Back On Track at B3yond Yoga: San Diego, CA: September 26, 2018
It feels nice to resume tour and it feels amazing to breathe fresh air and be by the ocean.
After a short unexpected break, David’s voice is back and we’ve resumed touring. If feels nice to be back on track. It feels like a fresh start.
The morning of the show Gretchen and I made the trek to hot yoga, a 90 minute Bikram practice. Towards the end of the practice, our mats only inches apart, we both just looked at each and I was pretty sure her eyes said ‘let’s blow this popsicle stand’. But we stayed till namaste and afterwards bonded over how difficult it was to stay in that room for a full 90 minutes. Good friends are like that, you can tell what the other is saying just at a glance and you can laugh in the face of difficulty. That’s what I remember most about the practice today. It sure wasn’t triangle or any of the other “twenty six postures and two breathing exercises”.
With the lovely Gretchen Rhodes at B3yond Yoga in San Diego. Gratitude is one of the best ways to stay on track xoxo
After the show later that night, David and I made our way in the bus towards our next stop, Bakersfield. I was tired, maybe from the hot yoga and a show with no nap, so I went to sleep en route. I was jolted awake by what sounded like loud thunder and a bumpy rough ride. Pitch dark, I only had my sense of hearing and touch and I thought we’d run off the highway and on to the shoulder of the road. But the off track ride continued for more than a few seconds and I started to smell burning rubber. I thought we’d caught fire so I lept out of bed and bolted to the front of the bus, only to find our capable driver Grubb, upon knowing we had a blowout, had lifted the rear axle and was safely guiding us out of traffic and over to safety.
Yoga is like that too. You can tell when you’re off track because it doesn’t feel right. The practicies of pratyahara, the fifth limb of yoga, suggests we tune our senses inside so we can feel, taste, smell, hear, and see a deeper truth. (PYS 2.54) Its’ not so much about what you think life should look like, but what it actually feels like. If you pay close enough attention to your own body and breath, you’ll know for real if your on or off the track.
Its also true that you’re always in capable hands of the universe. Its not that we just follow along with blind faith, but shraddha, faith based on experience and discernment (PYS 1.20). Sages suggest we follow a five-fold systematic path of
1) faithful certainty in the path
2) directing energy towards the practices
3) repeated memory of the path and the process of stilling the mind
4) training in deep concentration
5) the pursuit of real knowledge, by which the higher samadhi (asamprajnata samadhi) is attained.
shraddha virya smriti samadhi prajna purvakah itaresham
Touring isn’t a bed of roses, its not an easy path. In all her bumpiness I’ve found it to be an excellent place to practice these skills. I’m learning to enjoy the ride, which lets me do things like connect with fans at the merch stand, enjoy catching moments of the show and dancing with abandon, and to easily fall asleep when making late night drives. While the touring life offers an abundance of happiness and a Prevost bus allows us one of of the safest methods of travel, it all, of course, has her inherert risks. But so does life.
A 2AM tire blowout made for a wild ride between San Diego and Bakersfield.
It would be silly not to tour for fear of a tire blowout just like it is silly not to write my book for fear of getting rejected by…well, anybody. The play is to show up. The play is to follow your heart. The play is to just be yourself because how can you be anything else, really. And being who you are and shining bright it is the best way to travel in this lifetime.
“The privilege of a lifetime is to be who you are”, says Joseph Campbell. I trust that wisdom. I trust our Prevost bus, I trust our driver, and I trust the universe that has lead me in this tour life. I know my body will tell me when I’m off track, even when things get bumpy and even in the pitch black dark of night.
Health, Love, and Rock N Roll.