This quote came in my email this morning, from Angelika’s North Sydney Yoga Centre newsletter.

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.” Alfred D’Souza*

Something dawned on me in the 90’s that became even more obvious in the naughties.
• I was never ever really going to get my desk cleared completely. Well, maybe for one day. Then, the jumble would begin again.
• I was not likely to get my taxes filed on time. Does anyone?
• I was probably never going to go through and organise my photos, especially if I had to use holiday time to do it. And, not even now that I’m semi-retired.
• I was never going to open the sealed boxes stored in our garage.
• I was never going to learn how to use my computer properly, read War and Peace, or be able to do parsva kukutasana.
If this sounds like wimping out, here’s the good news. Something about speaking the truth about what I’m not likely to do has miraculously freed up all this time for doing what I want to do. I can go to the beach for a walk, and stop at the cafe for a cappachino. I can ring a friend for a chat. I can keep up with my email correspondence. I can listen undistractedly to conversations or music. I can read a book (or not).
I can also discover my own rhythm for yoga practice based on the pulse of my body and the mood of my mind. Remarkable.
*It’s from Alfred D Souza, a Queensland writer/philosopher. (Who also penned the lines “Dance as though no one is watching you”, and so on, that have been engraved onto every possible piece of gift merchandise you could purchase.) It’s a little reminiscent of John Lennon’s “Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans.”