“A connection through yoga.”

One of my close yoga friends left our town because her husband was transferred overseas. We learned Iyengar yoga which respects the alignment, precision and sequence together.　We had her last lesson, although I drowned in sadness. We made sure we would make the most out of her last day of her yoga class in Japan.

I　can still remember clearly the day when she came to our yoga class. I wrote in my diary back then, "A beautiful foreign lady came to our yoga class today!! I hope she could join us." Gladly, she joined our class, however, she couldn’t understand our teacher’s instruction well at the beginning, so I sometimes explained to her in English what to do next.

As we became friends soon, I found out that she is not only beautiful but also very kind and diligent, furthermore she has passion for Iyengar yoga as much as I have. During our classes she always puts her yoga mat right next to me so I can be her partner. I clearly remember whenever we encouraged each other towards self improvement.

 When she's about to leave Japan, I made an effort to personally handcrafted a card that I gave her.　On a card I painted pansys and included a short poem which says ” The flowers never forget warm sunshine even if cold wind blows”. As pansy keeps blooming lovely from the late autumn to the late spring while enduring cold wind and snow, I thought this flower fits her. I believe that she would continue practicing Iyengar yoga even in the foreign country like how this flower stands different situations in life.

I've experienced the parting from close yoga friends sometimes. Since parting is always sad, I used to suffer from the pain caused by separation. However, I came to understand the connection through yoga gradually. I believe that we could practice yoga together someday as long as we continue it.

Now I feel bonded with her through yoga. We are separated for a while, but we are always  connected as long as we practice yoga. I look forward to practicing yoga with her again and I hope her new life is happy.

Yoga gave me nice encounters and connections. Now I can feel my yoga friends close even though we are far apart because I believe yoga can be a bridge for our connection.