“Making your way in the world today…
…takes everything you’ve got. Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.”
If you are of a certain age, or into retro tv, you know this theme song to the popular show Cheers. It was so beloved in our house, my sister’s boyfriend (now husband) would have her hold up our corded rotary telephone so he could listen to it while working.
*We had the more modern beige version.
Regardless of how one actually feels about Sam and Diane’s quandry or Norm’s quips, almost everyone I know loves that theme song. For good reason really, its simple lyrics are really quite poetic and while researching the definition of community for this blog, really quite accurate. “You wanna go where people know, people are all the same…you wanna be where you can see our troubles are all the same…”
After all, who doesn’t want to go “where they are always glad you came…” Maybe a local basement bar isn’t your community, but we can all recognize that feeling of wanting to belong somewhere or to something. I was lucky, I grew up in a small community on the outskirts of a small town. So, from an early age, I learned the importance of community.
*Seriously, even the sign warms my heart…
This is what that great community taught me. You don’t have to have the same political views, religious affiliations or even cheer for the same hockey team. You just need to respect, be kind, support and champion one another.
As I’ve grown, I’ve learned as we all have, that your community can be many things. It can be your neighbourhood, your school, your place of worship, your sports team and your yoga studio. I try for the most part to keep the overall theme of this blog universal, because I think yoga is a universal, far-reaching topic, but I am going to talk about our Beyond Yoga community for a moment…
*Small, but awesome sample of our great community.
I was here teaching when we opened. I remember the classes with one or two people in attendance and the many, many discussions we had on how to build the community that Beyond was intended for. It really wasn’t that long ago that we had to add more chairs to our social lounge. Warmth, laughter and contented sighs are abundant every day at our studio. And to our absolute pride and gratitude, when we have run a program for our local Kanata Food Cupboard, Chrysalis House or the Purse Project, the support from our members has been overwhelming. My personal favourite example was, when our Mom and Baby class was so full, another full class that had the same room for close to a year had to move to a different room and each and every one of those lovely yogis welcomed, cheered and cooed each new yoga baby. That, my friends, is community. That, my friends, is Beyond Yoga.
P.S. I would love to hear what you think. Please “Leave a Reply” below, or you can email me directly at yogabeyondwords@gmail.com.
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