Delta baggage claim sticker. More on that later.
Do you know the unforgettable drawings of Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes when he first wakes up – eyes swollen shut, face sagging like an old man, and all layered over Calvin’s youthful mischievous.
We all have awoken with that feeling, let alone that appearance. I did so last Monday. I was showering before my Monday morning yoga class, after an incredible weekend in the Atlanta suburb of Cartersville, GA. Imagine a sleepy Calvin wishing the shower would never end.
I sat there exhausted but awestruck. The weekend represented a big shift for Mind Body Solutions. Etowah Valley Yoga hosted me to teach the weekend. They organized a public community talk at the Cartersville Public Library on Thursday night; and more importantly, they were the first to organize an outstate fundraiser for Mind Body Solutions on Saturday night. Also sprinkled throughout the weekend, I taught an adaptive yoga class, led a yoga teacher’s workshop, and taught four other traditional yoga classes. Etowah Valley Yoga raised money from their community to help Mind Body Solutions grow its impact. The vision is for Etowah Valley Yoga to become a regional training center in the southeastern United States in our pioneering program, Opening Yoga to Everyone. They will be able teach adaptive yoga students, train yoga teachers, and eventually train healthcare professionals. Here is a link to the 4 minute MBS slideshow that we showed at the fundraiser:…it’s a heart-mover:
Saturday night fundraiser at Etowah Valley Yoga
Advances for Mind Body Solutions always seem to begin with a personal journey. A few years ago, Etowah Valley teacher Grace Stephen came to our Level I adaptive yoga teacher training in Minnesota. She had recently survived a bad car accident, on the heels of two other traumatic accidents. She was in terrible pain but came anyway. She is a remarkable student and teacher. Her underlying life’s purpose is to help people heal from trauma. That is how she found me. After attending our training, Grace went back to Cartersville and convinced the owner of Etowah Valley Yoga Sue Hopkins, along with two other teachers Chelsea and Lisa, to attend our training. Since then, all four of them have been through both Level I and Level II. At our Mind Body Solutions’ staff meetings, this gang of four has become famous. We affectionately refer to them as The Georgia Peaches.
Grace is on the left wearing our T-shirt; Sue is on the right. They watch at I teach the students at Etowah Valley Yoga.
At the height of the fundraiser, I turned to Grace and told her to look at her community and drink it in. There they stood, inspired for Etowah Valley Yoga to learn how to help people transform trauma, loss, and disability into hope and potential. I said to Grace, “Look what you started.” Our gazes locked in shared purpose. We raised $9200 that night.
This brings me back to my shower and feeling like Calvin. The weekend in Cartersville began our fall push for fundraising. The work of keeping a small non-profit afloat is both exhausting and an honor. I feel like how Calvin looks in the morning – youthful and old in the same instant. I lean over on my shower bench to wash my rear end. I come across something on my left butt cheek. I startle at first because I worry that a sore has broken open. No, it’s not that. Whatever it is, it peels off. Lo and behold, it’s a baggage claim sticker. Only God knows how it got there….some mysteries are better unsolved.
I have no idea how Grace Stephen found me. I have no idea how that sticker got on my ass. I laugh out loud because the Universe has a sense of humor. Somehow it makes me feel both hopeful and replenished….just in time. I go off to teach my class.
Click on this link, watch a very short version of the MBS story. Join us…