After a long day of shooting Yes & Yoga, Adi and I awoke the following morning and her adventurous side started shining through. “How about we take a trip for your birthday?” she said as the sun had barely crested over the horizon. I was turning 51 on July 4th and Adi, ever the travel opportunist, realized that this was the perfect time to make her pitch to go explore the world.
“We just finished shooting Season 2, let’s celebrate! And, it’s your birthday,” she pleaded.
I couldn’t deny that I wanted to get out of town and relax for a few days, and not wanting to quell Adi’s enthusiasm, I realized it was time for a trip.
“Let’s go explore the world,” I responded.
Adi and I hopped in the car on Friday afternoon and we decided we would make our way to the mountains. Colorado has always been a favorite destination of ours and there is no better time to explore the mountains than in the summer. Neither of us are big fans of the snow nor the cold and we don’t ski, therefore, Colorado in the summer speaks to us.
On our drives we seldom listen to music (unless you consider mantras music) and spend most of the time dreaming about the next chapters in our lives. Oftentimes, our conversations revolve around how we can serve other people and we talk about things that can be done to help elevate and uplift the world. It’s easy to get mired down in the distraction of negative news that circulates around and Adi and I make a conscious choice to instead focus on the good that we can spread throughout the world. We will ask for signs from the Universe to help guide us down the path of our lives and on our drive the signs were everywhere.
Literally, there were signs all throughout West Texas and New Mexico letting us know that we were being Divinely guided following the shooting of Season 2 of Yes, And Yoga. We started this show a little more than a year ago in the hopes of bringing meditation and yoga to the mainstream to give people the tools that are needed to navigate these quickly changing times. As the world speeds up, we know that people are going to need these skills to survive and we happily joined together to create this show.
We always ask how we can serve in a way that can help people. We say, “Bring us today whatever is for our greatest good and the greatest good of all.” This has become our new mantra in life. Let us be the example we so long to see.
As we drove, I found myself peering out the window and my gaze landed on one particular sign in the middle of a field. It grabbed my attention while we were discussing being in alignment with the Divine. I asked Adi to take a quick picture from the passenger seat.
The sign said, “God is real.”
I always marvel at how synchronistic the Universe can be. If we only take time to look around a little bit, we will be guided exactly where we need to go, or we will receive the very message that is needed in any given moment. Sometimes we may not understand the meaning of a particular “sign” until much later. We need to be patient–only trust and surrender are required. When we do, inevitably, we will always led perfectly.
The sign faded from my mind (patience) as Adi and I made our way to Estes Park in Colorado. We didn’t really know that we were heading to Estes Park, we just kind of ended up there. When we travel, we truly let the Universe guide us, knowing that we will land in the perfect place to get the exact experience we need.
Estes Park didn’t disappoint. The energy of the rushing water and the beauty of the mountains are simply breathtaking. It felt good to land in this glorious space. It felt good to relax in a guilt-free way. We all know the importance of working hard. This is something that has been drilled into our heads since we were old enough to have a job. One thing that we seldom talk about is how important it is to relax and unwind. Americans have a love affair with work yet a complicated relationship with the necessity of relaxing. I certainly do.
As I get older, I am trying to reconcile my relationship with relaxation. In a way, I have been forced to relax given this unplanned semi-retirement from comedy that has been thrust upon me. I am teaching myself to slow down. I am learning the value of doing nothing while still placing service to others as a priority in my life. It’s complicated, this new reality we are living in. I am adjusting. I am sinking into this new uncertainty and I am thankful to have Adi by my side as we navigate these new uncharted “rushing” waters together.
On our last day in Estes Park, Adi and I stopped for lunch at a little Mexican restaurant near that very rushing water that dotted the landscape of Estes Park. While we were eating, I began thinking about how incredible blessed we are. Even in these incredibly uncertain times I realize we have been given so much. These thoughts were bubbling through my mind as I looked around at the majestic beauty that surrounded me and I thought, “When we have been given much, we should always thank God and then pass our blessings on to others.”
Then, I thought, “I should buy a random table lunch to make their day.” It wasn’t long before that ole’ voice of lack that often lingers inside of me did everything it could to stop this idea:
“You can’t do that. You aren’t even working right now because of this pandemic. The last thing you need to do is buy some stranger lunch.”
This happens to all of us. We all doubt. In our hearts we all long to have the kind of faith that books are written about—that faith that is so strong that nothing deters us from doing God’s work. The moment we long to be that person that doubtful voice creeps in to put a stop to it:
“Don’t do it. You don’t have enough!”
It’s always the same ‘ole story. “You don’t have enough!” I smiled at the thought of that as I looked around at my surroundings. We are incredibly blessed. This is painfully obvious to anyone with eyes. I know in my heart that this is just irrational fear and the reality is I have an incredibly abundant life. Faith, I said to myself. Have faith. Everything is fine. Have faith that all will be provided.
“God, if you want me to buy someone lunch, give me a clear sign that this is what I am supposed to do,” (I had the table next to me in mind).
Moments later, our waitress dropped our check and as I looked at it, I noticed that not only was the amount less than it should be—it wasn’t even what we ordered. Our waitress, Bailey, dropped the wrong check. She dropped someone else’s check. She dropped the check of the table that was sitting directly next to us—the very couple that I “considered” buying their lunch.
I smiled and thought, “What a beautiful sign, God.”
It was just subtle enough to make sure I was paying attention yet was direct enough that I understood the point. Don’t be afraid. Everything will always be provided for you. You aren’t even the doer—God is the doer. So just get out of the way and play your part.
“Buy these folks lunch,” I said silently to myself.
It was then that I told Adi the story that was playing out in my head and she didn’t even miss a beat.
“Let’s buy them lunch. What are you worried about?”
I called the waitress over and explained that she had dropped the wrong check. She apologized and I said it was perfect because she was a beautiful messenger who made me understand that I wanted to buy a stranger lunch. I asked her to put this check on our bill and then we gave her a Secret Blue Butterfly card to give to the couple once we were gone.
Bailey got a huge smile on her face.
“You just made my day. That is so beautiful!”
Bailey returned with the check and after adding a tip Adi noticed that the total came to $108.
“Look. 108,” Adi said to me.
This is a special number to us. 108 is a particularly significant number in the mathematics of the Universe. The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth and the average distance of the Sun and the Moon to Earth is 108 times their respective diameters. Mathematicians from the Vedic tradition view 108 as the number representing the wholeness of existence.
In yoga, the number 108 has significance because it represents spiritual completion. There are 108 marma points, considered to be sacred places in the body. Ayurvedic practices use these pressure points as they are vital for giving life to living beings. This is where consciousness and flesh intersect. There are 108 nadis, or energy lines, which converge to form the heart chakra and it is no co-incidence that when we are in a state of giving, we are living in a heart-centered space. 108 is God’s way of telling us to open our heart to love.
In short, the number 108 connects us to the Divine Source of all things. I couldn’t help but think back to that sign that I saw so clearly on the side of the road as we were making our way to Estes Park. “God is real.”
Everything in this Universe is created by a Source of Power that is much greater than we are and when we surrender and align with that Source, we begin living in a state of grace, devoid of fear. The world begins working for us. The only thing we have to do is surrender because surrender is all we have. When the world seems out of control the only thing we can do is let go and have faith that everything is divinely unfolding in our favor.
Serve and surrender. This is our mantra. We are all blessed and divinely guided. We need only to look for the signs.