ancient words

The start of my yoga training is rapidly approaching and my required reading textbooks have begun to arrive.  I am feeling equally exhilarated and somewhat terrified.  I eagerly open the covers and start reading little gems of knowledge-or see a picture of a renowned yogi displaying a difficult yoga pose absolutely perfectly.  My brain is firing on all cylinders taking in all of the new info… and also things I have learned years ago that are being presented in a different light.  Some of the words written in these amazing books are thousands of years old.  It is so illuminating to read the journeys of people who experienced the same emotions and enlightenment as I have on their own yogic path.  When I take classes, I know that I am at a very advanced level.  I have been practicing for many years, I have invested time and emotion into exploring the deeper meaning behind the physical movements.  But in the grand picture of all the yogis in history-I am really a teenager.  Maybe a devoted college student.  I love that we can connect to the journeys of those who came before us and realize we really haven’t changed that much over thousands of years.  We may have computers and cell phones, hybrid cars and airplanes, fast food and even simple electricity, but our search for happiness, our doubts and faults, our questions and answers are remarkably the same.  To me, it just reinforces the truth that whatever path you choose to find your own  happiness, looking to our elders and respecting the past will always connect you to our shared humanity.