What is peace II? Desert Flowers

It has been a wild and wooly week in JDC--wow can someone say new moon? I loved asking the question "What is inner peace?" to the boys this week--their answers were so different from the girls.........as I knew they would be ;).

One boy stated to me that inner peace is "where you are content, where you are not too excited or too sad, just in the middle--kind of like when you're just chillin in front of the tv." Another boy stated--"well if you're in front of the tv, then you are watching tv not feeling inner peace, I think it is the time like right before you fall asleep and your body relaxes from the brain and there is nothing---nothing in your head." And yet another--so sweet boy said, "I've felt inner peace--well not lately but I have--" the boys started laughing and saying no you haven't and then there it was--he stated "yes yes I have--you know the feeling right after you smoked a fatty (joint for the older generation) that is when I feel inner peace." Right there in the yoga room, I felt myself hold my breath--and in one second, my entire body felt like--did I just advocate the use of drugs--how can I get myself out of this--what wisdom, what jewel of yogic knowledge can I bring to this "yes that is the feeling" moment---and with their eyes boring holes in me as if knowing that I was squirming for a great yogi moment in the sun--I blurted out "some people have used that method to attain many things--but the breath, the stillness, your ability to take yourself there without help is the true measure of how you yourself can attain inner peace. You are the one who can make it truly happen, you have the power." And they laughed like I was crazy and called me Yodi--and as we moved through the poses, their teasing of me became the theme of "Let the force be with you." Maybe today they listened, maybe not, but inner peace was brought to their attention---and maybe just maybe some time from now, they will look back on the crazy yoga lady and remember that inside themselves is the gift of inner peace.

I realized in that moment something that I've felt for a long time--these kids are products of the instant gratification society--they do not have time, nor the patience to "attain" anything--they have been able to get information at their fingertips-they dont have time to wait for inner peace, they want it right now and in pill form please. To me that is the beauty of yoga-we slow down, we relish, we nourish we love ourselves enough to be inside ourselves and dwell and find out who we really are --the light that lives inside us cannot be found by anything with instant in the name--it's a slow opening flower that reveals itself when we are ready and not a minute before like the dessert cactus that bloom once per 100 years when the weather and conditions are in perfect alignment. So here is to all of desert flowers waiting to bloom our inner peace--may be find beauty in every footstep of the journey.