JDC

Well, today I taught my second yoga class. It was at the Juvenile Detention Center, or JDC. Jennifer Harbour, one of my mom’s students has been teaching there for some years, free of charge. I posted about it before, but I just got to write more. It’s hard to describe. The place we’re doing yoga is a cafetria floor. The lights are bright, iridescent things that hum. It’s a gym. But it’s still Yoga.

I had a whole class planned out. It was a good class, focusing on arm balances (I was billed as the arm balance guru). But a class in JDC isn’t like a class anywhere else. It was good to have the notes, but I had to be willing to stray from them often, which I did.

It was chaotic, but thanks to Jenn it all stayed good. She is amazing. The work she has done there and continues to do is so invaluable. So precious.

I guess the thing that really gets me about doing Yoga at JDC is the kids and how, fundamentally, vulnerable they are. Yes, they are tough and I would never ever want to fight them. But the other reality is that they are young, scared and abandoned. So many of them are in JDC because their parents couldn’t or didn’t want to deal with them.

Bum deal right?

So, when I first walked in there, that is more or less all I see; tough kids that could kick my ass. But once the Yoga has started that all dissolves. Soon they are just kids moving their bodies and loving it. They are just having a ball.

That is the power of Yoga I guess. It just brings people together. Me who has lived the a truly blessed life, and then these kids, the poorest of the poor (whether it be financially or simply relationally).

So, I feel so lucky to be able to go into these situations. With out Yoga I wouldn’t be able to. It just wouldn’t be possible. But Yoga is the bridge.

The class, which was never exactly organized, ended up turning into a giant Yoga/Dance class. We turned on rap music and did a flow practice. I loved it. It was so fun.

And then they left. One kid, who is facing 19 years in the ‘Big Jail’ for getting involved in a high-speed car chase, shook my hand as he left. He is incredibly talented at Yoga. He can do things I can’t even begin to try. Someday he could be a kick ass Yoga teacher. But he is going to be in jail. He is 18. He has been living on his own since he was 12. Now he is going to be in jail until he is 37.

It’s tragic.