Yoga & Prairie Dogs

I recently heard on the radio that praire dogs stop two times a day, stand still with their hands in prayer position and face the sun. I wonder how it is that prairie dogs can remember to do that when sometimes I forget to stop and go to the bathroom.

I heard this praire dog story when Terry Tempest Williams, author of "Finding Beauty In a Broken World" was interviewned on National Public Radio. This praire dog story was part of the lead into an interview about the idea that we all need to find our place.

This title really hit home for me since I have been on the road alot and spending alot of quality time in hotels. We all need a place, right? Where is our place when we aren't at home, or when we don't feel like we fit in at work, at church, in our marriage or our circle of friends.


In this messy, sometimes seemingly broken world, it is easy to feel as though we don't know where we fit. This could mean we don't know if we fit in our jeans, but more than likely it is the feeling of not being sure where we fit among the people and places in our lives. Maybe this feeling arises as we leave a relationship, or when we are ready for retirement or recognizing it's time to move into a new job or new city. If we don't know where we fit, we can end up feeling like we don't have any solid ground under our feet.

When I don't feel like I know where I fit, the best thing I can do is hop, stumble, crawl, run or roll out of bed and onto my mat. It gives me the opportunity to sense the ground under my feet, the breath move through my belly and the recognition that where we all fit is~ everywhere. It can be the reminder that there really is no separation from wisdom, no separation from grace and there is no true separation from any other beings...whether that is the person with the bad attitude sitting across from you, or the prairie dog.

Here's to stopping twice a day, putting our hands in front of our hearts, setting the intention to remember we always have a place of beauty to visit & it's on the inside