Hello friends,
Tis the season for gratitude, generosity and loving care.
Maybe that involves things like turkey and gifts for some but no matter what tradition you do or don’t celebrate, it never hurts to return to love, gratitude and generosity for our fellows.
We the people, of Sol, are so lucky to have one another. A place to go for warmth, health, inspiration and even help. Simultaneously, a place to share our gifts, to showcase our talents and be seen. I’m grateful.
I happen to be suspended in transit this Thanksgiving day. It’s by choice. Super cheap and easy day to be in flight. A good way to knock out a visit to far away family. And I love it. Traveling always brushes me up against the diversity of life - the edge of priveledge and beauty and the depths of despair and suffering. Once upon a time, it terrified me to travel, but now with some miles under my belt, the only thing I’m afraid of, is it ending too soon. I love all the waiting and wondering and unusual interactions with strangers.
Recently, I’ve thought of it as an opportunity to be a blessing - whatever that might mean. So I try to stay attuned to opportunities to smile at someone, to enjoy a conversation with a security guard who is usually feared or found annoying, to help someone that needs a hand, to be generous or thoughtful or light hearted in an otherwise tense situation. It’s just a little practice I think about when I’m traveling - and it has great reward - for me anyway - I feel connection with the big, unknown anonymous world.
And I figure, if I’m focused on being a blessing or sharing love, it keeps me further away from the byproducts of fear - worry, anxiety, contraction, isolation, pride, anger, etc.
And thank god for this practice with strangers, because it’s a heck of a lot easier to be generous to people you don’t know. And I can feel really great about myself.
But it’s a lot harder to be generous, grateful and loving toward your inner most circle - the people that you’ve hurt the most and that have hurt you. Perhaps you are around the dinner table right now with people like this. People you love. And loathe too.
In fact, I’m traveling with my man and my two littles today (see image below). And I want to recoil from them right now. They don’t see the world or traveling the way I do. It’s not as fun for them. They worry and get anxious about missing flights and have a way of speaking to each other with words and tone that I find so agressive and hurtful. Turns out i’m not as tough or tolerant as I’d like to think I am. But it takes these close relationships to illuminate the areas I have yet to grow into - the areas where generosity, gratitude and being loving are the hardest. I’d like to shutdown and take it personally or even better, control them so I don’t feel uncomfortable.
So I keep coming back to my breath, some airport stretching and the tools that help me reset and remember what’s important. I guard my open-mindedness, curiosity and willingness to yield, so I can access the grace I need to lean into love in the face of fear.
And I remember we must have each others backs. Not turn our backs on each other. Partnership is generic in my mind (and specific of course too). We are the human race; pairing pack animals. We need each other to thrive. And the more we pick each other apart, judge, isolate, divide, punish and excommunicate, the further from thriving we get. Thats evidenced in cellular groups and ripples all the way out to the biggest colonies.
Hence the yoga; to yoke, join, connect. To return to whole.
With some practice, in an instant we can come back to our life sustaining breath, focus on the spiritual nature of our humanness and connect with the truth that sustains us all.
The light in me, sees the light in you.
May your holiday be guided by generous care for one another, gratitude for the abundance in your life and love.
Warmly,
Dorcas & the Sol Crew
💕Please join us in our practices this holiday season as a way to stay connected. And bring your family or friend and let the yoga do what it does - soothe the nervous system and bring peace to the mind and body. It might be the best gift you can give yourself and your family.
💕And if you are a shopper this holiday weekend, your money will extend beyond your own care and take care of someone else’s yoga practice. All membership or pass purchases over Black Friday weekend will be matched by Sol. We will put an equal purchase amount in our scholarship fund - everything we offer is available by scholarship if one applies.
