Connection

I love to meet new people. One of the things I value the most about my time in the ashram is the possibility to connect with people from around the world. Getting to know different people from different parts of the world, speaking different languages… It gives me energy. And hope. There are so many things that can be different. But there are also so many things that can be similar. And somehow people connect, are able to work, study, laugh, meditate and live together, despite the differences.

So when one of my first tasks in my Karma yoga Program was to receive the students and make them feel welcome, I could not be happier. This year I got to know people from Brazil, Russia, Malaysia, Thailand, US, Canada, UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy, … and they live all over the world, from Egypt to Nicaragua and back.

Connection can be a funny thing. What brought us together in the ashram is the interest and curiosity in traditional yoga and background. That is what we had in common to start with. But it is not that what made us connect with each other when we were meeting each other for the first time. We didn’t talk about yoga until the second day or so. No, people would start asking about people’s mother country, the country where they live now, which language they speak and so forth. Very quickly the connections had been laid by showing this interest for someone else’s background. And often there were anecdotes shared about visiting someone else’s country or hometown. This genuine interest for each other, and recognition, created an open and warm atmosphere.

Sometimes, somehow, the people we’ve just met, became quite familiar in a very short period of time. Somehow it makes the world looks small and familiar as well.
I am very grateful for all those connections. They broaden my perspective on things, enriche the things I've learned doing my karma work. I learned things about life just by listening to other people's stories. And those stories are always better than the films or books you can watch or read!