Love is my Intention

When we practice yoga we are often asked to set an intention before beginning, usually before chanting the mantra OM. Love is usually my intention. When asked what brought us to the Sattva teacher training with Rameen Peyrow, my intuitive answer was love. Then we were asked what, in one word, would be a barrier to that. I didn't know the answer then, but now I think I do. Judgement. Mother Theresa said, "When you judge people, you have no time to love them." Indeed. This applies especially to ourselves, I am learning. How many times each day do we judge ourselves in some way? And just how can we spread love and light if we haven't learned how to love our own selves? I do think it is easier to love others than to love oneself (I'm working on it).

We just finished doing a 2 month long cleanse. The diet restrictions were quite restrictive. But I feel really great. Of course, I had a few cheats along the way. Which brings up another quotation by a wise and wondrous woman, Indra Devi. She asked...damn, I can't find it anywhere. To sum up, she asked why, since the body is our most precious gift, would anyone choose to harm their body. Why? During the cleanse I self-sabotaged a few times. Nothing extreme but I ingested items that I knew would harm my body. Outside of cleansing I do this often. Maybe if I loved my body and my mind and my whole self then I would no longer intentionally harm myself. I don't know exactly why, as a woman, I don't always feel so beautiful and wondrous. Of course the obvious societal pressures and media influences aren't kind to women in general. I'm not sure the why is what matters; I think what matters is removing judgement and letting love fill the new space that is created in the absence of judgement.

After practice on Saturday a lovely, insightful and wittily brilliant woman told me, with utmost sincerity, that I was a beautiful woman. I got goosebumps. She said I was beautiful down to my bones. At that moment I believed here and I felt really solid. The following is a poem by Theodore Roethke; she said that I remind her of the woman:

I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:
The shapes a bright container can contain!
Of her choice virtues only gods should speak,
Or English poets who grew up on Greek
(I'd have them sing in a chorus, cheek to cheek).

How well her wishes went! She stroked my chin,
She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and Stand;
She taught me Touch, that undulant white skin;
I nibbled meekly from her proffered hand;
She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake,
Coming behind her for her pretty sake
(But what prodigious mowing we did make).

Love likes a gander, and adores a goose:
Her full lips pursed, the errant notes to seize;
She played it quick, she played it light and loose;
My eyes, they dazzled at her flowing knees;
Her several parts could keep a pure repose,
Or one hip quiver with a mobile nose
(She moved in circles, and those circles moved).

Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay:
I'm martyr to a motion not my own;
What's freedom for? To know eternity.
I swear she cast a shadow white as stone.
But who would count eternity in days?
These old bones live to learn her wanton ways:
(I measure time by how a body sways).


This compliment to me has given me confidence. I am so grateful for her gift to help me along my path to self-love and ultimately to love, love, love everywhere and all around.

Here's REM doing a cover of Love is All Around