Thanks to Yogi Sara Young for her beautiful words--
Please check out her lovely blog at www.everydaysatya.blogspot.com
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From Sarah's Blog

Yesterday, at 11:00 at Vilas Zoo, between the bison and the black bear was a group of chicks doing yoga.


Now, "a group of chicks doing yoga" is of course not how I would have described the scene, but rather, how a perplexed adolescent boy explained the strange occurrence in front of him to a friend on the phone.


Yoga in the Zoo was just one instance of what my friend and fellow yogi Alicia calls "Yoga in Public Places" - getting people together in places around town to come together to do yoga.


Some describe this scene not as Yoga in Public Places but rather as Exhibitionist Yoga. I suppose that has a nice ring, too.


So what is the appeal of doing yoga in public places, anyway? Based on yesterday's experience, I'd argue that there are many.


One of the things I like most about doing yoga is the sense of community. To me yoga is a way to come together to share positive energy in a single space, and to channel this energy in ways that often result in positive change. Doing yoga in a public place seems to heighten this sense of community even further. For here, we aren't our own community within the walls of a local yoga studio, but rather we are one with the zoo-going families and children that surround us. Now to those families and children, "community" was probably the last word they would have used to describe us (crazy? extreme?) but to me, it was a means of connecting with others in this single shared space.


I also love that with yoga, you can always "take it with you." To do yoga, there's no need for a large field, any kind of hoops or nets, a team, a room, or walls. The only thing we really need to do is open our hearts and minds and come back to the breath. Doing yoga in the zoo is a beautiful example of this point. If we can do yoga next to a bison, clearly we can do yoga anywhere. We can create our own sacred space wherever we happen to be.


Finally, the word yoga is often translated as "union." To me, the idea of union with the earth resonates strongly as one element of this translation. Doing yoga in an open outdoor space, amidst the grass and the trees and the animals, is quite beautiful. Granted, I'm not a big fan of zoos and don't typically visit them due to the fact that I prefer animals live in natural open spaces. However, I must say that after listening to the families talk about each of the animals and watching the kids observe in awe, I now appreciate the awareness that zoos provide. By visiting the zoo, our children are able to see the beauty and life that animals provide, and perhaps, tread more lightly on this earth that we all share.


Next round of Yoga in Public Places will be Sunday, June 6 somewhere along the Bike the Drive course. Who's in?