The Power of Yes

I wanted a dog for years and little did I know the phenomenal gift that saying yes to that intuitive calling would be.  Almost everything I've created has come from this place, this knowing of 'yes.'   I certainly haven't gotten everything I've wanted.  But, I've tried for everything I've ever wanted.  

Saying 'no' is saying 'yes' to something else.  There is real power when we get clear and we try.  And there is real power and grace every time I recognize the amount of yes I do have and also the amount of yes that I can give.  

Last August, I lost my dog Rumi while hiking Runyon Canyon with my friend, Kay.  Chaos ensued as people said they saw him up there, down there, etc.  Ninety agonizing minutes later, I got a call.  He was okay.  He was found running down Fountain Avenue turning down Genessee.  A woman driving by saw him, pulled over and he hopped in her car.  She was veterinarian.  That was the biggest yes day of my life.  It was an absolute miracle.  

When my friend and I finally found each other after our search for Rumi, she was holding a tiny part of a tree branch in the shape of a Y.  She handed it to me and said that her mother always collects them and that they are 'yeses.'  I look at that every time I leave my house to remind me of this miracle and the power of yes in my life.  Not everything I want can be a yes, but I do have all the yeses I need. 

Apart from it being the first letter in the word Yoga, what does any of this have to do with yoga?  Yoga is a practice where we directly experience the moment of what is.   We practice accepting these moments as they come and go, with equanimity.  Through the lens of the witness, we practice the presence of the yes moment which is Now.  

The first sutra in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali says that Yoga is Now.  The Power of Yes supports this practice for me.   The second sutra says that Yoga is the quieting of the fluctuations of the mind.  The Power of Yes supports this practice for me. 

If you're still reading this, in my next musing, I will go deeper and offer a simple meditation that has had a profound effect on me.

Namaste.  Alex