I’ve recently decided that one of my very favorite noises is the peel-pad, peel-pad sound that my feet make as I walk lightly across the yoga studio floor.

This dawned on me after I’d been away from the studio for longer than I’d like to be.

I went to finally take a class after a few-days absence and, as usual, I took my daughter with me to play in the child care room while I got my yoga on, and I wasn’t really sure if either of us wanted to be there—until I heard the stick-unstick, stick-unstick as I heel-toed across the room to put my mat down.

And this realization got me thinking about those other seemingly small aspects of life that truly contain all of the joy and wonder and amazement that most of us are constantly seeking.

You know, those moments when we’re truly practicing our yoga by living in the present moment rather than inside of our hamster-wheel monkey mind.

So I came up with a short list of other things that set my spirit on fire:

The way that my head fits snugly into the crook of my husband’s arm.

The feeling of pure success when I do something that makes my daughter squeal with laughter.

The sound of this laughter: eeee, ahh, hiccup, hee.

My pen sailing sloppily and hungrily across the delicate, lined page of my decomposition book after an idea won’t stop jumping around inside of my brain.

Cold bed sheets against hot, moist skin.

The combination of strength and vulnerability that my body houses after a sweat-filled yoga practice.

The stilled silence after you share something with a friend that you momentarily want to take right back, occurring just before you see her visible relief that someone else verbalized exactly what she thinks.

Nervous excitement pounding in your gleeful chest as you know you’re about to do something incredible.

Nervous excitement pounding in your fearful chest as you know you’re about to do something that you must.

The crunch, crunch of icy snow underneath your warmly clad feet.

Your humbled, crumpling fallen heart when you discover that you’re not as flawless as you thought.

The willful determination that rebounds after this discovery, aiming you that much closer to your vision of perfection.

The relief that’s hidden in your awareness that you will never be perfect.

That split second when your complete connection with another human being allows you to cohabitate with divinity.

The heaviness in those moments when you feel all alone.

The fortitude that you muster up when you look towards the stars and understand that, while you can never really be alone, there’s also comfort in knowing that you are equally insignificant and inconsequential.

The ironic importance that grows and swells when you remember that to one other person you are her everything.

~

I could go on and on—but I won’t.

I won’t because now it’s time for you to hop off of your computer or your phone and live and feel and move through your own life and your own fire (after you share this blog, of course).

“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.”

~ D.H. Lawrence

 Like elephant journal on Facebook.

 

Ed: Bryonie Wise