Community Yoga
Find yourself in an easy seated position. Now close your eyes and listen. Chickens clucking, acorns bouncing, leaves rustling, and yes, airplane engines roaring overhead. Now open your eyes. Picnic tables, giant trees (sometimes with people in them!), Ruby the Dog (usually) and an assortment of human beings on yoga mats 🙂
Outdoor yoga is a great experience no matter where it’s practiced, but I can’t think of a better place to cultivate consciousness and community, than a place that fulfills that mission everyday – EarthDance Organic Farm School. Community Yoga is something Founder Molly Rockamann has been wanting to establish on the property for a long time. However, it came to be this August, as a result of her call for social workers to staff the Listening Project Booth at the Ferguson Farmers Market. Clearly, there was a need for the community to take a deep, collective breath and so I offered to lead a practice on Sunday mornings at 10 am this fall. Molly was quick to respond and from within the crisis came the opportunity to plant seeds of peace and positivity in this very special place in the City of Ferguson.
Free and open to anyone of all ages and skill levels, you never know what will be happening on Sunday morning on the farm or who will be in attendance. We’ve practiced in the rain with 4 people and in the 90 degrees temps with 15 people. We have had visitors from across the country (New York) and neighbors from across the street!
Friends and family members, even canines and felines have shown up on the mat. Last week, resident farm cat, Wendell Berry, decided to help lead the class by sunning herself on my mat throughout the entire, hour long session. And yes, we did Bidalasana, cat pose, in her honor. After yoga, Board Member Robyn Stranquist is always willing to give a tour of the farm and brings a healthy snack for us to share!
Practicing Community Yoga in EarthDance Organic Farm School’s outdoor “studio” teaches us that life happens in the moment and that we are all connected. Pausing to enjoy the fresh air, the warmth of the sun, and the beauty of nature in all its changing forms, you begin to understand that being present is the way to create peace in ourselves and ultimately, in the world around us. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr famously said ” We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. This is the interrelated structure of all reality.” The farm is living proof that we are connected to the earth, to each other, and to the whole community.