Joy

Atsion Lake

I was recently around some yoga students where there was a lot of struggle.  People were quick to acknowledge their shortcomings & unable to see how strong & open they were becoming.  I realized that I wanted for them to experience Joy.  Who cares if you find *that* pose or that incarnation of it?  You get to breathe.  You get to move.

The process of losing joy seems to happen so quickly.  A garden can become a chore, as opposed to abundant & freeing.  Animals can become responsibilities as opposed to fantastic beings.  Our bodies can be entrapping, instead of freeing.

I think this is why visiting prisons, thinking about what's deemed "crime," who is punished & how, how we consider rehabilitation, & collective health has always been so compelling to me.  There are a lot of people I value & am close to who are incarcerated.  When I first visited a prison I was sure the inmates would be jaded & I would leave spent.  Instead, I met joyful, exuberant, engaged people & I left uplifted.  Certainly there are those who have been broken by unbearable experiences.  Those who have thrived despite the odds held onto a Spirit much larger.  I remember hearing from one inmate about how encouraged he was by the sounds of storm (that bordered on hurricane).  He said, "Barbed wire, concrete walls, electric fences, guns, none of it can contain that power.  If she wants to throw lightening into the prison yard, they can't stop her."

He felt part of that larger force.  He felt protected by it & of it.  That power & unbending wildness gave him hope & joy.  I think of that often if I feel contained by anything-- my limitations, routine of day-to-day living-- I am of something limitless.  I am & can be boundless.  What joy.