Last week, a great friend of my lovely man
died/passed/took-off-the-tight-shoe, and we gathered at a funeral home to send him
off.
I was in that horrid lineup, the
reception line or whatever it’s called, trying not to cry, being
one of those unfortunate saps who cry at all funerals and weddings
whether or not I know the star of the show. It’s the intensity of
grief (or joy for that matter) floating around the room. It unhinges
me.
A woman from Los Angeles, completely
unknown to me (some member of the star’s family), reached a hand
forward to take mine. I started crying. We introduced ourselves. I
wiped my nose.
“Are you the one who does yoga?”
she asked.
“What?”
“Yoga. I hear you do yoga. Is that
right?”
“Yes, I do yoga.”
“I love yoga,” she said. “We
both do,” she added, pointing to her husband. “I’ll find you later,”
she said. “We’ll talk.” I moved down the line, wondering
whether I’d imagined the whole thing.
Less than 30 minutes later, I
introduced myself to the guy who runs the funeral home.
“You’re the one who does yoga,
aren’t you?” he said.
“I’m one of them. There are lots
of us,” I said, starting to wonder what the hell was going on here.
“I did yoga in 1978, way up by James
Bay. There was no gym on the reserve. I found some Richard
Hittleman tapes. Twenty eight days of yoga. It really worked. Before that, I
thought yoga was a kind of ice cream.”
Yoga at funerals.
Something is changing. We all know
that yoga’s star is on the rise, that yoga is spreading like a kind
of gorgeous plague at an unprecedented rate.
It seems that around that
surge is an even larger wave of conversation about yoga, a
conversation taking place in grocery stores, in movie lines, at
weddings and funerals. Yoga has become an ice breaker, a
grief-breaker, a happy bonding glue.
I’ll bet you’ve had some bizarre
yoga conversations of your own. Between fishing huts? In helicopters? Submarines? On safari? In
armored vehicles? How far does it go? I’d love
to hear.
Thanks to the lovely and charming Ferg,
who is now breathing more easily. Thanks to yoga for showing up
everywhere, and thanks to you for the conversation,
kristin
Dr.
Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All
Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario. Join her on the web,
on Facebook,
and on Twitter,
and on iTunes.