In the last few days of December I stumbled upon a yoga youtube video that I really liked. I found out that there was going to be a Yoga Camp, 30 new videos that you can follow everyday in January, from Yoga With Adriene. I figured why not try yoga. I went out, bought a mat, and waited for the New Year.
I’ve been needing something to do that is a positive physical habit because I hate going to the gym. I remember trying to go to the gym in college, looking at equipment that I had no idea how to use as people watched me struggle. Our gym was open to the outside and always full of guys lifting weights…not exactly my scene.
I’ve been keeping up with the daily videos by e-mail subscription which is awesome because she includes positive daily mantras, quotes, and random bits to keep you thinking and sticking with it. Today there was a beautiful poem that I want to share…until everyone has read it.
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?~Mary Oliver
I love the poem, thank you