The Mattering
Dear good people,
I’ve just returned to my little farm after a weekend of super weird yoga and good fun. One of the meditations we did involved sitting with hands up by the ears making peace signs and slowly bringing the peace sign fingers in and out, in and out … for about 10 minutes…. I sat there thinking it was crazy and then I chilled out and went with it and enjoyed it. Who cares? I thought …. The intention of creating peace and balance is what the meditation was about … good idea … good intention …. So I just kept going and eventually loved it.
My son also did a few short sessions of yoga. He did not like it. He also does not like that I took this video of him chanting. But I love it. And as a mother it is part of my job to proudly embarrass him … in this case without his knowledge:)
Over the years I’ve done a lot of yoga. Mostly I do my own little practice these days. I don’t typically go to classes. I feel more peaceful doing my own thing.
I have a few practices that keep me grounded: Surfing, writing, yoga, chi kung.
Good medicine practices are an important way of radically resourcing (as one of my brilliant friends tells me in a movement medicine class I teach). When you’re balanced and strong you can do good things in the world. If you’re not balanced and strong you can’t do the kind of work in the world you’d like to do.
We all need radical resourcing and we all need it regularly.
I think our contribution, our individual expression of the right good true ‘me-ness’, is like dropping an anchor into a web of light.
Every Tuesday I teach a small group of women movement medicine practices that have become our weekly radical resourcing time. Every one of us wonders if or how our individual contribution matters. It surprises me because I see their shining example and feel uplifted and hopeful by our connection. There’s my friend who makes us laugh with her naughty but whole hearted way of living (she is pure sparkle goodness); there’s another woman who writes beautiful words and stands up and holds a line for the good earth with extraordinary courage; there’s a woman who is deeply involved in anti-racism work and brings poems to class that sum up what I try and say with perfection; there’s the kind realtor who works around the clock to do good in the world; there’s another woman-way-finder whose trying to revive her light that dims in cold climates; there’s the Mama of many who helps thousands with aid work that’s carried her across the globe.
Their work matters. Yours does too. I suspect my work matters deeply also. It just isn’t always obvious to us from the inside looking out.
Here are two quotes I read recently that stuck …
“Sometimes a poem is the stone you carry in your pocket—the one you rub when you’re worried. Let’s fill our pockets with poems.” - Maggie Smith
“Goodnight, good people. Tomorrow we get to try again.” - Connie Schultz
Warmly,
Lucy
p.s. My radical resourcing class is every Tuesday morning and you’re welcome to be part of it - here’s the link: https://members.lucypaget.com/fall
p.p.s. Message me and ask me for a free class recording so you can get a sense of radical resourcing movement medicine before signing up. Just leave a comment.