#Gratitude30 Day 15's prompt is: Your favourite memories

Once upon a time a journalist was writing an article about me and asked for a memory of my early practice and what inspired me to become a yoga instructor.

I shared that in my teens and early 20s we would go to the Temple in the Sea to chant the Guru Gita with Blue Star TT. We would begin before sunrise, and end in the early morning. I remember:

• The night before - making the decision to be there, the planning of outfit, and anything that needed packing

• Waking up early - and getting ready, as a teen I was very lax about being on time, my mother wasn’t. To this day I tend to think I’ll get somewhere when I’m meant to get there but those thoughts war between the ones instilled by parents and society about arrival and preparation times

• The drive to get there - all of fifteen minutes if there was no traffic, the darkness of the road in the pre-dawn, the winding road and its ups and downs

• The quiet and the coolness of the morning - something that I still love 

• The chanting of the group - opening mantras, the Guru Gita, and other mantras. Sometimes I would be in that space between sleep and wakefulness, chanting can lull you into that space. Sometimes I would be distracted and bring myself back through focusing on the meaning of the words and the English translation in our booklets. Sometimes I would chant and be fully present

• The community after - the darshan line, the fruits or parsad shared for devotees, the conversations with friends.

Discipline and devotion, and a wonderful way to start both the day and the week.

It was a time in my life that I treasure, and a time that has passed. A memory - which is not what the journalist wrote but oh well. I still go to the Blue Star for Guru Gita, either attending in person at their centre in Claxton Bay or online (because this is a possibility now).

In the second photo, I share myself as a teenager (in 1995). My mom was putting together Blue Star's monthly newsletter and needed photos of the twist we were sharing. This is one of them.

Favourite memories are made of ordinary, everyday moments. I am thankful for each moment that I can be present for, for the people around me, and the spaces I choose to inhabit.

Today for day 15, I invite you to remember a favourite memory ✨

*these posts are also being shared on my social media (Instagram and Facebook) as I have shared there over the past years.