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The Roots of cOMmon GroundsThe seeds of cOMmon Grounds were planted in a vision that began far before any understanding and action.
I was in teacher training to become a yoga instructor when my mentor began one of our classes with a guided meditation. The meditation was to help us unfold and discover our teaching path. At the time I had been doing yoga less than a year; most of which was prenatal yoga. The concept of meditation was still new to me. During the guided meditation I envisioned a globe of the world and my arms drawing it in. At the time I didn't understand it, it felt exciting and scary at the same time. Who knew something that felt so small and scary to me then could create such a large impact on my life, other instructors, students, and our community. After a year of teaching and trying different things within the yoga community, I thought of an idea to create a festival. There were so many yoga festivals all over the world yet nothing was in our own community. Why did I and others in my yoga community have to travel so far when we had so many talented instructors, musicians, professionals, and beautiful scenery right here? So with no real experience and understanding of how to go about it, I began planning what was to become cOMmon Grounds Festival. It wasn't until nearly a year later that meditation of my "globe vision” became clear. One of the first people to "like" the festival on Facebook was my mentor, without her even knowing I was behind it. At that moment it was clear; the logo and name of the festival used a globe for the O in cOMmon. The globe wasn't about traveling and bringing yoga to other parts of the world, it was planting the seeds here. It was taking my roots locally and spreading the conscious works locally and blossoming into our community. As we are busy planning our sixth festival, I am reminded nearly every day about my vision from that teacher training class seven years ago – how we can continue our passion together; plant our seeds here, and create different branches that continue to grow together. GROW Together. BECOME Together. Rosa Chief Visionary cOMmon Grounds |