Learning to Fly
My mother has long hilarious history with gift giving. Clearly her love language is to give and receive gifts, while my love language is acts of service. What's your love langauage and how can it help you understand your relationships better? Click here.
Last Friday she sent me caterpillars that turn into butterflies. The activity kit you do with your kids in pre-school? Yes that. So I am growing caterpillars on my kitchen counter. Then Sunday the NY Times runs this piece about how we have been living in our own cocoons for the past 3 months. The author relates how the process of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly is not the adorable Eric Carle cartoon, but instead a very intense and dark process. The caterpillar literally turns to dark mush, eating itself from the inside out, and then completely decomposes. There were a couple of cold rainy days during shelter in place I recall being on the couch covered in popcorn on my 5th hour of Netflix feeling exactly the same way.
But alas....it is time to emerge. Shelter in place orders are lifting and we all have one foot out the door, trying to stretch our wings in the sunshine. With that comes various degrees of comfort levels for us humans. Even the people in your own home that you have been sharing space with for almost three months might feel very differently about how comfortable they are leaving the cocoon. There are the extremes, and they are now politicized, which makes it even more formidable.
Are you comfortable being around people who are not wearing a mask? Have you aleady had a meal at a restaraunt? Are you allowing your kids to gather at the beach with their friends? Would you get on a plane right now? And the million dollar question...are you going to be comfortable returning to a yoga studio anytime soon?
Because it can make our blood boil when we witness behavior that seems too risky and it tries our patience when things appear too vigilent, I offer a gentle reminder that not all of us can shed our skins as quickly as others. Similar to the various ways we express and receive love, we all have very real individual fears and circumstances. We could allow oursleves the grace to feel how we feel and to express that without fear of being ridiculed or shamed. Allowing these pressures to rise will result in more stress and harm.
Yogis, we have been practicing for this! The pratice teaches us to pause, take a deep breath, notice what you are feeling and where you feel that in your body, make appropriate choices, refine, and remind yourself of what is really important in this moment. I have been watching people closely on the Zoom yoga classes I teach and it is heartwarming to see everyone following their own practice in a much more dedicated fashion. With no one to look around and see in class, there is no suggestion of moving into a pose that perhaps you are simply not needing in the moment. Allow yourself to spread your wings in your own time. This is all much bigger than just our little human selves.
In the spirt of respect and compassion, I am donating this week to both #Black Lives Matter and to the NAACP. We all need to examine our threshold of comfortability around the racial inequalities and injustices of our country. I encourage you to join me in donating and perhaps online for a yoga class.