On Thursday, when I walked into the 2nd grade classroom to teach yoga, they were busy at work. I stood over their desks and saw that they were learning about Dr Martin Luther King. They were reading a very brief article about the March on Washington and King’s I Have a Dream speech, and then responding to four questions. What year was the March? How many people were there? etc..

At the bottom of the page there was space for them to answer the question ‘What would your Dream be?’

I decided right then to scrap my previous plan, and do a Dr King inspired yoga class instead!

We flowed from Warrior 2 to Peaceful Warrior while we talked about justice, and finding peaceful solutions to problems. We held some balancing poses while we talked about standing tall and steady in our truth. We did some breathing exercises and talked about finding calm inside of ourselves first, so that we could share it with others.

At the end of class we passed the tingsha bells around a circle. Each student rang the bells and spoke their own dream out loud. I was blessed with the opportunity to hear over 100 dreams that day, 100 mini-I-have-a-dream speeches. They went something like this:

I have a dream…
That everybody could be nice to everybody else.
That everyone gets a second chance when they make a mistake.
That there would be no such thing as addictions.
That no one would take what isn’t theirs.
That nobody would be mean to anybody else.
That nobody had to be separated from their families.
That everyone who is hungry would have food.
That nobody was out in the cold.
That there would be no wars and no fighting.
That everybody would take care of the planet.
That nobody would be bullied and made fun of.
That everybody was treated the same.
That nobody had to be in jail.
That everybody had enough money.
That everybody had someone to love.
That there were no homeless people.
That everyone could be safe.
That people would take care of eachother.
And of course, there was a dream that everyone in the world could have a pet rabbit.
And also a Lamborghini.

We ended class as we always do with our closing words: ‘I see the good in you. You see the good in me. We all see the good in each other.’

I have a feeling, Dr King would approve.

‘Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.‘ MLK