A *Normal* Life

One of the yoga teachers at the Bally’s gym near my house loves to talk about the philosophy behind each yoga pose. We’ll be stretched out some pretzel-like twist for ages while she talks in a gentle voice about what each movement is doing for us spiritually.

A few weeks ago, it must have been before my Lyme relapse, I remember her saying that in yoga philosophy, life isn’t a single straight line from point A to B with times of total joy followed by times of total sadness. She said to think of it as two parallel lines, like train tracks. One of the track lines represents our joys and the other our sadness. Even as we have joys in life, there are still moments of difficulty. Even as we have difficulties, the joy is still there alongside us, waiting for us to become aware of it.

Even after ten years of learning yoga as meditation and kind of looking down on hatha yoga, her words still struck a chord with me. I’m sure there’s a complicated Sanskrit term that sums up the concept she was trying to teach. If anyone knows they can share it with me. Our joys are deepened by our sorrows. Our sorrows are lightened by our joys. If there was anything to convince me of the existence of God and life after death, it would be this beautiful symmetry of life; the way the universe seems to be continually supporting us through tough times as we learn and grow. Maybe it’s just the way I see it.

I’ve focused a lot lately on lamenting my sorrows in this blog. I’ve learned that I can’t get too caught up in disappointment and anger. I have to try to think about normal things and try to have a normal life as much as possible. I have to focus on my joy. Which is a long-winded way of saying that I finally got around to figuring out the new camera Jeremy got me for my birthday and excusing myself for posting some photos of my kid.

Pretty self-indulgent, right? But hey, it’s my blog, and there’s just so much joy in these photos.   Namaste, y’all.

“Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging it's gifts by it's covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power.”