Diversions

People have been all abuzz –anticipating the return of our favorite shows. And now, it’s upon us! Premier week! No spoilers here, I promise. One can only imagine how great expectations have motivated many of us to hustle in preparation for the awaited hour -lunches made for the morrow and the kitchen cleaned up. This past Monday night at eight o’clock, sharp, there I was settled in my comfy chair in front of the TV to hear the announcement, Live from Hollywood – It’s Dancing with the Stars!  After two hours of pure entertainment,  my other favorite, Castle, followed. What can I say? It’s just plain fun & I’m all for having fun.

And sometimes, let’s be frank - one just needs a little diversion. Last week – if you can believe it ––I watched Here Comes Honey BooBoo.

Yes, its’ true. I have a confession to make  - here was a deliberate ploy to avoid some other more worthwhile undertakings. Thoughts in my head had been flipping around like some pin ball machine that day and I felt the need to just veg out.

So, what did I think about Honey Boo Boo? 

Who has time to watch this stuff? Does anyone really care?  After the show, I wasted even more time and surfed the internet to shed a little more light on what I had just viewed. One article stated, “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo has become more than just a reality television show. It has become an important slice of modern American culture.” Say what? Personally, I’m not wanting to have another slice of this American pie. I’ve had my fill. Thank you very much. I’ll draw the line and say pooh pooh to Honey Boo Boo.

Even so, I don’t want to spoil your fun if you’re into that show…

I’m just speaking of my experience here.

There are times I enter into an evening of entertainment with a keen awareness that if I give in to too much electronics I could slip into some kind of commercialized coma and lose my balance. Such was the case Monday evening after all the suspense of Castle. I was an insomniac into the wee hours of the night. *sigh* Just like that, I lost a healthy rhythm of sleep.

I have to be careful, then, as I settle into the new season of my favorite shows that I not get slain with entertainment that dulls the senses and kills the spirit. It’s interesting to note that the TV section of our local newspaper is called DIVERSIONS. That very word gives me pause and I can’t help but be reminded each time I scan the listings for shows that I might enjoy, that I do have a choice to do something that will soothe rather than ramp me up - like read or knit. As I reflect on this, I wonder how often my decision to plunk down in front of the TV is a form of escapism or worse, sabotage.

So, I ask myself a simple question, and invite you to consider - with no intention of spoiling anyone’s evening of entertainment and fun  - why am I turning on the TV? Is it time to turn the thing on or off?

(google image)

Well, on Monday night, I for one, will be turning on the TV to simply enjoy some good plain fun and (in my opinion) some well scripted drama. What's your favorite this season?

Heart Opener

My heart was so heavy it felt like I was lying in the dentist chair with one of those lead aprons on. Not my favorite place to be. Thankfully, I was in a much better place. At the yoga studio, in the flow of the morning’s practice, something broke free. My heart expanded as we moved and meditated on this,

 from Psalm 18: 16 – 19:

But he caught – reached all the way from sky to sea; he pulled me out

of the ocean of hate, that enemy chaos,

the void in which I was drowning.

They hit me when I was down,

but God stuck by me,

He stood me up on a wide-open field; I stood there saved – surprised to be loved!

(google image)

During the hour of heart openers a dream was recalled. The dream was representative of what the morning’s practice was inviting me to  -body, mind, soul and spirit - a more expansive place.  The dream found me in a Plexiglas cube tangled up with a bittersweet vine. The vine was growing at a tremendous rate and crowding me out until I was trapped in a tiny corner with no room to breathe. As it pressed against me the pain was great. Panic was setting in. Suddenly, at the last possible moment, before I was crushed under its weight and entangling branches, the intense pressure building up BURST open the cube and I tumbled out as the vine sprung out and shook with great trembling. Seeds scattered. They were seeds of contempt. The root was exposed and it was recognized as the root of bitterness. Together, they had bound me up and restrained me. In that moment of new awareness, with loving-kindness, I saw all the bitterness, all the contempt strewn like ripe seeds and berries of a bittersweet vine. As they scattered, these seeds were transformed into seeds of compassion. I was transformed and transported to an expansive place of love. Love for self. Love for others. Love for God. Why would that be a surprising place to find myself in?

 I've been there before....                                                                        May it be so for you.

