I got up this morning to see the sun rise.

I was excited to ride my bike to the lake and see it. I gave my bunnies an offering of parsley before I left (which they appreciated).

As I was riding down to Lake Michigan, I thought about how seeing the sun touches an ancient part of me that is unclouded by thinking, and thought that my rabbits as well as all creatures (including cats and dragonflies) can probably appreciate the sun similarly to the way I do when I see it through my eyes and feel it on my skin.

Seeing the sun rise touches a primitive longing to connect, and the sun invites this with extending rays of light. These rays touch my eyes, my skin, my heart… I can appreciate this on a very basic level, like I might enjoy a drink of water when I am thirsty, an essential quenching.

I realize that the sense I have of this experience is how I sometimes explain Namaste to students at the end of class. “Namaste” is often translated in yoga classes as “the light in me honors the light in you.” I once heard a teacher say that it meant something like, “That which is inside me that is connected to all the living creatures in the universe says ‘hello’ to that part in you that is connected to all creatures.” This explanation felt palpably relevant because I do feel connected to all life–the little creatures, too! I like the ones with wings, and fur, and scaled ones, and so on…

Well, today when I watched the sun rise, all the cells in my body responded to its light, and I’m not sure why, but I also included all of the cells in my bunnies, and even the smallest fly or crawfish; the sun in my sense of it was activating all of the living creatures. Later, I realized how like a “Namaste” the experience was. The light was literally activating all the cells of all the living creatures. So when I might say that the light in me honors the light in you, I can also honor that this light comes from a common source that connects us all.

Namaste.

* Posted with love, in honor of Fritter the bunny (recently past), from the archives of Yogic Muse *