All the single ladies

Note: this post was originally published yesterday, 8/31/10. That was my bad. I didn't mean to steal a day from Ms. Katherine. She wrote a pretty amazing post yesterday (of course, I'm biased) and I worry that my accidental posting covered it up. So, this is being reposted as a Wednesday entry. Please check out the *true* Tuesday post from Katherine!!! It's rocking, promise.

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There are many senior yoga teachers who are female. This may not have been the case back in the '50s, but it is now. Many of these "master" teachers are American, too. When I worked at Kripalu, I came in contact with quite a lot of them (they seem to all make the Kripalu trip sooner or later). And, what I noticed, is that the male faculty that came through often brought their partner (and sometimes children) with them. Sometimes the partner was also a yoga teacher and would assist during the workshops. What I also noticed is that, 9 times out of 10, if the faculty member was a female, she came alone. I think of the senior female members of Kripalu's faculty. There are quite a few and they are almost all single.

A (male) teacher once told me that we can get farther on the "path" if we are childless. The thought being, if you devote your life to someone else, it can be hard to get terribly far in your own spiritual development. I'm young, I don't have kids, but I saw his point.

I wonder if all of these single ladies made a choice. If somewhere along the way they led the examined life and said, "I rather not, thank you." If they chose to live alone and have a more solitary life. Don't get me wrong: they have a huge and beautiful community in yoga. But, that is a different beast all together.

I wonder if all these single ladies did not make a choice. If partners weren't able to keep up or never tried. If yoga, like a career, came before family and creating a family of your own. If potential partners looked at the women and called them selfish or unwilling. That they never found someone with similar goals on a similar path.

Even in the blogging community, I am very aware of the yogini mamas (Hi, Heather and Nikki) and the vast majority who do not have children. There are a lot of partnerships and relationships, but not a lot of kids.

Before I make a large-scale essay out of it, maybe some feedback. Do you see this? Am I projecting? Should I write a list of famous and not-so-famous single yoginis as scientific proof?

Here's a sequence for ya', from my favorite sequencer, Maria Cristina.