backwards joy

Since learning to swim, I’ve noticed that I’m always subtlety aware of forward movement. As my head twists upwards during each breath cycle, my eye catches a landmark, another swimmer, perhaps a piece of sky, all reassuring me that I’m moving forward, albeit sometimes rather slowly, progress is being made.

On a recent ocean swim, heading back towards Bondi beach, I was suddenly and acutely aware that forward movement had ceased. In fact, I was being pushed backward. Being a bit of a novice ocean swimmer, it was hard to convince me not to panic. During the milliseconds of negotiating with my anxious brain, JOY flooded my body as I was lifted with weightless ease and propelled forward with force and momentum beyond my own effort. Yup, I was merely catching a wave towards shore. And the sensation of being held down and pushed backward happened again and again just before the waves connected and thrust you forward. Beautiful little signs like seeing small fish sucked back to sea, are tells, foreshadowing the next inevitable low and high.

I reckon the sea is a lot like life. Who hasn’t been pulled under and started to panic when backward motion seemed to dominate life? We’ve all been caught in the current of pain and negativity, questioning our progress. But trusting that the Universe will propel you forward is worth remembering. If we can do that, maybe we can even find JOY in the backward motion of life, knowing it’s fleeting too.

And hey, sometimes it’s not just a wave and you are well and truly in a rip. When that happens, we all need to change tact, switch gears, and find a new path to shore. It’s no use fighting a battle you simply can’t win.

tails of JOY

A stunning woman in New Zealand recently took her last breath and as she did so an energetic fantail entered in through her bedroom window, fully at home. To the amazement of those at hand, the bird flew through the house before finding a resting place above her bed. After a few minutes of peaceful chirping, the fantail found its way outside, back through the sliver of the opened window.

It’s worth noting in Maori culture, the fantails are seen as a sign of death inside a house. Given the magnitude of this woman and the timing of the flight, I think they must signal peace and recognition of one perfectly JOYfully lived life.

pursuing JOY

I came across an article recently that I thoroughly enjoyed. The topic was about the conundrum of chasing material possessions and losing the ability to truly enjoy our leisure time along the way. The quote I loved is:

To purchase luxury we’ve sold our ease.

In our never ending pursuit of ‘stuff’, let’s make sure we prioritize a bit of leisure. Surely its the fast track to more JOY.

right side up JOY

I was practicing yoga in my lounge recently and I got a tremendous shock. I was fully enjoying my favorite inversion, a headstand when out of the corner of my eye I saw my reflection. Yikes! Surely that’s not my face! The image I saw more closely resembled a hound dog not human. The folds of skin hung down with total relaxation into what can only be described as jowls. Somehow gravity was pulling down with enough force to cause folds of skin across even the eyes and ears.

Perhaps it’s happened. Maybe this is the year my face fell.

I thought I had a healthy level of vanity. Most days I make sure to groom my unruly eyebrows and even slather my skin with eye cream that’s probably not giving me a great return on investment. I’ve stopped short of powders, pills or procedures that would alter my body. But seeing my face upside down and completely void of elastic . . .well, it’s not a vision I’ll soon forget.

I was sharing this story with a dear (much younger and full of facial elastic) friend and she thought this was happening around us all the time. Our bodies become rounder, looser, day by day, but we don’t recognize the gradual decay until suddenly there’s an odd bit of flesh under our arm one day that’s definitely not a side boob!

So for me, I’m once again resetting my expectations and reminding myself that I truly want to age with some level of grace. Oh, and clearly I’m meant to stay right side up to fully embrace JOY!