seventy-one seems such an odd age.70 felt like a milestone...i’ve lived three score and ten.71 means i’m ‘in my 70s’.i wonder how that happened?i know how it happened...a moment at a time, a breath at a time, an insight at a time, a tear at a time, a laugh at a time, a love at a time, a disappointment at a time...and here i am...now, breathing.
today i sat on the floor, cross-legged. i’ve done this thousands of times in my decades as a yoga practitioner. today i got up from the floor with an ache in my right hip joint. my left hip has been similarly troubled for quite some time. today the right one joined the party.my mind immediately began to wonder...what should i do about this? acupuncture? osteopathy? sit for 5 minutes each day to ease the ache? never sit on the floor again?and then i breathed...one breath at a time...breathed into my agitated mind, breathed into my hip. breathed into the letting go of fear, breathed into the unchanging, ever-present Love that is the ground of being.what does it mean for my body to age/change/transform from what it was to what it is in each moment? my body has never been the same from year to year. it has always been aging. it has hurt before this. and yet, somehow, this is different. this is being old, being less able, being less agile and being more vulnerable.can i let my heart be more vulnerable too? can i open my heart as i breathe? can i live in this Love?i can see that the moments that might lie ahead could be filled with this new process, a deeper awareness of my heartLove in addition to my body, to the witnessing of change and the awareness of the Witness.what is this Witness? what does she see? where does she live?she is that ever-present, unchangeable, glorious space of Love.she sees all that is without judgement or assessment.she lives in every cell, every molecule of all that exists, has existed, will exist.and i can touch her every time i choose to stop, to listen, to sense, to open to her glory.this is the lesson of 71.