On Thursday, September 10, 2009 in the Pavilion at Cheesman Park, we had a truly exceptional night. My gratitude is only slightly outweighed by my amazement. We are grateful for the beautiful weather and thankful for Ann and Christopher’s organizing of the event, Dave Porter’s guiding of an amazing class, Kathleen McGowan’s spirited leading of chanting, and Lauren Pech for guiding us in a deep and powerful seated meditation. We also want to extend our sincere appreciation to all who were able to attend the event. With around 50 guests, we raised $540 for Yoga for the People.

People flowed into the event from all sides. Watching it come together, I recalled my past work with the Crow tribe where people walked from the woods to the center of the perimeter to gather for a circle. The way the Crow and many indigenous cultures handle time is quite different from Western civilization’s time mania. The Medicine Man would say, “the leaves on the tree do not all change at once, we will begin when everyone is here.” Sometimes the event would begin three days after it was supposed to start, but everyone who needed to be there was there. This focus is on people and the importance of the individual’s process, rather than on a planned outcome, and it remembers that we must stay present and unattached. Yoga for the People runs on this idea, that each project has its own time and own needs and we aim to build a yoga program that works for each unique situation. I started thinking of each of our sites like a column or pillar and that Yoga for the People is like the roof or ceiling that connects all of the individual pillars, like a pavilion.

As Dave began teaching the class in the pavilion, I felt this calm wind and heard the birds singing. It felt like everyone who needed to be there was there. For me, the pavilion symbolized our willingness to come together without walls, in public, where all could see us unite, focused on our moving meditation for peace. We had gathered from different corners of time and place to be there together in that moment; to inhale the new and exhale the past, to breathe together so that the whole park would feel our willingness to allow love and light, rather than to build walls of protection. I felt vulnerable yet alive and empowered. I felt safety as part of our group. Yoga brings us closer to ourselves and to each other.

In the tarot deck, the tower card symbolizes a great change and tumult. I view the fall of those great towers on 9-11-01 as a catalyst for change in the world as a whole. At our event, during shivasana, chanting, and the extremely powerful seated meditation, I was struck by a sense of unity that could only be achieved through each person letting down his or her personal walls just enough to allow in everyone else. My gratitude for this experience is deep.

I see Yoga for the People as a new kind of structure, one that has people as its focus, and one that sees the similarities between all of us and removes unnecessary barriers to peace. We create access to this ancient and yet timely practice which teaches us compassion. I hope each of you feels the same sense of grace that we created.

“Hope isn’t an abstract theory about where human aspirations end and the impossible begins; it’s a never-ending experiment, continually expanding the boundaries of the possible.” p. 223 Loeb

In awe and appreciation, NAMASTE,

Kate Ross

Executive Director of Programs