Letting Go for the Holidays

Relax your jaw.  Now your forehead.  Now, for a second, two seconds max, relax your whole face.  

Eyes slitted, wanting to close, maybe let them.  Let the phone down.  

Annnd we’re back.  Hi.  

So for me, relaxing my face is a gateway drug to relaxing my neck, my stomach, just letting that thing hang out, hips, ankles, low back.  Shoulders.  

I’m allowed to do what I need to do to get more comfy, in this moment.  To get a body part to stop complaining.  Sometimes it’s a wiggle, sometimes it’s lying on the floor or sticking  a pillow behind my back.  Sometimes leaning forward onto a desk or pillow.  

There are a lot of choices of how to get more comfortable in my body in any given moment.  Breathe into the sad hurry spots.  Notice the spots that feel ok just as they are.  Tips of the fingers, lobes of the ears, top of the head, open, opening like maple syrup spreading out over a hot pancake.  Or a flower blooming, big floppy delicate pink petals of tender protection love dropping dripping down all around me from the top of my head all the way down down to my toes.  Encased in a strong supple pod of smooth syrup healing love energy.

Yes. That’s what sometimes works for me and I can be skeptical and still use my imagination and the being willing to use my imagination and the taking the time to — oh! — relax my jaw again, let my mouth hang loose while no one’s watching, again, that willingness to give it a whirl, feeling good, really good, for a second or two, really just that long, reminds me that I have some control over this experience I’m experiencing.

It reminds me that I’m a person, a human being, having a human time, and so of course there’s stuff happening — illness, hurts, wars, people doing bad things to each other, planetary woes.  And that’s all happening and legit.  

And then there’s also my lungs, my own lungs, breathing in and out even after everything and without my really doing anything.  And there’s a lot of other stuff happening, good stuff happening, without my doing anything.  And ultimately I’m really mostly just responsible for not being part of the problem for myself, number one, or for others.  

And then maybe, maybe, maybe, if I can learn to be kind to my body for a second or two I can learn to be kind to the rest of me, that little girl little being soul part that really just wants to be loved and to love and is doing her very best and this is what that looks like today. Maybe it will look a little different tomorrow, or not.  

And then, the advanced part, is being kind and loving to that little being part of me will help me be kinder and more loving to that little being part of you that is so easy to miss, when I see you out and about doing you in ways that sometimes I like and sometimes I really don’t.  You are doing your best today too, and sometimes it’s just not that great.  Well I can relate to that.  So I’m giving everyone a pass for the holidays, including myself.  I’m letting go of my face, and letting go of my idea of how I think I should be or how you should be and wrapping us all up in pink love petals.  Even that a-hole, I mean rushed person, who snagged my parking spot.  Yes.  That feels so much better.   I’m gonna keep going.

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