sadness

So, the self-confessed media abstainer "just happened" to turn on NPR a couple of hours after the London bombings. I've felt shakey ever since. Luckily my son, who was planning a trip to London last Friday, called his plans off before this happened. Small miracles....

He returned safely, albeit bug-chewed, from Costa Rica on July 1st, with lots of stories and the traveller's trots....was treated in the ER the next morning with IV fluids and antibiotics (hmmmm, just like Angus!). The next day he was off to NYC to visit a friend for the 4th, and he's still there, having a great time, appreciating the architecture, trying out his dynamic good looks and intrinsic charm on the natives. (Ha!) Next he's off to DC to visit my bro, and then he'll be heading to Atlanta for Dad-family visits.



I know atrocities of all sorts happen all over the world, every day; lots of them. I also know that staying away from the news prevents me from feeling helpless about them. What I have found out yet again is that tuning into the news drastically affects my ability to stay out of the fear realm. Feeling fearful not only makes me more likely to focus on the negativity in the world today, but also less likely to breathe deeply, more likely to be depressed, and less likely to believe that anything I do makes any difference at all.

So today in yoga I requested the teacher to focus on chest-opening poses for 'lifting the heart', and silently leaked salty tears through much of class. Little rivulets of confusion, frustration, release, and finally of peace as she calmly spoke through shivasana about change being the nature of life, and non-attachment being the way through the changes.

Being born, period, is the ultimate cause of dying.