Sally, old hippy innkeeper

I’ve had this blog set up for months, thanks to my nerdy husband, Bob. However, I’ve been suffering from “blogger’s block” and haven’t been able to make a single entry, until this attempt. I like to write; I keep a journal; so what’s the big deal? I guess my hesitation comes from wondering what I have to say that would interest the potentially large, amorphous, anonymous blog readers out there in cyberspace. Why is it different than writing an article for our newsletter, which I have done for many years? I don’t know, but, for me, it is.
So, here are some random thoughts, offered on a snowy April morning from Northern Michigan:
Bob and I have been trying to take some time this winter for reflection and doing some visioning for the future. This year is special for us in several ways: the 20th anniversary of our marriage and the founding of the Neahtawanta Center; my 60th birthday (coming later this month) and 30 years of my yoga practice. So, to honor these benchmarks, we decided to take a “sabbatical”. Our plan was to close the Inn, take a break from teaching yoga, and hunker down. Since we really had no idea how to take a sabbatical, how to carve out time, how to limit our involvement in community activities, we were not totally successful.

Going away from the Inn where we live and work was helpful. There’s nothing like being physically removed from home/work to help with letting go of the busy-ness of life. So, after 15 days away, I feel renewed and am looking at my life with fresh eyes. Being too busy is, I think, a big problem for many of us. Taking time for ourselves is not something that is valued or taught in our culture. Just about everyone I know is “too busy” when asked the question, “how are you?” Zooming along at a fast pace, trying to juggle all of our repsonsibilities and have a little time left over for fun, is just not a good way to live. It’s stressful, for one thing, and it’s not conducive to fulfilling our destiny. We need time to figure out what our destiny is and how to best fulfill it. If we’re busy rushing around from one obligation to another, we are not in touch with our deeper self; we can’t hear our inner voice, our actions don’t reflect our authentic being. Asking the deeper questions about our purpose in life is difficult; being busy is easier and I use it as a diversion so that those deeper questions don’t need to be addressed.

So, today, on this wintry spring day, I ask myself: “Why am I here?” “What am I called to do?” The silence surrounds me. Right now, I am called to sit with these questions.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 8th, 2007 at 10:43 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.