Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that…
MLK Jr.
To be candid, I had a rough few weeks to kick off the holiday season. Drunk on expectations of a grand homecoming after a stunning trial run with my road dawg Billie; some were so big it overtook everything I was doing/feeling/being. And the hangover of when they didn’t materialize… ouch. The stomach punch pain (while being hungover) was all the more infuriating because I knew that my expectations were driving my actions. I’ve been down this road before, and, honestly, I thought I was on a different road now: THE ENLIGHTENED ROAD. But here we are, working with the same ol’ habits.
But perspective is important (so the gurus say). Seeing a different light on the seemingly same murky path you thought you knew to avoid is hard… because, well, it’s murky. It’s a bit cloudy with the comforts of familiarity. But the shift in perspective is in knowing you are filled with new knowledge; your old habits might not ever be replaced in full, but how you walk on your paths can shift. So I’ve taken this valuable time I have to sober up; attempting to walk with this altered view. And in my scope, I see a gilded palace that has room for all these ever-shifting and same old habits.
The Winter Solistice was last week and with the new decade approaching, there are all kinds of shifts in perspective and light we can think endlessly about. One that I’m taking with me into this new decade is the simplified, edit of sutra 1.4: I am not my thoughts, but it’s how I act with them. That I am enough to love where I am at.
Quite literally. Thailand is pretty spectacular….
roadside yogi 