On June 6, Kim Esteran met with me to tell me she is resigning from Yoga East. We will miss Kim's presence and her teaching, but we wish her the very highest as she continues her journey of yoga. As both yoga teachers and practitioners, we go through different phases. It's so important to follow where our heart leads. I want to share Kim's resignation letter with you:
June 6, 2011
Dear Laura,
Early Spring 2000, just about 11 years ago, I walked into Yoga East - Kentucky Street and signed up for the 90 Days for $90. I knew I needed yoga but I didn’t know then how much yoga needed me. I fell in love.
The following year, 2001, I enrolled in the Yoga East Teacher-Training program and you said to me at the graduation ceremony, “Now, you teach.” And I have been ever since and I fell deeper in love.
In June of 2002, not long after graduation, you and I and Terry, Kari, Kelly and Rob went to Mysore for the month of June. I met Guruji. We practiced at the old shala and we were there for the opening ceremony of the new shala. I even celebrated my 42nd birthday during that time, going to both a palace and the home of our rickshaw driver and his wife. I remember so clearly all of us crammed into their little house on their little couch. I remember so many things from that trip. It changed my life.
When I look back over the journey of the last 11 years, I am deeply grateful for all the blessings yoga has brought into my life. And you have been an influential part of that journey. Thank you for the teachings and the introductions to many teachers. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to teach at Yoga East. You have always been so supportive. The time I have spent here has changed my destiny.
An aspect of yoga I have always been interested in is Yoga Therapy. Recently, I have begun to study about teaching yoga to people with cancer under Jnani Chapman through the Integral Yoga Institute in Yogaville, Virginia. I am also starting to pursue Doug Keller’s Swatantrya Program for Yoga Therapy. Toward that end, I leave for Asheville, North Carolina, June 17-20, for his Therapy Fundamentals Intensive and then will continue to study with him in Dayton, Ohio, for the In-Depth Therapy Training.
I tell you these things because I want you to know how you, Yoga East and yoga have impacted my life. And also because I want you to know that I am changing my focus on teaching. The Yoga for Cancer Program requires an internship in which I teach yoga classes to people with cancer and have a certain number of private clients. Doug’s program offers the opportunity to specialize in a particular area and I am choosing cancer as my specific interest, in particular the cancers of the blood and bone; leukemia, lymphomas and multiple myelomas.
All this as a way of saying that my cup is full and I need to change some things in order to make room in my life for these other interests. So, please accept this as my letter of resignation from the teaching staff of Yoga East. I would be grateful to have June 30 as my last day.
It is with the deepest love and sincerest appreciation to you and Yoga East and the gifts I have been given as both a student and teacher that I continue to make my way out into world to teach. “Now, I teach.” Thank you.
Much love always,
Kimberly K. Esteran
EYRT-500
