autumn in yogaville

when we get a bit overwhelmed with all the fear/blame/hate swirling around us in the "real world", we head to yogaville to clear our heads and hearts.  you can hike, meditate, yoga, contemplate, love and just be in the beauty and serenity of this remarkable space.

yogaville celebrates the world's religions and spiritual practices:  "truth is one, paths are many."

this is the stuff of yogaville:

 ask.

sit.

wander.

breathe.

dance.

gather.

listen.

belong.

receive.

offer.

we carry all these things with us but sometimes they feel buried too far beneath the world's imprint to access.  yogaville pulls them to the surface and reminds us to work to keep them there.  this often happens when we practice them every day no matter the view.

more yogaville love here and here and here.

gratitude: week four

on the day after thanksgiving, instead of indulging in black friday, we went to yogaville.

the last time we visited, i was in the midst of making the decision whether or not to leave my job and radically change my life.  yogaville provided the space and stillness to give me some clarity on the issue.

i am so very grateful for this open, loving, spiritual place that is quite unexpected in rural virginia.  being here instantly brings the familiar sense of groundedness that i've been blessed enough to experience in other beautiful places.

i am grateful for the sacred spaces i have known.

(photos taken friday at yogaville.)

i am grateful for the pacific ocean.  her name masks her fierceness and power.  i like that.

i am grateful for the tidepools she leaves behind.  she taught me that you can be bold and raw and honest and still create beauty and gentleness.  i am grateful for all those times i held the hand of my daddy while he told me the stories of the magical little sea worlds that exist in each and every tiny pool.

i am grateful for a home that is safe and warm and happy and peaceful.   living here makes me want to be more creative, more joyful, more loving.

i am grateful for my childhood home that i miss often and dream about with a sense of nostalgia and history and love and belonging.

i am grateful for forests and woods and mountains.  and for trails that help me be brave.

i am grateful for the 24"x72" yoga mat that i can roll out anywhere and transform my body, my mind, my spirit, my day, my life.

i am grateful for the places i have not yet been and who whisper to me that there is something for me to learn there.

my most favorite completely accidental self-portrait ever:  protection, wisdom, guidance, beginnings (all these ganesh gifts)...are within.

i am grateful for the practice of choosing which space to inhabit (i.e. yogaville over target) on any given day.  i am grateful for having those options.

i am grateful for learning (still learning, still practicing) that any space (even target) can be peaceful and transformed by awareness and appreciation of its unique beauty and stories.

yogaville, part deux

we were just there last week.  but i needed to go back.  so he drove me. 

i needed some spiritual space to ponder a huge decision that has to be made this week.

i needed to be bathed in sunshine.

and nourished from the inside out. 

i needed to see people who live peacefully without the attachments (or addictions) of career and stress and the burden of always keeping up.

i needed to be seen.

i needed choices.

i needed to think about growing something other than a program that exceeds performance expectations and comes in under budget year after year.

i needed protection.

i needed to breathe in possibility. 

and exhale fear.

thank you yogaville, for once again meeting my needs.

(see the lotus shrine on the left?)

a funny thing happened on the way to the ashram

sunday morning we were bored and restless and in need of equilibrium.  my weekend had not yet offered up that stillpoint that is necessary for me to get up and start it all over again each monday morning. 

we talked about heading to charlottesville after yoga.  then i remembered i had been meaning to make another trip to yogaville, an ashram and community in buckingham county.

one of the things i love about virginia is that you can find hidden delights like yogaville smack dab in the middle of country.  forty-five minutes out of town, we turn off the main highway onto a one-lane road after crossing the james river.  we drive through dense primordial forests dotted with apocalyptic clear-cut fields.  we drive past ramshackle one-room churches with biblical wisdom spelled out in plastic by the road.  we drive past countless little farms and hand-painted signs for eggs.  we see children lined up at the ladder of an above-ground pool whose side is on the verge of collapse. strangers wave at us from rockers on their porches.

in our hurry to stop to photograph some donkeys in a field we get the front end of our car stuck in a ditch.  a country baptist minister fresh off the pulpit stops to assist and we all alternate between the driver's seat and pushing.  after some time without success, we decide to call in a tow.  then the minister must silently ask for divine assistance because the ditch just decides to release our car unscathed. 

this was a lot of words to tell you what i love about this part of virginia.  in five minutes you can go from being able to buy homemade pie on the side of the road and standing knee deep in grass (with snakes) here:

to stepping onto sacred ground that is not unlike a mini magical trip to india here:

the amazing site for yogaville was chosen by its founder sri swami satchidananda in the late 70s.  it is an ashram and a community of spiritual, vegetarian, peaceful yogis.  it really is a little slice of heaven.

after lunch in the communal dining room, we set off on foot through the woods to visit the lotus.  the silence here fills me up and begins to crowd out the chaos.

i forgot my keens by the front door of my house, so i was walking the trail in flipflops. 

my (mostly silent) whining was cut short when we caught of glimpse of the lotus through the forest.

the lotus is a shrine to all the religions of the world.  it holds alters and religious texts and icons from christianity, islam, taoism, judaism, buddhism, native american and many other faiths.  you walk in under a gate that reads, "one truth, many paths".

while its mission is to love and unite all religions and beliefs, the overall feel of the place is unmistakably indian.  i cannot tell you how much i love this.  on the silent walk in, an older indian woman clad in a sari the color of ripe raspberries looked deep into my eyes and greeted me with her hands in prayer and a soft "namaste".  in that moment, grace was mine.  my fears and worries were honored and released.  in their place, a deep sense of hope and confidence.  from the metaphorical ditch of apathy, i am released unscathed.

thank you yogaville.  thank you donkeys.  thank you lotus.  thank you virginia.  thank you beautiful woman in the raspberry sari.