“Yoga works from the outside in.  We begin with a study of our actions, moe on to our bodies, and on to our breath.  Then, turning inward, we follow our thoughts to their source.  We use our own light to return to the source of light.”

Rolf Gates, Meditation from the Mat

Day 341 – We reside in a world of shadows, postulates Rolf.  A world “where the past flits about the resent, glimpsed out of the corner of our eyes, just beyond reach.”  A world, Rolf continues, where “our boss is a composite of our mother and father and the peer group we both loved and hated [and where] the thing we fear the most is the thing we most need.”  We believe what we fear:  President Trump will end democracy as we know it, public education will dissolve, social decency and civility will not return.  So, Rolf describes our actions in light of our fears, writing:  “We make statements that are questions and ask questions that are statements, reveal ourselves to strangers and hide ourselves from the people that we love.”

Today’s reading makes a good point. Like Rolf, my pets are a constant reminder of how I am loved unconditionally.  A case could be made that I am full of abundance and love at home, school, and in my outside “homes” of crossfit and dance and (even) the Y.  It seems preposterous to even fear that I am not loved by many, and selfish to write about it, as if begging for more.  However, when the household is hungry, the gym is closed, dance is not accessible, school is unbearable, and my teenagers are sullen, the cats and dogs and (even) the guinea pig remind me of unconditional love, acceptance, and vulnerability.  They don’t just look at me with eyes that are hungry (although that is often the case); they look at me with genuine unconditional love whether they are loved back or not.  They don’t look at the world in fear, and when they do, there is a good reason.