Breathing fast and slow

Photo by Mark Champlin     At the end of every led class, our teacher walks the room while we lie in savasana, and she blesses us, trailing the thin smoke from a stick of incense as she makes her way around the room. This is a sacred benediction, one of many rituals this teacher has shared with her students since she accepted her authorization to teach ashtanga yoga from Sri K. Pattabhi Jois more than 20 years ago. This particular ritual is a personal favorite and a great comfort. It comes to me from across many years, from an older ritual of celebrating the High Holy Days at mass in the Roman Catholic tradition of my youth. While I have since adopted other rites and ceremonies that make up my devotional practice, I am every so often visited by a strong memory from this religion that laid claim to me through the sacrament of baptism shortly after my birth. Catholicism, after all, was the principal container of my faith until my mid-twenties when I ultimately set aside the weekly