Everything is OK

When I began my yoga teacher training, we did an activity where we were asked to respond to the statement, "Who I am is..."  Many of my answers revolved around things I do or how I wanted to be seen.  Or how I wanted to see myself.  When I sit down and think about that statement now, the only answer I can find is Who I am is Me.  There's a song on a CD that was given to me and one of the lines is "I am who I am, that is that."  How obvious!  How can I, or anyone, be anything other than we are?  It has found its way into my life as my mantra.  It popped in there one day while I was running and it hasn't popped out since, and that was at least 3 weeks ago.  It reminds me that not only am I who I am, but what is, is what is. Everything that is happening in our lives are supposed to be happening exactly as they are.  Even the most difficult and trying events are meant to be loved and accepted because, as Eckhart Tolle says in one of my favorite quotes, "How do you know this is the experience you need?  Because this is the experience you are having at the moment."

Life is so much more pleasant and joyful when you accept it for what it is.  There's no such thing as a "wrong" decision.  Any choice you make is the choice you were intended to make.  The path it takes you down is the path you were meant to go down.  There's nothing wrong with wondering what would have been had we made different choices in our lives, but its unnecessary and energy consuming.  It causes worry and fear and often times regret.  None of these feelings are necessary though, because right now, everything is exactly as it should be.

A close friend shared the following poem this weekend. This is a beautiful way to live life. Enjoy, be joy, and just be...

This is My Life

by William Stanley Braithwaite

To feed my soul with beauty till I die; 

To give my hands a pleasant task to do; 

To keep my heart forever filled anew 

With dreams and wonders which the days supply; 

To love all conscious living, and thereby 

Respect the brute who renders up its due, 

And know the world as planned is good and true- 

And thus -because there chanced to be an I! 

This is my life since things are as they are: 

One half akin to flowers and the grass: 

The rest a law unto the changeless star. 

And I believe when I shall come to pass 

Within the Door His hand shall hold ajar 

I'll leave no echoing whisper of Alas!