Hey there.
Settle your sitz bones.
Center in your center.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Welcome to a hit of hope.
And this one's a bit salty.
Well,
Bless my cotton socks.
Life is interesting.
Last week,
I had an encounter that did not go as planned.
It left me feeling frustrated,
Questioning what I was doing.
As some of you may know,
I ducked into my closet and recorded a meditation called,
It's Hard to Put Yourself Out There.
Inhale.
Exhale.
It is so true.
It's hard to put ourselves out there.
It could be anything from a new job to a new house to a new love to having a conversation with a stranger to trying to find a new way of being,
Because you've figured out the old way isn't working.
Inhale.
Exhale.
What makes it so hard is that every time we put ourselves out there,
We have the potential to fail or flail or fall or feel awkward or frustrated as hell.
Inhale.
Exhale.
That very same day,
When I got frustrated with how my life was going,
Someone reached out to me with an idea for a yoga retreat that had never occurred to me.
And suddenly,
I couldn't wait to pursue it,
Because the idea flowed together with something I've been chewing on for a while now.
Live.
Light.
Way.
To live means to be alive,
Nourished,
Capable of vital functions,
The opposite of dead.
Light means to be luminous,
A light to make a discovery,
The opposite of being weighed down.
Way means to go,
A path for traveling,
A spiritual journey,
And it's the opposite of blocked.
Inhale.
Exhale.
We all want to be alive,
Luminous,
And traveling our very own idiosyncratic path,
Don't we?
And wouldn't it be fabulous if we could all band together,
Much like the little hairy-footed hobbits in The Lord of the Rings,
And help one another as we journeyed along our paths?
Inhale.
Exhale.
This doesn't mean that suddenly everything is going to go our way.
We still might put ourselves out there,
And fall,
And flail,
And get back up.
But wouldn't it be dilly green,
Which is the Minnesota version of peachy keen,
If we all decided to magnify the good in one another?
To learn,
To practice,
To nourish our worn and weary bodies,
Minds,
And spirits.
Inhale.
Exhale.
At the heart of my recent thinking has been this idea that even though life often goes sideways,
Or knocks us on our asses,
We can still choose our change.
And we do that by live light way.
Or at least that's one of the ways we can do it.
So if you are listening to this,
You are alive.
Your situation might be shitty as hell,
But you are alive.
If that's the case,
What choice could you make right now that would help you feel nourished?
To move away from feeling dead and move you toward feeling capable?
Vital?
This doesn't have to be winning the Nobel Peace Prize or the lottery.
It could be as simple as inviting a friend over for dinner,
Or reading something inspiring,
Or playing pickleball,
Or listening to birdsong in morning air.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Another question,
No matter what is going on in your life right now,
What choice could you make to help you feel light?
Luminous.
What's the rubble you could move away,
The rubble that's keeping you weighed down?
And how could you move toward some kind of discovery that brings you joy?
Or some sort of centering that helps you live light?
It might be as simple as inhale and exhale.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
And another question,
What choice could you make right now to help you feel as if you are on your path,
The path of your choosing?
What choice could you make right now to start moving away from feeling blocked and buried and move toward that idea that you are traveling on your journey and all kinds of adventures,
The good,
The bad,
And the fugly are going to happen.
So how can you develop your character and be the hero in your own story?
Inhale.
Exhale.
Life is hard,
But bless my cotton socks,
We can be on our merry live light way by putting ourselves out there again and again.
We can choose our change,
Even if that is simply to meet our conditions with our real and vulnerable selves who are just doing the best they can.
Inhale.
Exhale.
There is no spoiler alert here.
We know how every single person's story on earth ends.
So let's get our hairy feet out there and choose our change and find our own live light way.
Making the intentional choice to be alive and alight as we each walk our very own weird and wonderful path.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Live light.
