We moved to Indian Head a year ago looking for a place to settle down, a community in which we could raise our children - something we could call “home”. We found all of these things in Indian Head, including a space in which I could teach yoga - a home for Surya Yoga. We opened Surya Yoga in September of 2014 without a physical space, instead teaching in the Grand Theatre, Indian Head’s home for Arts and Culture. We then moved to the former home of Sherry’s Boutique for a month before settling into our more permanent home in our backyard studio at 1010 Water Street.
Another reason we moved to this town was to be closer to my mom and dad whose idea it was to move to Indian Head. When we initiated the move, mom was experiencing some difficulty with her memory and since we have moved, she has been diagnosed with Alzheimers Disease, and has experienced significant decline in her memory over this past year. We feel blessed to be next door so that we can spend time with mom and dad, and provide some degree of support as they move on with this very difficult stage of their lives.
Mom just came over to our house about an hour ago wondering if I had the phone number for her home, and could I call Ron (my dad) for her. And it struck me. She was not remembering that her current house is her home. That the man in the house with her was Ron, or that I was their daughter. I tried to explain to her by showing her photographs - but in the end, I knew that my explanation could not sort through the confusion in her mind. Home is a construct of the mind. It is impermanent and changing. And to each person, home is something different. To my mom, home is a memory that her brain is struggling to make sense of.
To many, home is an impossible luxury. Too many displaced, homeless, disadvantaged beings do not have a physical space they can comfortably call a home.
Home, as defined above, is something that is outside of ourselves. So, what does it really mean to come home? I’ve been listening to MC Yogi’s song, “Road Home” lately (see video posted above) and the lyrics have been running around my mind as a mantra as I contemplate the idea of what it means to be or go home. Home, in the physical sense is a luxury, but home in the metaphysical sense is always with us. Home is our natural state of being, home is who we truly are.
Our culture values the physical home. The ownership. The home that exists outside of ourselves. And indeed, we do all need a place to lay our head at the end of the day so that we may rest. But, the idea of home is abstract, and home is the journey of our lifetime.
We can be displaced, we can lose our memory, we can purchase ourselves a mansion or a building to call home, we can be rich or we can be poor. We can have one home or many, we can have a home for our businesses, we can live on the streets. And through all of this, we can remember that home is not ever outside of ourselves, we are never truly home-less.
And so, how do we find the road home?
Each conscious breath is a return home. Each moment we are present is a moment we are at home.
I am truly grateful for my physical home here in Indian Head, for my incredible space to share the teachings of yoga - and for all the spaces I have felt at home in through my life. I am privileged as most of us are to have always had a sense of belonging to a home. I can be happy, not because I have a physical roof over my head or a studio to teach yoga in, but because I recognize that I have always been home. And always will be.
Please join me in one of many yoga spaces (homes) as we navigate the road to our true home together. Home, truly is, where the heart is... and is so much more than a physical space. Visit robinhiltonyoga.com for information on class times and places. I teach in Indian Head, Katepwa Beach, Fort Quapelle, and in the city of Regina.
“God Bless every child travelling the road home...’ - MC YOGI
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