Solar

"They were being taught to thank the sun for their lives and the warmth that it brought, the life that it brought to the earth and they were told to do that right before they did their sun salutation exercises..."

~ complaining parent quoted in

09 January 2013 NPR news article

"Promoting Hinduism? Parents Demand Removal Of School Yoga Class"

And why should we not thank the sun

for life and warmth it lavishes on all

regardless of caste or class; why not

thank the mountains that sustain and are

far older than the buildings and townhouses

lining the avenues, older than the giant

letters that have spelled

Hollywood

in bright white only since 1923, older

than Grauman's Chinese Theatre

and its forecourt bearing the handprints,

footprints, and signatures of movie stars?

And why should we not give thanks

for the heart expanding, the lungs filling

with our common lien of breath, the ribcage

hinging open as the body is reminded

how it feels to press its length along the ground

then rises like a cobra, like a tree, like an eagle

balancing upon a rock? And what is prayer

but a way to teach— in any tongue, by any

means— the kind of quiet that extends

farther than comprehension; and what

is wonder but what might link us once again

to vastness, leaf outward as gratitude, no matter

circumstance or clime? Just ask the oldest

giant sequoia— so old it must have started

growing in the iron age, rooted first

as seed before reaching for the sun.