Checking the Grip

Have Faith in the Plan.
One must always have faith in the plan, even when the plan seems askew, or illogical.

People have a tendency to cling tightly to their plans. The internal compass points North, and we endeavor to remain trained on that mark. We hold fast to the direction, and in this day and age, seem duty bound to speed to our destinations.

Why?

What is the hurry?

Is it because the only way we are going to find real rest, true peace, is to lay lifeless in a box?
I actually do think that sometimes. No kidding, when I die, FINALLY... there will be no more rounds of kitchen cleaning, no more endless laundry. Why did I ever think...?

I didn't.

When I became a wife and mother, I did not picture that my life would be an infinite cycle of dishes and laundry. I didn't know "Mother" equals "Servant." I didn't know that when you possess the only mature vagina in a household, you are expected to do everything no one else wants to... because it is important they get their requisite television viewing and vegging out time.

I didn't know being a wife and mother meant being a dumpster.

My true North still exists, and this... loop... I am in, just isn't it.

Photo Credit: Becky Ivett (Beautiful Life Images)

I've been thinking today about Holding the Reins. Like riding a horse, or steering anything with two hands, really. You can relax your grip without letting go of the direction, right? When you relax, you are called to trust more. Relaxing allows for the possibility of the path changing. It means you may see things you wouldn't have otherwise.

However, if you drop a rein, you may spend a bit of time going in circles.

Like, endless loops...

Ridiculous

Do you think?
If it were your child bearing that label, would you be so quick to use it describe every negative thing in your life?

Ankles, Tendons and Heels, OH MY!

This has not made it into my blog, so could be a long story, but I guess I will just jump right into the middle. Yoga really brought me into a healthier state of being - mentally and physically. Yoga acted as a gateway to wanting to be and feel healthier, happier, fitter, all of the time, in every way.

Indoor yoga made me want to take yoga outdoors. Outdoor yoga made me want to take walks outside… walking led to running. Slow running led to faster running…

Faster running led to re-injuring my ankle, re-igniting plantar fasciitis, and igniting Achilles Tendonitis.

I was yoga-ing less, and feeling the burn much more!

Now, for real, I'm a flexible person. I have had a very hard time with understanding what this pose was actually supposed to do. That's where I was, on the floor, exploring this pose, and asking myself 'what is this pose even about?'
Then….

*POP!*

My toes tingled, something felt different… No Way, right? Not after months of rehab, strength and all of these therapies, right?

Yep. The answer was (and continues to be) Half Happy Baby Pose.
I do this pose daily and sometimes several times a day to keep whatever that-thing-is-in-the-back-of-my-leg where it is supposed to be.
Now, there is still work and healing to be done. My heel still feels bruised sometimes. I have to rest and keep re-aliging with this pose. The thing I have learned, though, is that no matter where my healthy living intentions and habits take me, I cannot ever leave my yoga practice.

Namaste ;-)

The Perfection in "Imperfection"

This post is about the transgender community.

If you are sick of reading about it, shuffle on.
If reading about anything that isn't your opinion will inflame you, please don't waste your time here.

This is my thought. It could be a wrong thought, I don't know. I'm just putting it here for others to consider. I don't think I can be convinced of anything aside from this just yet.

I can understand what it is to feel like you are one thing on the inside, and something different on the outside. It makes sense! We are all on that journey in some way or another: to try to find inner peace and achieve some sense of balance in our lives.

Those that comprise the transgender community are faced with this challenge at the highest level. What makes it worse, I think, is that we live in a society that makes it seem as though you must be one gender or the other.

My question is… Why?

Why?

If you feel one gender internally and physically express the opposite gender - what if you worked to embrace and incorporate both?

Wouldn't that be beautiful?

What if you aren't "trapped?" What if you simply and beautifully contain ALL?

What if you are ALL - ALL in one body, mind and spirit?

The amount of surgery and trauma these forms are sometimes choosing to undergo in order to conform to one gender or the other truly concerns me. When people go through multiple procedures to change their appearance for aesthetic reasons, we wonder if they have body dysmorphic disorder. The health implications  — both short and long term — are frightening. If society simply embraced people who embody both genders, would our transgender people still feel compelled to subject themselves to these of multiple, intense, elective procedures?

Perhaps we won't know until there is acceptance. Societal acceptance AND personal acceptance.

Isn't that what we are ALL after?