CONNECT: Can You Feel The Power of Love? (Winter 2022)

Yoga by is a Prayer by Editor-in-Chief Kellyn McGee

The truth is there are days I resist getting on my mat. This inanimate, flat, slip of a thing holds such power that…I know. I know that when I step onto the mat and take a deep breath in, all will come out. Everything that I’ve held within, just waiting for a slow, long exhale. But I also know that stepping on the mat on those days is what the mat is for. The mat’s presence is why I ever go to it. And what that shows me is that presence is love. Sometimes love can feel ethereal or intangible. But its presence has heft. My presence on the mat, and the enduring presence of the mat itself, is self-love. Selfless and selfish love for me.

Presence is what I try to offer to others. I try to give my whole attention, particularly when I’m with people I love. I try to show up and support them in their endeavors. And I receive it as an expression of love when they show up for me. I have a cousin I became close with when we each happened to live in D.C. more than 20 years ago. Now that we live on opposite coasts, we remain in close contact, mainly because she shows up – is present – at the weekly virtual yoga class I’ve taught since April 2020. She signs on about 15 minutes before class so we can talk and we continue to talk after class. Our closeness could’ve dissipated when she moved to California but we’ve been able to remain present in each other’s lives (thank you, pandemic).

Frankly, there are days when I don’t want to teach and a few times I’ve cancelled class because I didn’t have the mental energy to hold space for others. But every time I’ve taught a class I was glad I was present to (hopefully) guide people to whatever they needed from the mat. Teaching – my presence — is my offer of love to all who showed up for themselves. Even if they spent the whole class in child’s pose or just seated on the mat, I was there to remind them that they could love themselves that way.

My dog JayCee loves yoga, or, at least, he loves the props of the practice. He never avoids the mat. Every time I roll it out, he runs on it as if I’m preparing the space for him. When I lay a blanket over the mat for my restorative practices, he lies down until I force him off. During the final pose of practice – savasana – he’s usually lying somewhere near on a blanket or he’ll place a toy on my body or the mat, reminding me he’s there. Recently, a few days before I was travelling to see my father who has been ill, I was taking a yoga class and during savasana JayCee climbed on top of me and laid on my chest, his face facing mine. Our eyes locked for a moment and then I reclosed my eyes, placed my hands on him, and we finished the practice in rest. Present with each other, in love.