I have some good news to share on what is a snowy and reflective day for me. I am fortunate not to have University classes to teach on Fridays, and I decided to forego traveling to my “goto” Friday morning public class because of the weather. Home practices are in order.

One of the most delightful practices I engaged this morning is to prepare a yoga class for a studio to which I am applying to teach on a regular basis. I haven’t been on the schedule at a studio for a year. When I haven’t been recovering from a second shoulder surgery, and rebuilding my own practice from it, I’ve been mainly subbing for Roberta Dell’Anno and Linda Moran.

I get to prepare this class for a group in teacher training; for colleagues, then. I get to do so when this month, I mark seven years since I immersed myself in Anusara Yoga. The decision to do so took my practice and my life in directions which have not yet seen their full fruition. It has given me the gift of vital and decisive friendships I’m committed to treasure without consideration of cost or effort. The maintenance of these relationships has become a practice in itself.

It is one of these improbable friends who introduced me to the studio to which I am applying. The opportunity to teach is something which had “come together” more than which I had to overeffort to seek. So the aphorism on the Yogi Tea bag is appropriate. I welcome it.

A teacher of mine suggested we don’t fully appreciate the wisdom of the assertion of Jois, “Practice, and all is coming.” We think it means practice improves our lives. That’s the half of it. Practice, and all is coming: joy, sorrow, ease, challenge, love, and conflict. In some sense, the greater capacity we presumably develop to live and to savor life means our spirits grow. Larger spirits seem to attract bigger challenges precisely because of this greater capacity to grow from them.

It is with this in mind that I embrace the sacred duty to theme and sequence this practice. I treat it as a challenge, rather than take it lightly. Should I be extended the opportunity to teach at this studio, I will post that outcome here, with great relish, I must add. For I teach to share. The sharing makes the practices sweeter.