Cold Rain for the Soul
We camped at lake Somerville on a cold, rainy weekend. Any of you who have ever been camping with kids know – you do stuff anyways. All the stuff! Hiking in the rain? Yes. Cooking in the rain? Absolutely. S’mores when the campfire is losing the battle with the elements? Without question. SO my yoga practice followed suit.
I am a Houston TX native, therefore unequipped for cold weather. I appropriately have 19 swimsuits and a total of 0 base layers. In these pictures I am wearing 2 pairs of leggings under my golf rain pants 2 long sleeve T-shirts under my sweatshirt dress. I was still shivering. It was challenging to move, but worth it. It surprised me that I found it next to impossible to meditate. My mind ONLY wanted to focus on what I didn’t like. Needless to say, my mind was not calm. I was frustrated and uncomfortable.
When I went back to the camp and sat down, I flipped through the photos my darling husband took at my request for the purpose of this website. I laughed as hard as I did all weekend when I saw 2/3 of my children and my husband doing their best “yoga” for my high res camera. I’m not sure how to articulate the feeling that it gave me… There I was, flustered and missing my usual home space. And my favorite people were laughing and finding their “poses”.
Im paraphrasing scripture here, but it stands out the most to me. Even though this moment was a simple, mundane frustration; James says in chapter 1 verse 2 , to count it all joy, when you meet trials of various kinds. Doing what I enjoy in an environment that I didn’t was enough to make me focus on all of the things that dragged me down. Perhaps what I saw as a failure was the most impactful meditation I have ever attempted. My people reminded me that God was near and my own understanding of that moment was wrong. I found it oddly encouraging. Like it is ok to simply get it wrong sometimes. I hope it encourages you too. Keep going, friends. ~A
