Yoga

Yoga is aligning your body and soul so that they snap together with a gentle click like two puzzle pieces who have long felt each others absence. The simple ritual of rolling out your mat onto the wooden floor is comforting, for it denotes your space in the world. In that quiet moment, and just for a little while, it is your tiny piece of earth --yours alone-- and you treasure it.
Thoughts of grief and struggle and hardship barrage you, but you've erected an unseen wall around your mat and for the slimmest allotment of time, the troubles simply clink against the invisible barrier and fall harmless to the ground, dirty shimmers of despair. They cannot penetrate. Not right now, at least. For right now belongs to peace. All is well.
You trace the unseen line from ceiling to land with your prayer-posed hands, stopping in front of your heart to reassure yourself of its life-giving beat.
It is there, as it has always been. There is consolation in its stubborn consistency.
It is quiet here, the half lit room humming with intensity that is felt, but not seen, assumed, but not heard. It is invigorating yet soothing, like pouring milk into a glass cup of coffee and watching the creamy white penetrate the dark-as-sin black in a swirling dance of playful purpose.
And we are each planets, orbiting about on our own course, oblivious to each other but with our energies circling in perfect harmony. Or perhaps we are tiny islands set adrift on the sea, swirling on the smooth sailing waves of serenity and serendipity.
Our faces are arranged in a beautiful picture of belief and tranquility and sweat. I know the artist who created that piece of art. He wanted to portray both the intensity of the spirit and the flesh. I told him he accomplished what he set out to do.
The ritual finishes; it softly comes to an end. When we roll up our mats, we collect the doubts and fears that lie broken along the side and roll them up too, tuck both mat and misery away in a musty closet. The world has become a place of wonder, and we wish with the eyes of an innocent child.
For, we are the ones who hope in the most dire of dark circumstances.
We are the ones who believe during the bloodiest of battles.
We are the ones who will change the world.