I’m away from home and I’ve been thinking about a family of swans I stumbled across a couple of weeks ago while I was out for a walk.

I just finished teaching a full week of the 95 hour kids yoga teacher certification in New Orleans and I’ve got one more week left. Then I’ll be back home preparing to deliver the 95 hour summer certification in Burlington, Ontario.

Before I left for New Orleans I went for a walk along the lake shore of my hometown and to my utter delight, right smack in the middle of the marina along the pedestrian path, was a swan family building a giant nest!

Mama and Papa swan were hard at work piling branch upon branch making a home for three big eggs. The swans barely noticed us nosey human beings gathering around them (at a distance) pointing and giggling and taking photos. The majestic birds just focused on their nest building preparing to incubate their eggs and expand their family.

The swan is one of the most important symbolic creatures in all of yoga. It represents the breath and the connection of the finite to the Infinite. The symbolic swan can take us from our tiny individual self to our expansive higher Self.

In Sanskrit, a swan is called a hamsa and an accomplished yogi is called a paramahamsa (meaning transcendent swan). A yogi is one who gracefully glides across the ocean of life to liberation from time and space.

In other words, just like the swans I came across along the city lakeshore, being a yogic swan means living in the world with homes and traffic and humans side by side (all that stuff that can sometimes rub us the wrong way) while remaining cheerful and energized and focused on expanding ourselves.

Since swans incubate their eggs for about forty days I’m hoping I’ll get to witness those swan eggs hatch into baby cygnets when I return to Canada to begin the kids yoga teacher training in Burlington. That would be a great summer treat!

That got me wondering, what yoga plans do you have hatching this summer?

If you’ve been incubating the idea of becoming a kids yoga teacher then the Burlington 95 hour, 12 day certification which starts July 23 is a great way to get certified within two weeks. You still have time to take advantage of the early registration discount. The early registration deadline is approaching fast on June 30, 2017.

If you’re already a kids yoga teacher then I’ve got some links below to some earlier posts with ideas for the summer.

I hope you hatch something wonderful this summer!

• Already a kids yoga teacher? Here 5 yoga ideas for the end of the school year.
• Here are 8 Helpful Hints things kids yoga teachers can do in the summer.
• Summer can bring all kinds of volunteer opportunities for kids yoga teachers. I recently received a question from a past grad asking about when to volunteer and when to charge. Here is a blog post I wrote about that very topic.
• Some kids yoga teachers might still question their legitimacy. Here’s an article about risks and rewards of kids yoga teaching and using a mandala meditation to get clarity around that.
• And finally if you’re new to kids yoga teacher training here is an article explaining the different levels of certification.