Breadcrumbs

If we’re connected on social media, you might have seen this quote that I posted in honor of Earth Day. There’s a backstory to it that I wanted to share with you because it holds an important lesson:
 
I first read it in 1992 at the World Yoga Center, the studio where I was introduced to yoga and took my first teacher training. It was hanging on wall in the changing room. I can still remember the feeling of exhilaration, as if my whole being said “Yes!" Although I knew nothing about yoga philosophy, the words felt true on a deep, instinctual level. Reading them sparked something inside me.
 
Little could my 23 year-old self have imagined that in the decades to come I would be immersed in the practices and perspectives that reflected this extraordinary vision of what it means to be human.
 
Fast forward 30 years to Spring 2022, when I found myself feeling sad and disheartened in the face of the world's suffering. I became acquainted with the book Active Hope, by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone. A new edition was coming out, intriguingly subtitled, How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience & Creative Power. I joined an online book club led by two of Joanna’s students and read it with the group.
 
Since then, I’ve been studying Joanna’s work and engaging in the processes she’s created for buillding emotional and spiritual resilience. I’ve discovered a resonance and an emerging synthesis with the applied yoga philsophy that I’ve been studying and teaching for decades. It’s a way forward that feels exciting and hopeful.
 
It wasn’t until months later that something clicked and I remembered where I had first heard about Joanna Macy. Her quote is still hanging in the studio, it turns out, just as it was all those years ago.
 
The moral of the story?
 
Be on the lookout for the breadcrumbs on your trail. In the story of Hansel and Gretel, the children left a trail of breadcrumbs to follow so they could find their way home through the forest. Likewise, I believe that each of us who has a long-term engagement with yoga as a path of self development has our own breadcrumb trail. 
 
It’s formed from the teachings, understandings, signs, and synchronicites that connect to reveal the trajectory of your unique journey in yoga over time.

It’s the threads of truth and wisdom that have woven themselves together to lead you back home to yourself and guide you toward who you’re meant to be as you evolve and grow.
 
It can be unexpectedly delightful, valuable, and clarifying to reflect back on your yoga journey over time to acknowledge the significant experiences and insights that have lead you to the person you are now and continue to point the way toward who you are becoming.