California Sun

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I did not know what I would do here in California a year ago. I thought, maybe I’ll teach 7th grade again after I get my certification. Or, maybe I’ll teach yoga. I’ll write. Those were my prospects. I did not really have a plan.

Though being able to connect with people on my mat in yoga classes immediately opened doors: my mind, community, friendships, and work. So for the last year, I have been writing, coaching small yoga business owners, and teaching yoga. I have met a lot of people and seen a lot of things that I’ve never seen before.


Having never lived on the West Coast, I imagined all of California to be just like Oakland, where my sister lives and where I had visited, or like LA from all the pictures and movies that I’d seen. Not really. This year, I have seen that California is more like three states. Sunshine here in the northern part of the bay is nothing like the sun in LA, or further south in San Diego.


Each part of California is different, but each person, everywhere I go, is desiring the best they can muster of the best of their experience.  A year of Northern California has been a reminder, not unlike all the other places I have lived: no matter where you go, though the climate may be different, there you are. And, there everyone else is too. We are not isolated. The sun, though it may feel different on this coast, is the same one that shines on you wherever you are.

Walking back through shallow water after a float down the Russian River with my son on Memorial Day, the sun shined directly down and on the back our heads. Like magic, our shadows before us revealing our halos. We were being shined on. Whether you see your halo or not today, whether you're on the East Coast or the West, the sun is the same. It still shines, maybe not every day for you to see, but it does, and it will. 
We are all being directly shined on.
Shine bright. Surya Namaskar.

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