Holy Yoga July 29, 2009

I started my day with a spontaneously unguided mini yoga session… very gentle and non-threatening self-guided instruction. I am very definitely in the worst shape of my life.  I am ready to completely start over with my approach to total health and wellness. I seek to modify my nutritional intake while mindfully honoring my physical and spiritual space.

I told myself that I wouldn’t judge my ability, or lack thereof, to effectively enter into the postures. My muscles are stubborn and unwilling. But with a little breathing, it wasn’t long before I was connecting on a meditative level and feeling thankful that I pulled myself out of bed at 5 am.

The thought entered my mind that reflection on scripture would complement my practice nicely, so afterward I googled Christian yoga. I found a website called Holy Yoga and I’m intrigued. The video on the home page has scripture references and the one that struck me as particularly poignant was “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” – Mark 12:30

Holy Yoga is a worldwide ministry and offers yoga certifications. Hmm…

Carolina July 24, 2009

“At first the tired body takes over completely. As on shipboard, one descends into a deck chair apathy. One is forced against one’s mind, against all tidy resolutions, back into the primeval rhythms of the seashore. Rollers on the beach, wind in the pines, the slow flapping of herons across sand dunes, drown out the hectic rhythms of city and suburb, timetables, and schedules. One falls under their spell, relaxes, stretches out prone. One becomes, in fact, like the element on which one lies, flattened by the sea; bare, open, empty as the beach, erased by today’s tide of all yesterday’s scribblings.”

- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

What is it about these Outer Banks that’s so different from the Jersey Shore I know and love? I’m smitten here. My soul quiet. Unfettered.

I’ve been trying to articulate this observation in my journal for five days now and I continue to sit and stare at a blank page. It’s as if my will to perform has been erased. Deck chair apathy, indeed. I can’t even read a book. It’s too much effort.

Amazingly, thankfully my heart is light. The love of my life is peaceful and content. Our children are calm and happy. Together our spirits are joyful.

I stumbled across the quote above while I browsed through a coffee table book on the last day of our Outer Banks vacation. It says everything I’ve been unable to say. And more.

Truly, this is the life.