To be fair, her title is more encompassing, akin to Administrative Support and in general she is far more significant than even this, likely bordering on daily guru.  However, I doubt Evelyn has ever thought of doing a headstand or even pulling out a Warrior I pose.  I’m sure as a mother, her fierce Virabhadrasana (warrior pose) bests mine in a different form.

I laugh at the absurdity that going to yoga class, or doing my own practice, is providing me the essential life skill of equanimity.  At least it’s not surfacing consistently enough.  Here I am at work (week one fyi, new position) and am about to wage a battle on not even an enemy, but someone who hired me.  I have determined the situation is against me.  Yogis’ egos are an incredible thing to witness.  It’s my truth!  Satya is at risk!  I must stand for something!  According to Baron Baptiste, the renowned legend of the Baptiste yoga style, he mentions his practice fundamentally shifted when he cultivated space to respond to triggers, rather than react.  His response delay time …..24 hours.  Great, I though two hours was sufficient.  I will add 22 more hours and see how it goes, (cue the “Scream” by Edvard Munch).

In reaching out to Evelyn, she counseled me in one word – patience.  Her sweet tone and words were essentially, “there is no need to make a rash decision with incomplete information and there’s no need to create conflict.”  Might I recap (week one, with my supervisor).  Ok, so she talked me off the ledge and all the bottled Kali rage in me was bursting to have a target and now needed to be put on simmer and thrown into a bucket of ice to cool off — and reassess.  I did just that and recognized my reaction, yes, full out bodily reaction, was a trauma trigger for being undermined by superiors before.  I equated this scenario with immediate past pain and felt I was walking into a well laid trap, hire me and have me do the clean-up of a messy situation.

Beyond me, this Secretary is the gatekeeper of harmony.  She is the ultimate yogi in dealing with all things thrown her way.  Her calm and embodied feminine demeanor is utilized to provide wisdom and manage an office of “straight shooters” (cue: this can be ridiculously inept and shortsighted) and at times, hot heads.

And she is exactly why — I go and do yoga.  Some people have honed these skills and harnessed patience in ways a member of Western society and “need to know now-now!” urgency is at direct odds (war really) with the depth of patience and cultivated response.  I see it here in the shopkeepers’ smiles, the slower walking pace, in the depth of greetings, in the lack of fiery urgency to solve-do-resolve-fix now.  Often, the wisdom of traditional societies is that of “yogic wisdom”, whether of Indian origin or not.

I’d like to think in all my travels and working in other countries, my ways of doing things is being expanded and informed, relying on a more holistic way of relating.  May we move closer to our core being, our ancestral roots, our true nature of greater patience and acceptance — seeing with clearer eyes and less attachment (aparigraha).  Every day is yoga — on the mat, or off.  And on that day, Evelyn was my teacher.