Community I love

Finding the right words to express how much I love the Sellwood Yoga community has been challenging for me.

Until I was reading A Song of Comfortable Chairs and a quote jumped off the page:

"...Mma Ramotswe stepped forward and put an arm around Patience's shoulder.

"Mma," she said, "I see you."

It was the oldest and simplest of African greetings: I see you. It implied so much more than it said, though, because it meant that Mma Ramotswe saw not only the person standing before her, but all that lay behind her––who she was, where she came from, how she felt."

–From A Song of Comfortable Chairs by Alexander McCall Smith, book #23 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series

This is exactly how I feel when I come to a class as a student, when the teacher greets me and welcomes me even though the words are just a hello, how are you. "I see you."

This is exactly how I hope my students feel when they attend my classes and I greet them and welcome them in. "I see you."

I see Sellwood Yoga "Community" in the teachers and in the students and in the space.

I see you.

Welcome to 2023...

Welcome to 2023... shared this in my classes last week... a little play on words... do any of these "Re"-words... "re"-sonate with you?

Your absolute very first

Do you remember your absolute very first yoga teacher?

Maybe it is someone from Sellwood Yoga?

Or perhaps from where you grew up or a class you took during school?

I have memories of a yoga teacher my mother took us to when I was about 8 (in Syracuse NY). Her name was Miss Richter (kids didn't call adults by first names back then) and she wore a long-sleeved, long-legged leotard and had long silvery hair in a ponytail or a bun and bare feet. In my mind’s eye she is a cross between the PBS yoga teachers Lilias and Priscilla. A happy memory!