.....the dance of re-entry

Yogis,
Straight…..a little to the left…..stop and wait…..a lot to the right…..dive behind the bush. The new pattern of my morning walks and runs. No longer able to tune into nature and run my straight line as I enter this land of re-entry. It feels like a new dance with steps that are unfamiliar.

In fact this whole phase we are in of re-entering the ‘new normal’, which by the way needs a much better word, feels like a dance. And as every one of us has unique moves on the dance floor (think Elaine on Seinfeld), we will each dance this path our own way.

For some, this week may be the first time you venture from the home, while others have been out and even at work through it all. It may be your first trip or your tenth trip to a grocery store as you attempt to navigate the one way arrows, which seem to make sense until what you need is only five feet inside the aisle going the wrong way and you have to take a complete lap.

Perhaps you plan to go to your hairdresser the moment the doors open, as that feels safe and nurturing to you, but your friend has stated that she believes hair salons to be ‘risky’ and will happily remain gray through the summer. Two steps forward and one step back…..cha, cha, cha.

Do I go to the beach? Will I swim in a pool? Will I eat in a restaurant? Every one of us will have different views because we come from different experiences. I may have a higher risk tolerance than you, but you may have elderly people that you interact with who must be kept safe. I may not feel threatened when told what to do and what the rules are, but you may have been intimidated as a child by the authority figures who were the very ones there to keep you safe. It is all a dance.

And as you learn your new steps and I learn mine, we will inevitably step on each others toes. Will I smile and keep dancing, or will I tell you how clumsy you are? How your dance is the wrong dance. Can I be tolerant?

We all speak of tolerance for those who are not like us, but that usually means those of different race, religion, or economic status. Here we are being given a chance to practice tolerance in our backyard and even with our own families and closest friends. Every one of them is doing the best they can with where they are at the moment. Can I smile and keep dancing my own dance without sticking my foot out to trip them?

Does that mean I have to dance with everyone? No, of course not. If your path takes you to a room practicing the rumba and what you need at this point is ballet, hang a left and keep going. But release the angst regarding their need to shake things up.

When we judge, gossip, and point fingers it is only us that struggles. In the book I am reading I came across this sentence today. “Judgment is self-abandonment.” Stay tuned in to what is true to you and live it.

I am planning to keep listening to my unique inner song and dance with joy. Hips shaking of course. 

Join me?

Om,
SARAH