Do not pass go. 
Do not collect $200.
No, you do not get a pass. 

Everyone needs to do their own work. 
Everyone needs to be held accountable. 
Everyone needs to hold themselves accountable and do their work. 

And it is the job of the community and those intimate in our sphere to keep helping us know where the work is.

And this is especially true for leaders and teachers. 

If you are in a system of yoga or in a relationship with a teacher where you cannot refute them, where they are not accountable to the same tough standards as you, this is a problem. 

For everyone. 

Leaders and teachers, what systems of accountability do you have in place for your privacy, growth, and reflection of shadow.

Students, what skills are you harnessing that are helping you grow up and individuate into your own authority?

I believe in us. 

L

As a teacher you do not own your students. They do not owe you their loyalty. You have to earn their trust. 

Students are not yours to keep. They are gifts for reflection and impact. They are the other half of teaching. 

Students are not leads or customers. They are human beings with open ears and hearts.

Despite the impulse to a call a student "My Student", refrain until they decide to call you "My teacher." 

Try instead "A student who comes to my class" or a "A new student" or "A student who has been coming a lot".

Why is this distinction important?

Well you see, there is an inherent power differential between you and your students whether you like that or not. To disavow this, I fear is to disavow the power of teaching and the teacher student relationship. Students are looking to learn and be guided. And there is a looking to and towards. Honor this by giving them space to step forward in connection. 

It can be deeply powerful for a student to attach themselves to a teacher. To you. Let them choose to identify as your student before you call them your student. If a student does select you for this honor, to call them your student is a sign of respect. Honor them as such.

To lay claim to them as your own otherwise is disrespectful of their freedom. 

Let students self identify. 
Because we all need attachment. And we all need freedom.

With Love,
Livia

Move, she said. 
Give me space.
See.
See who I am now. 
Look at me with fresh eyes and still yet with the eyes of long knowing, recognition.

This is it.
All of me.
Take it all. Or nothing, She said.

I can bear the constraints no longer. The double-binds and the outrageous cacophony of what it should look like and how it should be.

Move.
Give me space.
Let me find my true size of love.

So she danced. 
She danced until her feet ached. 
Until her heart was in her throat. 
And her hair, matted and wild flew as sweat dripped into every crevice and curve.

In her wild consumption, in her madness of reclamation, the earth opened itself unto her. Consumed her and transformed her. The heavens poured its light and rain down her back and into her ears.

Until she touched a seed. Long buried deep inside. 
Silence.

Move, it whispered. 
Give me space.

And then once more, like the crocus of spring, she rose. Innocent in her fresh green eyes seeing as if for the first time, this ridiculous, miraculous, life.

L. C. S.

photo: Jessica Christie Photography