Om shanti, shanti, shanti eh

Shanti (shantih) is translated from Sanskrit to mean inner peace. This is one chant that I can remember.

I've been at a yoga retreat all weekend put on by Studio Be Yoga. This particular event was held at the Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort outside of the town of Leavenworth in Washington State.

… I sit in a scuffed Adirondack chair, my head back with arms relaxed at my sides. I hear the wind rushing through the towering lodgepole pines and watch as it settles into the shimmering aspen trees that surround me. Tall mountains, rocky and interspersed with golden grass and pines climb up to the clear blue sky. The temperature is perfect, my body feels warm. I've spent the morning in yoga practice with more planned for the afternoon and evening. I only track where I have to be next – not what we will do or how I will feel then. Right now I feel alive in my senses. I can't get enough of the view and the smell of pine on the warm breeze.

I see something in this view – an intangible knot of emotions that begins with joy and yet seems seeded in sorrow. I look at that jagged mountain peak against the sky and I feel. I want – to touch it. I want – to sit under its shadow. I want – to describe the majesty and sense of awe that moves through me as I take in such natural wonder. I sit and soften my gaze, taking in the moment. The joy and the sorrow. I am delighted and it saddens me that I forget. I lose touch with this connection to the primordial world and yet it resonates so strongly within me.

The next morning as I work on a series of poses that are loosely composed around a moon salutation, I gaze out the window at the quaking aspens, the sunlight, and those mountain peaks. My body smiles. Hand sweep up and come together, lowering over the heart center – and I feel joy.

And then I ask myself – what if I could feel this joy. delight. peace. every day? Even just for a few moments – what would it look like to embrace this experience and bring it into each day?