My friend Sarah Gray is a Roller Derby Girl. Yes she is one of the skaters in these pictures. She is also a Bee Keeper and a Bar Tender. You’d think she is all tomboy toughness but she’s got this velvet voice and when she teaches yoga students melt into its safe and soothing vibrations. Sarah graduated from Wisdom Flow Yoga School in 2012 and has been assisting in our teacher training programs every since. She embodies the balance of Shiva/Shakti … Guts and Grace.
Sarah was one of the founders of the rabble-rousing crew of powerful frisky women known as the Maui Roller Girls. She is also one of its most powerful skaters. Being a trained yoga teacher and long-time yoga student has helped her both as a skater and a coach. She and her team have enjoyed many successful seasons. Derby is about focus and resilience in the face of huge resistance and turbulence; a great practice for life’s winding road.
Derby is fascinating to me. The focused grace required to slip through and around obstacles is huge. The women speed and glide as they circle the track crossing legs and leaning into the turn with razor sharp determination. The objective is for the jammer to score points by passing opposing blockers. So one team is protecting her ans the other is trying to get ‘er! Because everyone is rolling, there has to be grace mixed in with the brutal battling. No one embodies that grace and power like my friend Sarah. And I think her years as a yogi is what makes her so damn smooth and at the same time dangerous on the track. Next time you’re looking for fresh entertainment and inspiration, take yourself to a Maui Roller Girls event. Check out their fB page for deets.
On the softer side, Sarah is a bee-charmer. She approaches bee-keeping with reverence and asks the bees to teach her the magic side of things that seem to be lost on most humans. Watching her work with bees is like watching a woman in a trance-like dance with nature. Over the years when I’ve encouraged Sarah to “go faster” with her bee business, she has always gently refused insisting that the slow careful road is best when working with nature. I’ve learned much from her wisdom and it is manifesting a great sustainable abundance in recent days. You can find out more about Sarah’s Bee-Keeping at her site HiveMindMaui.com.
Skate-on You Yogi-Bee-Keepin’-Bar-Tendin’-Roller Girl!