Bikram Yoga El Paseo

Bikram Yoga Palm Desert- El Paseo is having it’s FIRST Destination Yoga Retreat scheduled for summer of 2015.  After organizing this trip with back and forth emails, I had an opportunity to go down personally and make the arrangements face to face with a comped suite to boot. How awesome is that……. right??

Here’s the catch.

There was a small “window of opportunity” of availability.  REALLY SMALL!  I had to go in September.  September is the rainy season…. even worse,  it’s  Hurricane season!

My adventurous side was up for the challenge  and so was a very good friend,   so we packed umbrellas  and lots of good books and off we went.

As luck would have it we arrived right after a minor hurricane had passed.  Guests at the resort talked about the crazy waves and tons of rain but said it didn’t damper their vacation.  The aftermath of that were beautiful crisp clear skies, greenery, full sun and ocean water with the perfect temperature.

THE WHOLE WEEK was like that .  We didn’t see drop of rain and our umbrellas never left the suitcase.

Villa Del Arco  Resort & Spa,  Cabo San Lucas – Home to BYPD 2015 Yoga Retreat

 

Exactly one week later on the day  of our departure news hit that the airport would be closing do to Major Hurricane Odile and many flights in and out were already cancelled.  Our flight would be one of the last to leave before the closing.

Our flight took off without a hitch and on the way home we were counting our blessings. Blessings that included safe travel, an amazing week of new experiences and of course our unbelievable luck with the weather.  My friend commented to me, “ it must have been your “random acts of Karma.”

That line took me back about  20 years.   I lived in Chicago then and Oprah Winfrey did a show on, “ Random acts of Kindness.”    She was so sick of turning on the news and hearing about ,  “Random acts of Violence,”  that she wanted to start a campaign of peeps doing KIND things for strangers instead.   She said we all do nice things for family and friends, but how about doing something special for a perfect stranger……… just because!

For some weeks that followed after  the airing of that episode I remember doing things like paying for a car behind me in the toll booth  and buying coffee for the person behind me in Starbucks,  etc. etc.

Unfortunately,  Like everything else as time goes by we forget and go back to our normal routines.

A day after we arrived in Cabo,  I was purchasing really fun sun dresses that were on sale for the close of the season at the resort.  I picked out a couple for myself and some for my close friends back home.  A young girl who spoke only Spanish was at the check out counter,  and a much younger little boy (maybe her son??) who spoke a little  English was bagging for her.  As she was ringing up each dress she held it up and said,  “Bonita”.   This continued for the first 3 dresses. When she got to the 4th dress, a huge smile came over her face, she held it up longer before folding it and exclaimed, “Muy Bonita!”  She then flashed it to the little boy who nodded.  She started to fold it again but then stopped.  She lifted it up once again to take one more look before it was folded and bagged for good. She once again exclaimed,  “Muy Bonita!”

It was obvious that she had really taken to that one dress.  Knowing that most workers down there make pennies a day,  I knew that a $20 dress to me would be months of hard work for her. I made a random decision that she should have the dress.  I asked the little boy for an extra bag and after the transaction was completed, I took the dress out of the original bag, put it in it’s own bag,  handed to the girl and told her that I bought it for her.

Her eyes widened and she looked at me in disbelief.  She then looked at the little boy and pointed to herself.  He nodded yes,  “it’s for you”.  “Size Chica?” I asked her.  She started to cry and her emotions took me over.  She then said,  “coma se llama??” I could barely get my name out.

A few days later and  after having wonderful  lobster and shrimp fajitas  that proved my eyes were bigger than my stomach,  I ended up taking  MOST of that dish wrapped.  (Ok, so I probably filled up on the chips and guacamole!!)  My friend commented that I will really enjoy that later when I’m hungry.

Fajita dish served  uniquely  at  Soloman’s Landing, Cabo San Lucas

 

As we walked down the marina  with shops galore spilling to the outside,  I held my leftovers in one hand while touching and lifting trinkets with the other.  All of a sudden I felt a tug on my shorts.  I looked down and a little boy no more than  5 or 6 years old was looking up at me and pointing to my wrapped leftovers.

I hated that I actually had to think about it for a second because truthfully, I was pretty excited about having those leftovers.  Before I knew it  I was handing my bag down to the little boy.

NO WORDS CAN DESCRIBE THE REWARD I RECEIVED IN RETURN.  THE BIGGEST,  BRIGHTEST TOOTHLESS GRIN YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE.  This little boy had the most amazing big brown eyes and an even bigger smile sans teeth.

We watched him walk down the strand like a proud peacock.  He held his gift up high above his head  with both hands and stopped at every passer buy to show off what he had!  The sight of this was incredible.

I encourage all of our members at Bikram Yoga Palm Desert – El Paseo to start a “RANDOM ACT OF KARMA”  campaign!!!

Back in Chicago,  I participated  in  Oprah’s  “Random acts of Kindness!” Today,  Yogis  can participate in “Random acts of  Karma.”   It’s  all a good practice and one that we should remember often!!

Hope to see you in the hot room soon,  sweating it out and spreading the love!

You will make the world  a  healthier, happier place to be!

Namaste`