Listening

As I stepped inside my own private yoga studio this afternoon I was surprised to feel my shoulders relax as I walked toward the mat. I hadn't even realized they were sitting a little higher than they should be. I knew why I was going up there. My lumbar spine has been giving me a bit of grief since Friday. Not great pain but any pain in my back is very unfamiliar to me. I was returning to what I know best. My yoga practice.

I turned on some soft yoga music and settled in. Deep slow breaths. In and out, again and again. I have a sequence memorized. Every now and then I'll add something new to it. I can do this without thinking and I find great comfort in this. Focus on the breath. What I didn't expect was to still be sitting with my eyes closed, still focused on the breath, seven minutes later. Curious, I thought. As I began my sequence, ever so slowly but as sure as I knew it would, my back started to soften, the muscles began to release their tight grip.

Early in the practice I noticed something I did not like. I could feel little 'crack,crack, cracks' as I moved from pose to pose. Those poses that were easy to do required more effort. Everything in my body was just a little bit tighter than it was before. And then it hit me. I was not paying attention to what my body has been trying to tell me. I wasn't listening to the needs it presented. I had quieted my intuition long enough.

I always tell my daughters to trust their gut. It is my first answer to their "what should I do?" questions. Yet I have been so busy and preoccupied that I wasn't heeding my own advice. It is hard sometimes to live in the NOW when the THEN is so up in the air. I find myself missing what today has to teach me because I am thinking too much about what tomorrow will bring. So busy with that, in fact, that I have been letting tension and tiredness build up. I am robbing myself of today's joy.  And I don't want to live like that for another minute.

So today I will look through my High Mowing Organic seed catalogue and actually place an order. If I don't get a garden this year, seeds can keep until next year.

I will download my third week's information from my Whole Food Kitchen course and actually try some of the recipes.

I will continue to knit my wool hat because we still have a whole lot of winter to enjoy.

I will read my book, play with my child, talk with my husband and have some wine and I'll remember to be oh so thankful for everything I do have in this life because truly I have much and life is fragile and much too short to live for tomorrow when today is all we are given for sure. Will you join me in counting your blessings? It's a better way to live.