Gratitude 2015
Happy Thanksgiving!
Isn't it awesome that we have a holiday that's about celebrating the people, events, and things we're grateful for? That we have built into our year a time of reflection, gathering with loved ones, and enjoying each others' company? I always get a bit contemplative at this time of year and enjoy spending time in reflection with questions like these.
This Thanksgiving for me is truly a time of celebration, and of humbly offering gratitude to Life and its journey. After 2 years and 3 months of being in Canada, things are now official:: I received my open work permit on Monday of this week, just in time for the holiday of gratitude. This means I can teach yoga and offer astrology wherever I'd like in the country of Canada! It has certainly been a long time coming....I had no idea what I was jumping into when I said "yes" to the adventure of moving to the "great north", but it's been filled with ups and downs that I believe have built my character into something more interesting, complex, fierce, and humble. So much of this is what life is about...learning to navigate skillfully and gracefully even the most daunting and challenging of situations. And although I wasn't as graceful at times as I could have been, the journey has taught me more than I could have imagined. And for that, I am infinitely grateful.
Joni Mitchell, as well as many others, has said, "don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone." I think I fully understand the meaning of this one, and I'll bet many of my community members do too. Stepping away from my Southeast community was one of the most challenging decisions of my life, yet there was a part of me that knew it was the right one. The great thing is that I will always come back home to the South, no matter what, and I always find myself carrying the people, the experiences, and the energy of the South in my heart, wherever I go.
In Tantric philosophy, the spanda, or pulsation, is the relationship that takes place everywhere on this plane of reality. From the beating of our hearts, to the in and out of the breath, to the vibrations of our thoughts, the spanda is in everything. There are times of increase, there are times of decrease; times of concealment, and times of revelation. And each time actually contains a bit of its opposite. While the past 2 years have been a time of concealment overall for me, there have still been amazing moments of revelation, opening, and expansion within the cloaking face of grace. It's during these times of concealment that it becomes most important to remember and FEEL into what we're grateful for. What are the things that open your heart, allowing it to expand beyond any idea you have of yourself? What experiences has the past year offered you that have made you stronger, brighter, kinder, wiser? Who are the people who have lighted your path from their example, modeling what it means to be a quality human? Which experiences have made you more graceful, wise, and loving? I encourage you to spend some time with these things, allowing them to bring you into your heart over and again so that you can live and breathe from this place! And I'll be doing the same...resonating deeply in this space of richness that fills us up in the most meaningful ways.
