This is a photo of the shiny new microphone, the “snowball,” I have been using to record a French version of the Roots of Yoga online course (Les Racines du yoga) with my translator and collaborator, Annie Godin.

Re-creating the course in a different language is challenging. French has its own particular texture and nuances.  As we go through each of the original lectures we have to make changes, adjust the tone, and sometimes even take things out completely.  It’s like pruning a garden.  Occasionally, something also screams to be added.

The Roots of Yoga/Racines du yoga course of study explores yoga history and philosophy and poses open-ended questions about who we are as contemporary yoga practitioners.  As I re-work the course, what concerns me most is communicating not just the content, but the colour, a feeling that brings the concepts to life.

It’s been 3 years since I wrote and recorded the original course.  And while it’s not as though the 2500 years of history or the major philosophical themes we look at have changed much in that time, something about all of this being re-stated NOW demands a fresh look, a slightly different approach, an injection of new truth.

In one of the course lectures I talk about an aspect of our modern day reality that strongly impacts how we appreciate yoga.  I think of this as the VITAMIX era, a period where things that were once kept separate are now easily, often casually, blended together.  For better or worse, this is happening not just in the yoga world or the world of smoothies, but in other domains as well.  It can make it challenging to trust what is out there (or in our glasses) because the sources aren’t clear. On the other hand, this great blending opens the door to fantastic leaps of creativity and sharing of insight.

The other day we were re-working this talk and got held up for a while, searching for a French word or phrase that encapsulated the feeling of this description of our times. To be honest, before we named it, I didn’t really know what the feeling was.  In the original English version I had presented the idea very simply, without commenting on it.   But that was then.  Now, this idea of a period of great blending, of con-fusion (an aspect of the kali yuga, the current age), needed additional comment.  Is it good?  Is it bad?  Something in between?

After a few minutes of head scratching and failed attempts, Annie finally came up with this: Ca rend notre époque palpitante.   (Tr: it makes our times, well, palpitante.)

Palpitante?   I raised my eyebrows.  To an English speaker, palpitante sounds like palpitations, as in “irrregular heart beats due to agitation.”  Not what I was looking for.

“Really? Palpitante?”  Yes, she was sure.  So I repeated the word a couple of times until it started to resonate for me too.

Yes.  We are living in times that are palpitante  (tr: vital, dynamic, thrilling).

So we pressed record and taped the segment, using the shiny snowball mic.  It went well.  That single word had quite an impact, in fact.  It energetically brought a series of ideas together in a way that took at least my understanding of what I had originally said to a new, more vibrant level.  Long after snowball was back in its box, the word kept resonating in me.

Palpitante.

As yoga practitioners and teachers, like it or not, we are part of a grand experiment taking place at this very moment.  Even as we roll out our mats, even as we repeat our mantras, even as we dip into new states of awareness and then rise back up to find ourselves ignoring, “liking,” or perhaps becoming inflamed by yoga social media spats, a new recipe, as it were, is being concocted around us, with us, through us.

Palpitante.  Such a dynamic word for this pulsating, dynamic time which is now.

One day, when all this is history, maybe someone will write something really wise and intelligent that captures our era.  Maybe someone will be able to describe how what is happening profoundly affected what came after.  But in the meantime, the process of change continues unrelenting.  In the meantime, I am looking forward to the continued challenges of re-working the Racines du yoga course and applying myself to others.

This work is part of my practice. It keeps me on my toes, seeking out and discovering new ways to connect to the beating, palpitante heart of yoga, and to the moment.

Sometimes that can happen through a simple word.