Gabrielle Roth, in her book "Maps to Ecstasy", describes a state of ecstasy that is deathless, beyond death, which she calls 'The Silver Desert'. It's just a name for it, her name for it, but one which opens a door for me on this day. Mother's Day. A day which I have quietly tried to ignore for 14 years...this year, I feel the presence of ALL mothers. A friend and employer who is pregnant, a student coming to my Sunday class who is pregnant, Erykah Badu's Live Album with the picture of herself pregnant with her boy 'Fly'. Erykah Badu is in concert tonight at The Fabulous Fox. I notice this at breakfast at Einstein's. I put my hair up in a turban, put an Indian print dress over my yogawear, and head out to teach my class to the music of Erykah Badu. Something I've wanted to do for a long, long time.
The students joke about me not stripping naked like Erykah did once at the Dallas courthouse, I think? No worries... The pregnant student I watch to learn from as she modifies poses to suit her and her baby's needs. She is fabulous! I love it! I love mothers! All mothers! And I miss mine, but with a joy tinging the longing for her presence.
At home, I make potato salad and do all my Kundalini meditations, including Bound Lotus. The room is luminous, though I am tired. Then I curl up and read Gabrielle Roth's words about death, and deathlessness, and The Silver Desert:
"The first time I glimpsed the Silver Desert, I was nine years old. Eva took me there. She was my first spiritual teacher, though of course I didn't realize it until long after. I was living with my parents near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
I'm playing with some friends in the street. We're throwing ourselves recklessly into a large hedge on the side of the house. Suddenly an elderly woman bolts out of the house and scares away my friends, I stay, as my friends run off, mesmerized by her energy and...
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