Two Dog Tales

Coming Home

by Annie Stocker

It’s good to be home with my family, my dogs, in my garden, in my neighborhood and in the Two Dog community. I am grateful to have a place I call home.

Sri Lanka is a long way from Lake City. A 14 hour flight plus a 5 hour flight to be exact.

Many hours in the sky slipping over the surface of this magnificent planet. Flying over places like Nanuvut, Mazandaran, Wood Buffalo National Park and The North Pole. I know the names because my iPhone identified the places I took pictures of, out the airplane window!

I chose to co-lead a group of yoga practitioners to Sri Lanka, an Island off the southern tip of India that is 5-10 degrees north of the equator because I have a special connection there from childhood AND it was the first place I practiced yoga at the age of seventeen.

I am very grateful to have visited Sri Lanka again. The warmth of the people, the air, the food, the colors are healing for me. They wake me up to a wider spectrum of life on earth. They give me perspective. I see the bigger picture of a life so different than my own and see how my agitations are small, malleable.

The bigger perspective shifts me out of the focus on spinning cycles that center around me, my suffering and my ego. And it draws my eyes and heart to the beautiful expression of humanity as a whole and my part in it.

Each morning in Sri Lanka we practiced at Sunrise. A common rhythm for people around the world is to greet the sun with an intentional breath, chant or movement. In so doing we celebrate our body-home on earth and recognize and cherish the opportunity we have for another day. Each morning no matter how we are in our body or where we are on earth we can choose to come home and feel the blessing of being alive.

My dear friend Nancianna Dill, former dance teacher to many here in Seattle, is confined to a wheelchair. Her capacity to move, at 54 years old, is limited to small movements in her head and neck, after living with MS for 20 years. Each morning she says: What will I wear?, what foods will I taste?, who is coming to visit me?… as her personnal practice to tap into her pathway to heartfelt gratitude for life. She inspires me in my practice every day.

Home is where the heart is. ♥ -Annie (2/2016)

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