Happy Wednesday Reader!
Here's 1 teaching, 2 questions, and 3 resources to explore this week:
1. Teaching
In her beautiful poem, “today i saw myself for the first time,” the poet Rupi Kaur writes:
being myself
but not seeing myself
spent decades living inside my body
never left it once
yet managed to miss all its miracles
How does this connect with your story?
(If you can, take a moment and really feel how this lands in your body, in your memory, and in your beliefs about yourself.)
For me, it lands in my memory of growing up with deep body shame, wearing baggy t-shirts and sweatpants to school, and using humor and self-deprecation to “fit in.” I think of how I used sports as a vehicle for dominating my body rather than getting to know how it naturally wanted to move.
And it also makes me think of the first time I ever played racquetball – of how freeing that felt. Or when, as a 27-year old, I re-learned how to engage my light-footed playfulness, without the influence of alcohol, by hopping on a beach log and balancing my way across it. Or of this time last year as my dad and I walked our way across a section of the Camino de Santiago – and how my body supported me each day.
Kaur ends her poem like this:
occupy a space without
being in touch with it
how it took so long for me
to open the eyes of my eyes
embrace the heart of my heart
kiss the soles of my swollen feet
and hear them whisper
thank you
thank you
thank you
for noticing
2. Questions
- In what ways have you "not seen yourself" and the miracles your body holds? How has this protected you? How has this caused you harm?
- What does light-footed playfulness look and feel like for you? What memories do you have of embodying such a state of being?
3. Resources
- Read the full poem here.
- homebody by Rupi Kaur (book)
- "How to Add More Play to Your Grown-Up Life, Even Now" (article)
⏪ If you missed last week's email:
Sending you good vibes,
Andrew