What are you truly available for? This question gets harder and harder to answer as we age. Sure, we like to imagine ourselves as open to learning and change and the needs of others. But are we truly available for the continual growth such postures require? Harder to answer.

As is often the case, I gain insights from observing MBS adaptive yoga students. Talk about available! I can tell you with certainty that they do not attend our classes expecting something miraculous, nor simply to partake in a form of exercise. They are available for a fundamental reorientation of how minds and bodies can integrate. They come ready to explore experiences that barely make sense when put to words, that run counter to messages inculcated into the culture that surrounds them. And yet, they come with smiles, patience, and forgiveness for our bumbling ways. Most of all, they come available to pick each other up, to support each other, and not expect easy answers.

Have you noticed that a lot needs changing in the world around us? That most of those issues are at a standstill because they have devolved into debates between competing interests. None of the sides are available for the growth necessary to transform the entire landscape of a debate itself.

As I look out my window at the trees that surround my house, it is incredibly hard to take in that my life and all human life is utterly dependent on the ability of plants and trees to breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. How do I truly open to that? How do I not simply feel bad about what we have done to the living that surrounds us, point fingers, and demand action? Instead, how do I learn to share this human dependence with others in the supported safety of collective community?

Such a momentous task can feel hopeless. Then I remember what our adaptive students create in their class environments. I remember how they are open and available to support each other as they travel into the uncertainty of unknown growth. We are better when we grow together...the process of togetherness creates better futures. We must grow our conception of body to include more than just our own bodies. We will need each other to do so.