Everything Is As it Should Be

My youtube yoga guru Adrienne has a penchant for delivering disarmingly simple yet profound quotes. At the start of the pandemic, I pinned some of them on the wall above my desk to bolster me. I have written about them here. But, one quote of hers that I have always recoiled from is 'Everything is as it should be". She says it in here cozy Winter yoga video, which is one of my favourite practices that I do only during autumn/winter. Everything is obviously not as it should be, and never is. If one were to pick the present moment, the war in Gaza, the rise of fascism, climate catastrophe are just a few examples. But, today, as I came across the quote during practice it landed differently. I felt like the quote was targeted at my inner world where everything is always as it should be. Why is that the case? Because the mind is either in one or two states. Either it is calm, or it is aware that its not calm. There are several ways to deal with the latter state. Take action, talk oneself out of the funk  or do nothing or wait for the storm to blow over. Tacked on to this maxim is the acknowledgement that the world works in mysterious ways and that sometimes blessings can, at first glance, seem like curses. I don't know how much sense I am making but these are my initial thoughts on the subject and may need to be fleshed out further. 

Tummy Upset before UK Return

 I meant to title this post 'Tummy Travails" but of course that title was taken. Its 1:30 am but my upset tummy is keeping me from sleeping. Tomorrow, or rather today, is going to be a long day as I fly back to the UK, but tell that to my stomach. I always have tummy troubles when I visit India, and this time was no different. One night of excess early in my trip turned an unsettled stomach into an upset stomach, and my constitution hasn't been the same since. My stomach had take a lurch for the worse in identical circumstances last year, but as I told my Mother, sometimes you have to make the same mistake twice to learn your lesson. Suffice to say, I am not going near pot for a long time. Maybe it is a question of quantity rather than the substance, but I am not interested in ascertaining which one it is. My upset tummy was a big theme of last year's trip to India, so I went back to my posts from that period to see what I had written, and whether there were any pearls of wisdom I could pick up to see me through the next 24 hours. I am no insomniac but I have enough experience of sleep problems to know that sleepless night=horrible next day. No such luck. That period was towards the end of my lean blogging phase. So, I suppose I will be blogging a lot over the next few days. Blogging forces me to lift my chin up, because nobody wants to read a mopey blog. And, when you write about something you are forced to put some distance between yourself and what you are writing about to see it clearly. And, that distance can be quite useful in difficult situations because you stop identifying with the situation so closely, even if for a brief interval. 

Debate on Politics

I mentioned to a family friend that I had participated in the Palestine protests, which triggered a lengthy debate about political action. This blog is not about politics so I will spare you the details, but I was a bit offended by his initial remark, and also disappointed at my inability to hold my own in the ensuing debate. As a result, I said some things that were not downright rude but showed bad form. And, now I am feeling uneasy about the whole exchange. I am not convinced by his arguments, which are similar to some other loved ones', but I am not able to articulate my position well. I am not going to deny that my ego has been bruised, but I feel like there is more to it that even if I can't put my finger on 'that'. Maybe I should just sleep on it.