Solace
..how will you shape a life equal to and as beautiful and as astonishing as a world that can birth you, bring you into the light and then just as you are beginning to understand it, take you away? David Whyte, Consolations Before Covid-19, I taught a weekly yoga class at a local nursing home. Most of my students were just beginning yoga at age 80, 95 and even older. While they were frail or forgetful and spent their days in chairs that did not fit their bodies well, they practiced with an earnestness and lack of judgement that was disarming. Reaching through pain with arms that no longer straightened or ankles that did not bend, they brought their full attention to the movement with an effort and enthusiasm that was breathtaking. “I feel different, better” they told me after class, “We need to do this everyday!” I got to know the residents little by little in the conversations we had after class. Overtime, I learned about the fa...