A short sample

“Earlier this week, I had the fortune of meeting an Elder, a woman, someone who had from an early age learned to survive and even thrive in hostile corporate environments. I spent close to an hour completely dazzled by her story: joining the workforce when women were first allowed to join, not only working, but doing vital things that no one had done before, turning a nonprofit from bankruptcy to financial health, saving a manufacturing plant millions of dollars, turning a store branch around so completely within a month a national executive flew down to meet her and tell her no one had ever done what she did.

All the while she faced the hierarchical discrimination that was normal at the time, simply for being a hyper-competent woman: the big one was not receiving an administrative job because it was “not meant for a woman.”

Despite this she went on to have done so many jobs that she told me she could have been hired anywhere for anything, and I believed her. Despite a story of success and triumph against overwhelming adversity, she remained completely kind and humble: only close friends and family knew the full extent of her life.

I felt like I was speaking to a heroine from an age before mine, an inspiring mythical figure.

What I love about her story is not the particulars of corporate success, but what it meant for her life. She was a genius, throwing off the imposition of patriarchal culture so she could do what it was she wanted to do. She was able to direct her own mind, walking away from lucrative job offers because she had family to be with. Most of all, she remained completely ordinary despite constant outside affirmation that her accomplishments were out of this world. As a manager in hierarchical organizations, it never occurred to her that she was different from anyone else. Of course, those who worked for her usually grew to love her for it.

These things mean more to me than any accomplishment anyone could bring forth. She lived her earlier life without regrets and was able to go where she wanted to go. Nothing held her back.

The promise of a sincere Yoga is the same: to point the mind in one’s honest directions of choice.”