Two words

One of our instructors gave us an assignment today, well it was more like "something to think about" and it's not really due until the end of the program in March, and we don't really have to share it with anyone if we don't want to. Hmmmmm. Anyway, here's the "assignment", if I could send a postcard to everyone in the world that had only two words on it what words would I choose. She seemed to think it would take us the whole time to decide on the two words and that we would change our minds before the end. Maybe I will. But I knew right away, with certainty what those two words would be, and I'll tell you at the end of this post. My head is so full from yesterday that I'm not sure anything else will fit in it today. We learned about the different styles of yoga, where the styles originated and who developed them. And we spent time touching on the 8 limbs of Yoga which we will be studying in much more detail as the weekends unfold. For the first 2 hours the other students (all, like, 70 years younger than me) wrote furiously in their notebooks or made footnotes in their training manual. They are fresh faced, not-long-out-of-college, deligent note takers. Heads down, nose in the book, making sure that they've quoted or paraphrased everything being said. God bless 'em they'll probably graduate with honors from Yoga School, if there is such a thing. Me? I used to be a note taker in school. But I haven't been in school for 50 hundred years and I was a solid C student even with all that intense scribbling. So I figure "what the hell" I'm just going to listen. Always the visual and tactile learner, I'd rather DO than DOCUMENT. I can't tell you how freeing that was for me! Like not taking a camera on vacation. Men won't understand that, but women (especially mothers) will. Finally it came time to learn how to teach the first three poses--child's pose, down dog, and rag doll (forward fold). Everything I knew, or thought I knew, about teaching these poses and flowing between one and the other was thrown out the window. We couldn't just learn what to say to move our students into the poses. We had to learn how to look at each student and then choose what to say and how to say it based on the various physical clues we observe when we look at them. By that time, almost no-one was writing in their notebooks. How can you put on paper something that may be only a feeling or impression you have of the person? Once we partnered up to try our hand at teaching, I was surprised how comfortable I was with not knowing what I was doing. Starting from scratch with nothing but a heightened sense of physical empathy, probably from having daughters, was oddly comforting and enjoyable. I don't think my partner, who is all of twelve and a half, thought so. She was quite anxious to do it again and again until she got it right. She's gonna be a Yoga Honor Student or drive herself crazy trying. So, what are my two post card words? LOVE YOURSELF. Maybe that will change, but I don't think so.