Back in the winter, Leigha Hall, who writes the My Bikram Yoga Life blog, was blogging about transitioning to veganism. She was already a vegetarian and handling that well. Her vegan adventures just seemed really hard and cumbersome, so I left her a comment about it. She took my comment and hoped I didn’t mind her using it as the next day’s post.
She is away now, and is posting retro blogs to post on weekends until she returns. She chose to repost the one about my comment. There was something I asked her in this post that made me want to revisit it tonight. I asked here why go to all that trouble to be vegan? Was it health? Was it the challenge? Did she enjoy the struggle?
Did she enjoy the struggle. That’s the part my mind rests on tonight. Today I was confronted with sad news. It’s a struggle. I certainly don’t enjoy it. Then I think about the preparation I had through Bikram yoga to learn how to deal with struggle. The hot room is a huge struggle. There I learned that you can’t subvert the struggle. It’s the old Bear Hunt song that rings true. You can’t go over it. You can’t go under it. Gotta go through it. “Through” being the operative word here.
When I got my news this afternoon, I was sad. I sat here in the quiet, Red Sox faintly on the radio out in the garage. I talked to my God:
“Well, Lord here we are again. I get it this time. I’ll sit here in your presence and feel the sadness and the pain. I’ll go THROUGH it. I won’t try to subvert it. Take my hands, Lord, both of them, and lead me THROUGH it. Amen”
I immediately felt peace surround my sadness. I learned in the hot room to just lie still. Feel the heat. I always make it THROUGH.
Leigha says in her post that she loves to find ways to push herself that might be beneficial. I guess I do, too, or I wouldn’t step foot into that hot room.
And so, as another day goes by, struggle training, in one form or another is necessary so that when a life struggle hits, we have skills and tools needed to deal so we won’t be broken by it, and…I have written.
Please enjoy Leigha’s Post She is an excellent writer.
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