By Marcia Appel — Last Updated: July 9, 2024

During the long, leisurely Fourth of July weekend, I found myself in a renewed love affair. No longer a secret, it is there for all to see. When told the story, a friend asked, “How does it feel?”

“Absolutely delicious,” I replied.

If I hadn’t stayed home for the biggest holiday of the summer season, the love that happened might have passed by me. I’d decided to cover some classes for a few teachers whose plans for the four-day bash included travel. One of those days, I taught back-to-back classes at Mendota Heights, first Mindfulness Yoga and Meditation and then Gentle Yoga.

The minute I walked through the glass double doors at Mendota, a weak sun pushing against departing navy clouds of rain, I felt a current of connection flow through my body. The familiarity of the space – serene, inviting, warm in the energetic sense of the word – enveloped me immediately. It might sound corny to say it – it felt like coming home.

As students who, like me, found themselves at home for the holiday streamed in first for one class and then the other, a groundswell of kindness, calmness, and, yes, fun, infused the center. Mats mushroomed in Sun Studio, props filling the spaces between them. As I took my place on my rectangle of forest green, I thought: This is what love feels like.

“As I took my place on my mat, I thought: This is what love feels like.”

The theme for the two classes centered on the words of the Chistian mystic Julian of Norwich, which I’d read decades ago, and which hold great meaning for me, paraphrased here: All shall be well. And all shall be well. And in the manner of all things everywhere, all shall be well.

These words, so important when we individually, within a family, or within a country face tough times or make tough decisions, grounded us.

Joy spread throughout the practices. One student was in her birthday week, so we wished her happiness. A mother and daughter duo showed up, and I was touched as the young woman gathered her mother’s props and placed them near her mat. How lovely, I thought. Two friends contributed to the beauty of community in the studio, arriving as they often do to share an hour together in the embrace of yoga and of friendship.

Each person’s private reasons for building a practice reveal themselves in different ways. When they do, the stories spill out with a felt richness and vibrancy that only can emanate from direct experience, not a parroting of a teacher’s or anyone else’s words or philosophy.

As students lingered after each class, the stories flowed. One woman said, “Thank you, Marcia, for starting Green Lotus. I have a 30-year practice and have been in it here for most of the years since this center opened.” Another pulled me aside and said, “I recommend your teacher-training program to people. Sometimes they say, ‘I don’t want to spend that much.’ But I tell them to go for quality.” A group of three friends stood outside the classroom and regaled me and each other with stories of glasses, eye surgery, eye wrinkles, beauty tips, all of it both vulnerable and funny.

Of late, worry has descended on me about the state of the environment, of the coarseness and what I see as unkindness and lack of ethics in our political life, of what faces our children and grandchildren. It is then that I return to the words of Julian of Norwich and all shall be well. And in my heart, I add, “One way or another.” I breathe deeply, regather myself, and try to contribute to change. And I get filled up again at Green Lotus, our happy place, as MB says.

Here’s the thing, though. Green Lotus isn’t about me, or MB, or MB and me. It is about you.

You make it what it is. You create the feeling of home and community. You provide the reasons and the energy for us as teachers and healers to do what we do, to give what we can. You form the bones of Green Lotus, and you help to create the container in which we together explore and come to know what is real. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

At the Sunday class I subbed for Julio, two people bookended the front row: Tina Beehler, who has been with Green Lotus from the first day Lakeville opened in 2007 and who has been a guide to us, and Kristen Ogren, who just graduated from our 200-hour teacher-training program and whose practice found such depth during it. When and if she decides to teach, sign up.

How wonderful, how perfect, I thought. The longtime history and the future right before me.

I knew, then, why this happened as I drove to Mendota Heights from Lakeville that Sunday morning: About four miles from the center, traveling up I-35E, a flash of white appeared from the right-side ditch. Whatever it was seemed to be in slow suspension right in front of my car, and I screamed with fear that I would hit it. And then: Suddenly turbo-charged, it soared into the air, white head and tail brilliant in the blue sky, an eagle in flight, so appropriate and not coincidental, I think, for the Fourth of July weekend and my passing of it at Green Lotus with so many of you.

A marker, a guide, a reminder: All shall be well. And all shall be well. And in the manner of all things everywhere, all shall be well.

Featured

Marcia Appel

In 2006, Marcia, a former journalist and corporate executive, wrote the plan that launched Green Lotus. In 2007, Green Lotus opened, and Marcia and business partner Merry Beth Hovey, who joined in 2009, planted the seeds of service that are the foundation of the Green Lotus philosophy. "As teachers and healers," Marcia says, "we meet students and clients where they are. We learn and grow from each other -- and have fun doing it."

Marcia's Musings