Yoga at 40,000 feet

Arno River, Florence, Italy

It's been a tough quarter, writing and any other creative indulgences have taken a backburner to all the other projects, committments and classes.  But yoga doesn't hold grudges and Buddha teaches nonattachment, so here we go. 

There is too much to write about regarding the experince of Italy- the kindness of the Italians, the beauty of the art and architecture, the decadence of the culinary delights, the nuns (still wearing habits), hearing Italian Rolling Stones cover bands, watching light filter through the clouds over the Arno river while the orange and red blended harmoniously into shades of burgundy and blue, the powerful church bells ringing in the evening...the Catholic Church's "OM."

There's too much to begin to capture...that hasn't already been captured...about Italy.  So instead, I'll just focus on one moment.  On the long plane ride home, I was stretching in the back, doing a few adapted poses in the cramped space while waiting for the tiny airplane bathroom to open up.  One of the flight attendants, a very tall man who I instantly figured as one of Kathy Griffin's gays, rolled his beverage cart back behind me.  His face lit up and he smiled a huge grin, "Hey, I'll do yoga with you!"  And the next thing I knew, we were standing together in tree pose, nearly 40,000 feet in the air, mirroring each other in balance, our hands in namaste.  Taken out of our roles, his as distributor of packaged pretzels, carefully poured beverages and tiny, compact dinners (how do they get them so tiny?), and mine as a needy, exhausted passenger, we were now nothing but two yogis, balancing together, smiling at each other, with a backdrop of billowing clouds passing through the small window through the triangle of his left leg. 

"Yoga has changed my life," he said to me.  I nodded.  There were so many ways I could say, "Indeed my friend" - experiences I could give, stories I could tell, but I nodded with a smile to convey all of it, and kept balancing without saying a word.   The definition of yoga is "union" or "to yoke" - a system to connect our minds and bodies, or on a more spiritual level, our spirit to God (Atman to Brahman in Hindu Sanskrit).  Here, it connected an Air France attendant and myself, grounded by our tree in the clouds, each of us mirroring not only a pose, but our convinction and connection.