Writing My Own Script

If it's a good script I'll do it. And if it's a bad script, and they pay me enough, I'll do it. -George Burns

It's May 5th, Boy's Day, Cinco de Mayo and time for yet another Groundhog Day Resolutions check-in. It's been an absolutely fluid month with the days going by quickly but fitting together quite well.

I wrote about a stunning video of a woman describing her stroke and it prompted me to read her book, "My Stroke of Insight". The author, Jill Bolte Taylor, begins chapter eighteen by saying, "My good friend Dr. Jerry Jesseph lives his life by the philosophy 'Peacefulness should be the place we begin rather than the place we try to achieve.' "

That was also the consistent message in last weekend's workshop with Jehangir Palkhivala. When anyone found a pose to be too much of a challenge, he offered: Modify your poses. Always do it with joy and peace rather than with weakness and incapacity. Get better with peace and joy and get better without aggression. When you finally get it, you will do it gracefully.

Do you know what has to happen before you can even comprehend those instructions? You have to stop grunting and groaning with effort in order to even hear his words. Then you have to trust that your body will respond, eventually, without being forced.

I now find myself at another fork in the road. One sign says, "This Way to Contentment" and the other says, "Come This Way with Contentment". Easy pick, you say? I think I got a glimpse of the trail map though. The first path meanders endlessly with no other choices to be made. I just lower my head and go. The second path however, presents a daily (sometimes hourly) choice: "This Way to Contentment" or "This Way with Contentment".

There's no right or wrong passage and I am free to change course at any time. My joyful wait has allowed me the time to recognize and choose my connecting passage. So this month, I want to write my own script, chart my course and move with peace and joy. I want to enjoy the trip as much as the arrival.

Photo:Stephen B. Franco