The Poetry of Everyday Living

In my yoga teacher’s bio, I say that The Poetry of Everyday Living is my biggest source of inspiration. I realized this when I came across one of my very first poems written in second or third grade. The topic was “If you could be a flower, what would you be?” I don’t have the poem here in front of me but it went something like this…

If I could be a flower, I would be a rose because it is such a beautiful flower but it also has thorns to protect itself so no one will hurt it.

In that line I distilled the essence of my young life and I think captured what many of us feel on a daily basis. I wanted to thrive and be beautiful but I have always been afraid of being hurt. I was also aware that life is full of beauty and pain and sometimes that pain really does serve an important purpose.

This past month of my life has been quite “poetic” – filled with many ups and downs. I’ve had a hard run of pain, theft, loss, fear and doubt. Among other small challenges, my downward spiral began with the re-emergence of an old injury offering me headaches, nausea and neck pain. I lost a job with no notice the week of Christmas. I had my purse stolen. I’m afraid that the person who stole my purse made a trip to my home and to my friend’s home. I’m afraid of further repercussions from the theft. People close to me had sudden losses as well. As soon as I thought to myself, well at least everyone is healthy, my husband’s grandmother suddenly passed away. I’m afraid to think of what might be next and I’m afraid to hope it’s all over. I know it could be worse but it was hard.

Losing Granny Solomon was hard on my husband’s family as well as it is for me. My father was orphaned at nine in Ireland. My mother came from a large but fractured family. I prayed to my “angel” grandmother and I loved the one grandmother that I knew but she passed away when I was 12. Granny Solomon was my grandmother longer than I had one of my own alive. She took me in just like I really was one of her grandchildren. We will all miss her greatly but there is so much goodness, happiness and love that she left behind that will always be felt whether she is here in body or not.

This is the poetry of life. Even in dark times, there is beauty to be held and appreciated. The things that happen to us may not feel good but they do shift our perception and understanding of the world. It is up to each of us to decide how we will look out into the world after life writes challenges for us. There’s no doubt that life is full of challenges and “bad” things do happen to good people everyday. The thing is we can grow from these challenges if we choose.

The other day there was a Facebook comment where someone asked, “Am I the only one who doesn’t think that all things happen for a reason?” I’m not sure about that. I think that perhaps all things DON’T happen for a reason BUT we can reason all things. We have the potential to see the silver lining in every cloud.

In each of the challenges I’ve faced over the last month I have grown in ways that I otherwise wouldn’t have. I’ve experienced that pain as pain draws us deeper into ourselves, it also has the potential to connect us deeper to those we care about and who care about us with love and support. Having said that I’m ready for a little more sunshine in my life!

Striking a Balance Between Inner and Outer Peace

As a yoga teacher, I'm always looking for bits of inspiration both to keep me feeling inspired and empowered and to share with my students. New Year's offers so much in the way of inspiration, motivation and challenges to uplift your current state of being and movement through life. When I read the invitation to "strike a balance between inner and outer peace" I just had to stop and ponder, how do you really do that and what does that really mean?

To me having a balance between inner and outer peace means to remember that ultimately I do not have the power to control external forces. Believe me the world would be quite a different place if I could and I bet it would for you too! But just because I can't change it or even because I really don't like a lot of what I see right now in the world doesn't mean that I can't have a level of peace about it. What I do know is that even though I can't control the world, what I do matters. What I do on a daily basis touches and influences life around me. So it's important for me to me to stay strong, to stay hopeful, to stay as positive as possible in hopes of at least tinting life around me in a more beautiful hue.

What we say and what we do matters. It colors the world around us. We may not choose what happens around us and even to us but we do have the opportunity to choose how we will react in relation to life's external forces. By cultivating internal peace and harmony we create a greater potential to channel that same peace and harmony outside ourselves.

Winter

The world curls in upon herself,
...to rest
...to renew,
to reignite she waits,
...with patience
...with hope.

In all seasons of life, there is great beauty (even if it is all covered in ice and snow!)

Sometimes we just have to wait and be at peace with the waiting.

A New Beginning

Hey all, I've moved! Thanks for visiting my new home. If you saw on Facebook that I'm hoping to leave behind a string of unfortunate events, you could say that the start of the string was my old blog. I started that blog with a free trial of iweb. It was great while it was free. The moment I paid for it a whole series of technical difficulties began which will include rebuilding my website and working out some kinks on my computer. Next, I lost one of my part time jobs that I had for 12 years just 2 days before Christmas with no notice! And, finally — I say finally because I am very hopeful that it was in deed the end of the string of "bad luck" — my purse was stolen. Yup! The whole thing... keys, wallet, phone.... So here I am beginning again, thankful that I've found a practice of looking for the good in things. Although I'm not happy about many of the events over the past month, each of them has offered me an opportunity to grow and has shown me that even though I may have lost something I still have so much to be grateful for.

This blog is dedicated to the practice of exploring life with an open heart, and to appreciating the exquisite poetry of everyday life with it's twists and turns, textures, color, rhythms, patterns and at times, it's seeming chaos. Even in the darkest corners of life, a bold spirit can find beauty and light and bring it out for all to share.