.
beautiful.
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