Gimme Shelter: Yoga with Amy at Carson City Yoga: Carson City, NV: April 7, 2018
I tell you, Love, sister, is just a kiss away - from Gimme Shelter written by cutie patooties Kieth and MIck.
"Oh a storm's a threat'ng
My very life today
If I don't get some shelter
Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away"
--Keith Richards, Mick Jagger
Driving to 7:30 AM Saturday yoga class, this song came on and I blasted it so loud the windows rattled. Outside there is a two day rainstorm raging and it echos what's happening inside my head. Gimme shelter, please.
That is what the practices of yoga are all about for me. Shelter from the storms in life, and also from the bright warm sunshine when the clarity of teachings are so bright they overwhelm. As a rule I roll to the side of anxiety and being uprooted by the move from Carson to Reno continues to send me spinning. The particular sticky spot is that our things are moved from Carson to storage, and in a few months after a remodel, from storage to our new townhouse in Reno. The waiting, the in between, not here, not there, is, in the words of Keith and Mick, are threatening my life today.
The teachings say great suffering occurs when we mistake the impermanent for the permanent, and it is one of the definitions of ignorance (avidya) found in yoga sutra 2.5. While the shelter of one's home may appear permanent, it is not. The real shelter is the God, Love, Breath, Truth, and other alignments the teachings of yoga are trying to help us see and live. Today in practice is was helpful to be in the movement of my breath and body, and not in the movement from Carson to Reno, which actually are the same things just coming from different levels. What's at stake for me in this moment is Trust with a capital T. And because my body and mind are in so much pain I'm willing to peel back any idea that I"m in charge of the bigger picture. This endeavor is an act of faith and trust, of breath and movement. If there is any proof in the pudding, its that I physically feel better after practice today and mentally have come back online south of panic.
Keith and Mick were on to a deeper Truth in Gimme Shelter. After lyrics and attention about war, fire, rape, and murder, the last verse says
I tell you love, sister, is just a kiss away
kiss away, kiss away
Love is permanent. We can dwell in the dark and negative or we can move through them in to Love. Marianne Williamson defines a miracle as the shift from fear to Love. And that miracle happened to me today on the mat. Love is real as the rain still pouring down outside, while inside I'm still boxing and taping, packing and moving, and leaning into the teachings that landed in my body today that reminded me of deeper truths and reignited faith in bigger forces behind this movement, both big and small.
Health, Love, and Rock N Roll