20 June 2017

This moment — the one you’re experiencing right now — is the culmination of all the moments you have experienced in the past.  This moment is as it is because the entire universe is as it is.  When you struggle against this moment, you’re actually struggling against the entire universe.   ~Deepak Chopra

It’s so easy to argue with what is.

Sometimes it seems like the only reasonable action.  When I want people to act better, government to be different, the air to be clean and the oceans healthy, my hackles rise.  Accepting this moment as it is seems traitorous to the things I hold dear.

But bitterness about things I cannot change, rancor towards people who see things differently, the repetitive rants that tangle my mind are ways I battle what is that are destructive.  Relentless combat crushes our spirit.  And distracts us from the opportunities inhabiting the moment.

Years ago, I had a yoga instructor who reminded us to let go.  I can still hear her voice, her calm suggestion that we relax everything that could possibly be relaxed.

When she said this, we were not in a restful pose.  We were in a demanding, difficult pose, Warrior Pose, extending through each fingertip and toe, every muscle clenched with effort.  Skeptical, I began an inventory of my body as it strained to lengthen spine, tighten quaking thighs, maintain breath through interminable seconds.

And, surprise!  I found tiny parts of me that could ease.  Softening within the greater framework, those parts were both supported and became part of the support.  Suddenly, there was more strength in my thighs.  My breath deepened into larger space.

When we attend with an awareness that allows things to be as they are in this moment, unexpected dimensions reveal themselves.

I don’t have to like what is to accept this moment as it is.  When I let go of bracing against it, parts of me relax.  Suddenly, there is increased integrity and authenticity.  Space opens for what truly is and those qualities I consciously choose to cultivate.

Life, even in warrior pose, is relieved and strengthened by finding places to let go of our resistance to what is, to release into the moment, and to nourish goodness within what is.