Continuum: The Happy List, Week ending 25/10/09

continuum by osvaldoeaf

According to Dictionary.com, a continuum is:

a continuous extent, series, or whole.

Which brings me to this amazing missive from Kathleen, which I received in reply to my last post:

Hi Nadine..I am a lot like you in this, a ‘little bit obsessive’..but over the years I’ve learned ways of being more ‘balanced’ between the two extremes of whatever I am obsessing about. I think the key to finding this balance was, for me, the realisation that ON is really the other side of OFF, like looking in a mirror and seeing yourself – it is YOU but in reverse, the same but different.  Like light and dark, joy and sorrow, chaos and calm – each needs the other in order to exist.  Light is NOT Dark, Joy is NOT sorrow, Chaos is NOT calm.  And right in the middle is truth, eternity, pure bliss.  I found that when I was able to embrace both extremes I found my life settled into a state of flow and ease that I hadn’t felt before. It’s a state of non-judgement, oneness and open-minded understanding – it’s hard to put into words, perhaps because words by their very nature are labels/ judgements/ conditions…and the state where we find peace and bliss is one of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.
Hope this helps somehow.

That’s exactly what I have been trying to articulate. Some of the time, I feel the flow of Life, its circularity, and how there is neither a beginning nor and end, because all deaths hold the seeds of birth, and all births hold the seeds of death. But not always. These are the times I turn away from the unconditional love, yuj, yoga, that is inherent in being here now. Just drawing breath is an act of yoga, of union, with our life force. And the force that keeps us alive is one of love. Why else would it want us alive?

So this is item one on this week’s Happy list: that there will always be someone to remind me of this. My friend Emma reminded me again this morning. She said: It is your soul’s learning to know that Love is in everyone, not just One. Wise woman, that.

Other things that made me happy this week:

• Sitting in the sun reading Sing, and Don’t Cry
• The smell of sun-dried laundry (yes, the sun shone all weekend!)
• Skyping with my mother, bad reception notwithstanding
• Strong asana practice to pull me out of my head
• Sleep
• Friends
• Lovely lovely housemates, sources of great girly items, moral support, clothes, and fun
• That bad situation last week? Never happened. Another one did, but not the one I feared. There is a lesson in that
• Finding out I was right about something (a horrible suspicion, come to pass) but not in quite the way I thought. The situation is never as bad as you think, and people are generally just doing the best they can. There is a lesson in that, too
• Doing things I have never done before, and never thought I would do. Adventure and fun!

Have a lovely week!