Stretching Beyond Difficulties

We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure can anything grow.

 -Alain de Botton

I begin the day with a yoga class to move past tightness and breathe beyond difficulties. This vinyasa class includes poses held longer,  movement and a focus on balance and intensity. The challenges of class force me into the moments as I loosen muscles and breathe through my monkey mind.

During the days of my athletic competitions, the goal became ferocity and winning beyond the moment. We would say, "Some people focus on what they're going through, champions focus on what they're going to." In yoga the moment means focus without a need for the goal. It becomes difficult to avoid thinking about the "going to" when I fall out of a pose.

Breathe!

Breathing takes over. With twists and turns, my mind and limbs ease into the poses. Stretching right side, then left extends boundaries. How grateful I feel not to possess the appendages of an octopus today; four limbs require enough focus.

Remaining in each moment soothes the day's tightness. Strength past the struggle enlivens my body and mind. With a concentration on breathing, the process itself unravels frustration and opens possibilities the way my writing does. 

After class I watch clouds clumping and flying. The day seeps into my cells and brings thoughts of renewal with flashes of color and sound that erupt from the earth in flowers, songbird trill and waves.

I feel refreshed and returned to my buoyance, ready to write. 

Creative Write: Consider what you find difficult today. How will you bring successes from the past to your present moments of discomfort? Write to discover and move beyond today's difficulties.

Dare to Write

He lives the poetry that he cannot write. Others write the poetry they dare not realize. 

~ Oscar Wilde

What does this quotation mean for your writing?  

Have you pushed the edges?  

Do you experiment beyond your comfort zone?

Go for it today!  Write about your expectations for success in different areas of writing.  

Success comes in cans not in cannots. What do you dare not realize?

Ecstasy and Laundry

A Zen koan reveals, "After the ecstasy, the laundry." It refers to how to return to life after a period of meditation or enlightenment.  I think about it during my laundry chores. I'd like a thrill after hard work. Get the tedium over, then the fun begins.

Writing, running and photographing nature create my ecstacy.  No joy exists for house maintenance. I prefer studying and reveling in nature rather than re-arranging dust.


Ecstacy finds me easy prey but it doesn't motivate the urge to do laundry.  Why not stuff everything in one load and be done?

No thrills during the separation of whites and color 

items, synthetics and towels.

Nothing stirs from a sniff of detergent; no images of flower fields.  

Let the machines tumble and twirl in their ecstasy.

During my morning run I continue to consider the arrangement of ecstasy and laundry. The wind tickles my ears as the flow engages.

Watching sea birds, a sensation of flight takes over. Upon returning home no eagerness for laundry sparks.

A writing project beckons from the darkness of my computer. I put in a load of towels and start expressing a forgotten idea.

Hmm, I feel a shift from words to laundry.

Folding warm towels and smoothing the corners provides a sense of calm. Aha! my last load splays in colors on the floor. Time to combine whites, colors, synthetics. Now, that's "one hand clapping."

Creative Write:  What creates ecstasy in your life?  Write about it and how it affects the chores that follow.