Screw Perfection

Yesterday's non-essay comforted me. 


Writing it, I relaxed. My scrunched shoulders drop. 


That old LET GO, LET GOD thing really works.


yes. yes. yes, I thought.


simple practice 
simple practice
simple practice


LOVE.


That is really good stuff. I stand by it.


But there's one more thing. You already know this.


It (you, your life, relationships) will still feel messy.


Occasionally tangled, utterly unclear.


There is no magic pill.


Last night I got the big tap on the shoulder -


Pssst, Betsy. You'll never do it perfectly. 


So, give yourself a break if ~ 


you're not the steady-practicing-non-judgemental-trusting-your-path-unflinching-love-in-your-heart person you aspire to be. Or you ate the chips, or stayed up too late, or don't quite know how to build the bridge back to a friend. Or can't get over missing your mother and know you will never have linen closets that touch the sheer order and perfection of hers. Fuggedaboutit.


Screw perfection. It's a distraction to living.
Do your work anyway.
Relax anyway.
Let go into ease anyway.
Trust anyway.
Enjoy the mess anyway.
Practice anyway.


LOVE anyway.


I'll never do it perfectly.


I'm doing it anyway.

May You Keel Over

"The first yama - ahimsa, or non-harming, which asks us to embrace nonviolence at the level of speech, thought and action - is a profound and radical concept that is truly the cornerstone of yoga as a way of life."
~ Meditations from the Mat 


Today was a complete bust for my ahimsa program. In an instant, I was overcome by a flurry of non-yogic thoughts when Claire and I came upon this mess at her bus stop. The chanting in my head got louder when I donned plastic gloves and began picking it up... 



May you keel over from the 27 burgers, onion rings, and fries that you ingested some time yesterday. 


May your cholesterol zoom to over 300, along with your waist band, so you can't even see your fat toes. Then keel over. 


May you get caught in the act of littering, get fined a large sum of money, and have to clean up your mess, and a whole bunch of other messes left on our roads & riverbanks, while wearing a sign that says;


Litterbugs are stupid. That would be me.


I don't get the litter thing. I don't get it, I don't get it, I don't get it...


I really do not get it.