This, too, Shall Pass...

...and there she lay, under layers of arugula...

Another year has come and passed - and we made it! My son is two. I am ever proud of him, and I love this little being with all of my heart and soul. This year, coming upon the anniversary of the momentous journey we undertook to get where we are today, earthside, was hard and emotional for me. In my ashtanga practice, much emotion bubbled up and out of me... I felt it was important to get out of me, important to pay attention to and observe and expel. I started keeping a written ashtanga journal (hand-written, like they used to!) - and write about my fears, anxieties and crazy thoughts that come with the yoga territory. I've also added any art ideas and fantasies that come up, because it's not all bad. In fact, none of it is bad - it's all good. It's all what's needed.

"Do your practice, and all is coming." - Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois

I embrace the all - I am part of that all. I take the perceived bad with the perceived good. In fact, they are one and the same.

Two years ago, in the hospital, my mantra became "this, too, shall pass" - whatever obstacle would arise in the place of the last one, I would say my mantra silently to myself, and it worked. Sometimes quickly, like the fading of bruises and physical pain, sometimes less quickly, like the mental anguish and anxiety. All has grown less intense over time. When I got back home, without the child, as he needed more time away than I, I looked up his birthdate in a book of Birthdays given to us. I don't give much importance to horoscopes and the like, and still don't, but in the book, for the day he was born, was printed, "This, too, shall pass."