the light in me honors the light in you
my first blog mention of fightmaster yoga is in october of 2014. i’ve been doing almost exclusively fightmaster yoga on youtube for 6 years, and on a daily basis for the past two years. her yoga is for everyone – 10-mintue yoga, beginner’s yoga, vinyasa flow yoga, hour+ ashtanga yoga, meditation, breathing, slow, fast. over new year’s, she’d do a challenge and new videos would get uploaded every day. otherwise, she’d upload a video about once a week. she has 673 videos on her youtube channel and more in her myyogapal app that she created with her husband.
i chose lesley because of the way her voice sounded and how she only expected the best we could do – not the full iteration of the pose. as long as you feel a stretch, that’s all that matters. there’s no enlightenment at the bottom of a split – just a sweaty yoga mat. every day i turned on a video and followed her easy instructions as i flowed through poses, listening more than watching. her quotes and affirmations at the end of the practice leave me feeling refreshed every time. her positive attitude and easy smiles are what makes me come back to her videos. i had wanted to go to one of her retreats or do yoga teacher training with her, or even just go to california and do a personal yoga practice with her. after the pandemic was over, it was my plan to find a way to go to her next yoga retreat.
this morning i found out that she died unexpectedly.
i’m on her email list, and her husband (duke) wrote to her followers with the news along with her last video upload. i don’t know what happened or how she died; duke is usually forthcoming, and i expect that he will update later on, but given the situation, i understand why there is no explanation right now.
i didn’t know lesley personally, but i still knew her. she was a voice i looked forward to every day (and still will in her old videos). she was a voice that i knew would always calm and relax me. she was a centered voice and an available voice. she was a voice that didn’t expect anything but the most you could do in the moment.
this it gut-wrenching. i will miss her.
namaste, lesley.
