All Roads Lead to Home

I once heard this saying that “all roads lead to home.” I have always loved the idea of this. And as I was traveling on a road trip this last week with my Dad it got me thinking how even when we are traveling down a road that wasn’t quite what we intended…we are still on OUR journey home. Every exit that was taken, every “wrong” turn, every detour, every storm we pass through, still leads us towards the person we are meant to be if we are willing and open to weaving every turn into the fabric of our lives.

This saying has helped open me up to the unfolding of my life and given me some peace, because this path that has unfolded before me feels so foreign than the dreams I once had. Nothing is wrong with the life before me but there is a sadness and a grief weaved into the fabric of this section of my life. But at the very same time I can see how everything is leading me home.

Leading me to a depth within myself that I have never known.

Leading me to embrace more uncertainty and stand on a foundation of trust when I feel that I have nothing left to stand on.

And you may be thinking, what does this have to do with yoga? Well, to me, it has everything to do with yoga. Yoga is the journey to the self, of the self, by the self. Yoga leads us to the depths of who we are with greater awareness. And there is no one way to get there. There are many branches of yoga - each one is meant to lead us to the depths of who we are, just in a different way. There are many ways to come into the same pose or even many variations to do a certain pose.

The most challenging part of yoga is when we are off the mat. When we are traveling along and suddenly get stuck in a traffic jam unexpectedly or there’s a detour up ahead that we didn’t plan for. This is when yoga can be brought into the moment and we can breathe, we can create space around our thoughts and trust that everything is falling into place in its own timing. The path ahead is shaped by the present, so how we meet this moment will lead and transform the next moment and the next. 

So, if life has, which I am sure it has, led you down a very different road than you once envisioned, I invite you to bring your awareness into this moment, to notice the breath and breathe into more trust, more faith - that every moment of your journey has supported you in becoming the person who is reading this, right here, right now. To me, this is yoga, allowing life to unfold as it will without being stuck to one way or outcome. Yoga is being present to this moment, over and over again, as we travel our very unique and windy path home.

May you find peace and love within your journey of life.

And as always, Shar(e)on Lightly.