Consciously Communicating Capers

Immediately after Summer Solstice I headed down the mountain to take up my role at the Course Coordinator for a 1-week Level 2 Teacher Training course. There were 77 yoga teachers, 5 trainers, 3 staff people and a partridge in a pear tree gathering together to study Conscious Communication.

This was my first year in this particular role…so to be nice to myself I’ll just say I learned a lot of lessons. My job was logistics….food, registration, paperwork, coordinating various elements of the course, making announcements etc. The course ran great (in no small part due to the wonderful trainers, the wise and gracious students and a welcoming sangat). While the perfectionist within me always knows that things could be better I feel grateful that the course overall ran well.

Oh right, except for one little, tiny thing…the largest wildfire in New Mexico history burning within several miles of our location. At the same time as the course I was running there were two other camps (International Women’s Camp and Khalsa Youth Camp), which were happening at Ram Das Puri (the Solstice Site). However, on the first night of the course I got a call at 11 PM that they were evacuating the site and the women and children would be sleeping in our classroom for the night. Yikes! (I should mention at this point they were evacuating due to the oppressive smoke).

We spent the next 2 days in flurry of trying to re-organize all of our activities (and kitchen use!) so that we could accommodate more than 100 women and children in the spaces available at the Ashram. By the grace of God (and the welcoming heart of the Espanola Sangat) it all worked out with only minimal bumps (not enough breakfast one morning!). We were never in immediate danger of the fire itself…but we certainly did smell (and feel the effects) of the smoke.

The scariest moment was when we heard the fire was within miles of Ram Das Puri (the solstice site). This was scary for me not because I ever feared for my personal safety…but because the land where we hold Summer Solstice every year is incredibly healing, powerful, sacred, special land. The thought of one of my favorite places in the world burning was deeply sad for me. However, the community sprung into action. We started doing the healing meditation every day before lunch (with all 3 camps!) and people all over the world….and (again by God’s grace) the fire never got any closer than a few miles from the Solstice Site. Wahe Guru! (Wow! The Infinite Universe is Amazing Beyond Words!)

Solstice and the Level 2 course had really taken a lot out of me. I had been working 8-12 hour days every day for about a month…and I was fried. Stay tuned for more on my rejuvenation at Pagosa Springs and the other shenanigans I’ve been getting into in New Mexico!