Speak Your Mind

When I was about 15 years old, I befriended a couple who would screen a documentary on MLK each year around the time of his birthday. The power of one man speaking up was the tipping point for an entire people. To think that this morning the first black US president began his second term, says that collectively this change was waiting to happen. It was inevitable. I love that Martin Luther King Jr. (a Capricorn, like me) talks about getting to the mountain top. One step at a time. Doing the next designated thing. Moment by moment. Somehow, if you stay the course, you will get to the top.

Mountain Pose is the foundation of all things yoga. Yoga was the movement happening first in my household in the '70's. When my father sprung into a handstand at the gas station, it was a spectacle to behold. He just turned upside down right there in front of everyone. He literally turned his mind upside down. It takes a lot of audacity, a little bit of flash, self-confidence, and a strong sense of rebellion to let your freak flag fly. Now, there is a new inversion. Yoga has become big business, and everyone wants to try it. The Mountain itself has been turned upside down.

I vividly remember an experience I had with some friends, climbing the rock formations at Joshua Tree. When we arrived, I looked up at the 'mountain' of rock formations, and was awestruck. After the entire day of climbing and laying on the rocks, having lunch and climbing some more, we headed down and looked back up at this mountain we had just ascended for 8 hours. It was a completely different experience. When I looked this time, I felt that I WAS the mountain. It was an extension of me, and me of it.

My journey has been more than to climb the mountain or to mirror the mountain. It has been to become the mountain. What is your personal mountain top? There are so many movements to join. From Occupy Wall Street, to banning GMOs, to our rights to freedom. And, though it may be radical to say that internal change will literally cause external change, I am going to voice it: If you want change, become the change.

Experience is the teacher of all teachers, as Mountain pose is the foundation of all poses. What is that part of me that must change? These days, I am not working so much on reaching the mountain top. I am working on becoming the mountain. 

I am the dream. Open-minded. Upside down.