The Joy of - Inside Chappaqua

B O O K E x C E R P T
There Comes a Time When we Must Choose.
That is Yoga.
“As humans, we are given the gift of
choice.
It is a powerful gift.
People often ask me how long I’ve
been practicing yoga, and the truth is I
became a yogi when I was 10 years old.
It was a turtle that led the way.
Of course, I didn’t yet know it.
Becoming a yogi back then was about
the furthest thing from my mind. I was
pretty occupied with boys and Barbie
and Bobby Sherman. My world had
seemed important then, but soon I
would have to choose if I would stand
up for another being that had no voice
at all.
Choosing between the easy thing,
and the right thing, is yoga.
My father had taken us on vacation
to the British Virgin Islands. It was a
32 Inside Chappaqua May 2013
By Michelle Berman Marchildon
confusing time in our lives, so if you are
confused then by all means take along
a pre-adolescent. At dinner, the waiter
mentioned the resort’s famous turtle
soup.
“What makes the soup so good?” my
Dad asked.
“We use our own turtles,” the waiter
replied.
We sat speechless. There are turtles
in turtle soup? I thought it was like
chocolate “turtles” are caramel and
welsh rarebit is just cheese, no rabbit.
After dinner we walked down the
beach to a stone wall. I started tip toeing
along the top when I saw something
splash. Then I saw a flipper, and when I
bent down closer, I saw a face.
“Dad,” I screeched. “There are turtles
in here!” We stared in silence.
Until that night
my world had been
all about me, but
looking into the
turtle’s face made
me realize I was
not walking alone
in this life. I had a
responsibility to
make the world
better.
For the next few
nights we worked
quickly and
precisely. One by
one we freed the
turtles. On the last
night, there was
a sign that said
anyone caught
poaching would be
imprisoned. Ending
the vacation
in jail was not the
bonding experience
Dad had in
mind.
By now, only
the largest turtles
remained, particularly
one giant turtle.
He
looked
extremely
sad to
me, as if
he knew
he was
just too
big to
get over
the wall.
I started
to cry.
“All right,” Dad said. “We will try to
set him free.”
A choice is not often obvious. There
may not be anyone else on your side.
But you know you have done the right
thing when you cannot live with yourself
having done anything else. That
night, we chose the turtles over the law.
Together we coaxed the largest turtle
to the sandy edge of the pen, and then
we somehow managed to boost him up
and over. The turtle tumbled into the
water and then he turned and gazed at
us. I thought he might have said thank
you for not giving up.
As humans, we are given the gift
of choice. It is a powerful gift. We
choose what to believe. We choose
who we love. We choose when to fight,
and when to lay down our sword. We
choose our path.
Yoga is only a little bit about the postures.
The postures reveal who we are
when things get difficult. Yoga is about
being who we were meant to be.
Neither I nor my Dad had heard
of yoga in 1970. But that night we
became yogis. If yoga is about leaving
the world a better place, then in that
moment there was no question but that
we had to save the turtles.”
Michelle Berman Marchildon is The Yogi
Muse. This is an excerpt from her book,
Finding More on the Mat: How I Grew
Better, Wiser and Stronger through
Yoga (Wildhorse Ventures 2013). Her
father is the veterinarian Dr. Lewis Berman,
who if given a choice, would still free
a turtle today.