Running out of titles, that's where I landed. It's fine. I know we are all tight on so many things these days. Time, patience, purse strings, working tree light strings! They are all on the fritz in our household. Where half the string is showing up, lit and ready to party - but they have a dark other half dragging behind. Where the bright ones are desperately trying to make up for their counterpart's dullness. These balls on chain aren't even lit! Then there are long long yards of potential, just a big ball of hope, only to plug it in and nothing. If those bulbs could talk they wouldn't. Because they are very much dead. No Christmas miracle is going to bring them back. Time to accept it and get new of the same cheapest possible brand.
I want to bring back a beautiful poem I shared last year around this time. I think it's a perfect reminder for us as we start to feel time - we start racing to our online carts to make the shipping deadline, bombing into shopping center parking lots, shoulder clipping strangers with a very clear destination and model number. We're not present because we're too stressed about presents. It also fits into all the recent themes the last couple of weeks. Sneaking in a play with my daughter even when I think I don't deserve the luxury or have time for it. Coming up with pregame tools, like a few of Julie Andrew's Favorite Things, to break the build up of anxiety - get ahead of it!
It's a poem about Joy. The writer takes the sense of obligation out of it. Takes it off the trophy stand at the end of a race or competition. Much like the blog about being "happy" verse being "content." How we should all be striving for "content" because it is preexisting. Whereas "happiness" is hyped up, expected, or the end result of something that keeps moving. It's the tempo Christmas songs move to; bells getting louder, footsteps are moving faster and getting closer, Santa is COMING!! Feels like an exciting build up but it can also build up of expectations. Waiting to be happy can be like waiting for your fun flakey friend to arrive - like a diva to go on stage. You've waited so long you've filled your time with other over expensive concessions you think will make you happy, and the cycle never ends (although Billy Eillish was completely worth the wait!). The post keeps moving and the belly keeps growling for more.
Donna Ashworth's poem is about how joy and contentment are already HERE. Maybe hiding, quietly budding in your garden or curled up on your bed. If you stop your daily rush every now and then you can start to notice the existing joy.
Joy does not arrive with a fanfare
on a red carpet strewn
with the flowers of a perfect life
joy sneaks in
as you pour a cup of coffee
watching the sunlight
hit your favourite tree, just right
and you usher joy away
because you are not ready for her
your house is not as it should be
for such a distinguished guest
but joy cares nothing for your messy home
or your bank-balance, or your waistline, you see
joy is supposed to slither through
the cracks of your imperfect life
that’s how joy works
you cannot truly invite her
you can only be ready when she appears
and hug her with meaning
because in this very moment
joy chose you
~ Donna Ashworth
I decided to make this week about not worrying about checking every box, not letting the sleigh bells jingling (ring tingle tingling too!) set the pace. Set my own pace, sink into the slower moments that make me chuckle, make room for joy to sneak in all the unpredictable nooks. More importantly when joy does reveal itself, let it in! Even into my disaster house with a half lit tree. Christmas decorations piled on cat towers and cats burrowed in the ornament box. What's the point of all that madness if I'm not embracing "her."
I have to admit even in my own body, not just my house, I'm feeling more loaded and slower than usual. Which requires way more motivation to leave the house to move my body (yes!!! I have my ruts too!). What helps me every time is just arriving ... and then noticing the smaller moments that make me giggle in a hard class or workout. Even just a fleeting moment of feeling strong and proud of myself, that'll last me all day.
As you all know my specialty is the the sneaky burn disguised under clever banter and pilates puns. It's all to create moments of unplanned joy. Wrapped up in a bow and presented to you, usually as a shaky lunge or some gawd awful teetering plank, but it's there for YOU. You don't have to wait to celebrate your success or wait to be happy about where you are in your fitness. Just arrive to it, joy will slither through cracks of the imperfect moments. Strength will patch up the holes of the weak moments. The brightly lit parts of yourself will outshine the dull parts (although my christmas lights aren't even dull - dead. Completely dead).
You better believe I still put the half lit lights on my tree, bunched up the dead half and threw it behind the dark piney mystery tree pits. That's where it landed. It's fine.
Excited to make your bodies sweat, smile, and the give the gift of unplanned joy and unexpected strength🧑🎄🎄🎁✨!
Comments