“Set an intention,” said Christina, my yoga teacher, at the beginning of class yesterday. She says this often and I take her message to heart. Usually, I skim through the lives and situations of my three daughters, tabulating which one needs my intention most that day.

I try to keep my intention in mind through the sun salutations and down dogs, though I can’t always say I’m successful. Yesterday we tackled garudasana, eagle pose, so mostly I tried to stay upright.

But a couple of hours after yoga class I spoke with the very daughter I’d made the focus of my intention. She had resolved a problem we’d discussed earlier, she said, had made a decision she’d been thinking about for days.

It was most likely just a coincidence, but I like to think that some little transfer took place, that the regard and effort of one life can somehow be applied to another. Wouldn’t that be something? A chink in the armor and boundaries of self, proof of our permeability, reason to hope in the power and the purpose of everyday actions.