What You Hope For

I hope you all are doing well. Last week I shared that my uncle had just passed away and now as I write this I am traveling to his funeral. 

I thought a lot about what I wanted to share this week as I was working with my own grief. My uncle was 93. His body was failing him but his mind was still there until the end. In his final weeks he was surrounded by the beautiful family he built with my aunt including children, grandchildren and great grandchildren along with extended family.  My uncle was very clear in his intentions and priorities for his life; being of service and being with his family. He lived those intentions fully right up to his final day. His passing made me think about my own hopes and intentions and I was reminded of this beautiful quote which became my message in my classes this week. 

“The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.” — Barbara Kingslover

When using this in our practice on the mat it is essentially the idea of setting an intention and living within that. With that intention we become free to relinquish expectations and judgement and stay connected to what really matters; caring for our bodies with a balance of strength and flexibility, kindness and power and connection and surrender. 

Off the mat, connecting to “what we hope for” keeps us focused on the things in our lives that really matter and the practice helps us to “live inside of it”instead of “admiring it from a distance”. As I process the loss of a very special person I know that my hopes are similar to his and if I am lucky enough to be surrounded by an adoring extended family at the end of a long and fruitful life full of service to others then I will know that like him, I lived “inside my hope”. Until then, I will keep practicing.