And then there is the art of letting go. Being moved to surrender is an act of grace.

Tamar Adler
An Everlasting Meal

If you had told me eleven years ago, when I first stepped onto my mat that I would someday find myself in the seat of the teacher, or preparing for a third trip to India, I would have said you were crazy. For me, asana began as an escape. A physical escape from waking at 5:30 in the morning only to climb aboard a treadmill; an emotional escape from watching the relentless, electronic images of the twin towers falling again, and again. However, as my practice began to unfold, I began to receive something more: permission first to turn inside, and then to trust in being and becoming myself.

And so today I begin a journey to a place as utterly familiar to me, as it is unknown. Traveling with six other women, I am en route to New Delhi, Mumbai, and to rural communities surrounding Kohlapur. I will be guided through the back streets of Delhi and into the brick kilns where children are still forced into bonded labor. Wherever it takes me, I am dropping back, I am letting go.

India is calling...