Finding the carefully chosen words

I've surpassed week 5 of a commitment I made.   Carole cynics might claim this is the longest commitment I've made to anything (that makes me laugh at my own slam!); indeed, I am committing to YOGA through December.   Perhaps I will continue beyond that - for now, my 12-week exile from normalcy is under way.

 

I am on a 3x/week mission to loosen up and "lighten", becoming more limber - metaphorically more than experiential.  I have a hard time settling in and turning off my brain.   This has been a lifetime challenge, for sure.

 

I've fallen in love with my yoga instructor, Carmen, at Flatirons. She's fantastic with people new to Yoga, like me.   A recent Yoga practice was intense.  We got to "bridge" pose, which is the precursor to "wheel" (basically a backbend). Carmen got us ready for the pose, instructing us on our breathing and alignment. Then she paused.

 

When this happens I inadvertently hold my breath (despite this being a yoga no-no) because a pause often comes before a piece of wisdom that I desperately need (and often don't even know how badly I need it).
"Bridge." she said. "A perfect opportunity to consider the gaps in our own lives. Where do you want to cross over? What do you need to transcend? What could flow beneath you if only you could elevate?"  She encouraged us to breathe deeply and consider the implications of the pose.

I hoisted my tired, tight hips in the air and wriggled my shoulders underneath me and took some deep breaths. I thought about the bridges I could create in my life as I struggled and shook.

I want to cross over to new levels of endurance, patience and strength in my living. I want to continue to build solid and sustainable bridges with my friends, even when time apart can cause us to drift apart.  I want to bridge across into new territory with my writing. I want to bridge across caverns in my faith life, spanning things like disbelief and lack of trust. I want to stretch towards people I'd like to know better and deepen the connections with the people I dearly love – and I want to be bolder in bridging towards strangers in need. I want to use words and actions to bridge across gaps of misunderstanding and neglect, the passage of too much time and too much water beneath. I want to have the flexibility to lift myself above the current of life when it's moving dangerously fast, threatening to carry me away. I want to have the strength in my core to be able to hold myself steady in this position, whenever the need arises. I want to be able to stretch across to what comes next without losing my traction on the past and my steadiness in the present.

What bridges need some work in your life? Do you have relational gaps that need mending? Do you have people you love who seem to be floating farther away? Is there a raging current you need to rise above? Do you need the strength to be able to hold your ground? Are you being called to stretch past your comfort zone and into new territory? Is there water beneath your bridge that needs to flow more freely? Can you lift yourself out of the way?

Bridges are beautiful metaphors. Like carefully chosen words, they connect us to one another and help us cross over when surmounting the distance would otherwise be impossible.