Relaxed, learned and celebrated with yoga in the natural world

BY KATHARINE FLETCHER

Om. Shanti, the traditional call to peace and mindfulness, echoed through a woodland oasis near Ladysmith in Quebec’s Outaouais.

Bermalva Porter is the visionary behind Bhakti in the Woods, who celebrated its fifth year this past summer. During the festival she welcomed visitors to come in peace, and experience chanting, yoga, music, and meditation.

She explains, “‘Bhakti” is Sanskrit meaning ‘devotion,’ usually towards the divine. It’s a certain way of practising yoga, a universal spiritual practice. Bhakti requires the belief that all creation is divine, and thus can be used towards one’s devotion to family, music, spiritual path, profession, garden, pets, and so on.”

I asked Porter what most benefited participants. “Cultivating belonging and reverence for all things sacred. Belonging. Today, many feel removed from community: they don’t feel they belong on the Earth. So during our festival, the simple act of being together has its own effect, coupled with the concerts, workshops and events which naturally bring renewed faith in life, and union in community.

“Reverence or acknowledgement of life as being sacred is something that can be expressed and experienced through ceremony, song, dance or simply walking through the forest.”

So, next year come to Bhakti in the Woods, and reconnect.

More information at www.bhaktiinthewoods. com/ • ~ Katharine Fletcher is a writer and visual artist. Check out her guide books and art at katharinefletcher.com

HIKING Burundians hike the Gatineau Hills

BY ROGER BIRD

A group of young professional women get together to hike in Gatineau Park. They hit the trails from Lac Philippe to Lusk Caves, up to the lookout on King Mountain, or take the circuit around Pink Lake.

It all sounds like familiar outings.

What makes these a bit different is these women all came from a part of the world where hiking is close to unheard of. The sparkplug behind these outings is Anick Bizimana, who came from Burundi to Ottawa to attend university, and stayed. Hiking or running for recreation is uncommon in her homeland – there’s enough walking to do just to look after daily life.

But, “I have been a runner (on and off) since I was a teenager, mostly to stay fit and to meditate, like most runners I suppose,” she says. She has been a runner in Ottawa too and has a half marathon under her belt, as well as the annual Run for Cancer this past May.

After volunteer work in Africa, and a stint in Arizona for more university she took her

Ottawa and a position at Global Affairs. But, as she puts it, “work takes over your life.

“I used to be more fit,” she says (uh, she looks fitter, slimmer and stronger than most people), and wanted to get back in shape. Her father (an unusual Burundian), enjoyed twohour walks with friends during her childhood. She ignored her dad’s pastime then, but during her stay in Arizona, she began hiking.

“It’s a way to escape the work, the city, the noise, the concrete,” she says. And with friends who shared her Burundi background, the hiking

year ago.

Not in winter. These Burundians are threeseason hikers. But on a hot afternoon in a Dalhousie Street coffee shop, Bizimana didn’t turn down the idea flatly when snowshoeing came up in conversation. She’s keen to keep expanding her outdoor side.

“Everyone’s world is just this big,” she says, holding finger and thumb close together. “You need to get out there.” ~ Roger Bird is

•

the editor of Ottawa Outdoors and “gets out” with two hiking clubs.