It can be a herculean task to commit to meditation,
To settle down,
To settle in.
And so well done you for arriving here.
Inhale,
Exhale.
Welcome to a hit of hope.
Some friends and I were recently hiking on a mountain in Arizona,
And it just so happened to be the very same mountain where they were doing the man versus horse race that day.
If you aren't familiar with it,
This race began as a bet in a bar.
And it pits runners against people riding horses to see who wins.
The race is 50 miles in the mountains.
You heard me right.
50 miles in the mountains.
Inhale,
Exhale.
At the start of our trail,
It was the seventh check-in for the racers.
And the people sitting there told us that the racers would soon be arriving.
That meant that for a while,
Our trail would be one that we shared with those in the race.
We couldn't wait to see who was in the lead.
It took a while,
But the first to pass us was a runner.
He was sweaty,
Sure,
But his eyes were clear and he was barely breathing hard.
In fact,
He looked more like he was out for a six-mile run.
Not that he had just finished mile 35.
Up a frickin' mountain.
Over ten minutes later,
Two horses passed us and both the riders and the powerful beasts were sweat-streaked.
We kept hiking and before long,
We came to a fork in the trail.
My daughter had done long-distance horse racing,
So I knew that the pink tape hanging from the trees meant that our trail was now going to leave the one that the horses and the humans were on.
So we decided to sit at that spot for a while,
Cheering on whoever came next.
We sat and sat.
Finally,
A man appeared.
His hands were on his legs,
Pushing down on them in order to help him up the incredibly steep grind in this section of the trail.
The man looked like he had just done 35 miles on a mountain with the Arizona sun beating down on his head.
And yet when he saw us and heard us cheering,
He smiled.
Next did the next man,
And the next who had blood streaming down his leg from a nasty scrape on his knee.
Inhale.
Exhale.
You might be wondering,
As we did,
Why in the hell would anyone in their right mind willingly,
Even eagerly sign up for something like this?
I'm sure there are as many answers to that question as there were competitors in the race.
And yet,
I'm sure all of them shared a common desire.
To see what the body and the spirit can do.
In one of the most demanding of situations,
Conceivable.
Inhale.
Exhale.
There are times when we sign up for challenge,
Just like those racers did.
There are times when we want to prove what we are made of,
Showing ourselves and the world our grit and courage.
You might be able to guess what I'm going to say next.
There are times when challenge comes barreling at us like that big boulder in Indiana Jones.
And all we can do is gather our wits and resources to do everything in our power to survive.
Inhale.
Exhale.
As I often say,
We never know what's coming next.
And that's why I love that race,
As well as meditation and yoga.
Because things like that all give us a chance to practice facing challenge.
They give us an opportunity to make ourselves uncomfortable in order to get stronger,
More nimble,
More alive because of it.
We have all kinds of choices about how we live,
Regardless of what life sends our way.
So what if you make seeing what you are capable of as a holy duty?
What if you choose to do something this day and every day to lean into possibility,
To lean into the yearning for more,
To attempt something out of optimism and curiosity,
To become more and more capable in your own power,
Your own possibility?
What if you feed yourself a steady diet of longing and hope?
And most importantly,
What if you know you are loved,
You are okay,
You are enough,
No matter what you do or don't do?
If you can believe that,
That you are enough,
That you are okay.
If you can live fully into that,
Then it doesn't really matter how big the mountains are or how long the journey is.
You will have blown away all limitations because you will be that holy,
Powerful being that is you and you will be so strong and full of light that all who meet you on their path will cheer as you pass by.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Live light.
