As you arrive,
Arrive.
Breathing in intentionally.
Breathing out and surrendering.
Feel where you are connected to the earth.
Feel your breath connecting to the center of your being.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Welcome to a hit of hope.
Many people I know have been sick lately,
In big and small ways.
Thinking about these dear others has made me realize health is like balance.
It's never a one and done.
Health and balance both require a constant shifting,
A perpetual adjusting,
An eternal act of arranging.
Does that list make anyone else exhausted?
In a world that places constant demands on us,
To think that health is just one more thing that requires our constant attention,
Feels unfair and overwhelming.
It's why we all want the exercise,
The diet,
The pill to make it all okay.
Inhale.
Exhale.
The Oxford English Dictionary says,
Health is to make whole,
Or a goodness of condition.
It also says to make sound,
The quality or fact of being in harmony.
Music as a metaphor for health.
Music can be a holy chant and a rocker's rage and everything in between.
And what if health is that way too?
We can feel so good,
We damn near glow.
We can feel so bad,
Explosive and spewing,
Rotten and rotting,
Weak and helpless.
And we get better and we get worse.
And we wonder how long and what next?
Inhale.
Exhale.
In both music and health,
We experience the full range of what it means to be human.
While it's easy to see the fact that health is dynamic as a punishment,
It's just as true that it could be an invitation.
Much like the invitation that music offers us.
To listen and to practice.
Imagine sitting at a concert and having a loud voice behind you offering constant commentary.
Louder,
Faster,
More,
More.
Our bodies are constantly singing us songs.
What if we shut the hell up once in a while and actually listen?
Let me be clear,
This is not to promote shame or should.
The hell with those.
This is to be a curious and engaged participant in a beautiful and moving piece that is playing out within the very fabric of our beings.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Health and music and meditation share something else.
All are grounded in the importance of practice.
Practice is to pursue or be engaged in,
To perform regularly in order to acquire,
Improve or maintain.
Trust me,
I get it.
Practice can feel depleting.
One more damn thing to do on a list that is like a hydra.
Cross one thing off and three more tasks sprout up in its place.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Practice is one way to get things to change.
It's an opportunity to see what happens when,
What happens if.
In other words,
It's an opportunity to explore and play and see what makes us feel strong and balanced,
Grounded and light in the very center of our being.
Inhale.
Exhale.
This is the one life you get.
The one body you get.
And health is an unfolding song.
Listen and practice.
Listen and practice.
And live light.
