First, let me tell you a story about my daddy (yes, even a 37-year-old can still call her father “daddy”).

Years ago, I saved a voicemail from him that said,

“Hey, Char! I was wondering if you want to go on another adventure with me.”

What was he actually asking? He was asking me to come to Dallas for yet another round of treatment, testing, and/or a surgery to battle his colon cancer. Every single time, he would ask that same question. This went on for 7 years. He even asked this when he was the first human being to have a brand-new drug (developed by a Japanese doctor and scientist) infused into his body that suffocated cancer cells in mice. He told me that he knew he was going to die, so why not help others find a successful treatment? This was my daddy’s mind-set. The side effects of that drug were unknown, because mice can’t tell us how they feel or how much pain they are in. The Japanese doctor and scientist returned to Japan to keep working on it, and we continued to go on more adventures. Thankfully, there were occasions when we would go on adventures that didn’t involve treatment. You see, he’d bought a sailboat shortly after his diagnosis. (He and my mommy had had one before my sister and I were born, but it was destroyed by a hurricane in Galveston.) He had called me one day and sent a photo of the boat via text message. He said that he was going to buy it on the spot if everything lined up. Everything lined up. And so, some of our adventures happened on the water.

I saw a peace wash over him every single time he was on that boat, whether we were sailing, fixing something, cleaning it, or just letting the waves rock us to sleep at night. One of my favorite photos of him was taken when he was sailing us into the blue waters of the Gulf. He was at home. He was at peace. He was exuding joy and light, and I knew I was seeing a glimpse of Heaven.

“I was wondering if you want to go on an adventure.”

Those words, his words, will forever ring in my ears. They are a positive expression of something that could have easily been wrapped up in fear. It’s all about perception. It’s about looking at life and being grateful for small, medium, and large blessings. Or for the moments that are so hard they feel unbearable. Those are the adventures that make you stronger. Those are the adventures that show the world how much courage you have, even when you feel you have none. Those are the adventures that allow you to absorb love from others. Those are the adventures that you look back on with gratitude, because they have shaped you into the amazing human being you are today.

So, what does that have to do with yoga, you ask? It has everything to do with yoga, because yoga has become one of my adventures.

At one time, I thought yoga was for a special group of people who were super flexible and could do crazy things with their bodies. I thought it was an exclusive club that allowed in only those who, for some odd reason, wore and loved patchouli. I thought you had to follow a certain religion. Turns out I was wrong. Yoga is for anybody. That means my body, your body, and the other bodies around you. Yoga is a place where I can move my body, breathe, and find peace while resting with the Holy Spirit. Yoga is a place where I can shed trauma, pain, insecurities, fear, and everything that holds me down. Yoga is movement that rocks me to my core, to my mind, and through my body and soul. Yoga is where I meet God on my mat. He sits with me as I breathe, He moves with me when I move, and He restores everything that has been broken in me. He heals me through yoga. I feel the peace, the rest, the joy, and the Light when I’m on my mat. I feel that glimpse of Heaven I saw in my daddy. God is my adventure.

In the next few weeks, I will be explaining what yoga is, what Holy Yoga is, how to practice it, and what a yoga lifestyle looks like. I will be addressing following Jesus and practicing yoga, how they intertwine, why I’m not using the word “Christian,” and how, no matter what, we are all called to love.

So, I was wondering if you want to go on an adventure with me?