Lines

You know the problem with drawing lines in the sand?
… … …
With a breath of air, they disappear.

The second phase of my Ashtanga training recently ended. Between now and April, the culmination, lays a single intention – practice.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

… … …

Many moons back, I did not see myself heading in this path. Always at awe. Simply struck in amazement. I drew lines, boundaries to where I was at. Something in this path scared the crap out of me. And I thought I was alright, snuggled in my own comfort zone. Then I would dip my toes beyond the lines; only to step back again and again. Either because of time, cost, distance – factors that are always around us anyway – I danced at the edges of these lines.

But I was stricken, smitten from the time we first touched… … I simply can not turn my back on it.

With the deepest breath I can muster, I walked past those lines. Step by step, I began to see where the fear has settled… in my heart – corroded with layers of unpleasant experiences. Each step I take in this path, I feel the layers peeling away. Another reason for fear to control me! Something in my head was screaming violently, “You are safe within those lines!!” But such lines make us stiff, impenetrable. We all think these lines protect us. From what exactly?? From the peeling? From living a full, rich life? Where we feel aches and joy, where tears fall yet laugh after, where we live on less only to gain abundance, where we can fully give our old selves to receive our true self, where we are stripped from the very core but exposes the brilliance of being raw and vulnerable??

… … …

The practice is not only about what my body can now do.
The practice simply makes those lines disappear.