Synchronicity strikes again!
Even before my friend Eileen shared the 30-day Yoga Challenge with Adriene (which I signed up for immediately, and began today), I was thinking of choosing Move as my Word of the Year... but I then decided to fine-tune it even more to Stretch; the second half of 2021 found me strettttcccchhhhing myself in various ways on many levels, as evidenced by the multiple definitions below:
Stretch
~ (of something soft or elastic) be made or be capable of being made longer or wider without tearing or breaking.
~ cause (something) to become longer or wider by pulling it.
~ straighten or extend one's body or a part of one's body to its full length, typically so as to tighten one's muscles or in order to reach something.
~ extend or spread over an area or period of time.
~ last or cause to last longer than expected.
~ make great demands on the capacity or resources of.
~ cause (someone) to make maximum use of their talents or abilities.
~ adapt or extend the scope of (something) in a way that exceeds a reasonable or acceptable limit.
~ a difficult or demanding task.
~ a continuous period of time.
It was beyond amazing, and I want to continue the good feeling and stretch myself even further... past my boundaries, limits, comfort zone... emotionally, physically, spiritually. I have (oh so) High Hopes for 2022!
Bend and stretch,
Reach for the stars.
There goes Jupiter,
Here comes Mars.
Bend and stretch,
Reach for the sky.
Stand on tip-e-toes,
Oh so high!
BOOK: The Big Stretch: 90 Days to Expand Your Dreams, Crush Your Goals, and Create Your Own Success by Teneshia Jackson Warner
POEM(S): Becoming Her by April Green
QUOTE(S): "Yesterday I met a whole person. It is a rare experience, but always an illuminating and ennobling one. It costs so much to be a full human being that there are very few who have the enlightenment and the courage to pay the price… One has to abandon altogether the search for security, and reach out to the risk of living with both arms. One has to embrace the world like a lover, and yet demand no easy return on love. One has to accept pain as a condition of existence. One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, yet open always to the total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying." ~ Morris West
POEM(S): Becoming Her by April Green
When I started showing up
as the woman I wanted to be,
the world began responding to me;
showing me all the different ways I needed to keep moving,
and healing and growing
and stretching beyond myself,
beyond anything, I had ever reached before.
When I started showing up
as the woman I wanted to be,
the world led me to a place where
I could finally say:
‘I am her.’
Song by Adrienne Rich
You’re wondering if I’m lonely:
OK then, yes, I’m lonely
as a plane rides lonely and level
on its radio beam, aiming
across the Rockies
for the blue-strung aisles
of an airfield on the ocean.
.
You want to ask, am I lonely?
Well, of course, lonely
as a woman driving across country
day after day, leaving behind
mile after mile
little towns she might have stopped
and lived and died in, lonely
.
If I’m lonely
it must be the loneliness
of waking first, of breathing
dawn’s first cold breath on the city
of being the one awake
in a house wrapped in sleep
.
If I’m lonely
it’s with the rowboat ice-fast on the shore
in the last red light of the year
that knows what it is, that knows it’s neither
ice nor mud nor winter light
but wood, with a gift for burning.
.
"Whatever wishes to grow within you—a curiosity, a talent, an interest—is life seeking its expression through you. Our old desire for comfort, even happiness, may prove an impediment. We are here a very short time. Let us make it as luminous and as meaningful as we can. Time to stop being afraid, and time to show up as yourself." ~ James Hollis
"I was in darkness, but I took three steps and found myself in paradise. The first step was a good thought, the second, a good word; and the third, a good deed." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