Contented Yogi

Too much? Too little? What’s right? What’s wrong? Can it be just this? Or might it be that?  

A while back in yoga class I was invited to do more than I thought myself capable of and was thrilled with the possibility of progress. Then, a couple of weeks later, I was cautioned to not think of myself more highly than I ought as our instructor shared the story from Greek mythology of Icarus:

… His father, who had built wings from feathers and wax, warned Icarus not to fly too low lest his wings touch the waves and get wet and not too high lest the sun melt the wax. But, the young Icarus, overwhelmed by the thrill of flying, did not heed his father's warning, and flew too close to the sun whereupon the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea and drowned.

http://www.island-ikaria.com/culture/myth.asp

The practice with Icarus reminded me to stay grounded and centered and balanced as we were challenged to hold certain uncomfortable poses longer. In the process I found that I was capable of more – in the here and now. That was what that practice bore – a sense of the now. Of the moment. Being present in the moment.

These two lessons have stuck with me and now, at the studio once again this morning, I, who have too often felt that I was either too much or not enough, may have found the middle ground. The middle ground, it seems, is in the balance. Balancing postures always challenge me. Over the years of practicing yoga, the strength and core positions give clear indication that there is progression in my practice. But, it's those balance postures which seem to be my nemesis. Even so, I persist with patience and trust that as I practice, practice, practice, progress will be met.

The middle ground of balance seems to flow from contentment. Contentment rises up as I root down in loving kindness and compassion for myself. A Biblical text, Matthew 5: 5 as paraphrased in the Message frames this well for me this morning: You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are – no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

Balance can’t be bought. It can, however be practiced. It can be learned. I am learning to be content in spite of  unsettling questions that tip me off center.

Where are you feeling off balance today? How can you extend loving kindness and compassion to yourself? Where is contentment to be found? These  are just a few questions that I ask of me as I leave this page.
I hold them gently as I go on to the rest of my day. May it be so for you.

                                                                 Image -  Vida Yoga Mandela Vector Art White

Waiting Still...

Back in December of 2012 my friend, Carissa, invited me to be her guest blogger. She published the following in February of this year: http://carissawoodwyk.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/a-grandma-in-waiting/

I was waiting…wondering….

Cora Mae was born on April 11 and I had to wait a full three weeks before I got to meet her. These weeks were full of longing.

The planned visit couldn’t come soon enough. There was so much anticipation. Thankfully, telephone calls and IPhone images captured and posted to my INBOX soothed the waiting time.
Finally – the day arrived when I could fly out and meet the precious darling.

 

Now, here I am - home for two weeks already after having had an amazing three weeks bonding with my new grandbaby. Cora Mae is 8 weeks old now – one can see that time is flying by!  Meanwhile, I’ve been assured and reassured that this long distance factor is not as big a deal as I had feared. Hmmmm – note to self – not… as I had feared. Here is new and exciting territory to be learned and navigated.  A new relationship is forming. One cannot dictate how the dynamics of this bond will play out over the years. I’m in a time of waiting – a time of incubation.The one thing I know I can do is show up with loving intention –whatever that will look like.

As another grandma congratulated me on my new role she had this to say about long-distance grand parenting – 

[I think this] opens up a whole new opportunity for creative communication. I send lots of little    packages, for no reason except to say "Grandma loves you!" I write her letters (even if she can't read), I read her books on Skype and do show and tell. They do come back [home] every summer, so we do get some face-to-face time. And most of all, I pray for her every day, and that increases the "grandma-love" more than anything.  I responded by saying: thanks for sharing my joy and sharing from your years of experience. Your words are taken as a storehouse of encouragement for the times of separation.

One of my favorite authors, who herself is a grandma brought encouragement as she shared from her experience of separation. In her book, Some Assembly Required, (which I think should be required reading for any and all grandmothers! See link below*) Ann Lamott suggests that “our love for each other (that of Anne & her grandson) is indelible, and not based on proximity.”

Indelible defined:  making marks that cannot be erased, removed… eliminated, forgotten, changed, or the like.

While I’m still waiting and wondering how this will all play out…. At this point in time I know my life has been indelibly changed now that I am a grandmother. Period. The long distance factor is inconsequential.

*http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_9?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=some+assembly+required&sprefix=some+asse%2Caps%2C259