Namaste

Reading from Tuesday and Wednesday, December 1 and 2, 2015 yoga classes

From an article found on Elephant Journal

Namah--I bow

Te--to you

Namaste--I bow to you.

I choose to bow to all of you.  All the parts.  the messy, human parts.  The luminous divine parts.  The hurt parts.  The painful, broken parts.

I bow to your wrinkled brow and your saggy arms.  I bow to your brown skin and your small hands and your split ends.  I bow to that knee that just doesn't move like it used to.  I bow to your graceful legs and your beer belly and your flat feet and the light behind your eyes.

I also bow to the parts of you that I don't understand.

I honor your struggle and your selfishness because I have them too.  I honor your sacrifice and your victories, without casting blame or judgment.  I bow to your right to make your own choices, even if I wouldn't make the same ones.  Maybe you're right, maybe I'm right.  Doesn't matter.  I still bow to you.  I bow to you as another pilgrim on the path, no matter how different we seem.  Diversity strengthens the whole, so I bow deeply to all of our differences.

I honor you when your mind is open, and when it's not.  I bow to you when you're binge-watching TV shows on Netflix.  I respect you on roads both high and low, paved or less-traveled.

I bow to the divine manifested as all living beings, in the grocery store, in the next cubicle and in the cars that surround us in traffic.

Come hell or high water, I will bow to you.  And I will keep bowing to you, because I've been there, and you've been here.  I bow to all of all of you.

That's it.  No caveats or clauses.  No exclusions apply.  Offer does not expire.

I.  Bow.  To You.  

Namaste.