Where is the glory?

Although every individual's focus is on the soccer ball when it is near the goal, the real story is how the ball got there. The ball is passed so quickly between players that is impossible to know where it will go next. Of course there is a plan and a strategy but each team is equally determined to score for their team and block the opposing team.

It would be almost impossible for an individual team member to get the ball from one end of the field to the other and score completely by themselves. It takes the whole team working with each other to make a goal.

Each player has a role based on their particular strengths. The goalie defends the goal and stays at the goal line. Defenders stay back with the goalie to help block the opposing team from scoring. The sweeper is a special defender that stays behind the other defenders. Midfielders play between the defenders and the forwards as a link. The forwards are responsible for most of the team's scoring. A striker is often the top scorer of the forwards.

The team spirit is crucial to winning. Each member must be willing to sacrifice at least some of his own ego for the good of the team. They have to be willing to be away from the ball to win the prize. It would appear that the forwards get all the glory - their job is to score a goal. Does that discourage the defenders from being 100 percent involved in the game? No, because they know their role is just as important.

In a bee hive the worker bees support the queen but hive must work together to survive. A colony of ants all have their jobs and a common purpose. A formation of geese support each other creating an uplift for the bird behind making the migration for the whole group easier. A pack of wolves, a herd of gazelle and a flock of penguins all work in this balance of the individual working toward the good of the group.

The purpose of yoga is union. The universal and the individual come together to honor each other. Nature flows through each individual. It is part of us. Yet we are all unique with our own gifts and flaws. Through focusing on the breath, through honoring our divine nature and individual truth, we can move through life with grace and ease. Our poses remind us how to move deeply into places in our bodies and minds that tend to be forgotten. We pulse between expanding and connecting outward with the Universal and contracting and drawing inward getting to know ourselves individually at a deeper level.

Each system in Nature reflects this dance between the Universal and its parts. The solar system, the galaxies, and planet earth all are composed of individual units working together as a whole. What is our grand purpose? It could be as simple as celebrating being an integral part of this big, beautiful world and expressing it in our own unique way.