Yoda, the yogi

There is a call to presence in yoga. Presence in breath, presence in the body, presence in wherever and whatever you are doing at the moment. I was reminded of this on New Year’s Day, when my family (as is our tradition) watched one of the original Star Wars movies. There is a point where Yoda speaks with lamentation about Luke Skywalker to Obi-Wan Kenobi, saying something to the effect: he’s always thinking of what’s next, never on where he is.

That is definitely my propensity.

More than dwelling on the past — which I also do at times — it is easy for me to get lost in the future: the what-ifs, the let’s-do-this, the I-can-imagines. (There is a reason friends called me Luke when I was younger. Also, I looked disturbingly like Mark Hamill for a good long while).

But yoga, not Yoda, helped me be where I am.

Yoga called me to be present. And that call to presence carried with it a call to transformation. To be present enough in the messed-up-ness that is the world, and in my own messed-up-yet-perfect presence in it, to want to be better. To explore what that even means.

I realize this sounds lofty. It also isn’t very articulate. But it’s where Yoda and yoga meet for me: I don’t try to be present. I am or I am not. It’s what there is.