Abhyasa of Kula

so this is my friend Jen Harbour doing a handstand way back at Noah Maze's workshop, being assisted by the amazing Thine Bloxham and Marianne Roth. before i get to my little contemplation about working in tight knit kula at Garden Street Yoga, I would like to admit that I have a TON of pictures that I have taken over the years, and I have made a commitment to myself and ultimately to my Garden Street Kula to put these photos together on a thumb drive and give them to Eli, my teachers son, to put on her website. I will also post some here and on my facebook. I am amazing at taking great pictures of people I love. I am terrible at then following through with getting them available to be seen and loved.

having said that.....I wanted to post this photo because it makes my heart sing!! These three amazing women started taking classes at Garden Street Yoga at different times in the past 8 years that Garden Street Yoga has been offering Anusara Yoga to our little Coeur d'Alene, ID community. Thine and Jenifer now teach at Garden Street and at North Idaho College, as do I, but the cool thing is that we support this great studentship with each other. I love going to workshops with them. They are so encouraging to everyone and to each other. Although I have been a student at Garden Street since it opened in 2001, these two wonderful women are examples of how this kula grows over the years and how you just never know when the next great yoga buddy is going to start coming to the studio and dive in head first into the teachings and eventually start coming to workshops and then maybe an immersion and then...wow....maybe even teach! Karen Sprute-Francovich, our teacher, is such a good Gardener of students. This kula grows an amazing Garden!! And everytime a new student really takes root here, the Garden grows more beautiful!

Christina Sell once mentioned in her blog this interesting thought along this line:

"the real juice of the method happens in those classes where there is a committed group of students who come and practice and learn regularly over a long period of time. I am looking for students who are not just committed to their personal practices, not just committed to me as their teacher or to the method but committed to each other, to the class itself (meaning, they come even when a sub is there!) and to a long- term vision of learning and practicing the method."

I love how she mentioned the part about "they come even when a sub is there!". So Kula is much more than devotion to one teacher. It's devotion to each other by a commited and supported practice together over time. That is the Abhyasa of Kula. Steady practice, over time, with devotion......in KULA!!!

These two amazing women are just two of the amazing support I have received over these 8 years from this Kula. Man do I have stories!! I cherish all of them, without the support of other students in this Kula, I would not be where I am today as a teacher or a student or a practitioner of yoga. We truly need each other as much as the kula needs our commitment and love and attention. I have an amazing teacher in Karen, and I'm a devoted student to her because devotion has always run deep in my heart. However, when I got to a class and see the same people I have been practicing with over the years in this great studio, my heart sings. In two days we will be doing our 8th Annual Thanksgiving Day practice at Garden Street. I will see very familiar faces and new faces and I will probably cry tears of Gratitude on my mat like I do every year on this day because the love in that room overwhelms me. I am so thankful to this Kula!!