super nancy and ilan

these portraits were taken on a warm july morning, with the assistance of the great dc photographer stacey veath. stacey, who is also a yoga instructor, generously offered to spend her morning showing me some of her favorite couples portrait methods. photography, just like yoga, is an endless education process. as soon as i learn something, it shows me how much more i have to learn. it takes a lot show up and trust that i'll find the right scenery, right light, capture the right moments. it can be a very humbling process. yet no matter how much i am learning, what i have going on in the moment always seems to be enough.

i leave tomorrow morning for costa rica. oh my it's already here! just like everything, there have been ups and downs in the process of bringing this trip together but now that it's here i couldn't be happier with how our group has come together. i still don't quite believe that i'll be doing yoga overlooking the ocean in a couple of days in the country that taught me to love traveling.

my intention for the week is embrace wholeness. this means loving any parts of myself that are less than patient and grounded (they always come up when i am traveling) just as much as i love the strong goddess qualities that have brought me to where i am in life. because i know when i hold a space for my own wholeness, i hold a space for the wholeness of those around me and love them even when they are messy, which is what we really all need.

honestly there isn't a day that goes by where i don't question whether the pursuit of yoga is selfish and ignorant of the harsh realities of life. i look at people starving in somalia and feel silly instructing the proper shoulder position in downward facing dog.

but what i am realizing again and again is that it's not about the postures, but rather it's about the process of showing up for myself and when i do that i know deep in my core that i am calm, peaceful, open as the ocean is deep. the stress and the fear and the jealousy can cover that up but when i really look, i know who i am. from what i've seen in my life, i don't think change happens until we can really know ourselves and stop the internal struggle, which slows the external one. but it's not as easy as that. we must realize this and then continually engage in the practice of reconnecting to it often as we can for the rest of our lives. this to me is the best definition of peace that i can think of right now.

so i travel down south the only way i can imagine--which is wholeheartedly, imperfectly and the best i can. i am so truly honored to be fostering a yogic experience for the six lovely people on this retreat yet i know that i will learn my own lessons along the way. it goes in and out that way--the teaching, the learning, the remembering, the forgetting, the inhale, the exhale all for our finger tips brushing against the whole, splendid truth of right here, right now, exactly as it's supposed to be.