Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

This is one of the first chants I ever learned, at the Ashram back in 2001.  I instantly loved it.  It was just a lovely chant.  Simple, beautiful, flowery sounding.  I loved the way the melody carried softly across your tongue.  It was a sweet, feminine chant and I fell in love with it.

Translated, it means roughly, "May the entire universe be filled with peace and joy, love and light."  Another version, "May my positive actions and thoughts influence the actions and thoughts of others around me."

It is the second chant I have learned on the harmonium and I can't stop playing it.   I can honestly say it is the first real experience with the harmonium where I feel like I "get it."  My voice and the instrument become one and I just bliss out into this devotion and never want to stop!

This week has been a very busy week with work.  I've been working very long hours on campus and by the time I commute home, take care of Bodhi and do all the evening chores and bath time and get her to bed, I am utterly exhausted and mentally wiped.  I know I should do yoga, but the thought of rolling out the mat and trying to move my body around just seems like too much.   So, last night, I told myself, "jeez, just do 5 minutes.  You can do 5 minutes.  Just sit on the mat if you have to."

I rolled it out on the back porch, with just about 15 minutes of light left in the day.   I did one slow sun salutation and then lay on my back on the mat, putting my legs up against the column of our gazebo.  I had never thought to do this before, but lay there in "legs against the wall" pose for about 10 minutes, completely and utterly spent.  

It wasn't a calorie burning Vinyasa flow or a mind blowing, spiritual transformation, but my body had intuitively went into one of the best known restorative poses that exist.  That without thinking, my legs just went there, seems like a kind of somatic magic to me.  It's exactly what I needed. So many times I don't roll out my mat because I think, "Ah, I'm too tired" or "I don't have time."  Why do I forget, even after all these years of practice, that it's okay to just lay in child's pose for awhile or just put my feet up against the wall sometimes?   It's still Yoga.  Even 30 seconds is better than nothing!