"We could be the healin' When you're feeling all alone We could be the reason To find the strength to carry on In a world that's so divided We shall overcome We could be the healing We can be the flower in the gun" ....

So starts the lyrics from Michael Franti & Spearheads song "The Flower" released this past January.

These words have been on a loop in my head and in my ❤️ since the first time I heard it. The lyrics conjure up images of people supporting each other in challenging times, standing up and overcoming in the face of adversity. In an interview with Apple Music Michael Franti said:

“That was a song that I wrote with Victoria Canal, who I came across on Instagram. I was just flipping through random musicians and I saw a video of her, and she was born without most of her right arm, and she’s playing the guitar and singing. Then, I heard her voice and it had deep, soulful resonance, like Norah Jones or Alicia Keys. I invited her to Nashville for recording. I told her about my life—I was bullied a lot as a kid growing up in a mostly white school. She said, ‘I really identify with that because I was always the only one-armed kid in my school, and I’d get bullied too.’ So we started writing the song about bullying. As we were talking, the extension of that is physical violence, and the extension of that becomes gun violence.”

Part of my job and one of the greatest gifts of working at Kripalu Center is that I have the privilege of listening to peoples stories. What I am hearing lately is peoples desires not just to survive but to thrive, not just settling for status quo but making a difference, as Gandhi said "Be the change you want to see in the world".

Yoga is not just something we do on a mat for an hour a day. It is meant to be the way we live our life.

How do we take all the things we practice on the mat and embody them in the world?

What what qualities and values influence your actions on the mat? Patience, curiosity, self-compassion, _________________________

How do you live your yoga?

** Click on the album cover above to watch the official music video for this song.

#inspiration #community #music #Compassion