When the student is ready, the teacher disappears.

Six or so years ago, I read a book called Awake in the World: Teachings from Yoga and Buddhism for Living an Engaged Life by Michael Stone.

Michael Stone is dead now.

On Thursday July 13, Michael left his Gulf Island home for a routine trip to Victoria. On the way into town, he called a substance abuse and addictions pharmacy, likely to ask for a safe, controlled drug to self-medicate. He was not a candidate. He got a haircut, exercised, ran household errands and finally acquired a street drug. Initial toxicology tests suggest inconclusively that he had opioids, including fentanyl, in his system. Because of the back up due to the fentanyl crisis, it will be five months before the conclusive toxicology test results are in.

Fentanyl is the stuff that killed Prince. The opioid epidemic is certainly cutting a swathe across the US and Canada.

I am not going to comment on how jarring it is to hear of a teacher with a baby on the way crossing over like this. It was a strange thing to discover the day after I persuaded Ben to come along and try a yoga class with me later this summer