Taken For Granted
Just as I’m no longer underestimating, I’m no longer taking ‘things’ for granted. Not people I’ve met through normal everyday encounters, people I’ve met quite by random to friends and family I’ve known, what seems, my entire life.
Everyone in your life is there for a reason. Every person an opportunity to learn more about you, or perhaps a chance encounter to deliver a message that allows that person to learn something about themselves. To miss that prospect to grow is a travesty just the same as if you’d lost a treasured item.
I wonder sometimes (especially now that I’ve adopted this idea) if I haven’t taken my ‘chance encounters’ for granted as they are typically in your life for such a short time: the shy girl in class in the eighth grade who glommed on to you when you were nice to her. She thought you were the best thing since peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The little boy who had a crush on you, but was afraid to tell you himself—although you knew, the girl you were paired with for an assignment in the eleventh grade; you’d never spoken to her before or since, but there was just something odd about the time you spent together. The child who looks up at you and remarks that “you look tired today,” in that honest way that children do. The brief encounter on the road: the incredibly attractive man who drove past you—only to meet up with him again in the express lanes where you felt compelled to glance across the lane and there he sat, looking back at you. I know what you’re thinking, “What’s the lesson there?” If open, always take the express lanes, of course! Regardless, I wonder now, did I learn something?
Whatever your ‘vehicle’ for meeting, there’s a reason you’ve met (says I) and a reason you should at least ponder it.
This blog, being about yoga insights, here’s another rationale for yoga etiquette rule number 6 (see Yoga Etiquette January 30th). Follow the instructor’s lead. Perhaps s/he will lead you to a pose that makes you question why you’re feeling tight in a certain area, or notice that your left side is much stiffer than your right. Or maybe you become meditative as you go through the ‘same old vinyasa’ that you always do—and while in rote practice, you allow your mind to wander and you stumble upon that answer you’ve been contemplating. Or maybe nothing happens and that is what’s called for that day.
I guess that’s why they’re called ‘chance’ encounters, they’re risks (not so unlike the daily lottery—which I haven’t played in years and perhaps should so that I can self-publish and sell you all copies of HER ESSENCE sooner rather than later. Oh, but I digress…) Anyhow, they’re little gambles on life that can bring you the love of your life, a simple answer, a beautiful child (let’s hope bearing children isn’t a random event, but you get my drift hopefully), or perhaps helps you get ‘unstuck’ if only for the briefest moment. What’s life without risk? Safe? Boring? There’s a quote that caught my eye a while back: “Life isn’t measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.” Author unknown.
Think about it.
Tomorrow or Sunday: Yoga Inspires Art
Everyone in your life is there for a reason. Every person an opportunity to learn more about you, or perhaps a chance encounter to deliver a message that allows that person to learn something about themselves. To miss that prospect to grow is a travesty just the same as if you’d lost a treasured item.
I wonder sometimes (especially now that I’ve adopted this idea) if I haven’t taken my ‘chance encounters’ for granted as they are typically in your life for such a short time: the shy girl in class in the eighth grade who glommed on to you when you were nice to her. She thought you were the best thing since peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The little boy who had a crush on you, but was afraid to tell you himself—although you knew, the girl you were paired with for an assignment in the eleventh grade; you’d never spoken to her before or since, but there was just something odd about the time you spent together. The child who looks up at you and remarks that “you look tired today,” in that honest way that children do. The brief encounter on the road: the incredibly attractive man who drove past you—only to meet up with him again in the express lanes where you felt compelled to glance across the lane and there he sat, looking back at you. I know what you’re thinking, “What’s the lesson there?” If open, always take the express lanes, of course! Regardless, I wonder now, did I learn something?
Whatever your ‘vehicle’ for meeting, there’s a reason you’ve met (says I) and a reason you should at least ponder it.
This blog, being about yoga insights, here’s another rationale for yoga etiquette rule number 6 (see Yoga Etiquette January 30th). Follow the instructor’s lead. Perhaps s/he will lead you to a pose that makes you question why you’re feeling tight in a certain area, or notice that your left side is much stiffer than your right. Or maybe you become meditative as you go through the ‘same old vinyasa’ that you always do—and while in rote practice, you allow your mind to wander and you stumble upon that answer you’ve been contemplating. Or maybe nothing happens and that is what’s called for that day.
I guess that’s why they’re called ‘chance’ encounters, they’re risks (not so unlike the daily lottery—which I haven’t played in years and perhaps should so that I can self-publish and sell you all copies of HER ESSENCE sooner rather than later. Oh, but I digress…) Anyhow, they’re little gambles on life that can bring you the love of your life, a simple answer, a beautiful child (let’s hope bearing children isn’t a random event, but you get my drift hopefully), or perhaps helps you get ‘unstuck’ if only for the briefest moment. What’s life without risk? Safe? Boring? There’s a quote that caught my eye a while back: “Life isn’t measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.” Author unknown.
Think about it.
Tomorrow or Sunday: Yoga Inspires Art
posted by Andrea | 2:23 PM
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