The other day I was thinking about amazing Gloria who taught yoga when I was in college in New Haven. That was the mid-seventies so yoga was not exactly common on campuses; we were the Absolute Total Weirdo course. And there was Gloria, at least 60, teaching asana, with perfect posture and a radiant composure and peace different than anyone I’d ever met.
At the time, I was busy being a full-time lunatic who was so not ready for her. I took a semester but just couldn’t calm down to do what she said. She always spoke about eating cleanly, drinking enough water, breathing, and practicing the poses that "twisted out the body like a dirty towel.” She’d often say we couldn’t just take showers, we had to be wrung from the inside out.
One day she smiled and said, “Just imagine if you lived a life never wringing out your inner organs or that towel. All that junk would just stay inside!” I remember literally shuddering, then going straight back to my usual life of tequila, nachos, and caffeine.
Well, twenty years went by. Suddenly I was forty and not feeling so hot, though I‘d been exercising one way or another forever. I kept remembering Gloria.
An inner alarm clock went off. It was Time. I found a vinyasa yoga class and never looked back. It never really took any discipline; I was Just Ready. My whole soul and body were on fire for this. I’ve had a yoga practice almost every day since. Gloria's words had finally hatched.
So you never know when a seed is getting planted inside. You may not be ready to act on it yet, but never underestimate what will happen when you ARE. Often I get letters from folks who say they got my books as gifts... and threw them straight in the closet. Zero interest. Suddenly, months or years later, the book is yanked out and devoured in one wild, impassioned night.
The soul is READY.
You simply never know when that inner seed will pop open… and magnificently bloom.