You won’t teach normal things

When I was in my early 20’s a friend and her mother recommended I see a psychic they thought highly of.  I had already finished my undergraduate degree in history, was practicing yoga, and working in the food service world to get by.  The main question was what would I DO with my life?  What would I be?  It was a pressing concern.

The psychic was serious, lived simply, a devotee of Siddha Yoga, an astrologer , a lesbian, her house had a certain smell- old, a bit musty, like an old book.   I liked her and trusted her for some reason right away.

What I remember most was that she said clearly that I would be a teacher.  I flinched.  I had never particularly enjoyed school and never saw myself as a teacher.  I had a Bachelors of Arts degree and everyone always asked, “What are you going to do, teach?”  “NO” was my immediate response.  I had nothing affirmative to offer next.

“You won’t teach normal things, academic things, not a school room teacher.” I still had no idea what she was talking about and remember feeling deeply disappointed that there wasn’t something else offered up as a more appealing possibility.  Teach?!

Then my yoga teacher, Priscilla, asked me to teach for her one day.  She was going away and wanted me to simply fill in for her.  I was surprised and honored and felt that if she thought I could do it, I could and simply would.  I remember mapping out how a class might unfold together at the table in “Delectables” restaurant and thinking “here we go”, but not knowing what that meant.

I was probably nervous and undoubtedly self-conscious, but I have no recollection of that.  Only that I did it and would continue doing it and then suddenly Priscilla was saying that a teacher training program would happen, her first in Tucson, and that it was me who was begging for it.  I was?

I won’t share the whole story right now, only that the psychic was right and the journey into that truth, its realization, is the essence of what I am doing here with Yoga at Heart.   It is about me and it is about you and it is about the world.  I say that not to be grand, quite the opposite.  Utter humility is what I hope to embody as a teacher and give birth to in my teaching.  It’s about the teaching, it’s about you, it’s about the flow of the life force.  These are not normal things after all, not academics, not a school room…

The word ‘education’ is derived from the Latin root ‘educare’. While education refers to collection of worldly facts, educare is to bring out from within. Education is for a living while educare is for life.

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba