Ebb Tides

Along with loving a good lie, I often steal. Always aware when I’m lying, I’m only sometimes conscious of stealing, as I am about to do with this Daily Breath. Ann Morrow Lindbergh is the ghost of my inspiration this week. But most of the time I have no memory of who or what inspired and fired thoughts toward ‘my fabulous ideas.’ I realize that ‘there is nothing new under the sun,’ and that we all swoop in like Jackdaws after shinny trinkets, yet I am more pleased with my intentions when I give credit where credit lies, for some day I hope some one will steal from me, somehow remembering my name.

Ann writes, “One must accept the security of the winged life, of ebb and flow, of intermittency.” This has always been true. We have always tried to ignore it. We need to live with interruption and abandonment more than ever, breathing into it profound acceptance. We are in the narrows and our only choice is for growth. We can do it through love, change, and acceptance of what is, or we can do it through holding tighter, dreading it to be different, or looking back to what was to make sense of what is.

She writes of us, and our relationships, being as islands, “visited and abandoned by the tides,” then asks, “How can one learn to take the trough of the wave?” She didn’t know, but only stood and marveled at the fathoms of beauty lying beneath the water. In her wonder and recognition of a ‘secret kingdom’ seemingly lies her redemption. I close with her words, so exquisite they catch the heart and leave us hopeful despite no answers.

“So beautiful is the still hour of the sea’s withdrawal, as beautiful as the sea’s return when the encroaching waves pound up the beach, pressing to reach those dark rumpled chains of seaweed which mark the last high tide.”

Aren’t you glad I’ve stolen her for you in this moment? Isn’t she pleased to be passed on like this, re-read, opened again as a Conch shell left shimmering in the ebb tide?

Asana: Something from the sea like Dolphin. From Down Dog, bend the elbows, pressing them inward, under the shoulders, spread the fingers wide, releasing energy. Keep the back long, lifting tail bone high, pressing heels down, breathe into the back, feel the joy of diving into secret depths, far beyond the sun’s light, into the depth of your beautiful heart.

Health Notes: This pose strengthens the arms, and back, stretches hamstrings and Achilles. And, if we can become Dolphin-like, joyous in making days more playful, we will be much healthier, spreading sunshine where it’s needed.