I grew up on ee cummings, the American poet. Neither of my parents is a fan, as far as I know, but we had collections of poetry along with Shakespeare and all kinds of wonderful literature on the bookshelves when I was a kid. That's where ee and I met and fell in love.

ee cummings messed with punctuation, syntax, grammar, and the use of capital letters.Something in me was enormously attracted to that. It's the same thing that attracted me to yoga.

I don't love being told what to do. I like discovering my own path in my own way. cummings broke all kinds of rules with language and found his own path.

I adore the fact that in yoga I am encouraged to explore so many different streams -- Ashtanga, Anusara, Bhakti, Bikram (and those are just the A's and B's!) -- and create my own practice any way I want.

I adore the feeling of humble i-am-not-separate-from-you-ness that comes from using a lower case i. (It is hell to do this using a computer, which insists on capitalizing me.)

I adore the humbleness that comes from stepping on my mat every morning, the humbleness I feel in Downward Dog, the humbleness I feel when putting hands to heart.

Even more, I adore the humbleness of seeking truth rather than capital-K-Knowing, capital-O-Owning truth. I feel certain yoga is more about seeking and experiencing than about dictatorial ownership of truth, love, freedom, or wholeness.

may my mind stroll about hungry

and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

That's ee. Makes me think he was a yogi and that we're all poets on the mat. Do you feel that way?

Thanks to the i-am-not-separate-from-you-ness of yoga. Thank you for the conversation,

kristin 

Dr. Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on the web, on Facebook, and on Twitter, and on iTunes.