Meme it forward

A very old and dear friend of mine sent me a note today telling me that his mum is at the end of a painful and difficult battle with cancer (is there any other kind?), that she is rarely fully conscious now, and when she is, she is in terrible pain. I offered my sympathy and prayers and then I offered to dedicate my practice to his family. Then I wondered if he would feel the love coming from across the Atlantic Ocean.

When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer, I found a message board on iVillage called Breast Cancer Support - a group of women bonding over their battles with breast cancer, which group was able to tolerate me for about a week or two before my personality banged up against the reigning sensibilities of the board. But in that week or two, someone in the group asked the others to jointly pray for me, in unison, on one designated day at one designated moment.

When that day and time came, I had already forgotten all about it, at least on a conscious level. Yet, there was a moment in which I experienced the most powerful and unique rush of positive feeling I could remember feeling in ages, if I had ever felt it before. It was as if the sun and the sky had enveloped me in a huge, universe-sized hug, and I basked in the warmth and glowed from the inside out. I felt happy and safe and free of fear.

It was only a few days later that I remembered that it was on that day that the group had agreed to pray for me.

I'm not big on spiritual hokus pokus, and my yoga is intentional asana practice with the delightful and wholly unintentional side effect of bringing me closer to something bigger than myself, sometimes. But this was a moment that I can't explain in any way other than the unexplainable power of prayer.

And so, I wonder - would any of you kids like to try this at home? What if we were to "meme it forward" - using our yoga, coupled with our propensity to meme, for the greater good by taking turns devoting our practices to one another? Let's see, how would this work? I could start out by nominating someone to receive the group's first "yoga devotion". I could put it in a new post, and also email the person, and those who want to join in can post a comment to that effect, or just join in without commenting. Then on the designated day, which would be the next day, all of us who were participating would dedicate the fruits of our practice to this person.

Then this person would nominate someone else, and the meme would continue.

I would love to hear whether others feel the effects of all of that love being directed towards them, so I hope at least one person joins me in seconding this motion to "meme it forward"....

If that happens, I will begin the process as stated...

Yours in a rare moment of spiritual hokus pokus,

YC