The Bomb Cyclone
It’s early January. 2018 welcomed us with the Bomb Cyclone – some kind of hurricane meets blizzard with single digit highs. The winds and snow blew through, but the cold stayed.
We’re only ten days out from the start of the 11th WHY Teacher Training.
When I came on board as editor of this book project, I had no idea what the end result would look like. To be honest, I still don’t. But I know a whole lot more than I did one year ago.
Almost exactly one year ago, I got this surprise in my email inbox:
On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 11:28 AM, Barbara Ruzansky wrote:
So here’s a VERY unreasonable idea I’ll throw your way:
Do you want to take 2017 TT?!
Just a thought.
Barbara and I had been talking book stuff via email, and this seemingly unrelated one line message came out of nowhere, precisely six days before the start of the program. But as I’m frequently reminded, these things are rarely, if ever, unrelated. For this job, for this work, I’m all in.
I sat on it for a few days. I talked to my husband about how we could manage that time commitment with two small children. Barbara and I talked on the phone. I spoke with a dear friend from the last time I did this teacher training, eight years ago. Because I knew she’d speak truthfully. (We learned how to do that sitting across from each other those many years ago.) That first training was grueling for me. In all ways. And I don’t even want to be a yoga teacher. Why, I thought, would I choose to do this again??
But the answer was so clear. I just needed to be there. I didn’t understand why. But one of things I learned the first time around was that I have strong instincts. We all do, really. And I best serve myself and those around me when I listen to my intuition.
So, the following Friday, I was on my mat at 5pm, alongside 45 brave strangers. And this time, instead of grueling, the six months were glorious. How things can change.
In addition to all the personal challenges and insights, (we’ll save those gems for another post) and the gift of a whole new community of bright faces, some of whom might make a guest appearance on this blog, I was and am struck by how much this Teacher Training program comes out of Barbara’s lived experience. Barbara’s life – the decades of illness and addiction, and her slow, unlikely recovery – it’s all here in this training. Not in the form of “here’s how to treat depression and addiction in six easy steps,” but something else entirely.
Over the course of these next six months, this blog will reflect on what that something else is. We’ve never tried to put it into words, mostly because words can’t fully contain the whole of it. And also because we have to shut up for long enough to hear all that unfolds around us. First, we have to learn to be still. For many of us, myself included, this first step is the most difficult of all. So let’s start there.
In the dead of winter, with a foot of snow on the ground, the world outside of these windows is very still. Completely quiet. It’s a perfect place to begin.
~Ali