A few days ago, I bought a new yoga mat and a carry-strap. I didn’t pay much attention to the strap; I just wanted something light and easy to use as a transportation device. Today, after yoga, I looked over to my passenger seat — probably to find a coffee cup or an earring or a tap shoe or a feather hair piece or some other inane object that ended up in my personal moving storage bin, and I saw the the message on my carry-strap looking back at me. And I thought, “Holy Shit. I am so lucky. That’s my Life.” And it is. This morning, I got out of bed, picked up my best friend and went to dance class. I followed it up with a return to Iyengar Yoga, after years away, and heard the voice in my mind say, “Hey! Welcome Home!” After that I went to my tap dance lesson, cursed, grunted and laughed my way through the hour long experience. I went grocery shopping, and then I sent an email that said, “Let’s do this” and took a giant leap of faith to do a training I feel called to do even though technically, I haven’t manifested the money for that yet (I’ll do another post sometime on my relationship to money — it’s been brewing for a while). To top the day off, I had a session with a client who has made so much progress in her own journey, I almost cried.
The most awesomely cool thing is that this isn’t an “odd” day for me. This is pretty much like every day in my life. If you add to the daily list of wonders my upcoming 300 hour advanced yoga training, a trip to Costa Rica to take a deep dive into Contact Improvisation, and the ongoing creative opportunities and collaborations that have come into my life, I am one lucky lucky girl. Truly.
But “Let What You Do Be What You Love” goes so much deeper than all that. At least I think so. The way I look at it, what we think, what we dream, what we fantasize about — those are all cool. I mean I have some awesome fantasies about living in a tiny home, being a complete minimalist, traveling when I feel like it, showing my art work someday, creating a garden, finally getting that eco village off the ground. It’s a pretty good picture, and I LOVE the images. But they are just that. They are images. To me, the “DO” is critical. For one thing, it’s our acts that live on. You know? My body is going to die one day, and my fantasies are going to go along for that ride. But my deeds? And the butterfly wing effect that my tiny deeds have on the continental rift (or whatever) … those go on and on and on. And so…if I’m not just DOING the easy, obvious things that I LOVE but am also approaching everything I DO with Love…Loving what I do…loving the way and things that I eat, loving that I’m not drinking, loving the way I speak to others and engage with the people in my life, loving washing the dishes and recycling and composting and driving down the road and visiting my 87 year old Uncle Jack and having to run to the grocery store for coffee after I already went to the grocery store earlier in the day….I’m changing the way I DO those things. I’m changing myself. I’m recreating me into someone who simply LOVES. And that sounds pretty cool to me. I’m changing my Life.
Sure. I have a great life. I LOVE what I DO (for a job, for hobbies, for a vocation). I want to take it deeper. Rumi (the guy that said the thing on my yoga carry strap) meant something deeper. I think. I believe he meant a full on perspective shift. From mindlessly doing life to mindfully loving Life…all of it. Even searching (at a red light) for that one earring I though I saw yesterday in the passenger seat of my car.
Do what you love. Love what you do. And remember, you’re DOING SOMETHING whenever you are not sleeping or in a chemically induced coma with machines breathing for you, feeding you, and making sure you go pee. Or dead. That’s the ultimate no-do situation.****************************************
Tara Moorman is a freelance writer and Licensed Professional Counselor with 19 years of experience in the fields of mental health and personal growth and development. She specializes in writing blog posts and articles related to mental health, addictions recovery, and personal growth and change. You can see more of her work at https://taramoorman.contently.com/
**This post was originally published by Tara Moorman at https://dancingmyselfawake.blogspot.com/2017/01/let-what-you-do-be-what-you-love.html
