Moving over to Just Add Yoga

Hello anyone still popping by here once and again. I've started a new site called Just Add Yoga which will be kind of a continuation of this site. I would be thrilled if you follow me over there!

Life is wasted on the living

There’s a saying about how youth is wasted on the young. When I heard this for the first time, I didn’t quite get it (I do now). When we get older we see all the opportunities and the good fortune the young people have, good health, lots of energy, innocence, optimism, etc.; which is probably why society idolizes young people – they’re strong, they’re optimistic and they’re beautiful. As youths we mostly focus on our limitations, problems and challenges (at least I did), and they seem overwhelming. Alas – youth is wasted on the young… We don’t appreciate it when we have it!

The problem with a society which idolizes youth becomes obvious once we’re past it, because; let’s face it: we aren’t getting younger... We look around at the Idols of the world, and find no-one that promote values like compassion, wisdom, understanding, clarity, reflection, etc. (Ok, maybe a few…) It’s all supposed to be fast and passionate. The elderly are often considered a burden on society, instead of an asset.

Why is this? Old people have experience and have usually accumulated a bit of wisdom which a youngster might lack. Sadly, with a society that looks at them as “dead- weight” many loose their incentive and become just that. I admire people who manage to reach old age, without becoming tired cynics, still optimistic and thinking positively, believing in the value of life and love at the brink of the grave. This quality; which we have in abundance as young, many of us loose somewhere along the road. Later in life it starts to look naïve to us, and we smile a bit condescendingly at the charms of the adolescent.

Sitting here at the peak of my life, having my youth lain out behind me and having (hopefully) a long stretch of getting older and wiser ahead of me, I wonder: Could life be wasted on the living? Like with the youth not appreciating their youth, we humans aren’t so good at truly appreciating our lives. We take it for granted most of the time, don’t we? Well, here I am living my life, wondering what the point of it all is. It is still beyond my comprehension, and sometimes I get the feeling that I am blindfolded and trying to find my path in a dungeon of confusion. Other times I get a glimpse of meaningfulness or a speck of insight into how things are connected, and it makes my soul soar. But, I can’t put it in my pocket. It keeps slipping away, back into the dungeon, where most of life is going on.

The big waste would be thinking that what goes on in the dungeon is: the real thing.

Farewell my friend

I buried a friend today, she was like me;
Confident in mid-life, with kids on her knee!
How can life be so cruel, unfair and tough?
What did the Lord do then, did he doze off?

Why did her path cross mine, why did hers end?
Questions are piling up, to Heaven: send
I want to scream and shout; cannot sit calm,
And see her kids grow up, without their mom!

Windowpane reflections

Passing by I look for myself in the windowpane reflections
But I don’t recognize the person looking back at me
All I see is a woman hurrying – somewhere, looks important
I cannot see me in there

What is so important that I left myself behind?

Sitting down on a bench I search the thoughts
Flowing lazily through my mind
For some sign of my true presence
Is that me obsessing about work
Or enjoying the sunset before me?

Feeling depressed about my limited scope
Recognizing only issues
I lose myself in the scenery
The sky and the sun painting their watercolor palette
Dissolving into the lush green forest,
Diving into the cool embracing waters

Taking in the whole picture
The ever present, ever changing, beauty of it all
I discover myself

Feeling fulfilled and rested I get up to go
Slipping away again from the moment
Going on to search for myself in windowpane reflections