Looking Through My Rear View Mirror

I have always been fascinated with the image of moving into the future looking at the present through a rear view mirror. I know that came from  Marshall McLuhan's pen and I can still remember the day in 1969 when I read that line and the class at St.F.X. that I was in when I was introduced to it.


Since then I have spent a great deal of my life moving into the future looking at the present that way. Perhaps that is what draws me to teach yoga and a quest to remain in the present; the here ; the now.

Tonight, when I was driving home from a class in Hazel Hill, I was once again reminded of why I chose this journey and the rich rewards this drive blesses me with. Words or pictures could not begin to express the gob-stopped, jaw dropping beauty of this piece of highway during the full moon in the fall;the amber of autumn; and the sunsets on the bay at anytime of year.

                                                                 
I enjoy and learn so much from the students I teach in every community I have been in. In Canso area, one has to be inspired by a little town founded in 1603 on a fishery which has since disappeared. These people still struggle to re-invent themselves; they keep their identity which has been passed along  since the days when the 'make-and-break' engines could be heard entering and leaving the harbour.
They patiently s-t-r-e-t-c-h into an uncertain future.

The road home takes me through the little communities along the shores of Chedabucto Bay, where you can tell so much just from the way the buildings and homes are lovingly cared for.

Aahh ...and then there is the Queensport Light: more than just the stuff of song and story. It stands alone off these shores as a symbol of the people here who stand firm and solitary against the raging sea.  


Today, the National News announced that this and almost all the lighthouses in the province are considered 'redundant'. Like the communities they serve, who scramble to understand what is going on in a world that is moving too fast to even keep the present visible in the rear view mirror.


Tonight, I spent time leading a class of women who are in a class of their own;  health care workers, fisher women, mothers, teachers, yes, and a figure skater with a dream. These are some of the glue that holds this community together and ensure that it will move into the future.


When I find myself spending  too much time navel-gazing, my students can always bring me 'back to the future', and the universe hits me with a light show that is so spectacular that no words can touch it.


This is the rainbow, "the symbol of hope ", that lit the way home tonight.

Love and light
Chris