It all began in 1982 when Lucy and I met as first-year physical education students at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. All of the first year students were divided into four groups in alphabetical order, so as it would happen, me (Robertson) and Lucy (Strasser) ended up in the activity of gymnastics. Lucy and I covered the full gymnastics spectrum-I had been a competitive gymnast and, upon retiring, wanted nothing to do with the sport, and Lucy coming from a background in scuba diving and bush-walking, having never set foot onto a balance beam, much less hung from uneven parallel bars. So in some ways, we both would've preferred a different first-year activity but were required to be there.
It was also during this first semester that my father was diagnosed with cancer. He had been working in Washington DC at the time and returned to California to undergo treatment. It was an aggressive cancer and within a few months, he deteriorated rapidly. Lucy was that person who took me under her wing, literally guiding me to get my airline ticket, renew my student visa, and drive me to the airport so I could see Dad before he passed. And she was the person who upon my return at the beginning of our second semester that picked me up at the airport and a couple of months later, suggested I see a school counselor as I wasn't coping with the tremendous grief I was experiencing.
We like to joke that she's been my bridesmaid...twice. So it's simply astonishing to me that some 37 years later, our lives have not only stayed interwoven but that she was leading one of our Advanced Studies Workshops on Conscious Communication for Yoga Teachers and Yoga Therapists, in a studio that I own and operate. The morning after she arrived as I awoke I thought to myself, "Everybody needs a Lucy", hence my theme for the week.
One of the great things about having a lifelong bestie is that it may be several weeks or months between conversations, yet the moment you see each other, it's as though no time has passed. The ease of re-connection happens because we don't have to cut through the superficial layers that are present as when you first meet someone. It got me to thinking about the word, "Namaste", often translated as "the light in me, sees and honors the light in you. And when we are both there, we are one." To me, this "Namaste" moment is present when two lifelong friends come together. They truly see each other's light, as well as their darkness, and in doing so recognize that they're inextricably linked.
In honoring our friends, we've been undertaking a short practice on loving kindness in classes throughout the week. This practice has the classic repetition of phrases such as: May I be safe, may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I live with ease, may I be peaceful or any phrase that encapsulates a sense of kindness. It begins with the "I" statements, with the intention of truly getting behind the phrase with sincerity. After repeating just one selected phrase several times, we next imagined our friend sitting directly opposite, trying to sense their energy, visualizing their face and whole being. The phrase that we chose was then altered with "May you be...". To end the practice what we wish for ourselves, for those dear to us, we also wish for all beings everywhere.
Let this week be about the celebration of those who support us in being the best version of ourselves and us, doing the same in return to them. May we create many more namaste moments and may all beings everywhere live with loving kindness in their own hearts. And may all of them have a "Lucy" in their lives.
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