Hope, Dreams, and Yoga

Hope, the penultimate energy...perhaps the most propelling. Without hope, how can one outrageously dream?

If one cannot courageously dream, how can one honestly progress moving forward...to the unfiltered, bare-naked present?

If one cannot be present, totally present without masks, how can one actually love?

If one cannot audaciously love, how can one hope to feel the ultimate energy of Love?

Hope. Dreams. Love. A circle of unmeasurable circumferance. A yogi's mind dances around this metta-physical circle of life.

Shawshank Redemption touches my heart now as strongly as it did twenty years ago. Is it the acting? The actors? The music/sound effects? The, 'I feel like I'm literally in this place I'm watching', mind zone? All of the above? Or, is it deeper?

Vastly deeper. Certain words, events, people...make you take pause and think. Ever read a book years later and it's message becomes clear? I love that moment. It is a sweet reminder of how far you've come and gives you a preview of potential realities. "Impossible" loses leverage on the see-saw of possibilities.

Andy and Red were soul mates. They initially connected without words. Red had a feeling about Andy and chose to pay attention to it. Andy did the same. Each in their self-protective mode...until their personal circles merged. A beautiful friendship blossomed. The respected understanding of the friend's strengths, hindrances, and evolving awareness...a rare and unprecedented union. Each were brought to new edges to practice. Each taught and shared something the other needed. They realized and practiced balance. And, it worked. Each never ceased to amaze the other.

Your soul is your mind and heart's mate. Kind of like, love, sex and yoga. The perfect menage a trois. Truly, the ultimate trifecta. Who trumps who is a matter of timing. Share all three simultaneously with another...well, I would consider that cosmically orgasmic.

Yoga unites you with good people. Good people give you hope. Hope gives you the extra push to dream. Dreams pursued give you courage to live vivaciously...audaciously...passionately. What's not to love? It's not the moves themselves that change you. It's the development of inner strength. The physical flexibility transforms the non-physical from stagnant to fluid. "Knowledge is power" means more...knowledge provides you the power to change what does not work for you to what does. You get to know your Self. Simple. And, all you needed to re-learn is how to breathe. The rest is icing on the cake. It is what lies underneath the icing that makes it worth the effort. It's you. The no preservatives, no red dye #9, organically delicious You.

I hope more people discover dreams do come true. I hope the past and anticipated future create enough space in our mind's eye to see a panoramic view of the present moment. I hope more realize their life is a gift to be continuously shared...not to be withheld for specific, self-outlined agendas. I even hope more people watch Shawshank Redemption (again, if they already saw it) and get something they missed before. I hope...I dream...I live...and love...to the edge.
Brilliant quote: "If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space." Yoga can make you aware if you're taking up too much space and push you to your edge. Nothing like it to expand your hopes and dreams. All of this change in the creation of a few moves and conscious breathing.

Makes you wonder how such grandeur can come from something so simple? Get busy practicing or get busy stagnating...it's your choice. I hope to meet you, my friend, where the ocean waters are a blue color you can't find words to adequately describe and the energy is tangibly intangible. That kind of energy is one thing that never dies.

Dedicated to my late best friend, Patti Goodman...who always gave me hope...while on Earth and long after she left it. A friend, one hopes and dreams to have. And,a love that never dies. My life's blessings are a direct ripple effect of her touching my heart thirty years ago...and whoever I have touched is an extension of her love that grew in me.

Like Andy and Red, we auspiciously connected. Time, shared experiences and synchronistic circumstances weaved us together...without any point of "this is when we met and this is when we parted." Time is eternally suspended.

We meet in my dreams...never speaking...never making eye contact...but, each knows their respective place. She graces me with her presence in my unconscious mind and I send love via my awareness of her. We can't utilize the known five senses. But, I understand. She knows what I cannot say...and I feel what she comes to say.

Her departure pushed me to discover meditation. And, in my first meditation, she spoke to me. All she said is this: "It's time to live your life. I've never left you...I'm always with you. Live your life." So, fourteen years ago, I got busy living via hope and dreams and yoga. That is what yoga has done for me.

And, there's been no looking back...it's enlightening to catch glimpses of what is around the next corner...