Surrender

This week, we will be considering how to surrender both on the mat in class and off the mat in our lives. "Surrendering is not passive....surrendering asks us to be strong enough to engage in each moment with integrity and at the same time to be soft enough to flow with the current of life." I have to work very hard to surrender my resistance to fear, to pain (both mine and others I love) and to "what is." Sometimes I am so resistant to what is. As I learn to surrender my control and investment in a certain outcome, I become a curious student of each moment, welcoming each moment and the opportunity it brings to grow and learn. I wake up every morning with the belief in something bigger than myself. The universe has my back. All will be well. I align my actions, mind and heart toward this greatness, trusting that something will come of my efforts. Even if the outcome is not what I had planned, it will bring opportunities for me to grow and learn.

Trough

There is a trough in waves,

a low spot

where horizon disappears

and only sky

and water

are our company.

And there we lose our way

unless

we rest, knowing the wave will bring us

to its crest again.

There we may drown

if we let fear

hold us within its grip and shake us

side to side,

and leave us flailing, torn, disoriented.

But if we rest there

in the trough,

are silent,

being with

the low part of the wave,

keeping

our energy and

noticing the shape of things,

the flow,

then time alone

will bring us to another

place

where we can see

horizon, see the land again,

regain our sense

of where

we are,

and where we need to swim.

~ Judy Brown