Patabhis Jois, the father of Ashtanga Yoga, said "our life is like a lightning bolt."
Helen Keller said "life is a daring adventure or nothing at all."
Some of us are given short lives, some long.
Some suffer much, some suffer little.

Recently a beloved friend of mine, whom I met through Kundalini Yoga nearly 20 years ago, died at age fifty-one. Years ago she gifted me the Deepak Chopra book The Seven Spiritual Laws for Success. Though Terri’s life was shortened by a long illness that wreaked havoc with her physical body system, draining her of her life force (some said it was advanced Lyme disease though no one seemed to really know), the photo that was posted of her the day before she died in her sleep showed a smile so full of spirit that it radiated beyond her physical skin and bones. Though she could no longer keep up a physical yoga practice, she had moved into a yoga community in Virginia when she could no longer function in her job for World Bank, which had entailed, among other things, travel. At the yoga community she found the support and solace needed for the several years before she passed from her physical body.

In yoga practice we reach toward our physical potential, often next our mental potential and then on to spiritual potential. These are all parts of our human potential. As Yogi Bhajan put it

“ We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

So what does it mean to awaken our human potential? Why do some people seem to do this more effortlessly than others? Or at least it seems their efforts are rewarded. I am constantly reminded that being human is complicated.

Last Fall, Terri, who was so weak that she could barely speak on the phone, sent me two beautiful necklaces with matching earrings with a short note explaining that she was making jewelry now. Knowing that she was not working, and assuming that she might benefit from some income, I asked if she might want me to sell some of her jewelry for her. She was hurt and responded by saying that she had made those especially for me. I don’t think I realized until this moment how much effort went into her gesture.

As I think about Terri’s life, I feel she may have reached a potential that few of us can reach because we are too busy chasing things we think are helping us to awaken to our potential as humans—achievements etc. But can these things actually stilt it?

I don’t know what inner struggles she actually had her past few years. I know she had a failed short-lived marriage that left her saddened and disappointed, yet I can imagine that she was led to some inner places than many of us, chasing this and that yoga guru, book or seminar, will never find from outside sources.

So what does Terri’s story have to do with any of us awakening to our human potential? I am not sure I know. In our confusing times; where more is associated with better, yet many are dealing with less, where nature gives us large lessons and we in our human frailty, make mistakes that jeopardize nature’s whole balance, my guess would be that our yoga practice is meant to take us closer to compassion, closer to contentment and closer to acceptance. These are all things I saw reflected in my dear friend Terri’s face in that photo taken on the last day of her life.